PHI 4930-003 Philosophy of Images and Photography Spring 2018 Dr. Robert Leib Florida Atlantic University [email protected] ; rleib.wordpress.com

Texts: ·The Photographer’s Playbook, edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern (‘PP’) ·On Photography, Susan Sontag ·Visual Thinking, Rudolf Arnheim ·A Primer of Visual Literacy, Donis A. Dondis ·Camera Lucida, Roland Barthes ·Pandora’s Camera, Joan Fontcuberta ·Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, Walter Benjamin (Penguin Great Ideas) ·Photography After Frank, Philip Gefter

Amazon Booklist: http://a.co/hSsVrtN ($70-$80 used)

You will also need: Camera (analog, digital, smartphone, etc.) and $40 to produce your own photo book at the end of the semester.

Course Blog: https://philosophyofimages.wordpress.com

A camera is an extension of our memories, a powerful tool if we understand its grammar. It is also a material force that is reshaping the way we live and look at one another. And many of us have them with us at all times. We act in conversation with them. We see that a camera at the right place and the right time is potentially world altering. Given the relative newness of photography as a technological practice, but at the same time, recognizing the strength of its influence in our increasingly image-driven social worlds, this is a course on philosophy and photography that is needed. Of design, it is equal parts theoretical, visual, and actively productive. This syllabus aims to produce students who are better able to think, express themselves, and understand others in images, while rigorously coming to grips with the best photographic theory philosophy has to offer thus far. This class is unique in the country, and I personally believe it is important for today’s philosopher, literary theorist, or visual artist. We are all photographers now, one could argue.

1 Beyond the course texts, this syllabus incurs no additional expense for those with camera phones. The practical component of the syllabus is built upon The Photographer’s Playbook, edited by Jason Fulford and Gregory Halpern. Students will complete seven photo assignments throughout the semester, posted to this blog, and produce one physical photo book as their final project, to be donated to FAU’s new Lester Embree Memorial Philosophy Library at the end of the term.

Reading and Assignment Schedule:

The question of the photographic image can be explored under the following designations, practices, and frames:

Week Readings, Viewings, Links Possible Photographer’s Playbook Assignments Week 1: Note: The week a photo set is listed Images as Jan 9) Orientation Day; Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Republic: is the week in which we will begin Images https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf talking about that set of assignments. All assignments will be Jan 11) Susan Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave”, On Photography, pp. 3-24 due the week of Apr 17. Overall, you will choose seven con-current, semester long projects to complete; you will revise one of these into a physical photo book. Week 2: Photography Jan 16) Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Thinking, Chs 2&3, pp. 1-53 Set A, Complete one: as a kind of • Interpreting Light, by Gary Perception Donis A. Dondis, A Primer of Visual Literacy, Chs 1-3, pp. 1-66 Schneider, pp. 308 – optics • Unintended consequences by James Elkins, “How to Look at Color”, pp. 202-211, and “How to Asha Schechter, pp. 300 – Look at a Map”, pp. 126-130, How to Use Your Eyes getting started/editing • What Matters by Thomas Roma, pp. 293 – starting out Jan 18) In class viewing: “This Equals That” by Jason Fulford • Forgetting the Game by Dan Abbe, pp. 2 In class viewing: “The Nature of Photographs” by Stephen Shore • What to Photograph? by David Company, pp. 45

2 In class viewing: “Visual Grammar” by Christian Leborg • Rules for Students in Introduction to Photography “This Photographer Messes with Your Perspective on Purpose by Lois Conner, pp. 59 (Without Photoshop)”: • Sister Corita’s Rules by https://www.visualnews.com/2016/03/04/these-room-illusion- Yolanda Cuomo, pp. 70 photographs-will-mess-with-your-head-its-not-photoshop/ • Don’t Do Anything Subversive by Tim Davis, pp. 75 • The Basics by James Estrin, pp. 98 • Suggested Suggestions by Justine Kurland, pp. 186 • Two assignments by Jessica Lancaster, pp. 192 • Intentionality by Stephen Shore, pp. 317

