Course Syllabus
Autumn semester 2015/16
Course: The Art of Photography, AN 32007; British Track, 3rd year, seminar, 3 credits
Time & Place: Thurs, 12.00-1.40 p.m.; Rm 54
Instructors: Ágnes Györke, György Kalmár, Gabriella Moise (+ guest lecturers)
Office: Room 116/4
Office hours: please visit the institute website for the instructors’ individual office hours and
email addresses
Course Description: The course offers a theoretical basis through which the versatility of the
art of photography becomes tangible also owning to the multifarious set of approaches.
Regarding the theoretical framework, students can explore the writings of iconic theoreticians
of photography or the image as such (Susan Sontag, Roland Barthes, Rudolf Arnheim, John
Roberts), as well as seminal texts concerning the relationship between reality and image (e.g.
On Photography, Camera Lucida), the functions of photos (“memento mori,” appropriation,
documentation, etc.), the very act of taking photographs (as a rite, form of participation,
posing, etc.), the concept of feminist photography and phototherapy, the new forms of
photography in contemporary identity-politics, the crossroads of body studies and
photography or concepts like Barthes’s “studium” and “punctum.” The course also aims at
touching upon the milestones of British photography, both at its emblematic representatives,
as well as its significant schools or trends through which a heterogeneous image of British
identity delineates itself.
CLASS ATTENDANCE: no more than three missed classes can be accepted.
PARTICIPATION: Students are expected to read the assigned texts for each class, as this is
the basis of classroom participation. Brief EVALUATIONS (response papers) based on
targeted questions (sent via email weekly, prior to the time of the class) closely related to the
assigned materials have to be written for each class (app. 100-150 words). Students can be
asked to occasionally present their answers/evaluations in class if this assists the collective
discussion. These evaluative papers must be brought to class in hard copy, not necessarily
word processed, hand-written versions will also be accepted (they are going to be collected by
the instructors).
NB. All assigned materials (including images) will be uploaded onto the “Course Materials”
site of the respective instructors.
END-TERM TEST: objective test concerning all the previously covered material. Failure of
coming to class at the time of the end-term test results in failure of the course. There is no
possibility for re-scheduling unless the student has a serious reason for that e. g. hospital
treatment, official leave etc.
SEMINAR PROJECT: a presentation (app. 7-8 minutes) incorporating a photo or photoessay (taken exclusively for the seminar by the students) related to themes discussed during
the course.
GRADING:
Participation
End-term test
Seminar Project
Total
25 % (including response papers and presentations)
40 %
35 %
100%
Week
1
2
Date
17
Sept
24
Sept
3
01 Oct
4
08 Oct
5
15 Oct
6
22 Oct
7
8
29 Oct
05
Nov
9
12
Nov
10
19
Nov
11
26
Assignment
Orientation
(discussing the structure and requirements of the course)
Theoretical Context (Moise G)
The relationship of the photographic image and reality,
functions of photography; the hermeneutics of
photography
Sontag, Susan. “In Plato’s Cave.” On Photography.
London: Penguin, 1977.
Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida: Reflections on
Photography (1980). New York: Hill and Wang, 1981.
Excerpts from “Part One” (chapter 4, chapters 9-11):
Cultural and historical contexts: An Overview of
British Identity through Photography (Moise G)
Williams, Val and Susan Bright. How we are:
Photographing Britain from the 1840s to the Present.
London New York: Tate, 2007.
Photographic self-fashioning: (self-)portraits, identity
and photography (Kalmár Gy)
Celia Lury. “Become What You Are” (Chapter
4). Prosthetic Culture: Photography, Memory and
Identity. London: Routledge, 1998. 76-104.
New corporality: the body in contemporary
photography (Kalmár Gy)
“Barbie: A Posthuman Prototype” Kim
Toffoletti. Cyborgs and Barbie Dolls: Feminism, Popular
Culture and the Posthuman Body.” London: Tauris, 2007.
57-80.
The Photograph as Contemporary Art
(Tófalvi Kata)
Lucy Soutter, “Why Art Photography?”
http://www.source.ie/archive/issue53/is53feature_Lucy_S
outter_19_34_08_13-09-12.php#pageup
Consultation Week (no class)
Photography and Performativity
(Andreas Gursky and Miao Xiaochun)
Reading material: to be announced.
(Kukla Krisztián)
No classroom discussion (due to block teaching later on in
Dec)
Seminar Project week!
Feminist Photography (Györke Á)
1. Jessica Evans, “Photography.” Feminist Visual Culture.
Ed. Fiona Carson and Claire Pajaczkowska. New York:
Routledge, 2001. 105-120.
2. Claire Pajaczkowska, "Issues in Feminist Visual
Culture." Feminist Visual Culture. Ed. Fiona Carson and
Claire Pajaczkowska. New York: Routledge, 2001. 1-21.
Seminar Project
12
13
14
Nov
03
Dec.,
12.001.40;
2.003.40
10 Dec
17 Dec
Students’ presentations
On the documentation of El Camino: a virtual tour +
Rudold Arnheim, “On the Nature Photography”
(Kocsis István)
NB: the classes will be in Hungarian; the two classes will
be held in one block (one class after the other)
End-term test
Evaluation