RYERSON UNIVERSITY
School of Image Arts
Photography New Media Film
Lecture 3 hours. This is a required second year two semester course. Prerequisite is MPC 010. Course Weight is 2.0.
Effective Fall 2003 semester, students are required to use their Ryerson e-mail address. This address will be the only one used to communicate with you. It is your responsibility to check your Ryerson e-mail regularly.
This course will comprise two components: a combined lecture in critical theory, focusing on selected thinkers and image-makers who have made important contributions to modern through post-modern and contemporary understanding of art and culture, plus a seminar/discussion component designed to consider the implications of material presented in lectures and readings.
The course is concerned with providing an overview of major theories about the nature, purpose, and practice of photography as these have historically evolved. These theories comprise a complex set of inter-related ideas, which have developed in response, on the one hand, to the technical and artistic developments of the medium itself and, on the other, to larger cultural values and social concerns. Ideas about photography have grown out of a direct involvement with the medium itself, from the accumulated experience of photographers, as well as from professionals who work with photographs - such as picture editors, museum curators, scientists, and, among other groups, social activists. In addition, they have been generated by art critics and cultural (including literary) theoreticians, who are concerned with the social and cultural roles that photography now plays.
In the fall term, we will consider a number of representative photographers and critics whose work has addressed the general nature, uses, and purposes of photography. These individuals have been selected to reveal the development of ideas from the nineteenth century to the present. Each is represented by a key essay, body or work, or media presentation in which his or her ideas are set out for discussion.
In the winter term, we will further consider the social and artistic uses of photography, and will investigate the relationship of theory to practice. Topics will include documentary photography, portraiture, the representation of the body, and the representation of domestic, urban, and landscape space. Finally, we will consider the impact digitization and computers have had on theories about photography.
Classes are organized around specific required readings and bodies of work, supplemented by film and video screenings which form the basis and content of each class. All required reading and all slides and digital images may be accessed through the Ryerson Library, the Mira Godard Study Centre or class website; films and videos are only screened during class time. In addition, there may also be recommended readings, which provide further information and amplify the theories and photographers discussed. Announced readings should be done before class presentations.
Classes consist of two parts, a lecture/slide presentation of approximately 1 and 1/2 hrs in length, then a break followed by a 1 hr seminar/discussion group, or film/video screening. The lecture presentation will furnish the historical background and context, and will discuss the major ideas and issues found in each reading. Because of its size, the seminar will be divided into two sections, and each section will meet on alternate weeks to allow for a more informal discussion of issues and ideas. There may also be additional recommended readings for the seminar component.
An Essay investigating the implications of a body of work, movement, theory or interpretive issue, selected from the term’s material.
and
A publicly accessible Web Site, constructed to provide source material to the essay as well as to offer opportunities for interactive commentary on an issue of individual or group interest.
The second assignment, due at year-end, will consist again of two parts; first, a second Essay and participation in design, research, writing, editing and image-making for a publicly available Class Web Site, whose working title is MPS 026: A Resource Web Site. Additional information about each assignment will be provided during the term.
Submission Process : Please submit your essay in a digital form and annotated URL links to the following address: trsubmit@gmail.com. Your submissions must comply with the following format:
Topic of Essay
Link Title (or Topic)
Author of the Resource
Date Published
Description (Summarize in approximately 150 words)
Hyperlink
Each term’s assignment will be due on a specific date. Late projects will be penalized by the loss of ten percentage points per week. All papers must be typed; marks will be assigned on the basis of content, organization, as well as grammar and writing style. Any plagiarized paper will automatically receive a grade of “zero”. Ryerson’s policy on plagiarism, as well as use of anti-plagiarism software programs for written material, will be discussed in class. Please contact The Writing Centre, LIB 272 in the Ryerson Library for instruction on essay wrtiting and editing.
There will be no required textbook in this course. However, a good sourcebook on representation in photography is:
Frizot, M. (1998) The New History of Photography, First English Edition, Könemann, Köln.
The best way to communicate with me is through email (michalak@ryerson.ca)or skype (panwczerni). If you are planning to talk to me during the office hours please check the timetable posted outside my door at least 24 hrs ahead of time or send me an email.
Michelangelo Antonioni (1966) Blowup
Arte Video (2005) Contacts, Vol. 1: The Great Tradition of Photojournalism
Arte Video (2005) Contacts, Vol. 2: The Renewal of Contemporary Photography
Arte Video (2005) Contacts, Vol. 3: Conceptual Photography
Robert Frank (1969) Me and My Brother
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (2004) Thinking XXX
Anne MacGregor (2002) Portrait of a Photographer: David LaChapelle
PBS (2003) Sally Mann - Art in the Twenty First Century
PBS (2003) Hiroshi Sugimoto - Art in the Twenty First Century
Billy Sullivan (2006) ARTPIX Notebooks: Billy Sullivan Photographs
Mark Trottenberg (1994) Jan Groover
The Faculty Course Survey will be administered during the last three weeks of the current term.