AH20220

Learning Outcomes:

On completion of this module, students will be able to:
(1) Recognise and describe key photographic processes (and their chronological development) from the 19th century to the present
(2) Identify and explain the importance of historically significant photographers, as well as examples of their work
(3) Demonstrate knowledge of theoretical frameworks concerning photography's status as art, technology, and as a form of witness and documentation
(4) Demonstrate familiarity with and application of correct terminology when analysing photographs, developing critical thinking and writing skills

Generative AI may NOT be used for any assessments in this module.

Indicative Module Content:

Topics will include the innovations of early photography; pictorialism and ‘straight’ photography; photographic portraiture; photojournalism and war photography; photography and modernism (abstraction, surrealism, the ‘New Objectivity’); colour processes; and the role of the photograph as ‘document’ and photographer as ‘witness’.

Student Effort Hours:

Approaches to Teaching and Learning:

This module comprises lectures, in-class exercises, tutorials, and special hands-on sessions utilizing the Kingsley Photographic Teaching Collection.

Two assessments are part of this module:

- A midterm assignment, drawing on critical writing, research and analysis skills. This assignment has two options: (1) a research essay, or (2) a photo-essay (including photos taken by the student).

- A final 2-hour exam, which will assess students' ability to identify photographic processes, knowledge of key terminology and photographic theory, and discuss historically important photographers / photographs.

Requirements, Exclusions and Recommendations

Learning Recommendations:

Art History majors should not take any Stage 2 or 3 Art History modules until they have completed their Level 1 Art History requirements.

Module Requisites and Incompatibles

Not applicable to this module.
 

Assessment Strategy

 

Please see Student Jargon Buster for more information about remediation types and timing. 

Feedback Strategy/Strategies

• Feedback individually to students, post-assessment

How will my Feedback be Delivered?

Extensive written feedback on all assignments will be given individually to students via Brightspace.

There are three core texts for this class (required readings are all uploaded or linked to on Brightspace):

Marien, Mary Warner. Photography: A Cultural History (5th edition). London: Laurence King, 2021).** this text is recommended for purchase**
Wells, Liz. Photography: A Critical Introduction (5th edition). New York: Routledge, 2012.
Pasternak, Gil (ed.) The Handbook of Photography Studies. London: Routledge, 2020.
Langford, Michael. The Story of Photography. Oxford: Focal Press, 1997.


Other texts include:

Inexpensive short introductions to photography:

Bate, David. Photography: Key Concepts. London. Bloomsbury, 2016.
Clarke, Graham. The Photograph: A Visual and Cultural History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Cotton, Charlotte. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Second Edition. Thames & Hudson, 2009.
Jeffrey, Ian. Photography: A Concise History. London: Thames & Hudson 2010.

Technology, Terms and Processes:

Baldwin, Gordon and Martin Jürgens, Looking at Photographs: A Guide to Technical Terms. Revised Edition. Getty Publications, 2009.
Gustavson, Todd, Camera: A History of Photography from Daguerreotype to Digital. Sterling Publishing, 2009.
Kennel, Sarah, In the Darkroom: An Illustrated Guide to Photographic Processes Before the Digital Age. National Gallery of Art, 2009.
Lavedrine, Bertrand, Photographs of the Past: Process and Preservation, Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2009.
Penchon, Sylvie, Twentieth-Century Color Photographs: Identification and Care, Los Angeles: Getty Conservation Institute, 2013.

Anthologies and edited volumes:

Bolton, Richard, ed. The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography. MIT Press, 1992.
Goldberg, Vicki, ed. Photography in Print: Writings from 1816 to the Present. University of New Mexico Press, 1981.
Heron, Liz and Val Williams, eds. Illuminations: Women Writing on Photography From the 1850s to the Present. Duke University Press, 1996.
Lyons, Nathan, ed., Photographers on Photography. Prentice-Hall, 1966.
Trachtenberg, Alan, ed. Classic Essays on Photography. Leete’s Island Books, 1980.
Wells, Liz. The Photography Cultures Reader: Representation, Agency and Identity. 2017

Historical Surveys of Irish Photography:

Carville, Justin. Photography and Ireland. London: Reaktion Books, 2011.
Chandler, Edward. Photography in Ireland: The 19th Century. Dublin: Edmund Burke, 2001.
Maguire, William Alexander. A Century in Focus: Photography and Photographers in the North of Ireland, 1839-1939. Belfast: Blackstaff, 2000.

Important Classic Books on Photography:

Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida (1982)
Benjamin, Walter. On Photography (1931)
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing (1972)
Sontag, Susan. On Photography (1977)

Timetabling information is displayed only for guidance purposes, relates to the current Academic Year only and is subject to change.