COURSE OUTLINE
THEORIES OF THE PHOTOGRAPHIC
IMAGE
Professeur(s) : Sophie Oltarzewska
Année universitaire 2015/2016 : Semestre d’automne
COURSE OUTLINE
Session 1
 Course introduction: an approach to photography through text and image.
 Origins of photography – from plate to pixel
 Relevance of photography: visual literacy and visual culture
 Photography and fine art: the unending dialogue
 Broad introduction to major 20th and 21st century theorists of the image (Benjamin, Barthes, Sontag,
Rancière).
 Text 1 : Salon of 1859, Charles Baudelaire, 1859: Photography and fine art (I)
 Image 1: Sun Rays: Paula, Berlin (1889), Alfred Stieglitz
http://www.geh.org/taschen/htmlsrc8/m197400520040_ful.html
 Image 2: see notably : “ricami” http://www.pinterest.com/pin/541487555166838877/ and “fuga dal
centro” http://www.pinterest.com/pin/309481805613846517/ by Luciano Ventrone (2011 : both
works)
Session 2
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 Alfred Stieglitz – 19 to mid 20 century : biography and historical significance.
 Historicizing photography: classic photography, post-photography and the digital age.
 Text 2: “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” [1936], Walter Benjamin
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm especially sections I –
VI
 Image 3: James Craig Annan, A Utrecht Pastorale, 1892, and Alfred Stieglitz, Scurrying Home,
1894. Click on thumbnails to enlarge. http://journal.scherptediepte.eu/cgi/t/text/textidx?c=scherpte;sid=0c5032b13d48ac779d67b2bff34e41d6;view=text;idno=m0301a03;rgn=div1;cc=s
cherpte;lang=en;node=m0301a03%3A5
 Image 4: The Steerage [1907], Alfred Stieglitz
http://www.geh.org/fm/stieglitz/htmlsrc/m196701200006_ful.html#topofimage
 Exposés: Two 10-15 min presentations, on aspects of Benjamin’s text and one photograph
respectively.
Session 3
 Stieglitz’s styles: presentation
 Photography and fine art II: Benjamin, Adorno
 Text 3: Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” [1936]
http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm especially sections I –
VI : the “aura”; cult value vs exhibition value; the politics of art Image 5: Abstraction, Twin Lakes,
Connecticut, 1916, Paul Strand http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1987.1100.10
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Image 6: The Flatiron, 1904, Edward Steichen cf The Flatiron, 1903, Alfred Stieglitz
http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/269284,
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/33.43.43
Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations, on aspects of Benjamin’s text and one photograph
respectively
Session 4
 Photography and fine art (III) : Susan Sontag, On Photography, 1977
 Uses of photography (I) : representations of trauma (Susan Sontag, On Photography; Susan Sontag,
Regarding the Pain of Others [2003])
 Text 4: Extracts from Sontag’s On Photography, 1977
 Image 7: Andy Warhol, Marilyn Diptych, 1962 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/warhol-marilyndiptych-t03093
 Image 8: “Quatre bouts de pellicule arrachés à l’enfer” (“Four pieces of film snatched from hell”)
http://www.franceinter.fr/sites/default/files/imagecache/scald_image_max_size/2015/01/26/1040649/i
mages/jewr-12017778091.jpg
 Also: http://www.franceinter.fr/blog-autopsie-dune-photo-quatre-bouts-de-pellicule-arraches-de-lenfer?page=1 and http://www.foto8.com/live/film-snatched-from-hell/ (for background)
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations, on an extract by Sontag and one image respectively
Session 5
 Uses of photography (II) : Sontag’s self-critique; the ethics of photography’s “voracious gaze”
 The Wajcman/Didi-Huberman debate
 Text 5: Extracts from Sontag’s On Photography, 1977 and Regarding the Pain of Others, 2003
 Image 9: The Migrant Mother (1936), Dorothea Lange http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html
[Print 1]
 Image 10: Veillée funèbre au Kosovo, 29 janvier 1990, Georges Mérillon
http://www.pascalconvert.fr/histoire/pieta_du_kosovo/pieta_du_kosovo.html
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations, on one extract by Sontag and one photograph respectively
Session 6
 Interpreting photographs: the photograph as text and cultural product
 Structuralism and encoding: procedures of connotation, rhetoric of the image (Roland Barthes,
Umberto Eco). The press photo as ‘message without a code’.
