VISC 0109: A History of Photography Through Ideas – Spring, 2018

JIM DOW, Professor of the Practice, Visual & Critical Studies / Photography      

Email:  j.dow@tufts.edu, jimdowphotography@gmail.com

Canvas site: https://canvas.tufts.edu/courses/1074

Website: jimdowphotography.com

Class: Thursdays, 2:00 – 4:45 PM

Office Hours: Mondays / Thursdays, 12:30 – 1:45 PM, by appointment.

 

“Photography as such has no identity. Its status as a technology… depends on the institution and agents (that) define it and set it to work… There is no such thing as photography...”

John Tagg, The Burden of Representation. U Minnesota, 1988.

 

“Like a car, a camera is sold as a predatory weapon—one that’s as automated as possible, ready to spring. Popular taste expects an easy, an invisible technology.”
― Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1973

 

“One of the difficulties of photography is that it is much better at being explicit than at being reticent.”
Teju Cole, The New Yorker, 27 November, 2013

 

“Does history make photography or is it photography that produces history?”

Joan Fontcuberta, Photography: Crisis of History, ACTAR, 2000.

 

“Everyone is now their own minister of propaganda”

Scott Shane – New York Times National Security Reporter 9/3/14

 

“You have to be interested in history because the narrative of history is a competitive event. And people who don't make it into history somehow don't really exist. And so, I'm interested in history because I think histories need to be established.”

Kerry James Marshall, PBS Newshour, 2003

 

“A useful model for the discussion of contemporary photography might be to examine the multiplicity of systems of delivery with as much attention as the “original” images themselves.”

Andrew Hlynsky, in conversation (edited), 2012

 

“The conventional distinctions between artists and amateurs, producers and consumers of photographic images and objects have become unclear in interesting ways; indeed, these terms themselves are now increasingly mutable and capable of being converged.”

Charlotte Cotton, Photography Is Magic. Aperture, 2015

 

“School is still fundamentally about knowledge with consequences.” Carlo Rotella Boston Globe, 30 August, 2013

Course Description:

 

John Tagg writes that it is impossible to teach the history of photography as a "discrete and coherent field or discipline" when the medium has been employed across such a disparate set of fields as forensic science and abstract expressionism, to name just two. With that in mind, it is perhaps more useful to approach photographic histories through ideas and topics, such as the family unit, worth, propaganda, supervision, record keeping, obsession and so forth. Over the course of the semester we will address different artistic, cultural, political and social premises in order to investigate any/all intersections with photography over the past two hundred years. Presentations will draw on written and visual material from the late 18th century forward through today. There will be numerous background readings, discussion groups and assigned research papers. and projects.

 

Students who complete this course satisfactorily can expect to acquire:

 

-  A sound introduction to some of the histories surrounding the enormous varieties of photographic activity from the late 18th century to the present moment.

 

-  A grounding in both the vocabulary and understanding to begin to speak about a range of historical concepts and topics extending beyond photography and into events and topics surrounding a broad range of cultures and general histories.

 

-  The ability to discuss photography and photographic works through a variety of analytical methods.

 

-  Above all else the goal is to inspire independent critical analysis and thought.

 

Expectations of Students:

 

Class members are expected to demonstrate engagement with the material presented through attendance, timely completion of written assignments as well as participation in discussion and other forms of contact such as meetings, blogs, e-mails, etc. Students should feel free to contact the instructor at any time as well as consult The Academic Resource Center (ARC < https://smfa.tufts.edu/about/spaces-resources/academic-resource-center>)  and the Academic Advising Office (https://smfa.tufts.edu/academics/undergraduate/bfa-curriculum/advising) for academic and research support.

 

Everyone participating in VISC 0109, including the instructor, are expected to be respectful of one another in the semester-long project of presentation and discussion of a broad range of ideas from wide-ranging positions of experiences, backgrounds and beliefs.

