Learning outcomes

The course aims to give to the students appropriate tools for the use and interpretation of the photographic image. Particular attention will be given to the context of the mass image, photoreportage and to the practices of meaning construction through the manipulation and contextualization of photography.

Program

HISTORICAL PART

- The concept of "vision" in the nineteenth century and the invention of photography
- Technical basics of photography: emulsions, cameras, lens, films, darkroom.
- Photography as Art in the debate at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century
- The avant-gardes
- The photographic image of totalitarianism
- The American school from the landscape of the West to the FSA
- The birth of modern reportage between Europe and United States
- Italian Photography after the 2WW, from Neorealism to the 70s
- The new Topographics
- Luigi Ghirri and the new Italian school of landscape
- The contemporary debate on photography, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag
- The war reportage, Capa, McCullin the Bang Bang Club, and the aesthetics of the World Press Photo

MONOGRAPHIC PART
Truth and lie in photography

- The codes of falsification and the problem of the referent
- The digital mutation
- Photojournalism in the internet age, controversial cases from the New York Times to Wikipedia
- Paparazzi and stardom, from Tazio Secchiaroli to Fabrizio Corona

Examination Methods

Oral

Bibliography for the exam:
- Lessons' arguments (attending only);
- Gabriele D'Autilia, STORIA DELLA FOTOGRAFIA IN ITALIA DAL 1839 A OGGI, Torino, Einaudi, 2012, just chapt. III, IV, V, VI (pp. 175-401);
- Michele Smargiassi, UN'AUTENTICA BUGIA. LA FOTOGRAFIA, IL VERO, IL FALSO, Roma, Contrasto, 2009;

NOT ATTENDING must be read also this books:
- Rosalind Krauss, LE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE, any edition;
and one of this two:
- Roland Barthes, LA CHAMBRE CLAIRE, any edition;
- Susan Sontag, ON PHOTOGRAPHY, any edition;

The students are strongly invited to search, watch and learn the images of the main authors covered in class and in the exam texts.

WARNING!
Some students told me that the book UN'AUTENTICA BUGIA by Michele Smargiassi it's difficult to find. The book can be ordered on the web and in bookshop. Anyway who doesn't find it can replace it with one of this two books:
- Joan Fontcuberta, LA CAMARA DE PANDORA, (it. trans.: LA FOTOCAMERA DI PANDORA, Roma, Contrasto, 2010)
- Fred Ritchin, AFTER PHOTOGRAPHY, (it. trans.: DOPO LA FOTOGRAFIA, Torino, Einaudi, 2012