CONN 235 | The Photographic Image: Art, Truth, and Power

This course is designed as a critical interdisciplinary introduction to the many histories and stories of photography, from its origins in the desire to work with light and shadows to craft an image, to the declarations of its so-called "death" in the digital age. We will begin with theoretical questions of what a photograph actually is, what it does, and how we look at and interpret them. As a starting point, we will examine the mediums disputed beginnings and the investigators and inventors who searched for methods to "write" with light and fix an image. Along the way we will examine early imaging devices that shaped the development of photography and "photographic seeing," and consider the disputes over the evaluation of photography as "art," the collection and distribution of photographs, and the problems that arise in turning historical images into museum objects. Students complete both analytic/expository writing assignments and creative/artistic assignments that complement and enhance the course themes.