History of Photography

Spring 2017

Professor Claire Raymond claireraymond@virginia.edu

Professor's Office, Fayerweather Hall Room 316, office hours Tu/Thu 2.30-3.30 pm, and by appointment, please email: claireraymond@virginia.edu

 

Course rationale:

This course covers the history and theory of photography, with an emphasis on theory. The history of photography is really the history of modernity, in that photography appears near the inception of the modern, traces the modern, and creates what we know as modernity. This is an introductory level course; it presumes no specific preparatory coursework, however I do assume you will work hard to master the material taught herein, some of which is challenging. In this course we establish the importance of a theory of photography that will allow us to trace a history of photography; throughout this course we use lenses of cultural criticism and aesthetic criticism to explore the question of what is a photograph and how do photographs function in history and in culture. Given the protean and multiple identities of photography, we will read history of photography from a fully theorized vantage, noting that there are several credible stories of the history of photography, and this course gives one version. To quote the eminent Benjamin Buchloh—the course will introduce the student to the difficulties of writing the history and criticism of photography as a separate discipline that operates simultaneously outside and inside the history of modernism: since photographic practices are defined by an extraordinary diversity of social functions and institutions (e.g. fashion and political documentary, advertisement, and avant-garde art) the impossibility of such a cohesive approach clearly poses a central methodological problem. This condition has been confronted by photographers, artists, and photography historians and critics with a wide range of responses. The course readings will therefore consist of more or less equal groups of historical documents (artists’ and photographers’ statements) as well as writings by critics and historians which reflect the unstable status of the photographic object between: technology and culture, mass culture and avant-garde art, discourse and documentation.

 

The pedagogical goals of the course are to make the student familiar with a general historical lineage of the photograph, and to make the student familiar with some theories of what is a photograph, and to familiarize students with ways of interpreting or reading photographic images. These goals of becoming conversant in the theory and history of the photograph will be sounded out through two concise papers, a mid-term and a final.  

 

Course requirements:

Regular attendance at lectures (15 % of grade); two papers (25 % of grade, with first paper being worth 10 % of grade, second paper worth 15 % of grade); a mid-term exam (25 % of grade), and a final exam (35 % of grade). All assignments must be completed to pass the course. Overdue papers will be penalized one letter grade for each 24 hours' delay. Knowledge of images discussed in lecture will be tested; therefore, you need to attend class to know on which images you will be tested. The final exam will be given on the day assigned to our class by UREG. Therefore, you need to check the UREG schedule of exams. Attendance at the final exam is mandatory, per university policy.

Lap-top and electronic devices policy: lap-tops, i-phones, tablets and other electronic devices should not be used in the classroom during class. Please take notes using paper, keeping your electronics safely stowed during class. If this policy causes true hardship for you, see me and we will talk about it.

 

Course readings:

 

Readings will be drawn from the following books as well as, occasionally, from texts posted on our Collab site.

 

Required Texts:

Tanya Sheehan and Andres Mario Zervigon, Photography and Its Origins;

Roland Barthes Camera Lucida; 

Susan Sontag, On Photography; 

 

Recommended (not required) texts:

Geoffrey Batchen Burning with Desire; 

Walter Benjamin/Esther Leslie, On Photography; 

Bolton (Ed) The Contest of Meaning

 

Photographic images will be shown in lecture. You are responsible for the images shown during lecture. They are part of the course record. All images are on our Collab site but, as you will see if you look at the Collab site Resources, there are many more images on Collab than are viewed in class. Hence, you are responsible for only those image viewed during class lectures.

 

Please note: the following schedule lists required readings. These readings should be prepared before class. At times, we may have in-class activities dealing with the readings, so it is important to keep up with the weekly readings as the schedule notes. Where I give website links, that is just to have a look at if you like, not required. Italicized subheadings for sections of study appear before each group of readings. These subheadings are just guideposts for the terrain we are covering. Feel free to contact me with questions regarding assigned readings.