Week 3-4: Imagery as a Jan 23) Arnheim, Visual Thinking, Chs 8, 13 & 16 Set B, Complete one: kind of • Rockaway Beach by Able Literacy Dondis, Chs 4, 6 & 9 Brown, pp. 35 – photographs not taken Umberto Eco, “Critique of the Image”, Thinking Photography, pp. • Photos Not Taken by Rein 32-38 Jelle Terpstra, pp. 340 – writing/image text Jan 25) In class reading: “Photographs Not Taken” edited by Will Steacy • Slow Down by Tina Barney, pp.18 – learning to see Jan 30) Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida • The Coal Thieves by Ute Behrend, pp. 20 – learning to Feb 1) Workshop day- photo criticism exercises see • Our relationship to the PP: Devil’s Advocate by Sam de Groot, pp. 77 – criticism windshield by Jeff Brouws, pp. 34 – learning to see

3 Blind Jury by Jim Dow, pp. 87 – editing/criticism • Preconceived Notions by Michael Schmelling, pp. 306 Two-Minute Drill by Christopher McCall, pp. 215 – criticism – learning to see • Insecurity by Jeffery Ladd, No Answers Allowed by Judy Natal, pp. 242 – critique pp. 189 – learning to see • What Cannot Be Seen by Gerry Badger, pp. 12-13 – visual literacy • Extract the Magic by Elspeth Diederix, pp. 85 – learning to see/ visual literacy • Sequence and Series by Nathan Lyons, pp. 201 – visual literacy/editing • Sequential or Serial by Tom Patton, pp. 265 – visual literacy/editing

Week 5: Photography Feb 6) Joan Fontcuberta, “The Eye of God” and “Eugenics Without Set C, Complete one: as a means of Borders” and “Documentary Fictions”, Pandora’s Camera • The Death of the Documentation Photographer by Elisabeth “Gregory Halpern on Documentary Ethics—Preoccupations, Tonnard, pp. 346 – theory of Subjectivity and Untruths” (2013): photography http://www.americansuburbx.com/2013/05/asx-interview-gregory- • Assignment 96 by John halpern-on-documentary-ethics-2013.html Baldessari, pp. 14 - scientific documentation Feb 8) Roland Barthes and Elisabeth Tonnard, The Death of the • Collaborating Across Photographer Disciplines by Richard Barnes, pp. 17 – sci documentation

4 • The Camera Never lies by Sarah Pickering, pp. 270 – documentation/fiction

Week 6: Photography Feb 13) Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish, selections as a Surveillance Sandra Bartky, “Foucault, Femininity and the Modernization of Mechanism Patriarchal Power”, pp. 25-45

“What does the Panopticon Mean in an Age of Digital Surveillance?”: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jul/23/panopticon -digital-surveillance-jeremy-bentham

Feb 15) In class viewing: “The Terrorist’s Handbook” by David Schultz

In class viewing: “The New Town” by Andrew Hammerand:

In class viewing: “X Marks the Spot” by Joachim Schmid

In class viewing: “Fifteen Minutes on Broadway” by Joachim Schmid

In class viewing: “Another Twenty-Six Gas Stations” by Gregory Eddi Jones

“Twenty-Six Gasoline Stations” by Ed Ruscha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kP4peTvkThQ

Week 7: Feb 20) Fontcuberta, “Archives Noises”, pp. 169-81 Set D, Complete one:

5 Images as “Conversation with Melissa Cantanese”, Conversations • Feedback Loop by Steve archival Fitch, pp. 110 – starting Material “Conversation with Joachim Schmid”, Conversations out/forming a project • Parameters by Christopher Brad Feuerhelm, “Archive of Decline: Social Media Photography Anderson, pp. 5- forming a in the Anthropocene” (2017): project http://www.americansuburbx.com/2017/07/archive-of-decline- • Storytelling With Pictures by social-media-photography-in-the-anthropocene.html Jane Evelyn Atwood, pp. 9- forming a project • Open Mind by Dawoud Bey, Feb 22) In class viewing: “The Mushroom Collector” by Jason Fulford: pp. 24- forming a project https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYk8h284oGg • Last Seven Pictures by Michael Christopher Brown, “Other People’s Photographs” by Joachim Schmid: pp. 39 – forming a project https://otherpeoplesphotographs.wordpress.com/ • Roll a Day by Jessica Ingram, pp. 158 – forming a “Archiv” by Joachim Schmid: project https://schmid.wordpress.com/works/1986-1999-archiv/