 

Criteria to Receive Credit:

 

Final grades will reflect attendance, participation and the quality of written assignments, presentations, and individual meetings. Grading is not by percentage but by the totality of the work done for the course. A grade will not be entered until all assigned work has been fully completed.

 

Students must complete the following six (6) requirements satisfactorily to obtain academic credit (requirements for auditors and MFA students will be noted):

 

• Attendance at all classes.

 

“There is no university attendance policy. Each professor will indicate their attendance expectations, usually on the course syllabus” (from the Tufts Faculty Handbook).  Attendance at all classes is mandatory in VISC 0109 and there are no unexcused absences. When it is necessary to miss a class, an e-mail specifying the reason(s) should be sent to the instructor. Students who have any unexcused absences will have significant deductions from their final grade, or in extreme cases asked to either drop the class or make up attendance the following term before receiving credit.

 

• Completion of all assigned readings.

 

Assigned readings will be posted on Canvas as well as sent by e-mail in a timely fashion (one week ahead at minimum). However, as some texts will be selected in response to questions and ideas brought up in class presentations and discussions they will not appear on the syllabus.

 

• Completion of any/all in-class writing/voting assignments.

 

Should an individual have to miss any of these they will be asked to complete the work outside of class time in order to receive credit (this applies to auditors as well. MFA students will be expected to write longer responses).

 

• A 1000-word Reaction to and Analysis of an image seen in the class visit to the exhibition “(Un)expected Families,” and/or the Photography Print Room at the MFA.

 

During the first class of the term we will be looking at a selection of images held in the MFA Photography

Department’s collection. The class will vote on which ones they would like to see as “original” objects during our visit the following week. We will also be looking at the current exhibition “(Un)expected Familes” along with

curator Karen Haas.

 

You are to pick a single image and write both an analysis of and reaction to the experience of seeing it in its “original” form/format. Choose an image that is of interest to you and be certain to include the reason(s) why.

Be certain to place the work in context, including but not limited to art or photographic histories and remember,

there are no right answers to this assignment, it should be seen as a vehicle for helping to define the range of your interest(s) in photography.

 

All papers written for VISC 0109 must be fully proofread and spell-checked. They should be double-spaced for ease of commentary. Images are not counted in the page count although the text may be fully integrated with any visual material in either version. All citations, quotes and influences must be fully footnoted and/or documented. Always back your papers up on a separate hard drive or other storage method.

 

For this assignment, the word count is the same for all students. Please note that all papers written for VISC 0109 must be of the assigned word count in length. Papers that are below that number will be returned and not commented on or graded until they are completed. It is permissible to exceed the word count but overlong papers will be returned (with comments) for editing.

 

The Reaction/Analysis paper is due on Friday, 9 February. You may submit it through the course page on Canvas.

 

• A 2000-word Research Paper, written on the subject of your choice (MFA students should write a 3,000-word text).

 

The paper may deal with any ideas or subjects involving photography that are of interest to you. You may concentrate on an individual with the proviso that their work or career be connected with a broader set of ideas. In all cases, you must establish a thesis, examine it from multiple perspectives and, using fully cited material to make your argument(s) draw a clear, understandable and unique conclusion as a result of your research.  

 

There are four stages for the production of the Research Paper…

a.) By Monday, 12 February class members should submit a brief proposal for their research topic.

b.) During the third and fourth weeks of February we will schedule individual meetings with all class members to discuss their ideas.

c.) A short, rough draft of the Research Paper must be submitted electronically to Jim by Monday, 26 March. This will be returned in the order received, with comments and suggestions within two weeks. Please note: drafts are welcomed earlier and will be returned as promptly as possible.

d.) the final version of the paper is due via Canvas, Box or e-mail on Friday, 11 May.

 

• Full participation in the Blind Jury process.

