History of Photography 2

Display Schedule

Subject guarantor:

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Name of lecturer(s):

Tomáš DVOŘÁK

Learning outcomes of the course unit:

students will be introduced to the history of photography, media and visual culture of the 20th and 21st centuries and to the main contemporary historical and theoretical approaches in the field

Mode of study:

lecture

Prerequisites and co-requisites:

n/a

Course contents:

8.2. Formalism and photography (Josef Ledvina)

According to formalistic aesthetic doctrine the main source of aesthetic evaluation of a artistic piece is its formal quality. Photography initially attempts to achieve the status of an artistic field by assimilation of traditional (non-modernistic) procedures in painting. These were primarily followers of direct photography who, at the beginning of 20th century, systematically extolled the formal quality of their photos in spite of the content. After WWII there was an attempt to define the particulars during the history of media in revelations of the formal quality of photographic during the long-term leadership of John Szrakowski at MoMA. At the turn of the 80s there was a critique of his approach (Allan Sekula, Rosalind Krauss and others.).

Rosalind KRAUSS, „Photography's Discursive Spaces. Landscape/View“, Art Journal, roč. 42, 1982, č. 4, s. 311-319.

15.2. Photographic Avant Garde in Soviet Russia and in Germany in the 1920s (Robert Silverio)

Lectures focus on topics in constructivist photography in the Bauhaus environment. This will cover the interdisciplinary activities of the main figures in the group. Emphasis is placed on the influences other media has had on photography. Part of the lectures is a comparison with Russian constructivist photography.

László MOHOLY-NAGY, Painting, Photography, Film. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1969, pp. 27-40.

22.2. Photography in surrealistic imagination (Robert Silverio)

Surrealistic photography is strongly connected to surrealism in painting and literature. Its particulars is no less the crossing the boundaries of genre and technique. The influence of collage is important. This will be compared with staged surrealistic photography and photography using unusual technical processes with methods of Found Objects, important, particularly after the Second World War. Lectures focus on French, and also Czech Surrealism and their intermeshings.

André BRETON, „Surrealist manifesto.“ Manifestos of Surrealism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.

29.2. Czech Avant Garde in the context of contemporary world photography Avant garde (Robert Silverio)

Czech Inter-War photographic Avant garde was one of the most significant of the world inter-war Avant garde. Among its basic features, which differ from the situation in Germany, Russian or France, are relative little connections of individual artists with other artistic fields and exceptionally surrealists. As well, it is notable that we find an large number of styles, that is elements of various styles of constructivism, surrealism, new era and particulars of Czech Poetism. Even when a large part of the Avant garde iconography is supra-national, some formal features are found with many artists and have the character of local iconography (ex: favored projections of shade). Some individual artists are to classified into the overall history even when they deviate from a narrow sense of the word. (F. Drtikol, J. Sudek).

Karel TEIGE, „Poetism.“ in: FORGÁCS, Éva (ed.). Between Worlds: A Sourcebook of Central European Avant-Gardes, 1910-1930. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2002, pp. ???

7.3. War documentary and propaganda photography (Robert Silverio)

War photography caused fundamental changes in the 20th century. From sober shots through iconic and influential photo-journalistic war photography, as well as, important for the Second World War and the Vietnam War reaching to the margins of society. It's influence and societal impact will be compared to non-professional photography war documentaries on one side and official propaganda photography on the other.

Susan SONTAG, Regarding the pain of others. New York: Picador 2003, pp. ???

14.3. Photography in the 1960s capturing the cultural break in Europe and the USA (Robert Silverio).

The 60s are often perceived as a groundbreaking revolutionary decade. Lectures will cover iconic photography in this decade and across genres. Alongside one another will be placed research, journalistic, advertising and amateur photography whereby their analysis is linked to historical events and general overall societal contexts.

Umberto ECO, Apocalypse Postponed. London: BFI 1994, pp. ???

21.3. Photography exhibition (Pavel Vančát)

Lectures are devoted to selected exhibitions in the history of photography and focus on the changes in the understanding of aesthetics and significance of photography exhibitions. Beginning with the 1940s through pictorial exhibitions to Dadaistic and constructivist exhibitions (Film and Photo, Stuttgart) and following with a forma intertwining of photography with other media. The Family of Man exhibition is a culmination of those tendencies and official political demonstration of post-war humanism.

Fred TURNER, „The Family of Man and the Politics of Attention in Cold War America.“ Public Culture, vol. 24, 2012, no.1, pp. 55-84.

28.3. The institutionalization of photography as an artistic field. (Pavel Vančát)

The lectures trace the joining photography into the canon of modern arts and gradual re-invention of photography practices from amateurism to professionalism. This emancipation of photography culminated in the 1970s and accompanied a mass growth in museum collections, university studies and the gallery market as we know them today.

Abigail SOLOMON-GODEAU, „Photography After Art Photography.“ in: Brian Wallis (ed.). Art After Modernism: Rethinking Representation. David R Godine, Boston 1984, pp. 75-88.