 

Schedule

(class meets Tuesday/Thursday 12.30 pm- 1.45 pm)

January 19^th, introductions: The many histories of photography

 

Inception: Niepce, Fox Talbot, Daguerre

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/wfp/ 

 

January 24, Photography and its origins, pages 67-82

 

January 26, Photography and its origins, pages 13-29

 

January 31, Photography and its origins, pages 29-41; please also read, Introduction to Photography and Its Origins--if you do not yet have the book, please note that this Introduction to Photography and Its Origins can be found as a pdf on our Collab site, in Resources

 

Daguerreotype & Calotype, David Octavius Hill, Hippolyte Bayard

http://www.daguerre.org/ 

 

February 2, Photography and its origins, pages 82-94; Photography and Doubt, pages 29-44 (Collab Resources)

 

February 7, Photography and its origins, pages 118- 128

Extra Credit: Tyler Green talk, Campbell Hall 153, 6 pm, February 7th

Extra Credit: Tyler Green talk, Ruffner Hall, Photography Studio, 1-3 pm, February 8th* limited space at this talk, please email the professor beforehand if you plan on attending

 

Salt paper to Wet Plate, Gustave Le Gray and Nadar

February 9, Photography and its origins, pages 104- 118

 

February 14, Photography and its origins, pages 157-171

 

February 16 Professor will be out of town at a conference, class canceled for today

 

 

Artistic Effects, Julia Margaret Cameron, Clementina Hawarden, Oscar Rejlander, Henry Peach Robinson http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2010/preraphaelite/slideshow/index.shtm# 

February 21, Photography and its origins, pages 171-183;

 

February 23, Photography and its origins, pages 195-208; please also read, Photography and Doubt, pages 59-79 (Collab Resources)

 

 

Empire and Archive, Early war photography (Fenton, Brady), Spirit and Postmortem photography, and photography as ethnography

https://www.fieldmuseum.org/science/blog/photo-archives-native-american-gallery

 

February 28, please read, “The Perfect Medium, Ghost Dialectics” (Collab Resources);

 

March 2,please read, Sekula, The Body and the Archive” (Collab Resources)  First paper due today, March 2, in class—please bring papers to class, printed. The paper assignment is to choose any two (2) readings assigned so far in this class and perform a close-reading/analysis of the texts. What is the person saying and arguing in this text? Choose two (2) photographs to which to apply the knowledge/theory of the reading and perform a close reading of these photographs using your knowledge from your chosen readings. Photographs should be attached at the end of the paper, after you have reached the required five pages. The paper must use Times New Roman 12 point font, standard margins, double spaced; for citations please use Chicago style citations.   

 

March 4- March 12, Spring Recess, no classes held

 

March 14, Midterm, in class

 

 

Pictorialism in America, Stieglitz, Steichen, Kasebier

March 16, Sontag, On Photography, pages 3-27 

 

 

The Twentieth Century: Atget and Stieglitz  

March 21, Walter Benjamin: “A Short History of Photography” (Collab Resources)

March 21 Extra Credit: Hagi Kenaan Lecture on Photography's Origins: Campbell Hall 6.30 pm

 

March 23, Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of its Mechanical Reproducibility (Collab Resources)

photographs of August Sander

 

The New Vision, Man-Ray, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Lee Miller, Claude Cahun 

March 28, “Man Ray, African Art, and the Modernist Lens” (Collab Resources)

 

March 30, “Claude Cahun’s Double” (Collab Resources) and also read, “Apertures onto Egypt” (Collab Resources)

 

Social Documentary in America, Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks

April 4, Barthes, Camera Lucida, pages 3-21

 

April 6, Barthes, Camera Lucida, pages 23-6o; Please note: professor will be out of town at a conference, class canceled for today

 

Straight Photographies, f-64, and beyond, Ansel Adams, Imogene Cunningham, Robert Capa

April 11, Barthes, Camera Lucida, pages 63-119

 

Beyond Social Realism, Diane Arbus, Horace Poolaw, Roy De Carava

April 13, Sontag, On Photography, pages 27-51; and also read “Diane Arbus” (Collab Resources)

Street, Gary Winogrand, Robert Frank, Larry Clark, Vivian Maier

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/2009/frank/index.shtm 

April 18, Sontag, On Photography, pages 115-153

 