 

Part I: Each class member will be responsible for selecting a contemporary photographer/artist of their choice and submitting, via Canvas or e-mail to <j.dow@tufts.edu> ten (10) different high quality images suitable for projection or a 90-second video clip of their work for inclusion in the BLIND JURYING conducted in class on Thursday, 19 April. The work must have been exhibited, published or shown on line within the past year. The submission is to be accompanied by a 500-word curatorial statement (the word count is the same for MFA students), which will be included with the debriefing. Both images and text must be sent to Jim via Canvas, Box

or e-mail by Monday, 16 April.

 

Part II: During the DEBRIEFING that will take place in the classes of 26 April all students should be prepared to discuss their reasons for selecting the particular individual. The curatorial statement submitted along with the images on 16 April should form the basis for discussion.

 

FRIDAY, 11 May: All outstanding work for VISC 0109 is due: The final date for submission of all final versions of essays, papers and images. Please note: there are no extensions nor incompletes given save for documented reasons of health, family emergency, etc. to be approved by the Academic Dean.

 

Grading:

 

Course work, as well as participation, attendance, etc. are graded as a totality, not on a percentage basis.

A poor perfomance in any aspect of the evaluation will result in a lower grade. On the other hand, each student may expect full opportunities to edit, re-write or change their written work right up to the final deadline of 11 May, should they wish to do so.

 

• An “A” indicates excellent attendance and significantly superior work on the papers and project.

 

• A grade of “B” indicates excellent attendance with very good work on the papers and the project.

 

• A grade of “C” indicates reasonable work on the papers and project.

 

• A grade lower than “C-,” is not considered be passing and will be awarded a grade of “F.”

 

• You may request to take the class on a “Pass/Fail” basis but the requirements will be the same.

 

• In all cases, there are no unexcused absences.

 

Incompletes:

 

From the Grading Policies and Procedures | Tufts Student Services…

https://students.tufts.edu/registrar/information/faculty-and-staff/grading-policies-and-procedures

It is the responsibility of the student to request a grade of incomplete before the required work is due. An incomplete may be awarded only if the student has done substantial work in the course, the instructor judges the reasons for granting incomplete status to be valid, and the instructor determines that the work can be completed in the time specified on the incomplete form.

 

Canvas:

 

VISC 0109 will maintain a site on Canvas under the title VISC 0109: A History of Photography Through Ideas. As of this writing the link is https://canvas.tufts.edu/courses/1074. There will be further updates at the

Beginning of the semester. All readings, lectures, images and other content will be posted on the site and all

papers and projects can be submitted directly through your Canvas account.

 

Resources for Overview Research:

 

There are a number of online resources for research that may be useful, particularly in light of VISC 0109 not being organized in chronological fashion. Class members are encouraged to consult them to approach the material from different perspectives than presented in classes. Three of the best links are listed below but

there are a great many others and a brief search will reveal ones that address specific interests…

 

http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/photographpreservationprogram/historyphotographytimeline-termsofuse

 

https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/search/?search-term=photography

 

http://www.getty.edu/art/photographs/

 

Reserved Books:

 

While there is no textbook for VISC 0109 there are some ninety (90) titles on Overnight Reserve in the SMFA Library. These are mostly historical anthologies on photography, compiled around various themes or ideas. Together they represent a broad range of differing approaches to the subject of photography history. They are in the Library for your use, please look at as many of them as possible. They are there for reference and are an excellent resource for research for papers. Content from a number of the books will be referred to in lectures.

 

Web Research:

 

While myriad websites are devoted to photographic history and related subjects it is important to differentiate between those that are academically responsible and those that are simply regurgitations of material that has been cut and pasted from sources that haven’t been properly cited or documented. If a particular website or blog doesn’t provide academically appropriate citations and a bibliography, the information provided is less than credible and should be labeled as such.

