Critical Issues in Photography

 Course Description 

Photography is a multifaceted field, and there are numerous critical issues that have been explored by photographers, scholars, and writers. This course introduces students to the following critical issues impacting and shaping the field of photography: Politics of representation and identity; Ethics in photojournalism; Photographic truth and manipulation; Gender and photography; Photography and memory; The impact of capitalism and digital technology; Copyright, ownership, and publication Through course readings, field trips, reflection prompts, and group discussions students in this course will explore these critical issues and raise questions regarding the nature of photography, systems that co-opt and weaponize photography, and the societal impacts of photography and image sharing. At this course's completion, successful students will show a clear understanding of critical issues that affect and shape the fields and systems of photography and will be able to identify and situate their work within the context of the historical art photography canon.

Learning Objectives 

  • Reflective Learning: takes what has been read, discussed, practiced, experienced, and learned, in relation to previous knowledge, to their own lives, and the lives they see around them as a way of making enriched meaning. 

  • Understanding and analysis of photography from 20th century to the present (Contemporary) time.

  • Demonstrated understanding of critical issues that effect and shape the fields and systems of photography.

  • Identify and situate personal work (portfolio) within the context of the historical art photography canon.

SOCIETY OF THE SKEPTICALS:
A COLLECTION OF SELF-DIRECTED PORTFOLIOS BY BELLARMINE PHOTOGRAPHY STUDENTS

Student Portfolios & Essays

Amy Caldwell - Beauty and the Building

WORKS CITED

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd,1972

Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Detroit, Michigan: Back and Red, 1983

Noujeim, Gaia Maria. “Art and Capitalism.” Academia Letters, Article 2262. 2021

Shore, Stephen. The Nature of Photography, 2nd edition. New York, New York: Phaidon Press Ltd, 2007

Solomon-Godeau, Abigail. “Living with Contradictions: Critical Practices in the Age of Supply-side Aesthetics.” Social Text, No. 21. Duke University Press. 1989

Sontag, Susan. On Photography. London, England: Penguin Books Ltd, 2008