STUDIES IN AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY

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1 Spring Semester 2011 ASTD /HR Dr. Susanne Wiedemann Tuesday and Thursday 1:00 2:15 Office Hours: M&W 2-3 and by appointment Adorjan Hall 113 Tel.: STUDIES IN AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHY What can American photographs tell us about the past and the present, and about how Americans have thought about themselves and others? What can we learn from archives, the media, family albums, photography blogs, and facebook snapshots about the role of photographs in crafting individual and collective identities? From the Civil War to Abu Ghraib, and from the daguerrotype to digital media, this course introduces students to critical methods in studying American photography. We will examine the cultural and political work photographs perform at particular historical moments and explore the lager discourses they participate in. Topics include the history of photography, the work of documentary photographers, and the interpretation of photographs as a primary source in historical study and as an aesthetic object in contemporary art. We will also visit several St. Louis cultural institutions to learn first-hand how different professions use photographs on a daily basis. REQUIRED READING MATERIALS Book available at SLU Bookstore: Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, eds. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008). All articles are available on e-reserves, unless a www link is provided. ACADEMIC HONESTY AND INTEGRITY Please review carefully the SLU College of Arts and Sciences policy on Academic Honesty, including the definition and the consequences of plagiarism: See also Plagiarism Prevention Resources for Students : ACADEMIC ACCOMMODATIONS FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Students who believe that, due to the presence of a disability, they may need academic accommodations in order to meet the requirements of this, or any other, class at Saint Louis University are encouraged to contact Disability Services at or by visiting by

2 the Student Success Center, Suite 331. Confidentiality will be observed in all inquiries. I am only able to support student accommodation requests upon receipt of an approved letter from Disability Services. I will gladly speak with approved students after registration with Disability Services. COURSE REQUIREMENTS Attendance and Participation (20%) Class attendance is mandatory. My attendance policy is strict and in accordance with SLU s policies. Your course grade will drop by 1/3 (for example, from a B- to a C+) for every absence, beginning with your third. I expect you to come to class fully prepared and to participate in class discussions. Class Presentation (10%) Prepare a ten-minute class presentation that introduces, analyzes, and contextualizes a photograph, or photo blog, of your choice. Your presentation should raise critical questions about the assigned readings and facilitate an engaging discussion. Weekly Reading Reflections (20%) Submit short (1-2 pages, double-spaced) reading reflections on Thursdays, at the beginning of class. Midterm Paper (20%) Write a 5-7 page paper (photo analysis). Topic to be announced. Final Paper (30%) OR Photo Exhibit Write a page final paper that uses historical or contemporary photographs and secondary literature. You can choose your own topic after consulting with me but need to write a formal assignment, including a research question or questions. You will also present your final project for about ten minutes in the last week of the semester. OR: Plan a photo exhibit for the SLU community on a topic of your choice, related to the city of St. Louis. You will have to produce the photographs and come up with a curatorial plan (how to display them, what labels to supplement them with). We will find an exhibit space at SLU and open the exhibit at the end of the semester. Submit a 5-page written statement that explains and contextualizes your ideas and choices. ******** Special Requirements for Honors Program Students Students enrolled in the Honors version of this class (HR 27761) will be required to submit more extensive written work: a page midterm paper and a 15-page final paper based on primary and secondary sources. They will also give a 20-minute class presentation. 2

3 COURSE SCHEDULE Week 1: Introduction January 18 Course Introduction and Welcome January 20 - Alex Williams, I was There. Just Ask Photoshop. New York Times 17 Aug c96f&ei=5070&emc=eta1 - David Colman, Me, Myself and iphone. New York Times 30 June Week 2: Reading Photographs January 25: Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, eds. Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture. Second Edition (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), pp January 27 Writing Workshop: Writing With and About Photography Week 3: Picturing America February 1 Viewers Make Meaning, in Sturken and Cartwright, eds., Practices of Looking, pp February 3 - Robert Hariman and Louis Lucaites: The Times Square Kiss: Iconic Photography and Civic Renewal in U.S. Public Culture. Journal of American History Volume 94, Number 1 (June 2007): (available via SLU online journals). - Case Study: Image Analysis: The Example of Migrant Mother, in Photography: A Critical Introduction. Third edition. Liz Wells, ed. (London and New York: Routledge, 2004), pp Week 4: Vernacular Photography February 8 Patricia Holland, Sweet it is to Scan : Personal Photographs and Popular Photography, in Wells, ed., Photography, pp February 10 Catherine Whalen, Finding Me. Afterimage, May/June Vol. 29, Issue 6: (available via SLU online journals). Week 5: Family Photography February 15 Marita Sturken, The Image as Memorial: Personal Photographs in Cultural Memory, in Marianne Hirsch, ed., The Familial Gaze (Hanover: University Press of New England, 1999), pp February 17 Shawn Michelle Smith, Baby s Picture is Always Treasured : Eugenics and the Reproduction of Whiteness in the Family Photograph Album. The Yale Journal of 3