Southern Gothic, Sally Mann, Ralph Meatyard, William Eggleston

April 20, Sontag, On Photography, pages 85-115​

Note: one more extra credit option for this semester. The exhibit, The 1 % : Privilege in a Time of Global Inequality, is installed at UVa in Wilson and Nau Halls. The Wilson Hall exhibit is on the 1st floor, the main entrance, and shows 14 images; the Nau Hall exhibit is installed on the 2nd floor and shows 16 images. There is no signage to tell you where the exhibit begins, only titles of the images are given below each image. So, you can familiarize yourself with the exhibit by looking at this website http://www.onepercentshow.com/about.html, so that you know for which images to look, but please understand that you are on your honor to actually go and look at the exhibit itself--not the online version-- to get extra credit. For extra credit: visit the exhibit, and write up what you learned from it, in any way that seems relevant to you. What does the exhibit tell us about photography? Which images especially drew your interest, or, critique? The write up can be turned in to me any time between next week and up to the day of the final exam. This must be your own work and so on your honor to see the exhibit yourself-- in Wilson and Nau-- and write about it yourself. It's a fascinating show, and certainly a side of photography that moves away from fine art and toward activism.

 

Off the Street: Nan Goldin and Nikki Lee

April 25, “A Radiant Eye Yearns from Me” (Collab Resources)

 

* Note* Questions about the final paper and the final exam can be emailed to me by the end of the day Wednesday the 26th of April . I will use the questions I receive to craft a group-work exercise for April 27th.

 

Francesca Woodman, Carrie Mae Weems, and the new symbolic form

April 27, Please read “The End of Art” (Collab Resources). Please note, even though we won't be doing group work on this essay, it is still part of the course record, i.e., you should still read it.

 

May 2,  digital practices: Jeff Wall, Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky

No new reading for May 2nd. Instead, please review Barthes' Camera Lucida, as group work will somehow involve Barthes

 

Second paper due May 3rd, by 4 pm, to be placed in the box in front of my office 316 Fayerweather Hall: for this second paper, please choose any three readings assigned after the midterm and perform a close reading/analysis of those readings; then pull in any three photographs studied since the midterm to interpret by using those readings. The length of this paper is 7 pages. Photographs are not included in the length of the paper, but must be attached at the end as addenda. The works cited comes after the paper and does not count toward the page length requirement. Analysis means interrogate and bring into conversation those elements and ideas of the readings and images that you find most important.

​Final Exam, per UREG's schedule: May 6th, 2 pm, in our regular classroom. 

Of note--

Honor Code: All students are expected to abide strictly by the principles and procedures of the Honor Code. While students may study together and are encouraged to do so, they may not collaborate on exam questions or other written assignments unless the assignment *explicitly* permits it.  Regarding the buying and selling of notes: I do not  approve of students’ selling their own notes or buying course notes from others. I think students should take their own notes unless they have a disability. In addition, I do not consent to students’ selling or buying the syllabus, exams, or other documents produced for this class, nor the selling or buying of transcripts or audio or videotapes of my lectures. Cases of students selling or buying these things will be referred to the Judiciary Committee. I consider my lectures, and all subject-based communications that I share during the semester, including Collab material, to be intellectual property, protected by law as such. Here I quote in part UVA's official policy: “Recordings, course materials, and lecture notes may not be exchanged or distributed for commercial purposes, for compensation, or for any other purpose other than study by the student enrolled in the class. Public distribution of such materials may constitute copyright infringement in violation of federal or state law, or University policy. Violation of this policy may subject a student to disciplinary action under the University’s Standards of Conduct.”

Extra Credit: during the semester, I keep an eye out for speakers and events that have relevance to our class. I note these events on the syllabus. A student who attends an event noted on the syllabus, and who takes notes on the event and brings those notes to class, may receive up to one real point extra credit, for the first event you attend, 1/2 real points extra credit for each subsequent event you attend, with a maximum of three real points extra credit per student. To receive extra credit, you submit clearly legible notes that are detailed and that show you paid careful attention to the talk you attended. These notes must be your own work: copying or sharing a classmate's notes, for an extra credit assignment, is a violation of the honor code and will be treated as such. Extra credit for attending University talks listed on the syllabus is just a chance to broaden your point of view and is not required to complete this class. 

