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Abstract/Syllabus:
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Howe, James, 21A.348 Photography and Truth, Spring 2008. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 07 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
Diagram from the Underwood Travel System, Underwood & Underwood's photographs advertised as virtual travel, 1913. (Diagram in Underwood Travel System: Sunday School Lessons.)
Course Highlights
This course features an extensive reading list.
Course Description
Photographs in anthropology serve many purposes: as primary data, illustrations of words in a book, documentation for disappearing cultures, evidence of fieldwork, material objects for museum exhibitions, and even works of art. This course explores photography as art, research tool, and communication.
Staff
Instructor:
Prof. Susan Slyomovics
Course Meeting Times
Lectures:
Two sessions / week
1.5 hours / session
Level
Undergraduate
Feedback
Send feedback on this course.
Syllabus
Overview
Photographs in anthropology serve many purposes: as primary data, illustrations of words in a book, documentation for disappearing cultures, evidence of fieldwork, material objects for museum exhibitions, and even works of art. Topics include: the relationships between subject and treatment of image, between art and photography and ethnographic documentation, the role of a museum photograph and its caption, the social practice of "taking pictures" and a case study of photographing women in the Middle East and North Africa.
Required Texts
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. ISBN: 0374226261.
———. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN: 0374248583.
Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. ISBN: 0816613842.
Berger, John, and Jean Mohr. Ways of Seeing. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN: 0140135154.
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1982. ISBN: 0870703811.
Course Requirements
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All required readings and films: You must complete the assigned readings before the class and come to class prepared to discuss.
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Required attendance at class meetings.
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One exam, midterm - open book, 2 parts - essay and definitions.
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Assignments: 4 short response papers, one final paper/photography project.
Calendar
Course calendar.
| WeeK # |
Topics |
Videos |
key dates |
| 1 |
Introduction: The Power of Photography |
Video: Berger. Ways of Seeing. Part 1. London, UK: BBC, 32 minutes, Color, 1974. |
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| 2 |
Histories |
"The Photo Shoot." Video clips: Louis Lumière, 118, 105, and 310. |
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| 3 |
Anthropology and Photography |
Video clips: Eadweard J. Muybridge.
Video excerpts: Cannibal Tourism. |
Beginning of week 3: Paper 1 due |
| 4 |
Albums and Family Photographs: Western and Eastern |
Video clips: Ellis Island. 3-hours, History Channel.
Video excerpts: David and Judith MacDougall. Photo Wallahs: An Encounter with Photography. 60 min, Berkeley, CA: University of California Extension Center for Media and Independent Learning, 1991. |
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| 5 |
Photography as Fragment, Photos as Evidence: Portraits, ID Photos |
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End of week 5: Paper 2 due |
| 6 |
Mug Shots, Memorial Books
Visual Anthropology |
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| 7 |
Aerial Photography |
Video clips: WWII Aerial Photography. |
Midterm |
| 8 |
Nature Photographs: The Case of National Geographic
True or False? |
National Geographic video clips.
On Photography and Ghosts, see The American Museum of Photography Web site. |
Beginning of week 8: Paper 3 due |
| 9 |
Fashion Photography and Paparazzi |
Paparazzi. Directed by Paul Abascal. Twentieth Century Fox, 2004. DVD.
Police-press Collaborations: On the "Perp Walk" and "Ride-alongs."
Recommended: Fellini. 8½. |
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| 10 |
Photography and Gender |
Video clips: Ways of Seeing. Part 2. |
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| 11 |
Photography and Orientalism |
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Beginning of week 11: Paper 4 due |
| 12 |
Iraq Photos
Conclusions and Copyright Law: Who Owns the Image? |
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| 13 |
Student Presentations |
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Further Reading:
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Readings
Required Texts
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1977. ISBN: 0374226261.
———. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2002. ISBN: 0374248583.
Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. ISBN: 0816613842.
Berger, John, and Jean Mohr. Ways of Seeing. New York, NY: Penguin Books, 1995. ISBN: 0140135154.
Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography: From 1839 to the Present. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1982. ISBN: 0870703811.
Course readings.
| WeeK # |
Topics |
Readings |
| 1 |
Introduction: The Power of Photography |
Benjamin, Walter. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." Illuminations. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovitch, 1968, pp. 217-251.
Newhall. pp. 9-71. |
| 2 |
Histories |
Berger. Ways of Seeing. pp. 7-34.
Newhall. pp. 9-71. |
| 3 |
Anthropology and Photography |
Newhall. pp. 85-139, 141-197.
Rosenbaum, Ron. "The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal." The New York Times, Sunday Magazine, January 15, 1995.
Recommended
Pinney, Christopher. "The Parallel Histories of Anthropology and Photography." In Anthropology and Photography, 1860-1920. Edited by Elizabeth Edwards. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992, pp. 74-95. |
| 4 |
Albums and Family Photographs: Western and Eastern |
Katriel, Tamar, and Thomas Farrell. "Scrapbooks as Cultural Texts: An American Art of Memory." Text and Performance Quarterly 11, no. 1 (1991): 1-17.
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. "Kodak Moments, Flashbulb Memories: Reflections on 9/11." (PDF) The Drama Review 47 (2003).
Sontag. On Photography. pp. 3-85. |
| 5 |
Photography as Fragment, Photos as Evidence: Portraits, ID Photos |
Kuhn, Annette. "Remembrance." In Illuminations: Women Writing on Photography from the 1850s to the Present. Edited by Liz Heron and Val Williams. Durham, NC: Duke University, 1996, pp. 470-478.
Newhall. pp. 199-267.
Sontag. On Photography. pp. 85-end.
Recommended
Simon, Taryn. The Innocents. New York, NY: Umbrage, 2003. |
| 6 |
Mug Shots, Memorial Books
Visual Anthropology |
Slyomovics, Susan. "Memory of Place." In The Object of Memory. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998, pp. 1-28. |
| 7 |
Aerial Photography |
Collier, John, Jr., and Malcolm Collier. Visual Anthropology: Photography as Research Method. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1987, pp. 29-63.
Gladwell, Malcolm. "The Picture Problem." The New Yorker, December 13, 2004, pp. 74-81.
Whyte, William H. The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. Project for Public Spaces Inc., March 1, 2001, pp. 94-111. ISBN: 097063241X. |
| 8 |
Nature Photographs:
The Case of National Geographic
True or False? |
Lutz, Catherine, and Jane Collins. "The Photograph as an Intersection of Gazes: The Example of National Geographic." Visual Anthropology Review 7, no. 1 (1991): 143-149.
Brower, Kenneth. "Photography in the Age of Falsification." The Atlantic Monthly (May 1998): 92-111. |
| 9 |
Fashion Photography and Paparazzi |
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| 10 |
Photography and Gender |
Berger. Ways of Seeing. pp. 36-81. |
| 11 |
Photography and Orientalism |
Nochlin, Linda. "The Imaginary Orient." The Politics of Vision. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1989, pp. 35-59.
Alloula, Malek. The Colonial Harem. Minnesota, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1986. |
| 12 |
Iraq Photos
Conclusions and Copyright Law: Who Owns the Image? |
The Abu Ghraib Investigations: Official Reports. Public Affairs. New York, NY, 2004.
Sontag, Susan. "The Photographs Are Us." New York Times Magazine, May 23, 2004.
———. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003.
Berger. Ways of Seeing. pp. 83-end. |
| 13 |
Student Presentations |
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