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This is a sec­ond-level writ­ing course in our three-level se­quence. It con­nects read­ing and writ­ing by ask­ing you to read texts, dis­cuss them, and write pa­pers about them.

This is a second-level writing course in our three-level sequence. It connects reading and writing by asking you to read texts, discuss them, and write papers about them.

“A pho­to­graph is a se­cret about a se­cret. The more it tells you the less you know..” — Diane Arbus This course sur­veys the his­tory of pho­tog­ra­phy from its be­gin­nings in the early nine­teenth cen­tury to the pre­sent. We will ex­am­ine the use of pho­tog­ra­phy for aes­thetic, doc­u­men­tary, and “sci­en­tific” pur­poses, styl­is­tic shifts in pho­tog­ra­phy re­lated to aes­thetic con­cerns, and vary­ing in­ter­pre­ta­tions of sub­ject mat­ter based on so­cial and cul­tural con­cerns at spe­cific mo­ments in his­tory. We will also con­sider the re­la­tion­ship be­tween pho­tog­ra­phy and the vi­sual arts in gen­eral, which cul­mi­nates with the pri­macy of pho­tog­ra­phy as a medium by the late twen­ti­eth cen­tury. Image credit: Tod Pa­pa­georges, Por­trait of Diane Arbus, 1967, from http://​www.​thestranger.​com

“A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know..” — Diane Arbus This course surveys the history of photography from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the present. We will examine the use of photography for aesthetic, documentary, and “scientific” purposes, stylistic shifts in photography related to aesthetic concerns, and varying interpretations of subject matter based on social and cultural concerns at specific moments in history. We will also consider the relationship between photography and the visual arts in general, which culminates with the primacy of photography as a medium by the late twentieth century. Image credit: Tod Papageorges, Portrait of Diane Arbus, 1967, from http://www.thestranger.com