AMER311

This course examines the role of photography in American culture from its invention up to the present. This interdisciplinary course combines history, art history, and the study of visual culture to develop an in-depth understanding of how photographic images can be “read,” how they “talk” and how they are used for a multiplicity of purposes. We will examine how images have “written” America’s history and identity (but often as fiction). A photograph, we will always remind ourselves, does not “illustrate” reality, and yet it has a special claim to reality, which gives it power. Issues of race, class and gender will shape our readings and class discussions, as will an awareness of the changing status of the photograph in American culture, as it claims the status of “art” in one moment, and of “fact” the next. Each semester will focus in part on photography’s role on defining an American region, such as “New York City, Photographed,” “Defining Rural America” or “Suburbia.” This regional theme will vary by semester. This is cross listed with ARHT-311.