Susan Sontag ©Jill Krementz
The first assignment in my Criticism and Theory class this fall is to write the syllabus for the class. Twelve topics on contemporary issues in the theory of photography. Seems like it could be fun right? Wrong. This has been one of the most taxing assignments yet. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about contemporary issues in photography are contemporary issues in general. The environment, war, politics, etc., all start to leap out to me as issues I can apply to photography and art in general. Then I begin to think about how photographs are treated in the present context of the internet, Flickr, Facebook, etc. and all these questions about what photography is as a medium come to mind. This leads me back to issues in objectivity and post-modernism. After all of this thinking, I have come up with 11 topics. But what is my twelfth? What is the topic to end it all? Does anyone out there have their thumb on the most contemporary idea in the realm of photography? I would be interested to know. My list of topics to come after the assignment is due. Added 9/16: The syllabus I came up with….I never got a 12th topic btw. Topics for Critical Reading Syllabus 9/15/09
1. Objectivity and the image. Photography as understood to take an objective role in the representation of an object due to its mechanical nature.
2. The Photographer’s relationship to Reality How is documentary photography defined in current times?
3. Postmodern thought and the breakdown of the objective role of the photograph 4. Using Painting and other media to question the photographic image Ex: Chuck Close, the picture plane and the grid, disassembling the photographic image Gerhard Richter- Paintings of photos cancel the photo as index of reality
5. New Media and Digital Imaging How we look at the object with the technologies we work with
6. The Photographic Commons, Flickr, Facebook and how photography Proxy-Connection%Proxy-Connection: keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 keep-alive Cache-Control: max-age=0 acquired. Are artist’s feeling more compelled to use these resources instead of their own to make new work?
7. Appropriated images: Questions of authorship.
8. The Physical Photographic Commons: Issues of surveillance, public space Do people have a right to their images if taken in public places?
9. Artist’s Relationship with the Environment Ex: Chris Jordan, David Maisel Can the artist engage the viewer into thinking about this issue without the “shock and awe†effect many use?
10. War Photography, Political Justice and the Controlled Image From Vietnam to present-day coverage, How are photos being used to drive opinions on war and other social issues? What do we see in the newspapers versus published books and exhibitions?
11. The relationship of text/language to photography and how meaning is employed ex: press photography; Martha Rosler, The Bowery in Two Inadequate Descriptive Systems
12. How do we define photography today? (Total BS, and I was honest about this fact in class)