Plagiarism means the copying of words or ideas without citing the source. For any paper that you write in this class, you must cite any phrase or any concept or idea that you get from anywhere (in a book, online, in a journal, from my own or another professor’s lectures), that is, any content other than your own freewheeling imagination must be cited. It is plagiarism to copy someone else's idea without citing that person and the article/book in which you read the idea. If you have questions about what is plagiarism, please feel free to talk with me. 

If you are a student diagnosed by LNEC with special needs, please notify me. I support a fair and equitable learning environment for all students.

mandatory reporter: As a professor, I am required by law to report any student disclosure of sexual or intimate partner violence. Therefore, if you tell me, or write to me, stating that you have been a victim of assault or violence, then that disclosure is tantamount to reporting the event, as I am required by law to report. I strongly recommend that students who are victims of assault contact S.A.R.A., the Sexual Assault Resource Agency, in Charlottesville, by calling 434 295 7273. I personally know the director of S.A.R.A. and I know the people working there are really good people; they are well-trained and fully dedicated to helping survivors, and are also fully able to keep confidentiality. If you wish to speak to someone at UVa, please contact CAPS at 972 7004

 

Addendum on photographie techniques and processes: this short synopsis is *not* intended to replace lecture content. All the information summarized below was given in greater depth during lecture, but since students have expressed a desire for a summation, I've written one below. Please remember, lectures and lecture notes are the best place to get the full explanation

Niepce ‘heliograph’ pewter plate bitumen of Judea all day exposure or possibly days long exposure

Fox Talbot ‘Talbot-type/Calotype’ or ‘salt paper negative/salt paper print’ Talbot devises a way to capture a latent image that enables exposure time to be drastically reduced; from this latent image a negative is developed. The negative, which is tonally reversed, is then used for a direct positive print , ie, a print that is the same size as the negative. His prints were created using sunlight, with the negative as, in effect, a kind of tracing that sunlight engraves onto a sensitized paper for the positive print

Daguerre ‘Daguerreotype’ polished metal plate (usually copper) with silver coat, burnished until absolutely smooth and mirror-shine; relatively long exposure (several minutes), a one-off, positive-negative image (a daguerreotype can look like a positive or a negative depending on vantage) developed with mercury vapors so that a silver-mercury amalgam sits on top of the plate. Hence the 3-D visual effect of a daguerreotype. Must be covered with glass because since the image sits on top of the metal plate, the slightest touch directly to this plate erased the image

‘Wet plate collodion’ used by Gustave Le Gray (not its inventor but early adopter; Le Gray also extensively used salt paper prints with paper and glass negatives, depending on when in the 1850s). Pour collodion emulsion over glass plate, dip in silver nitrate which adheres to the collodion, insert plate into camera, must take photograph within 5-10 minutes of pouring the plate because as the plate dries it loses sensitivity to light. Relatively shorter (seconds to minute) exposure. Creates a negative from which to then create a direct print

Dry plate collodion (1880s and onward) buy the pre-prepared plates already treated with silver, adhering to the plate by dried emulsion. Glass plate negatives to silver prints is the technique of Atget, Sanders, often Stieglitz, Adams; Pictorialists often use glass plate; f-64 sometimes use glass plate

Film invented by Kodak just before the turn of the twentieth century; Kodak's slogan, you push the button, we do the rest, changes photography, so that vernacular photography becomes commonplace. Handheld cameras not initially used by art photographers but Robert Capa used a hand held Leica, a light and very mobile camera

By mid twentieth century, almost everyone is using film; Arbus uses a Mamiya camera for most of her ‘black border’ work; Vivian Maier uses viewfinder camera. Francesca Woodman never used digital camera, always film and developed her own work always.

1970s color photographs ushered into fine art with Eggleston's exhibit at MoMA; 1908s Nan Goldin uses color film

Digital camera invented by Kodak engineers in 1970s introduced to the public at the end of the 20th century; digital used by Nikki Lee end of the 20^th century, and sometimes by Carrie Mae Weems in the 21^st century, though Weems also continues to use film as well. Sally Mann uses wet plate collodion in the 21^st century, though some of her images are film; Crewdson, Wall, and Gursky use almost exclusively digital scanning and printing in the 21^st century.