4.4. Amateur, vernacular and naive photography. (Pavel Vančát)

Lectures are linked to the previous lectures and cover photography pieces outside the modernistic canon of photography which sometimes absorbed them. Whether it was talented amateurs (Jacques-Henri Lartigue), artists using photography (Warhol, Ruscha, and others), or artists on the border of naive pieces (Miroslave Tichy, Michal Kalhous), clarifying with their examples the borders and topics of classical modern photography and manners of construction of the photography history canon.

Andy GRUNDBERG, „Art and Photography, Photography and Art: Across the Modernist Membrane.“ in: Elisabeth Janus (ed.), Veronica's Revenge: Contemporary Perspectives on Photography. Zurich: Scalo1998, pp. ???

11.4. Changes in documentary photography (Hana Buddeus)

Lectures cover basic reverses in photography history and theory, from the rise of the documentary genre and social photography (Lewis Hine), through documentation of historical monuments (Mission heliographique), photography activity in the Farm Security Administration (Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange), critique documents of the 70s and 80s (Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula, Victor Burgin) to the documentary rebound in the arts at the turn of the 21st century. We focus not only on the changes in the documentary style but also wider issues in the relation of the photographed, the photographer and the viewer and question of photography as a political tool.

Martha ROSLER, „In, around and Afterthoughts (on documentary photography)“ , in: Liz WELLS (ed.), The Photography Reader, New York: Routledge 2003, pp. 261-274

18.4. Photography in conceptual art (Hana Buddeus)

Lectures focus on the use of photography in conceptual art and performative arts and its particular aesthetic, defining in the face of tradition artistic photography. We will devote a part of the day to the canon of foreign artists (Ed Ruscha, Dan Graham and others) and their theory reviews (Jeff Wall, Nancy Foote), but shall also refer to related phenomena in Czech art (Pavel Vančát / Jan Freiberg: Photography??).

Jeff WALL, „Marks of Indifference: Aspects of Photography in, or, as, Conceptual Art“, in: Ann GOLDSTEIN and Anne RORIMER, Reconsidering the object of Art, 1965-1975, kat. výst, Los Angeles: Museum of Contemporary Art 1995, pp. 247-267.

25.4. Japanese photography 1920-80 (Robert Silverio)

Japanese photographers after the Second World War demonstrated a strong expansion. This was significantly influenced by American and European photography. They were able to maintain some autonomous cultural features. The lecture is a cross-section of the works of prominent figures in Japanese photography from the 1940s to 1980s supplemented by an analysis of international influences. The phenomenon of Japanese photograpy books is underlined.

Anne TUCKER - Ktar IIZAWA - Naoyuki KINOSHITA, The History of Japanese Photography. New Haven: Yale University Press 2003, pp. ???

2.5. Problems with the post-modern (Josef Ledvina)

Post-modernism represents an ambiguous concept whose particular content in small measure, is debated. Attempts to create a universal period category for artistic production of a given period (most often 70s and 80s), usually fails because of variation in individual, group or study „post-modern“ programs. Along with a basic presentation of period discussions on post-modernism, lectures will be devoted, primarily, to theory-aware pieces of artists, so called Pictures Generation (Cindy Sherman, Sherrie Levin, Jack Goldstein, and others.), for whom photography was a key tool.

Douglas CRIMP, „The Photographic Activity of Postmodernism“, October 15, 1980, č. 4, s. 91-101.

9.5. New media and photography theory (Tomáš Dvořák)

Lectures provide an overview and critical analysis of theory approaches to new media from the 1990s to the present with an emphasis on the changes in form and function of the photographic image. The lecture is devoted primarily to the shift from „realistic“ form representation, dominating the 20th century (photography, film, television, virtual reality) to technology prevailing today: databases, GPS system and data visualizations.

Jay David BOLTER - Richard GRUSIN, „Immediacy, Hypermediacy, Remediation.“ Remediation. Understanding New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press 1999, pp. 20-50.

Recommended or required reading:

see course contents

texts available at:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B36pcjuZK5yyUW1rVWNzMXRBclU

Assessment methods and criteria:

The two main requirements for completing the course are:

attendance (you cannot miss more than 2 classes, in serious cases announced in advance, you may compensate for missing more lectures by another - typically written - assignment: this needs to be consulted beforehand with the lecturer)

turning in all required assignments (if you fail to submit only one of the presentations, your final grade is F):

1st written assignment: a critical analysis of a given photograph, 2-3 pages, deadline: 10 April 2016

2nd written assignment: final essay on a given topic, 5-10 pages, deadline: 12 June 2016

the exam will have the form of a discussion of both texts with the teacher

Course web page:

Note:

On alternate year for 1. and 2. class

Schedule for winter semester 2015/2016:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2015/2016:

	06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Mon	místnost 112 Učebna KF 112 (Lažanský palác) DVOŘÁK T. 13:10–14:45 (paralelka 1)
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri

Date	Day	Time	Tutor	Location	Notes	No. of paralel
	Mon	13:10–14:45	Tomáš DVOŘÁK	Učebna KF 112 Lažanský palác		paralelka 1

The subject is a part of the following study plans:

• Photography EN - Bachelor (qualification subject)