INQ-271 | Photography: Silver to Silicon

Full Title: Photography: from Silver to Silicon

Topic Description:

What is Photography? How is it a combination of art and science, reality and artifice? The medium and history of photography provides a rich field of inquiry that has been studied since the mid-nineteenth century. This course will examine the photograph as a cultural document and as an aesthetic object. We will be engaged in how photography has influenced our perception of reality from a western perspective. How are photographic images significant in our understanding of war, anthropology, social reform, art, portraiture, personal identity, pornography, and the repertoire of visual information in the media? Do they present a reality of history, of culture and do they represent truth? Or do photographs simply document change as it happens in a particularly powerful way? These are just some of the questions we will take up, as we work our way through the course material. Students can expect some costs for film, printing and presentation materials in the range of $10-$50.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: December 2011