4 Criticism 11:1 (Spring): Week 6: Documentary Photography February 22 James Curtis, Making Sense of Documentary Photography February 24 Alan Trachtenberg, Signifying the Real: Documentary Photography in the 1930s, in Alejandro Anreus, Diana L. Linden, and Jonathan Weinberg, eds. The Social and the Real: Political Art of the 1930s in the Western Hemisphere (University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006), pp Week 7: Spectatorship and Knowledge March 1 Modernity: Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge, in Sturken and Cartwright, eds., Practices of Looking, pp March 3 Geoffrey Batchen, Guilty Pleasures, in Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne, and Peter Weibel, eds. CTRL [Space]: Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2002), pp Week 8: State Power, Social Control, and Photography March 8 - John Tagg, Evidence, Truth, and Order: Photographic Records and the Growth of the State, and A Means of Surveillance: The Photograph as Evidence in Law, in The Burden of Representation: Essays on Photographies and Histories (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993 [1988]), pp and March 10 - Anna Pegler-Gordon, Chinese Exclusion, Photography, and the Development of U.S. Immigration Policy. American Quarterly Vol. 58, Number 1 (March 2006): (available via SLU online journals). - Taryn Simon s The Innocents Project: - Taryn Simon, The Innocents: Photographer s Foreword Week 9 No Classes Spring Break Week 10: Digital Photography March 22 Visual Technologies, Image Reproduction, and the Copy, in Sturken and Cartwright, eds., Practices of Looking, pp

5 March 24 Susan Murray. Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics. Journal of Visual Culture 2008; 7: FIELD TRIP TO MISSOURI HISTORY MUSEUM ARCHIVES Week 11: War and Photography March 29 Alan Trachtenberg, Albums of War: On Reading Civil War Photographs, in: Mary Ann Calo, ed., Critical Issues in American Art: A Book of Reading (Boulder: Westview Press, 1998), pp The Library of Congress American Memory Selected Civil War Photographs: March 31 - Lori Robertson, Images of War. American Journalism Review (October/November 2004). - Michael Kamber and Tim Arango, 4,000 U.S. Combat Deaths, and Just a Handful of Images. New York Times July 26, en=dbcc93cc0647f37b&ei=5070&emc=eta1, - Listen to segment or read transcript on NPR (National Public Radio): Debate Over Photo Of Lance Cpl. Joshua Bernard (Sept ). Week 12: 9/11: Contested Images April 5 - It s Me in that 9/11 Photo. Slate Magazine 13 Sept Thomas Hoepker, I Took that 9/11 Photo. Slate Magazine, 14 Sept Frank Rich, Whatever Happened to the America of 9/12? New York Times 10 Sept April 7 - David Friend, Monday, September 17, in Watching the World Change: The Stories Behind the Images of 9/11 (New York: Farrar, Straus ad Giroux, 2006), pp Marianne Hirsch, I Took Pictures: September 2001 and Beyond. The Scholar and Feminist Online, Issue 2.1: Public Sentiments (Summer 2003): Week 13: Beyond 9/11 April 12 - Melani McAlister, Conclusion: 9/11 and After: Snapshots on the Road to Empire, in Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and U.S. Interests in the Middle East Since 1945 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2005 [2001]), pp

6 April 14 Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris, Exposure. The New Yorker 23 May Week 14: April 19 Online Brochure of the 2010 Focus on Photography: Recent Acquisitions Exhibition at the Kemper Art Museum FIELD TRIP TO THE KEMPER ART MUSEUM AT WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY April 21 No class Holy Thursday Week 15: Lynching Photographs and Their Legacy April 26 Dora Apel, On Looking: Lynching Photographs and Legacies of Lynching after 9/11. Special Issue: Strange Fruit: Lynching, Visuality, and Empire. Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. Number 20 (Fall): April 28 FIELD TRIP TO ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Week 16: Conclusion May 3 Final Project Presentations and Feedback Session May 5 Conclusions 6