Theory of Photography

Kód:

307ETHP

Zakončení:

ZK

Kredity:

4

Rozsah:

4/T

Vyučující:

Tomáš Dvořák

Anotace:

The course is an introduction to the main problems of the theory of photography. It will survey its history from the conception of photography to the present, it will, however, pursue a thematic approach rather than a chronological one. Each of the themes will be discussed in relation to a selected chapter from the history of photography.

Požadavky:

Cíle studia:

Osnova (a sylabus):

Syllabus:

Introduction: photography between technology and discourse.

Photography and subject I: the perceiver.

Photography and subject II: the perceived.

Visibility and visualization.

The materiality of images.

Photography analogue and digital.

Photography as universal language.

Photography as universal equivalent.

Arrangements of images: collage, montage, series.

Photography and modernity.

Weimar theories of photography.

Media and ideology critique: apparatus, dispositive, program.

Media specificity I: photography as photography.

Photography and semiotics.

Media specificity II: post-photography.

Photography as interface.

Remediation and postproduction.

Recommended readings:

Geoffrey Batchen, Burning with Desire. The Conception of Photography. Cambridge - London: The MIT Press 1997; Each Wild Idea: Writing, Photography, History. Cambridge - London: The MIT Press 2001.

Richard Bolton (ed.), The Contest of Meaning. Critical Histories of Photography. Cambridge - London: The MIT Press 1999.

Vicky Goldberg (ed.), Photography in Print. Writings from 1816 to the Present. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press 1981.

Liz Heron - Val Williams (eds.), Illuminations. Women Writing on Photography from the 1850s to the Present. Durham: Duke University Press 1996.

Beaumont Newhall (ed.), Photography: Essays and Images. New York: The Museum of Modern Art 1980.

Christopher Phillips (ed.), Photography in the Modern Era. European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913-1940. New York: Aperture 1989.

Carol Squiers (ed.), Overexposed. Essays on Contemporary Photography. New York: The New Press 1999.

Requirements:

It is assumed that students have a basic knowledge of the history of photography. Winter semester: written assignments, 2 credits (students will write two short essays on a given theme, 3 and 5 pages in the middle and at the end of the term). Spring: written assignment and an oral exam (4 credits).

Supervised by: Mgr. Tomáš Dvořák

Studijní materiály:

Poznámka:

On alternate year for 2. and 3. class (2005/06).