Spring Online

Photo History Survey

AH 237--Four Quarter Hours

Jaleh Mansoor
Barnard Hall Room 301A
Ohio University--Athens Campus
jaleh.mansoor@gmail.com

Please refer to the complete final course syllabus available on the course Website once the course begins.

Course
Description

Historical development of photography from its inception to present including comprehensive study of artistic and technical development of major photography movements.

Prerequisites

None

Methods of Course Instruction

All course content is presented on the World Wide Web; e-mail is used for submission of assignments, as well as for the instructor's evaluation and comments.

Course Objectives

This course will approach photography as a set of problems and concepts rather than as a unified medium with a linear history.  Photography is marked by multiple, often-contradictory practices at the nexus of differing discursive and contextual parameters.  As a result, this lecture course’s main interest is not only with the photograph as an object of study, but as a modality of thinking and producing new models of visibility.  We will investigate the criteria used to identify and discuss photographic images and practices over the century and a half since the inception of processes resulting in photographic material.  At the same time, we will ask after the ways in which photographic practices elucidate aspects of the historical context from which they are drawn. 

General Course Requirements

  • Twice weekly posting on readings

  • Mid-term

  • Paper (3-5 pages)

  • Final exam

Materials

Required

Text(s)

  1. Classic Essays on Photography.  Ed. Alan Trachtenberg.  New Haven: Leete’s Books, 1980.

  2. Roland Barthes.  Camera Lucida.  Richard Howard, trans.  New York: Hill and Wang.

  3. The Contest of Meaning:Critical Histories of Photography.  Ed. Richard Bolton. Cambridge: The MIT Press, 1989.

  4. Readings will also be distributed in class and be available for pick up in the Art History Office (301 Barnard Hall) after class.


    Note:     The books for the course are in stock at College Bookstore, (740) 594-3505. Click here for online ordering.

Exams
Requirements

2 exams - No proctoring required

How are exams to be taken: Online

Dates of Exams
TBA

Call the Ohio University Online Staff at 1-888-551-6446 if you have questions about this course or the enrollment process.


Call the education counselors in Lifelong and Distance Learning at (740) 593-2910 for information about online degree opportunities from Ohio University.