ARTH 198 - Introduction to Photography

This course is an introduction to photography as an artistic and social practice beginning with its 19th-century origins. We focus on major artists and movements in the history of photography, but also examine the factors that transformed perceptions of the media, helping to establish it as a modernist art form in the 20th century. We will consider debates surrounding the status of photography as fine art vs. documentation. We will see how photographers balanced the aesthetic possibilities of the camera with its political power to create ideological messages.

Credits 1