 

Academic Integrity:

 

From Tufts A&S site: “All students are responsible for knowing the policies contained the booklet Academic Integrity, Tufts University. This booklet is found online at http://uss.tufts.edu/studentaffairs/ publications/ An online tutorial is available at https://ait.tufts.edu

 

Academic Accommodation:

 

If you requires any type of accommodation, please contact either the Student Accessibility Services office at Accessibility@tufts.edu or 617-627-4539 to make an appointment with an SAS representative to determine the appropriate strategies. SMFA-based students may also contact Lindsay Costa at lindsay.costa@tufts.edu. Lindsay is the Student Accessibility Services liaison here on the SMFA campus.

 

Weekly Class Schedule:

 

The following content and order of any/all lectures is always subject to change. There will be constant updates on Canvas as well as via e-mails and the assigned and supplemental readings will be posted/sent in a timely fashion.

 

Class #1: Thursday, 18 January: INTRODUCTION. We wil begin with an overview of the requirements and resources for VISC 0109 followed by a survey of quotes and images that relate to the project of studying photography histories, emphasizing those that appear on the first page of the syllabus. We will also ask all members of the class what their expectations are for the course, which may lead to adjustments in the syllabus. In the second part of the class we will look at a selection of approximately 80 images selected from the holdings of the Photography Department at the MFA. The works shown were selected as examples of different styles, processes and techniques with an eye towards thinking about the relevance of a photograph as an original object existing in the contemporary world. During the following class, on the 25th we will be looking at and talking about some 15 specific images picked by the group.

(*) Related readings for next week’s class will be posted on Canvas and sent via e-mail. This will continue to be done in a timely manner throughout the term.

 

Class #2: Thursday, 25 January: A VISIT TO THE MFA. We will meet with MFA Photography Curator Karen Haas in the Herb Ritts Gallery (Gallery 169) and Clementine Brown Gallery (Gallery 170) to view and discuss the show (Un)Familiar Families and then move to the Morse Study Room (107) in the Photography Department to look at and discuss the images selected during the previous week’s voting. Please arrive in the gallery on time, remember that it may take a few minutes to enter the museum. 

 

Class #3: Thursday, 1 February: THE FAMILY: Continued from discussions around the MFA exhibition. As the role of the family changed through the Industrial Revolution and the spread of modernity throughout the world, the ways in which this all-important human nexus has been depicted and represented has been continually influenced by technological and social change. From early, stock stiff daguerrotypes through The Family of Man (1954) to Family Photography Now (2016) as well as countless snapshots, family slideshows, selfies and Snapchats we will look at how family members represent themselves and the family unit. YEARS IN PICTURES:  We will then look at a series of images from Robert Frank’s classic publication The Americans twinned with a variety of images from the period as well as selections from The New York Times article “The Year in Pictures.” Finally, each class member will be asked to write a brief in-class response to the sequence as shown and then to contribute images that seem appropriate to expand the presentation with their own ideas. This new sequence, with excerpts from the written responses will be shown at the beginning of class on the 8^th  (NOTE: Please send selected images, of a file size suitable for projection, via Box, Canvas or e-mail by Monday, 5 February).

 

(*) Thursday, 1 February: Last day to ADD classes

 

Class #4: Thursday, 8 February. A SERIES OF VISUAL RESPONSES TO THE IN-CLASS WRITTEN RESPONSES & SELECTED IMAGES: A Series of Visual Responses to the In-Class Written Responses: This will be an opportunity to gain a sense of how members of the group approach "reading" and experiencing still photography through a "call and response" model that forms the pedagogical basis of VISC 0109. Then, AURA, ATMOSPHERE & ART:  We will begin with a survey ranging from the patina of degradation on daguerreotypes, through Pictorialism, Walter Benjamin’s aura to contemporary artists like Ben Cauchii, Susan Derges, Ori Gersht and others. Almost every one of these photographic artists and images evoke the atmospheric to one degree or another. The question, then, is one of intentionality, given that photography’s early role was that of an unflinching, unmediated attempt to directly represent what was in front of the camera. Yet, for the past half-century every analysis regarding the medium has discounted the idea of the objective and photographic artists have embraced that supposed gap with increasing enthusiasm.

