VSA2410

History and theory of photography, part I: 1839- 1940

Proposed to be offered next in 1999

Anne Marsh

8 points
* 3 hours per week
* First semester
* Clayton
* Prerequisites: First-year sequence in visual arts (two visual arts subjects at first-year level)

Objectives At the end of the subject students should have a thorough knowledge of photography as a cross-disciplinary practice.

Synopsis The first part of the subject charts the history of photography from the invention of the camera to surrealism. It considers the uses of photography as a recording device in psychology, social history and the legal system as well as the relationship between photography and the visual arts in the modernist period. The camera as a weapon in nature and in society, ie surveillance of populations (especially in the developing world) will be addressed critically. The role of photography in the print media will be discussed in terms of a shrinking world and finally pornography and eroticism will be analysed focusing on the metaphor of the camera as `keyhole'.

Assessment Seminar paper (1500 words): 25%
* Essay (3000 words): 50%
* Visual test (1.5 hours): 25%

Preliminary reading

Jeffrey I Photography: A concise history Thames and Hudson, 1981

Prescribed texts

Barthes R Camera Lucida Jonathan Cape, 1982
Solomon-Godeau A Photography at the dock U Minnesota P, 1991
Tagg J The burden of representation: Essays on photographies and histories U Massachusetts P, 1988