PHOTOGRAPHY Art 134a/HSAR 344a, History of Photography
This course explores the history of photography from the medium’s contested beginnings in the 1830s to its current transformation in the digital age. We examine the role of photography in a range of contexts such as art, science, journalism, propaganda, history, war, and advertising. Students are introduced to technical developments and to major practitioners, including J. L. M. Daguerre, Julia Margaret Cameron, Alfred Stieglitz, Walker Evans, Alexander Rodchenko, Man Ray, Diane Arbus, and Andreas Gursky. Questions of photographic meaning are central: Can photographs lie? Can they adequately convey history? What role do they play in constructing identity? Does the same photographic image on the wall signify differently than in a magazine? Faculty.