AR321-6-SP-CO:
Photography in History
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2024/25
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Inactive
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
02 October 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
BA VV31 Art History and History,
BA VV32 Art History and History (Including Placement Year),
BA VV38 Art History and History (Including Foundation Year),
BA VV3B Art History and History (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad),
BA VV3C Art History and History (Including Year Abroad),
BA PV33 Film Studies and Art History (Including Year Abroad),
BA VW36 Film Studies and Art History,
BA VW37 Film Studies and Art History (Including Placement Year),
BA VW38 Film Studies and Art History (Including Foundation Year),
BA VW3B Film Studies and Art History (Including Foundation Year and Year Abroad)
The year 1839 saw the birth of photography and the beginning of a revolution in the way people saw themselves, their nations, and their world. In this module, we will explore not only the evolution of the medium over the 175 years since its invention, but also the creation of the field within the discipline of art history.
The module will consider photography in relation to the democratisation of portraiture; the development of new scientific methods and systems of surveillance; the photograph's change in status from document to artwork; the tension between photography and modernist art; the shifting definition of photojournalism; and the medium's role in the field of postmodern art.
The aims of this module are:
- To develop a greater understanding of key developments in the history of European and American photography.
- To introduce students to issues related to some of the main developments in European and American photograph since its invention.
- To raise students’ awareness of different methods for analysing the medium of photography and its personal, documentary and artistic uses.
- To encourage debate about the place of photography in society.
- To familiarise students with specialised debates in past and recent literature around the interpretation of photographs.
- To encourage student awareness of different methods of approaching the discipline through analysis of chosen texts.
- To stimulate students to develop skills in communication through assignments and seminars.
By the end of this module, students will be expected to be able to have:
- A sound grasp of the history of photography.
- The ability to interpret photographs and texts based on broad and comparative knowledge of the appropriate historical and interpretative contexts.
- The confidence to subject the artworks and texts studied to critical analysis and interpretation.
- The ability to communicate complex ideas concerning representation, medium-specificity, modernity and postmodernity.
- Insight into the different methods of art-historical investigation that have been explored with reference to European and American photography.
- Experience in textual analysis relevant to works and theoretical debates from this period.
- An ability to discuss the history of photography and to reflect critically upon this history through seminar discussion, a coursework essay of 2,750 words, a slide test and a 72-hour research paper.
Skills for your Professional Life
By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills, and in particular be able to:
- Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.
- Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.
- Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.
- Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.
- Write and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.
- Be sensitive to the positions of others and communicate their own views in ways that are accessible to them.
- Think 'laterally' and creatively (i.e., to explore interesting connections and possibilities, and to present these clearly rather than as vague hunches).
- Maintain intellectual flexibility and revise their own position based on feedback.
- Think critically and constructively.
No additional information available.
This module will be delivered via:
- One lecture per week.
- One seminar per week.
Week 21 is Reading Week.
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Eder, J.M. (1978) History of photography. New York: Dover Publications.
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Wells, L. (2003) The photography reader. London: Routledge.
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Baudelaire, C. and Charvet, P.E. (1972) Selected writings on art and artists. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
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Sekula, A. (1975) 'On the Invention of Photographic Meaning', Artforum, 13(5), pp. 36–45.
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Bolton, R. (1992) The contest of meaning: critical histories of photography. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
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Godeau, A.S. (1984) 'Winning the Game When the Rules Have Been Changed: Art Photography and Postmodernism',
Screen, 25(6), pp. 88–103. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/25.6.88.
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Sidlauskas, S. (2013) 'Inventing the medical portrait: photography at the “Benevolent Asylum” of Holloway, c. 1885–1889',
Medical Humanities, 39(1), pp. 29–37. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1136/medhum-2012-010280.
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Zegher, M.C. de and Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston, Mass.) (1996) Inside the visible: an elliptical traverse of 20th century art in, of, and from the feminine. Cambridge, Mass: The MIT Press.
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Crow, T. (no date) 'Saturday Disasters: Trace and Reference in Early Warhol', Art in America, pp. 129–136.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
Exam |
Main exam: In-Person, Open Book, 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 24hr during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Natasha Ruiz-Gomez, email: natashar@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Natasha Ruiz-Gomez
PHAIS General Office - 6.130; arugadmin@essex.ac.uk.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Dr Dominic Paterson
University of Glasgow
Senior Lecturer in History of Art / Curator of Contemporary Art
Available via Moodle
Of 264 hours, 0 (0%) hours available to students:
264 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
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