 

Finally, during class we will schedule individual meetings to take place in the third and fourth weeks of February with all class members to discuss their proposals.

 

(*) The 1000-word Analysis/Reaction is due on Friday, 9 February.

(*) By Monday, 12 February class members should submit a brief proposal for their research topic.

 

Class #5: Thursday, 15 February: FAKERY, PROPAGANDA & MANIPULATION: Ingmar Bergman once said, “Today we say all art is political. But I'd say all art has to do with ethics. Which after all really comes to the same thing. It's a matter of attitudes.” The ever-inherent believability of a photograph has been employed in service of every sort of attitude, ethical and political persuasion from the very start. We will examine every sort of manipulation from doctored daguerreotypes to vindictive videos all made in service of ideals and ideologies. In 1994 William J. Mitchell, writing in The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era offered this prescient caveat… “The growing circulation of the new graphic currency that digital imaging technology mints is relentlessly destabilizing the old photographic orthodoxy, denaturing the established rules of graphic communication, and disrupting the familiar practices of image production and exchange. This condition demands, with increasing urgency, a fundamental critical reappraisal of the uses to which we put graphic artifacts, the values we therefore assign to them, and the ethical principles that guide our transactions with them.” We will also be using the Met Museum exhibitions/publications The Perfect Medium: Photography and the Occult and Faking It: Manipulated Photography before Photoshop as well as a variety of other texts as a basis for presentation and discussion.

 

(*) Over the next two weeks each class member should schedule a meeting with Jim to discuss their Research topic.

 

Thursday, 22 February: NO CLASS – MONDAY SCHEDULE

 

(*) Thursday, 22 February: Last day to DROP or select PASS/FAIL for courses (save first-year undergraduates)

 

 

Class #6: Thursday, 1 March: DIFFERENCE, IDENTITY & ADVOCACY: In a time where the socio-political sphere has evolved into  a battleground around questions of who “belongs” and who is/are “the other” we will look at some historical investigations around such questions, including Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the 19^th Century’s Most Photographed American (Stauffer, Trodd & Bernier), Identites de Disderi au Photomaton (Michel Frizot & others), Instituting Reform: The Social Museum of Harvard University, 1903-1931 (Deborah Martin Kao & Michelle Lamuniere) and the project La Nacion Mexicana: Retrato de Familia (Lourdes Almeida) as well as a wide variety of other sources.

 

(*) Thursday, 1 March: Last day to make up Incomplete grades from Fall, 2017.

 

Class #7: Thursday, 8 March: PHOTOGRAPHY & TRANSGRESSION: Kurt Vonnegut once wrote, “Photography was invented in 1839, by Louis J.M. Daguerre creator of the daguerreotype. Two years later, in 1841, André le Fèvre was arrested in Paris for trying to sell pictures of a woman having sex with a pony.” In 2018 by far the largest amount of internet image traffic is pornographic in nature. Yet at the same time photography has also been used to delineate and express the subtlest facets of gender and identity politics. We will look at both ends of the spectrum using the recent Dartmouth College Hood Museum exhibition Shadowplay as a starting point (but only that) which, to quote the wall text, “explores a wide range of subjects: childhood, family relationships, coming of age, sexuality, social mores and conventions, gender, race, and the land that nurtures and sustains us…”

 

Class #8: Thursday, 15 March: A Visitor: MARTIN ROSENTHAL, a photographer and educator based in Buenos Aires, Argentina who has worked for over twenty years in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia with kids who live in the shantytowns and slums that surround many cities in Latin America. He will show work done in multiple projects in a variety of forms and talk about the ideas and issues surrounding projects such as Literacy Through Photography, PhotoKids, Shootback, Shooting Back and how they have evolved and grown with the variety of contemporary platforms.  Should time permit we will begin an examination of THE PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK from the 1840's to the present with an emphasis on production in the Soviet Union, Latin American, China and Japan. We will be using titles such as Japanese Photobooks of the 1960’s and 70’s (2009), The Latin American Photobook (2011), The Chinese Photobook: From the 1900’s to the Present (2015) and The Soviet Photobook (2015) as well as a variety of publications on African photography from the Walther Collection.