Week 8: Imagery as Feb 27) Walter Benjamin, Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction reproducible Product “’s Race Riot, 1964”, 3 mins: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2014/04/asx-tv-andy-warhols- race-riot-1964.html

Philip Gefter, “Photography Reveals Itself Between Covers”, Photography After Frank, pp. 178-80

Mar 1) In class viewing: “The Americans” by : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY3LnroHcNc

6 In class viewing: “Let Us Now Praise Famous Men” by Walker Evans and James Agee

In class viewing: “American Photographs” by Walker Evans: https://vimeo.com/69333381

Spring Break (as in ‘Break Set E, Complete two: out the Cameras!’) • Daily Destination by Ari Marcopoulos, pp. 211 – learning to see/editing/forming a project • Limitation, Routine, and Repetition, pg. – forming a project/photography as time • Depicting Consumption by Jacqueline Hassink, pp. 142 – forming a project • A Beautiful Mistake by Katia Mater, pp. 213 – forming a project • Mistakes by Massimo Vitali, pp. 362 – forming a project/learning to see • Shadow Diary by Lynn Saville, pp. 299 – composition/forming a project/editing • The Seven-Minute Game by Mike Slack, pp. 320 – forming a project • Composing in Color by Sara Terry, pp. 341 - forming a project • The Land Speed Record by Nicholas Muellner, pp. 233 – forming a project

• Photographing Atmosphere by Larry Fink, pp. 107 – learning to see • Lose an Eye by Melinda Gibson, pp. 122 – learning to see • Expose Yourself by , pp. 149 – learning to see • The Boundaries of Imitation by Takashi Homma, pp. 152 – learning to see

7 • The Body as a Site of Perception by Sharon Harper – learning to see • Small Ideas by Robin Maddock – learning to see/editing/fiction • Photograph Something Invisible by Arthur Ou, pp. 259 – learning to see

• Ventriloquism by Linda Fleming, pp. 111 – forming a persona (work in pairs)/fiction • Alter Ego by Susan Lipper, pp. 200 – developing a persona (Borges)

• Mother’s Nightmare by Mirana July, pp. 167 – studio photography • Beautiful from Nothing by Denis Defibaugh, pp. 76 – studio photography • Find Your Reflection by Shelby Lee Adams, pp. pg. 4- portraiture

Week 9: Photography Mar 13) Marianne Hirsch, “Surviving Images: Holocaust Photographs and as the the Work of Postmemory”, pp. 5-37 production of collective Fontcuberta, “Archaeologies of the Future” Memory Mar 15) Gefter, “Travels with Walker, Robert, and Andy: On Stephen Shore”, pp. 17-20

In class viewing: “The New West”, Robert Adams: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHTSm7sgAYQ

Review of Robert Adams’ “What We Bought”: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/07/robert-adams- missing-criticism-what-we.html

8 In class viewing: “Uncommon Places” by Stephen Shore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl2b1rWjkFI

Review: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2010/12/stephen- shore-uncommon-places-2004.html Week 10: Images as a Mar 20) Sontag, On Photography, Chs 2 & 3 news Medium Mar 22) Fred Ritchin, “A Dialectical Journalism”, Bending the Frame: Photojournalism, Documentary, and the Citizen, pp. 8-45

Véronique Vienne, “Page One: A Conversation with Philip Gefter, Picture Editor of the New York Times’ Front Page

In class viewing: “Magnum Contact Sheets” by Kristen Lubben

In class viewing: Robert & Cornell Capa: https://pro.magnumphotos.com/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&AL ID=2TYRYDZVNMYZ&VBID=2K1HZS6ZC4KG&PN=2

