Syllabus

HOP has its own history
History and photography are both complex human activities with long traditions. When we combine them to consider the history of photography, the time frame shortens considerably. In 1937, Beaumont Newhall was the first to present a comprehensive synthesis of photography as a visual medium in his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. His exhibition catalog soon evolved into the standard history of photography.

The entry of the history of photography into the university as an academic discipline began about a decade later with the expansion in higher education that followed World War II. Indiana University was a leader in this trend: Henry Holmes Smith, who launched the studio photography program at IU’s School of Fine Arts in 1947, taught the history of photography as an integral part of his curriculum. Although it has gone through many iterations, the course you are now taking is part of the tradition Smith helped found.

Course content
We will survey twentieth-century photography as a medium of art and of communication, beginning with Pictorialism, the dominant movement at the turn of the last century, and concluding with Post Modern photography, which spans the 1970s to the present.

History is never neat, especially when one tries to jam it into a single semester with only thirty class sessions. In trying to impose coherence on a vast number of photographers, styles, movements, images and ideas, I have used chronology and genre as organizing principles. Four units progress chronologically. In the fifth, we will consider such genres as portraiture, the nude, color, landscape, advertising, fashion and the grotesque. These genres represent major photographic pursuits that span the century. While this schema is not arbitrary, neither is it definitive. All categorizing systems require compromises.

Other values. Beyond the knowledge you acquire, this course should provide you two other important values: 1) Studying the work of more than 125 major photographers should change your vision. If you are a photographer, it should affect the way you see and work. 2) In the tradition of liberal arts education, this course should make you a better thinker. We will emphasize critical thinking skills in our lectures, discussions and writing. These skills should transfer to your future studies and intellectual pursuits.

Here is how I define critical thinking for this course: First, we will learn to read critically — to identify an author’s thesis and arguments, and then evaluate whether those arguments convincingly support her or his conclusions. The goal is to apply the same critical analysis to your own writing to improve your papers.

Second, we will engage in several mental operations that are crucial to studying visual art and practicing history. They include observing and describing, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, classifying, analyzing, synthesizing, interpreting, sourcing, periodizing, contextualizing, formulating and testing a thesis, and concept mapping.

Please don’t be intimidated by this list. You probably have already done many of these operations. In this course we will make them explicit, bringing them from our subconscious into our conscious minds so we can practice them more effectively. I will demonstrate them and provide models, and we will work on them in class.

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Course objectives
To succeed in this course, you should take control of your learning by formulating your own objectives. My goals are that you…

1. acquire a broad knowledge of twentieth-century photography through readings, lectures, discussions and other active-learning experiences;
2. acquire a deep knowledge of a specific photographer, movement, issue or other aspect of twentieth-century photography through a research project;
3. develop the ability to articulate, orally and in writing, your intellectual, aesthetic
and emotional responses to photographs;
4. develop the interest and the research tools to pursue the history of photography long after this course ends;
5. develop an historical consciousness.

By my definition, historical consciousness involves at least six dimensions:

1. Understanding change. Discerning which experiences, ideas, practices, traditions, etc., are continuous with the past and which ones represent significant breaks.
2. Experiencing empathy. Developing the empathy to identify with the subjects of photographs or with the photographers who made them; imagining yourself in the past.
3. Eliminating egocentrism. Learning when not to project your own ideas, feelings and experiences onto the past so you can understand real differences across time and place.
4. Understanding cause and effect. Learning to identify significant chains of causes and effects among the welter of past events.
5. Contextualizing. Situating a photograph in the time and place in which it was produced and understanding how they shaped its form, content and potential meanings.
6. Acquiring models. Identifying insights and practices from the past that you can adopt or adapt for your present endeavors.

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Course work load
The work in this course is designed to improve your ability to think critically and to articulate your intellectual, aesthetic and emotional responses to photographs. We will work toward these objectives in class discussions, but especially in the writing assignments. I believe strongly that writing is a way of making our thinking concrete.

1. Assigned readings. There is no textbook. Instead, I will post readings on the course Website. Whenever possible, these will be oppositional readings that offer contrasting perspectives on a topic. To support the course objective of developing your critical thinking, I will ask you to resolve in your own thinking the disagreements, discrepancies, contradictory assumptions, etc., among these readings. We will do this through TARs — study questions based on the readings (more on this below) — and class discussions.
If you want to read a traditional HOP survey, I suggest any of these:

Newhall, Beaumont. The History of Photography. Museum of Modern Art.
Rosenblum, Naomi. A World History of Photography.   Abbeville Press.
Szarkowski, John. Photography until Now. Museum of Modern Art.
Weaver, Mike. The Art of Photography, 1839- 1989. Royal Academy of Arts.