 Photography and fine art (III): abstraction
 Text 6: “The Photographic Message” and “Rhetoric of the Image” in Image, Music, Text, Roland
Barthes, 1977
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 Image 11: Cour 56, rue de la Verrerie, 4 (1908), Eugène Atget
http://www.geh.org/fm/atget/htmlsrc/m197816280012_ful.html#topofimage
 Image 12: Equivalent (1929), Alfred Stieglitz
http://www.geh.org/fm/stieglitz/htmlsrc/m197400520026_ful.html#topofimage
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations, on one extract by Barthes and one photograph respectively
Session 7
 Interpreting photographs (II): the ‘grammar’ of photography
 Photojournalism: documentary photography
 Politics and aesthetics (I) : Rancière
 Text 7: “The Photographic Message” and “Rhetoric of the Image” in Image, Music, Text, Roland
Barthes, 1977 (II)
 Image 13: Tank and Body, Gulf War 1991, Steve McCurry
http://sillyreverie.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/screen-shot-2011-10-09-at-5-31-02-pm.png
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Image 14 : Broomberg and Chanarin, War Primer 2, 2011 (winner of Deutsche Borse Prize 2013)
http://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/war-primer-2, Plate 49
Session 8
Politics and aesthetics (II): Rancière on the paradoxes of political art
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Text 8: Camera Lucida, Barthes [1981], 2000
Image 15: Front Pages of UK newspapers 9 August 2011
http://www.theguardian.com/media/gallery/2011/aug/09/uk-riots-front-pages-inpictures#/?picture=377707624&index=0 (look through gallery)
ALSO consult circulation figures:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_the_United_Kingdom_by_circulation
Image 16 : http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01563/ristelhueber_1563504c.jpg
See also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/photography/7044341/Sophie-Ristelhueber-DeutscheBorse-Photography-Prize.html
Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations on Barthes and one photograph/image respectively
Session 9
 Photography, brands and advertising: photography and the market
 Text 9: Guy Debord, The Society of the Spectacle, 1984 (extract)
 Image 17: Beyoncé Pepsi Ad, 2013
http://assets7.gcstatic.com/u/apps/asset_manager/uploaded/2013/07/beyonce-pepsi-20131361368617-custom-0.jpeg
 Image 18: Absolut Vodka advertisement [Blair Bradshaw]
http://www.blairbradshaw.com/press/absolut.html
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations on Debord and one of the images
Session 10
 Contemporary perspectives: Jacques Rancière and the pensive image
 The indeterminacy of the photographic image: the limits of reading photography
 Text 10: The Emancipated Spectator, Jacques Rancière [2008], 2009, extracts
 Image 19: Chicago, Board of Trade II, 1999, Andreas Gursky
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gursky-chicago-board-of-trade-ii-p20191
 Image 20: Aftermath in Meulaboh, 9.1. 2005, Luc Delahaye
http://www.prixpictet.com/portfolios/power-shortlist/luc-delahaye/luc-delahaye-006/
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations on this week’s text and one of the two images
Session 11
 Discussion of areas covered in class, suggestions for further reading
 Photography and gender: representing women
 Text 11: The Emancipated Spectator [extracts] (II)
 Image 21: Stellar Exposure, Claudia Wycisk (see also: http://ndmagazine.net/claudia-wycisk/)
http://www.up-her.com/fashion-5353528/stellar-exposure-by-claudia-wycisk/?fromTag=453
 Image 22: Laurie Simmons, Purple Woman, Kitchen, Second View, 1978
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2004.246
 Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations on remaining texts and on one of the two images
Session 12
 Final session: in-class discussion
 Synthetic appraisal of critical material approached in class
 Discussion of photographic images supplied by students (time allowing)
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New directions in photography: Sophy Rickett, Tony Hall, Tom Chambers, Martin Parr
Exposés: two 10-15 min presentations on images or texts freely selected
EVALUATION
Written assignment I:
Image analysis: An essay (2500 (+/- 10%) words) analysing a set photographic image
(50%)
Written assignment II:
Synthesis and assessment of critical material covered in class. Students may select one critic’s work for
particular attention, or compare and contrast two critical views. An image may also be selected for appraisal.
