History of Photography

In this course we will survey the history of photography from its beginnings in the early nineteenth century to the present. From its inception, the photograph created a global network of circulation as art, document, and portable knowledge. Moreover, photographs have been historically deployed across a number of disciplines, including science, medicine, criminal studies, law, journalism, anthropology, and the visual arts. Organized along chronological lines and looking at case studies in Europe, America, Africa, the Middle East, and Asia, the course will consider a range of genres, formal strategies, and contexts for photography. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which photographic images are mobilized to produce knowledge and disrupt conventional ways of seeing in the service of science, social reform, political activism, and aesthetics. Students will have the opportunity to work first hand with the photography collection at Middlebury College Museum of Art. 3 hrs. lect.