History and Theory of Photography 1

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Name of lecturer(s)

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Department

The subject provides Department of Photography

Contents

History and Theory of Photography, Winter 2025/26

6/10

immatriculation

13/10

1. Introduction: Theory and history of photography. Overview of course structure, completion requirements, study materials. Overview of the main approaches to the study of photography; historiography of photography and its development. REQUIRED and recommended literature: in addition to weekly readings, students are required, during the winter semester, to study SUSAN SONTAG. ON PHOTOGRAPHY. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux 1973. We recommend purchasing at least one overview of the history of photography, e.g. Mary Warner Marien. Photography: A Cultural History (5th ed.). London: Laurence King Publishing 2021; Liz Wells (ed.). Photography: A Critical Introduction (6th ed.). London and New York: Routledge 2021.

20/10

1. The emergence of technical images. Media archaeology and the historicization of perception. The instrumentalization of vision and realism, the scientific revolution, the Nordic Renaissance. Camera obscura and perspective machines. Telescopes and microscopes.

JONATHAN CRARY. THE CAMERA OBSCURA AND ITS SUBJECT. In Techniques of the Observer: On Vision and Modernity in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press 1990, 25-66.

David Hockney. Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters. London: Thames & Hudson 2001.

BBC. David Hockney’s Secret Knowledge. 2002 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-0UXBcjlRY).

Svetlana Alpers. The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1983.

Jussi Parikka. What is Media Archaeology? Cambridge: Polity Press 2012.

27/10

rector’s day

03/11

1. Projection and image transmission. Laterna magica, phantasmagoria, proto-cinematic devices. Static, moving, dynamic images.

ERKKI HUHTAMO. ELEMENTS OF SCREENOLOGY: TOWARD AN ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE SCREEN. Navigationen 6, 2006(2), 31-64.

Laurent Mannoni. The Great Art of Light and Shadow: Archaeology of the Cinema. Exeter: University of Exeter Press 2000.

Giuliana Bruno. Atmospheres of Projection: Environmentality in Art and Screen Media. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 2022.

Tamara Trodd (ed.). Screen/Space: The Projected Image in Contemporary Art. Manchester: Manchester University Press 2011.

10/11

reading week

17/11

state holiday

21/11

First seminar paper deadline.

24/11

1. Reproduction and serial production of images. Letterpress printing and graphic techniques. Substitution model of an image.

WALTER BENJAMIN. THE WORK OF ART IN THE AGE OF MECHANICAL REPRODUCTION. In Illuminations. New York: Schocken Books 1968, 217-251.

John Berger. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books - BBC 1972, 7-34.

BBC. John Berger. Ways of Seeing. Episode 1. 1972 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-4LwAuTw7k).

André Malraux. Museum Without Walls. The Voices of Silence. Princeton: Princeton University Press 1978, 13-128.

Bruno Latour. Drawing Things Together. M. Lynch - S. Woolgar (eds.), Representation in Scientific Practice. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIt Press 1990, 19-68.

01/12

1. Photochemistry and light-sensitive materials. Camera-less photography. Indexicality and emanation. Acheiropoietic images and spiritualism.

ROLAND BARTHES. RHETORIC OF THE IMAGE. In Image Music Text. London: Fontana Press 1977, 32-51.

Josef Maria Eder. History of Photography. New York: Dover Publications 1978.

Geoffrey Batchen. Emanations: The Art of the Cameraless Photograph. Munich - London - New York: DelMonico Books - Prestel 2016.

Larry Schaaf. Sun Gardens: Cyanotypes by Anna Atkins. New York: New York Public Library 2018.

Mary Ann Doane. The Indexical and the Concept of Medium Specificity. differences 18, 2007(1), 128-152.

08/12

1. Niépce and Daguerre. Latent image. Diorama, panorama, panopticon.

FRANÇOIS ARAGO. THE REPORT. In Louis Daguerre. An Historical and Descriptive Account of the Various Processes of the Daguerréotype and the Diorama. London: McLean 1839, 11-31.

Stephan Oettermann. The Panorama: History of a Mass Medium. New York: Zone Books 1997.

Michel Foucault. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Random House 1977, 195-228.

Helmut and Alison Gernsheim. The History of the Diorama and the Daguerreotype. New York: Dover 1968.

15/12

1. Decomposition of images. Talbot. Photogenic drawing and calotype. Positive and negative. Dissemination of photographs by print and telegraph.

WILLIAM HENRY FOX TALBOT. PENCIL OF NATURE. London: Longman, Brown, Green & Longmans 1844–1846.

Geoffrey Batchen. Apparitions: Photography and Dissemination. Sydney: Power Publications - Praha: NAMU 2018.

Carol Armstrong. Scenes In a Library: Reading the Photograph in the Book, 1843–1875. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1998.

Geoffrey Belknap. From a Photograph: Authenticity, Science and the Periodical Press, 1870–1890. London: Bloomsbury 2016.

22/12

1. Seminar paper consultation, preliminary exam date.

09/01

Second seminar paper deadline.

Learning outcomes

Students will gain knowledge of the history of photography, art and visual culture of the 19th century, learn to work with specialist literature, conduct research, analyse photographic images and present their knowledge in the form of a critical essay.

The course introduces the history and theory of photography, art and visual culture, and teaches basic research methods and critical writing techniques. It focuses primarily on the following thematic areas: the birth of technical images; the photographic portrait and the problem of modern individuality; nineteenth-century realism; photography and intermediality; the technological and semiotic specificity of photography; the reproduction of art; pictorialism; photography in the natural and social sciences; the creative misuse of technology and the game against the apparatus; and cameraless photography.

Prerequisites and other requirements

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Literature

required literature: https://amu365-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/tomdvorak_famu_cz/EtV-qtF9n-tHhhwilzXejBMBp65HlEOO5kDvrT1ZpPynWQ?e=J5KA5x

other recommended surveys:

Josef Maria Eder. History of Photography (4th edition, 1932). New York: Columbia University Press 1945.

Helmut Gernsheim – Alison Gernsheim. The History of Photography: From the Camera Obscura to the Beginning of the Modern Era. London: Thames and Hudson 1969.

Beaumont Newhall. The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present (5th edition). New York: The Museum of Modern Art 1982.

Naomi Rosenblum. A World History of Photography (3rd edition). New York: Abbeville Press 1997.

Michel Frizot (ed.). A New History of Photography. Köln: Könemann 1998.

Robert Hirsch. Seizing the Light: A Social & Aesthetic History of Photography (3rd edition). London and New York: Routledge 2017.

Mary Warner Marien. Photography: A Cultural History (5th edition). London: Laurence King Publishing 2021.

Liz Wells (ed.). Photography: A Critical Introduction (6th edition). London and New York: Routledge 2021.

Evaluation methods and criteria

The course is evaluated by a graded exam, conditioned by submitting both seminar papers in time by email. If you do not receive an email confirmation, consider your paper undelivered.

First seminar paper: description of one photograph from the 19th century as a material object; it must not be a reproduction from a book or the internet, 1-2 standard pages sent by November 21, 2025.

Second seminar paper: annotation and explanation of your own work (ideally your current klauzura work), 1-2 standard pages by January 9, 2026. (If you are interested in a preliminary exam date, send by December 19, 2025).

The exam has three parts, which will focus on a discussion of

• both seminar papers: 25%
• one selected topic (02-07): 50%
• Susan Sontag's book, On Photography: 25%

Note

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Schedule for winter semester 2025/2026:

• Week view
• List

Schedule for summer semester 2025/2026:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

The subject is a part of the following study plans

• Photography EN - Bachelor - 2022 (Required subjects)