ART 233 A Cultural History of Photography

3 hours 

This course covers the history of photography from its beginnings in 1830’s Europe to the selfies you take with your cellphone. We will look at the use of photography for social and scientific as well as aesthetic purposes, including examining photojournalism, advertising, and police photography. We will discuss the uses and functions of pictures: how they are to be understood and interpreted; whether they have clear-cut content and meanings; how they shape and are shaped by politics, economics, and social life. Students will become more critical consumers of images in a time when the proliferation of digital images has led to new debates about photography as an art form and as a social practice.