 

SPRING RECESS: 17 – 25 March

 

(*) Monday, 26 March First Draft of Research Paper due

 

Class #9: Thursday, 29 March: THE PHOTOGRAPHIC BOOK (finishing up) followed by PHOTOGRAPHY & REPRODUCTION: With the notable exception of the daguerreotype, ambrotype and tintype all the early experiments around photography have revolved around multiplicity and the idea that any photographic image it is a reproduction based on some sort of actuality. We will use Richard Benson's seminal book, The Printed Picture as well as The Great Picture: The World's Largest Photograph & The Legacy Project as a jumping off point for examination and discussion. We will continue with an investigation of ideas surrounding the concepts of "watching" versus "looking.”

 

Class # 10: Thursday, 5 April: THE ARCHIVE – COLLECTION, OBSESSION & THE CLOUD: From the very beginning photographs have served as evidentiary documents for study, employed for every purpose imaginable. These days much of contemporary art centers on ideas around obsessive collection and artists such as Sophie Calle,  Mark Dion, Trevor Paglen Taryn Simon and Mark Dion employ photography as the core of their work. We will use Staging The Archive: Art and Photography In The Age of New Media and The Order of Things: Photography from The Walther Collection as major sources. Archives once took the form of musty rooms, boxes bursting at the gills or temperature controlled dark storage, images now reside in what is euphemistically called the "cloud," in reality kept cool by far more air conditioners than were ever used for physical storage. We will examine all the ramifications of this shift as it impacts absolutely everyone involved with and interseted in photography.

 

 

Class # 11: Thursday, 12 April: CONFLICT: As the act of photographing has moved from the static tripod to the cell phone, via a huge range of different kinds of cameras and sorts of film, etc. the perception of what war is actually like has changed enormously. With the advent of photography done from balloons and aircraft the photographer became as much a participant as observer and has remained so to this day. We will examine the full gamut of approaches and attitudes to what now seems to be an endless documentation of tragedy. Texts such as Choosing Not To Look (Susan B. Crane), Regarding The Pain of Others (Susan Sontag) and The Civil Contract of Photography (Ariella Azoulay) will form the spine of the presentation and discussion.

 

(*) Both images/videos and text for the Blind Jury must be sent to Jim via Canvas, Box or e-mail by

Monday, 16 April.

 

Class #12: Thursday, 19 April: IRONY (!/?): An examination of the Pre-Ironic, Ironic, the Post-ironic and the Sincere through the photography of Morton Bartlett, Corrine Mae Botz & Francis Gessner Lee, Lori Nix, Gregory Crewdson, Norman Rockwell and others. We will propose and interrogate the following: are these various positions a stance, a style, an intrinsic aspect of the post-modern condition? More to the point, does irony exist a priori or posteriori;  is it nature or culture? We will then do the BLIND JURY VOTING. The class will vote on the work of thirty different artists exhibited, published or posted online within the previous year. The selection will be based on works gathered by the instructor as well as all students wishing credit for the class. To a significant degree this is a very similar process to what any artist might go through when applying for commissions, grants, acceptance to MFA Programs and shows, etc. and aspects of this exercise will apply in a variety of situations going forward.

 

Class #13: Thursday, 26 April: BLIND JURY DEBRIEFING: This final class will be devoted to an examination of the works presented with the nominating class member (or Jim) being responsible for leading the discussion.

 

Monday, 30 April: Last day to withdraw from courses and receive a Grade of “W.”

 

Friday, 11 May: All outstanding work for VISC 0109 is due by 5:00 PM. No exceptions, save with those individuals who have petitioned for a grade of “INC.”