• reviewing the basics of photographic production: camera use, darkroom photographic processes, and the recent advances in digital processing, to better assess the technical and aesthetic features of photographs. In this segment we will have a brief look at the history of photography - a topic that is covered in an entire course in many Art departments.

• examining the social context within which photographs are taken, are made available to various audiences, and are viewed and interpreted by those audiences. Here our concerns are with issues of representation and interpretation. We will rely on the writings of sociologists, art historians, art critics, and specialists in media studies. We will also assess our own responses to images and sets of images presented in various contexts (online, in book and article reproductions, in exhibitions).

• examining the work of others who have taken photographs to portray, describe, or analyze social phenomena. In this portion of the course, we will look at a number of photographic essays that document social conditions, issues, and problems. Most of these have not been done by people with social science training, just as most social scientists have not used visual sociology or anthropology techniques. Thus ours will necessarily be a critical appraisal of those photo-essays.

• learning how social scientists combine qualitative methods of sociological research (ethnographic methods) with the use of the camera as an observational and documentary tool. Doing visual sociology is not just a matter of knowing how to make photographs or recognizing what is going on; it also relies upon the capacity to approach people, build rapport, come back to approach the same people, and become part of a situation without changing it appreciably.

CLASS ATTENDANCE, DEADLINES, AND PARTICIPATION

Students are expected to attend all classes. Some emergencies, of course, will arise, but if you do not anticipate attending regularly, do not enroll for this course. Grades will be reduced for poor attendance. Similarly, projects must be submitted on time, as we will review them in class. If for some reason you have not completed the project, it is essential that you come to class anyway, bringing whatever portion is done, to contribute to and learn from the critiques. To the extent possible, the course will be conducted as a workshop, not a series of lectures, so your participation is essential.

WEB RESOURCES

A number of important items will be posted on the course web site. Students are expected to access this site at least once a week. In addition, many handouts will be posted here, and you will be asked to print them out and bring them to class with you. Also see the section below about electronic reserve.

REQUIRED READINGS

The following paperback books have been ordered through the Livingston Bookstore. They should be purchased (and read and used!) by all students:

• Terry Barrett, 2000. Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding Images. Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Co., 3rd edition.
• Catherine Lutz and Jane Collins, 1993. Reading National Geographic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

There is also a set of readings that I have compiled. Instead of preparing a reader, I have put assigned articles on both regular reserve at Alexander Library and on electronic reserve. You can read them online or print them to read in hard copy. Finally, there are some online readings - web sites on photography - that supplement the conventional materials. You can get to them by clicking on the link on the website syllabus, or typing in the URL from the paper copy of the syllabus.

EXAMS

There will be one in-class exam on November ?? (see course outline).

There is no final exam. Your final paper should show your command of the material in the last part of the course.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS AND FIELD PROJECTS

There are several written assignments and field projects for all students. The field projects are described in a separate document. The final paper is due on the last day of class, December 12. It should be approximately 15 typed pages, double-spaced, with about 8 pages of xeroxed photographs (Black and white, even if the original was in color) attached, plus a page of references citing both the two books to be discussed and those course readings that you feel are relevant to the analysis and comparison of the two books, which are:

Tony Mendoza, 1999. Cuba: Going Back. Austin: University of Texas Press, and

David Allen Harvey, 1999. Cuba. New York: Simon and Shuster.

PHOTOGRAPHING AND FILM PROCESSING

Students are expected to undertake field projects using slide film, which they will be required to have processed commercially. It is NOT NECESSARY to have an expensive or fancy camera for this work. More information will be given about this in class.

GRADES

Your grade in the course will be based on all the different forms of assignments given, and on evidence of effort and growth. I assume that in the early weeks your skills will be limited; I expect that by the end of the course all of you will have improved considerably and some of you will be doing first-rate work.