Undergraduate Course: The Philosophy and Practice of Photography in Contemporary Fine Art (HIAR10111)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 20 |
| Home subject area | History of Art |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | This course will look at a the different philosophies and attitudes developed around the medium of photography in the late c.20 and consider their impact on artists and spectators. Anonymous photographs will be considered alongside the works of famous photographers and artists. Different photographic technologies will be analysed. Students will be asked to consider the ethical implications of photographing subjects; the different roles of photographer and spectator; the form and purpose, dissemination and reception of photographs. The impact of digital technology and its impact on our use and understanding of photographs will be subject to debate.
Seminars will be spent discussing key texts based on the analysis of photography and the work of artists whose photographs are important to our understanding of the medium.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
| Additional Costs | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
Students will develop an ability for visual analysis, interpretation and critical thought when looking at different kinds of imagery.
Students will become aware of the different roles and responsibilities of artists, subjects and spectators through an understanding of the complexities of representation.
Students will gain an understanding of the different philosophical and analytical approaches that are developed in response to the photograph in particular and art in general.
Students will learn about a range of artists' and artworks and develop their ability to study individual works of art in depth.
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Assessment Information
One Essay 50%
One Degree Examination 50% |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Photography is considered a craft and a technology, an art, a science and a tool. We all take photographs and we can't avoid looking at them. Photography is the most ubiquitous visual medium but as such it can seem invisible. For a long time not considered an art, it is now well-established in the institutions of contemporary art both as an independent medium and a part of many multi-media artworks. |
| Syllabus |
Seminars Outline
Week 1: Introduction: Photographs as traces of the world.
This seminar will consider our view of photographs as traces of the world, our emotional attachment to photographs that we take, and the possible truth of documentary photographs.
Primary Text: Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes
Other recommended reading: Paul Strand by John Berger in About Looking; Paul Strand by Hollis Frampton in On the Camera Arts and Consecutive Matters; On Photography by Susan Sontag
Artists: Paul Strand, Richard Billingham
Week 2: Photography as Memory: Christian Boltanski
Focussing on the work of Christian Boltanski, a contemporary artist who questions the veracity of photographs as documents and the significance of photographic genres.
Recommended Reading: Writing After the Image by Roland Barthes (essays on Boltanski); The Possible Life of Christian Boltanski by Christian Boltanski & Catherine Grenier
Week 3: Photography and meaning: early Barthes
The seminar concentrates on the creation of meaning in photographs, analysing the views expressed by Barthes in his earlier texts and the writing of John Tagg and Victor Burgin, that see photographs as constructed images that produce and disseminate meaning. Victor Burgin's own work will be considered.
Texts: Roland Barthes by Roland Barthes; Photographic Practice and Art Theory by Victor Burgin in Thinking Photography; Writing the Image after Roland Barthes, ed. Jean Michel Rabate; John Tagg The Disciplinary Frame.
Artists: Joseph Kosuth, Victor Burgin
Week 4: Photographic appropriation: Sherrie Levine & Cindy Sherman
The seminar will continue the discussion of meaning in photographic images with particular consideration of the role of appropriation in the works of these two female contemporary artists.
Week 5: : Photographic objects: Visit to the SNGMA print room
Where previous seminars have dealt with the subject matter and meaning of photographs, here we will look at them as objects which have been made: the variety of technical possibilities for producing photographs and their material presence.
Artists: Richard Hamilton; Calum Colvin (Narcissus 1987 Cibachrome); Thomas Joshua Cooper; Victor Burgin(Fiction Film screen prints 1991); Walker Evans
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Manipulated
Photographs have always been susceptible to manipulation, a kind of faking of reality itself. This seminar looks at the different analogue and digital methods in the work of contemporary artists. Where technique seems marginal to much photography, here it is central.
Artists; Lucas Samaras, Wendy McMurdo, Calum Colvin
Week 8: Staged
It is taken for granted often that photographs are 'of the world'. Here we will look at two contemporary artists who make the subject to be photographed and consider the problems of representation this creates. Can the artist say more about reality through staging techniques?
Artists: Thomas Demand, Jeff Wall
Week 9: Traditional photographers?
Portraiture and cityscape have always been major genres of photography. The seminar will discuss their treatment in the works of these major contemporary artists, who have used the conventions of photography while moving from traditional to digital technology.
Artists: Thomas Struth, Andreas Gursky, Thomas Ruff:
Week 10: Archival
Roni Horn uses a number of photographic techniques, often eschewing digital technology for traditional photographic methods of printing. The seminar will look at three of her major works: Still Water (the River Thames for example) 1999, This is Me, This is You, 1999-2000, Becoming Landscape 1999-2001
Artist: Roni Horn
Week 11: Photography as violence
The final seminar returns to the photograph as trace and looks at the morality of photography and the responsibility of photographers towards their subjects.
Primary Texts: Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography 2008; Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others 2003
Artists: Martha Rosler; Michal Heiman's Photographer Unknown
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| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
See Syllabus |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Ms Josephine Ganter
Tel:
Email: jo.ganter@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Sue Cavanagh
Tel: (0131 6)51 1460
Email: Sue.Cavanagh@ed.ac.uk |
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