CONN 204 | Photography & Identity

How is identity built, performed, projected onto others, and imposed from outside¿and what does a camera have to do with any of it? Combining photography and cultural/media studies, students spend the semester producing photographic projects¿self-portraiture, street photography, staged tableaux, collaborative portraiture¿in response to a rotating set of prompts: poetry, essays, film, music, and interviews. The course moves from the constructed self-image, to the ethics of photographing strangers, to the experience of having identity assumed by others, and closes with a collaborative final project pairing an original interview with a photographic portrait, published as a small photobook. No prior photography experience required. Cameras, equipment, and editing software are provided.