Current course offerings

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Course description

This course surveys the history and theory of photography from the 19th century to the present. It considers several key critical debates on the role of photography as both an art form and a social medium of visual communication. ARTT3140 explores central figures and key episodes in photography's history giving particular emphasis to critics, photographers, scientists, media and art historians' writings on the medium. Students will consider seminal controversial debates about the ways in which photography has been historicised and conceptualised. Is photography an art or is it media? Is it evidence or fiction? Is photography an empowering medium? How can photography create change? The course includes an examination of the development of Australian photography in the 19th and 20th centuries and considers the new phenomenon of Instagram photography and its implications.

Archived offerings