Module Information

Module Identifier
AH32520
Module Title
Photography Begins: European Genius and the Birth of a New Aesthetic
Academic Year
2018/2019
Co-ordinator
Dr Christopher Webster
Semester
Semester 2
Mutually Exclusive
AH22520
External Examiners
  • Professor Christiana Payne (Professor - Oxford Brookes University)
 
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Lecture 11 x 2 Hour Lectures
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment 3,500 words essay  Essay (with list ‘Works Cited’ comprising 15 secondary sources related to/relevant for the critical essay)  50%
Semester Exam 2 Hours   2 hour exam  Essay (3,000 words)  50%
Supplementary Assessment Resit essay  Essay (with list ‘Works Cited’ comprising 15 secondary sources related to/relevant for the critical essay)  50%
Supplementary Exam 2 Hours   Resit exam  50%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1) identify major movements in 19th and early 20th century photography;

2) demonstrate an understanding major processes in 19th and early 20th century photography;

3) demonstrate an understanding of the major trends in 19th and early 20th century photography;

4) identify and discuss the work of key photographers in 19th and early 20th century photography;

5) articulate an awareness of the visual revolution which photography heralded for societies world-wide.

Brief description

Beginning with the invention of photography by a small cluster of brilliant and often radical thinkers, this module explores the photograph as a carrier of ideas – from praxis to epistemology and ontology – throughout the medium’s first century. Case studies are used to explore subjects such as the portrait, travel, science, war, and propaganda, as well as the relationship of photography to historical narratives and events. The emergence of photography as a fine art medium in its own right is also considered. In addition, students will have the opportunity to examine rare and original photographic prints from the collections of the National Library of Wales and the School of Art Museum.

Content

1. Introduction to the course, readings, assessments, trips, Blackboard, the syllabus, etc.
‘Opticks’ and the origins of photography: Philosophical Inquiries and Concepts centred on Light and Light Capture.
2. The 'Official' Invention (1839): Niepce, Daguerre and Talbot.
3. Exploring early photographs at the National Library of Wales.
4. A New Language: War, Travel and the Portrait.
5. A New Art: romance, polemics and recantations.
6. New Momentum, New Directions.
European and American currents in Modernist photography before 1945
7. Photo-Modernism: American Realism/European Experimental.
8. Politics and the Camera: Social(ist) Commentaries (1840s-1950s).
9. Documents and Narratives: Politics and Ideology as Photographic Form.
10. Margaret Bourke-White: War, Fortune and Steel.
11. Bill Brandt and Robert Frank: Documentary to Art.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Communication Written communication skills
Improving own Learning and Performance Written, critical, IS and research skills further developed
Information Technology Writing in an academic context using word processing and CAL systems
Problem solving Contextualizing historical precedent in the history of photography (e.g. visual, cultural, media, conceptual effects of the medium)
Research skills Researching through the use of library resources (National Library, Hugh Owen) as well electronic resources (e.g. JOEY, the internet), object studies (School of Art collections, NLW collections of photographs
Team work Seminar discussion groups and debate

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 6