(25%) (1500 words max)
Oral assignment:
Students will be required to participate orally: there will be two exposés lasting 10 – 15 minutes per class, on
text and image respectively (see syllabus)
(25%) Each student must volunteer for ONE exposé over the course of the semester.
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Barthes, Roland. Image, Music, Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. Fontana Press, 1977. Contains
classic essays such as The Photographic Message and Rhetoric of the Image.
Barthes, Roland. La Chambre Claire. Seuil, 1980 (trans. Richard Howard, Camera Lucida,
1981) Continues to be widely discussed in debates on photography.
Benjamin, Walter. “On some Motifs in Baudelaire” and “The Work of Art in the Age of
Mechanical Reproduction”. Illuminations. 1970. Fontana Press, 1992
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Seminal observations on photography by one of Europe’s foremost 20 century cultural theorists and
historians. These essays are easily available in book form, also available on the web.
Benjamin, Walter. “Photography” in The Arcades Project. Harvard University Press, 1999.
671-692.
o A section devoted to photography and consisting of quotations from Hugo, Balzac,
Baudelaire and other writers who witnessed the birth of photography in the 1850s and 60s.
Also contains extracts from newspapers as well as the author’s own observations.
Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin, 1972
A provocative reading of the history of oil-painting; contains valuable insights on how we see the
image (what mediates our interpretation). Contains an interesting chapter on the advertising image.
Most arguments, concerned with the politics of seeing, have some relevance to photography. An
author still widely discussed today.
Berger, John. About looking.Vintage, 1992
Essays explore the ways in which we look at and derive meaning from paintings by Courbet, Turner,
Magritte, and others, as well as nature, zoos, and photographs.
Brunet, François. La Naissance de l’idée de photographie. PUF, 2000. A very interesting, factth
packed study that probes the genealogy of the term of “photography”, setting the term in its 19
century context and examining its fluctuating meanings.
Burgin, Victor, ed. Thinking Photography. Macmillan, 1982.
A selection of essays by leading European theorists of the image (Umberto Eco, Allan Sekula,
Walter Benjamin). Collectively, they seek to challenge the traditional notions of the photograph as
expression of personality, as transparent representation of ‘real’ scenes, or, more recently, as purely
formal object with no connection to the outside world.
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Debord, Guy. Society of the Spectacle [1968], Soul Bay Press, 2009. A brilliantly lucid analysis of
forms of social control and domination under modern capitalism. The image as a form of social
control.
Flusser, Vilem. Towards a Philosophy of Photography. [1983] London , Reaktion, 2006
A subtle argument containing echoes of theoretical work by Benjamin, Debord and Barthes.
Mirzoeff, Nicolas. An Introduction to Visual Culture, Routledge, 1999
A book devoted to the emerging culture of the visual, with sections devoted to a wide range of visual
forms, including painting, sculpture, photography, television, cinema, virtual reality, the internet.
There is a chapter on photography, pp 65-91.
Rancière Jacques. The Future of the Image, Verso, 2009 (Le destin des images. La Fabrique
éditions. 2003). A collection of essays on the power and specificity of the image and its history in
changing aesthetic regimes.
Rancière, Jacques. The emancipated spectator. Verso, 2009 (Le spectateur émancipé. La
Fabrique éditions. 2008) A collection of essays on images and their relationship to politics and
aesthetics. “L’image pensive” is particularly relevant to the the question of reading photography.
Sontag, Susan. On Photography. Penguin, 1977.
Widely available and widely read, Sontag’s seminal work still informs much debate on the subject of
photography. These are essays written between 1971 and 1977, influenced by Barthes and the
Frankfurt School.
Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others [2003] Penguin, 2004. Sontag’s self-critique: a
reconsideration of the ethics of the photographic image.
Trachtenberg, Alan (ed.) Classic Essays on Photography. New Haven, Leete’s Island Books,
1980. An anthology comprising twenty seminal essays which between them stake out the history of
photography and the debates to which it has given rise.
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Wells, Liz (ed.) Photography: a Critical Introduction, 2 edition, Routledge, 2000
A sensible and informative approach, comprehensive in scope, featuring many well-known
photographs.
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