ART451/601-02:

History of Photographic Media and Camera Arts

Prof. Roann Barris, fall 2009

office hrs: 213 Powell: M W 11 - 3 or by appointment; phone: 831- 6001

email: rbarris@radford.edu

Complete online syllabus

Connect to Artstor

some useful web sites:

Robert Leggat's HIstory of Photography (until the 1920s)

Harry's Pro Shop: Some Great Photographers

George Eastman House Index of Photographers

TOPIC OUTLINE (links to study guides and image groups will added throughout the semester)

Week

Topic

Reading

1 Course intro; From optics to chemistry in the 19th century
Image Group 1: Fixing an Image
Chapter One terminology and outline [compare it with your own notebook summary]
Text, chapter 1
Talbot essays on photogenic drawing
2 the daguerreotype: portraits and the beginning of studio practices
Image Group 2: The art of daguerreotypy
Chapter 2: Key Questions for Review
ch. 2
3 new technologies: the paper/glass debate and the amateur/professional debate
Image group 3: From paper to glass
Comparison chart: daguerreotype vs calotype
ch. 4; 
Holmes essay on the stereograph
4 documenting reality in the 19th century: photographing war
Image group 4: Picturing War and Trauma
ch. 5
5 creating a photographic language (1): European romanticism
Image Group 5: Photography becomes an art, pt 1
ch. 6
OCT 1 approval of term project before this date
6 creating a photographic language (2): the American landscape
Image Group 6: Landscape photography in the 19th century
A Web Outline of the Landscape tradition in the 19th century
ch. 7
Krauss: Photography’s Discursive Spaces 

FINALISTS FROM THE REWRITE CONTEST

OCT 15

Midterm: Midterm Study Guide

Midterm Image Group

7 documenting movement; Image group 7: Changing Technologies ch. 8; ch. 13
8 Camera Work, pictorialism and the photo-secession 
Image group 8: Pictorialism
ch. 9
OCT 22 no class Midterm Answer Key
Answers to the Take-Home Quiz on ch. 9
9 photographic modernism, pt 1: the constructivist vision
image group 9: photographic modernism I
Overview of Artistic Styles, early 20th century (with illustrations)
Brief Overview of Artistic Styles (without illustrations)
ch. 10
10 photographic modernism, pt. 2: the surrealist vision ch. 11
11 constructing social reality: American photography between the wars ch. 12
12 Photographic books and the new photojournalism ch. 14; 
Squiers: Picturing Scandal 
13 the second “new vision”: popular culture and photography in the 60s and 70s ch. 16-17
DEC 10 Final projects due no later than 5 pm
14 new media and new portraits at the end of the 20th century ch. 18
DEC 15, 
2:45 pm 
FINAL EXAM

Writing/Reading Help:

The Learning Assistance and Resource Center (LARC), located in 126 Walker Hall, is open to all students Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m.  Certified, trained tutors provide help with basic study skills, writing, reading, and content-specific material.  An appointment is necessary and can be made by stopping by Walker 126, calling 831-7704, or IMing “rularcappt”.

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I shall uphold the values and ideals of Radford University by engaging in responsible behavior and striving always to be accountable for my actions while holding myself and others to the highest moral and ethical standards of academic integrity and good citizenship as defined in the Standards of Student Conduct.