Thursday, December 27, 2012

GLA 625 - The History of Photography

Boulevard du Temple, Paris. 1838. Daguerreotype
One of the courses with which I have a love/hate relationship is the History of Photography. I love it for all the meaningful information on the history of the medium that I have learnt about, and I hate it for the amount of reading, research and writing I had to do. Come to think of it I dont think I would have attained the earlier without the later. Like any art history course, this course too is theoritical (and I am no authority on this. I know didlysquat about art, history or art history for that matter), but what make it such an awesome course is the Instructor - Lisa Levine (website) - an outstanding educator and fine art photographer. Should you be lucky enough to take this class under her, you would truly appreciate the evolution of medium, and learn to question and critically analyse photographs in the context of what has come before it.

The description of the course on the Academy's website reads "This course explores the history of photography and the impact of photography on the visual arts. The major photographic movements and genres throughout the history of photography will be defined and studied in theoretical and applied terms."

Books, Equipment and Supplies
The required text book for the course is A World History of Photography by Naomi Rosenblum. A comprehensive volume on what the title suggets it is. Covering the footsteps of the medium all the way from its inception with the Daguerreotype and Talbottype, through the nineteenth and twentyth century works, classifying each major movement, the artists and the influences in genre. A great reference book to have when you need to get you research done and solid paperweight and dumbell when you dont.

Equipment and supplies wise make sure you get an inquisitive mind and enough paper to print on.

Mode of delivery
This course like any other is taught for 3hrs a week, but where it differs from the Nature and Language course of the first semester, is in the work required from the students. You don't not have assignments to submit each week, but it is required that you to do a lot of reading and participate in discussion in class along with submitting a lot of written material for evaluation. The motif being that if you do end up being a fine art photographer, you will be required to articulate your ideas both verbally and in writing, and the sooner you start the better of you will be.

In parallel to being taught every week, the following is required out of the students

- Photo Essay 1, handouts given in class, to be discussed in class the following week
- Take home quiz 1, requiring written content to be submitted for the questions asked
- Photo Essay 2, handouts given in class, to be discussed in class the following week
- Short research project #1 - paper (3-4 pages) on a 19th century photographer, with a class presentation
- Original Source reading
- Take home Mid-terms which requires written material to be submitted to for the questions asked
- Photo Essay 3, handouts given in class, to be discussed in class the following week
- Take home quiz 2, requiring written content to be submitted for the questions asked
- Photo Essay 4, handouts given in class, to be discussed in class the following week
- Short research project  - paper (3-4 pages) on a 20th century photographer, with a class presentation
- Take home Finals which requires written material to be submitted to for the questions asked
- Final research project - paper (7-10 pages) on a topic fitting for a masters grade student, with a class presentation
 
Water Tower. 1988. Bechers

A personal take on the course
To say the least, this course is intense in the effort that is required from a student. My very first encounter with the course, the first photo essay assignment - an article by Arthur Danto on After The End of Art, an intellectual, thought provoking and complex piece left me shell shocked for a moment and made me aware  of the state of readiness (or lack there of ) I was in.

Though it takes quite a bit of time and effort to get the most out of the class, putting the most you can into it will yield results. After finishing the course successfully, I now can find my way through the landscape of the history of the medium with ease, debate and critically analyze the contents of a frame, and hopefully one day be confident and competent enough to to submit written material worthy of intellectual discussion on the medium.





Related posts
GLA 625 - The History of Photography - Assignments, Midterms and Finals

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