Week 11: Imagery as a Mar 27) Robert Coles, “Fact and Fiction”, Doing Documentary Work, Ch Set F, Complete one: source of 3 • Image Construction by collective Leslie Hewitt, pp. 148 – Fiction Gefter, “The Staged Document”, Photography After Frank, pp. forming a persona 50-72 • Editing (Is) Everything by Doug Rickard, pp. 290 – “How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study”: editing/found imageryAn https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/20/business/media/how-fake- Altogether Different Lesson news-spreads.html?_r=0 by Abner Nolan, pp. 245 – fiction • Truth or Dare by Gregory Halpern, pp. 135 –

9 “Can you Spot What’s Different about These Civil War documentation/visual Daguerrotypes?”: https://www.visualnews.com/2016/02/05/can- expression/fictionWords and spot-whats-different-civil-war-daguerrotypes/ Ideas by Aline Smithson, pp. 322 – starting out/image text Mar 29) Joan Fontcuberta, “I Knew the Spice Girls” • Words and Photographs by , pp. 324 – image text • Sequencing and Bookmaking by Darius Himes, pp. 151 – editing/finishing • Sum of the Parts by Carlo Van de Roer, pp. 355 – editing/composition • Inspired by the News by Suzanna Opton, pp. 256 – image text/documentation/fiction • The Meta-Photographer by Fred Ritchin , pp. 291 – editing/found photography/journalism • Create an Image Virus by Tate Shaw, pp. 315 – visual literacy/ meme culture

Week 12: Photography Apr 3) Gefter, “Why MoMA Is Giving Its Largest Solo Photography as high Art Exhibition Ever to Lee Friedlander”

Gefter, “The Marketplace”, pp. 190-210

In class viewing: “Friedlander” by Peter Galassi

10 In class viewing: “Andreas Gursky” by Peter Galassi

Apr 5) In class viewing: “Winograd: Figments of the Real World” by John Szarkowski

In class viewing: “: An Aperture Monograph” by Diane Arbus

Massimiliano Rezza, “Diane Arbus, Imaginary Lives, Subjective Projections”: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2017/07/diane- arbus-imaginary-lives-subjective-projections.html

In class viewing: “Guide” by William Eggleston: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5p7zJgIdH4

Week 13: Photography Apr 10) Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, Chs 1&2, 5 7 as looking at Others Apr 12) Judith Butler, Frames of War, Ch2

In class viewing: “The Veterans Book Project” edited by Monica Haller: http://www.veteransbookproject.com/the-books/

Week 14: Photography Apr 17) Ariella Azoulay, The Civil Contract of Photography, Chs 2&3 All seven Photographer’s Playbook as social assignments (Sets A-F) due to blog Practice Apr 19) Robert Leib, “Appearing Unsuspiciously: Surveillance and by April 19th Citizen Photography”: https://www.academia.edu/26931855/Appearing_Unsuspiciously _Surveillance_and_Citizen_Photography

Final Projects Photobooks due in hand on Finals Day

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Etc. Links Have a Nice Book: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmlYUcl5z0O4cnDNfjcNaTA

Self-Publish Be Happy: http://selfpublishbehappy.com/library/

Walker Evans’ American Photographs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qJcjujUEtM

Christian Patterson’s Redheaded Peckerwood: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIT-64LfnFw

Gregory Halpern’s A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SqC-vdS8a8c

Jason Fulford Lecture: https://vimeo.com/101445671

Jason Fulford’s Raising Frogs for $$$: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT_3IKfyJO0

ASX Henri Cartier-Bresson: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2012/01/interview-henri-cartier- bresson-famous.html

Alex Soth’s The Last Days of W: http://alecsoth.com/photography/?page_id=205

Q& A with Mike Slack: http://blakeandrews.blogspot.com/2015/06/q- with-mike-slack.html

Arthur Mole: http://www.americansuburbx.com/2015/12/arthur-mole- living-photographs.html

12 Talk: New Documents: Fifty Years Later: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HethsSD0jyM

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