I also recommend Trace & Transformation, by Joel Eisinger. It offers an excellent overview of critical thought on Modernist photography.
Merely reading about photographs does not constitute learning the history of photography. You must also learn to look deeply at photographs. The Fine Arts, Journalism and Wells libraries have excellent collections of photography books. Browse in the TR section. Also, visit all the exhibitions you can.

2. TARs. For twelve class sessions, I will ask you to write a response to the assigned readings before class. We will call these study questions TARs, an acronym for Thinking About the Readings. Typically, they will involve exploring the course Website for that class, doing the online readings, then responding to two essay questions. You will use Oncourse to send me your responses electronically four hours before class. I will use your responses to refine my lectures and guide our discussions.

Because doing the readings and responding to them are fundamental to the objectives of the course, I am making the TARs responses worth 40 percent of your semester grade. From the 12 assignments, we will drop the two lowest grades. The remaining 10 will each be worth 4 percent of your course grade.

3. Written assignments. Besides the TARs, you will do two take-home quizzes and three written assignments. I will give you separate instructions on the assignments. They are:

a. respond to a book of photographs,
b. research and write a major paper,
c. write an essay evaluating your learning.

4. Your HOP interests. A major purpose of the book response and research assignments is to give you opportunities to tailor this course to your own interests. It is impossible to consider all the important photographers, movements, developments, ideas and images that comprise twentieth-century photography in one semester. The assignments let you explore any aspect of twentieth-century photography that interests you.

Distribution of grades

Ten TARs @ 4% each 40%
Photography book 10
Research project 25
Learning evaluation essay 5
Two quizzes @ 10% each 20

5. Extra work for graduate students. IU policy requires graduate students enrolled in joint courses with undergrads to do extra work. I will give specific instructions later, but here are the broad parameters:

1. There will be supplemental readings on the Website, which we will discuss via Oncourse.
2. The minimum lengths of your written assignments will be higher.
3. I expect you to attend at least one of the three museum visits, noted below.
4. I expect you to study original prints in a collection as part of your research project.

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Course Policies
1. Special needs. If you have a learning disability, a physical disadvantage, or other special needs, please discuss them with me during the first week of the semester. I want to work with you to accommodate your situation and help you succeed in this course.

2. English skills. If English is not your native language and you have trouble understanding the lectures or if you anticipate problems with the writing standards in this course, please see me early in the semester. I want to work with you to help you succeed.

3. Attendance. Your attendance is vital for at least two reasons: a) The course is predicated on active-learning experiences, many of which will occur in class. b) I expect you to contribute to your classmates’ learning, and you cannot do that without being present.

Stated another way, you cannot succeed in this course by cramming a textbook all night before midterm and final exams. The way to succeed is to do the readings, attend class conscientiously, participate in the discussions and push yourself on the TARs assignments and the papers.

4. Intensive writing credit. Students taking the A443 section may request to have it count for their Intensive Writing requirement. If you want IW credit, please email me your name and Student ID number by 5 p.m., Friday, January 13.
ccookman@indiana.edu

To receive IW credit, you must come to an extra session of about 90 minutes, early in the semester. You must also turn in your research paper a week early, have a conference with me about it and revise it.
Sorry, but students taking J462 cannot count it for intensive writing. It fulfills the research elective requirement for the journalism major, and there’s no double dipping.

5. Museum experience. Slides and reproductions are poor substitutes for studying original prints. We are fortunate to be on a campus with extensive photographic collections. We will schedule two visits to see and discuss prints from the photography collection at the IU Art Museum and one visit at the Kinsey Institute. Dates and sign-up lists will be circulated early in the semester. These visits are optional for undergrads, but I hope you will take advantage of them and that they will tantalize you to study original prints as part of your research project.

6. Sensitivity to content. Many twentieth century photographers explored the nude in their work. While I don’t think this course can ignore such an important subject, I also do not want to offend anyone’s religious beliefs, moral standards or personal sensibilities. If you feel you will be offended, you may chose not to attend Session 18 on the nude and Session 24 on the body. So you will not be disadvantaged, there will be no TARs on these sessions, and if I ask questions based on them on the quizzes, I will include alternate questions on other topics as options.

7. Oncourse. As noted above, you will submit your TARs assignments via Oncourse. We will use the Oncourse gradebook to give you feedback and post your grades. You can also track your semester grade on Oncourse.

8. Turnitin. As an experiment, we are trying Turnitin for the first time in this course this semester. Turnitin detects digital plagiarism, but we will share it with you it as a tool to help you learn to quote and cite materials from the Web correctly and to check your work to make sure you have not unintentionally plagiarized Web-based materials. You will submit your two quizzes and three papers via Turnitin.

9. Courtesy. 1) If you arrive after class has started, please enter through the back door. 2) Please do not bring food or drink into the classroom. 3) Please turn off your cell phone during class. 4) I hope we will generate some lively discussions—even arguments—during class sessions. When that happens, please respect your classmates and their ideas. Please disagree without being disagreeable.

10. Pedagogical research. I believe teaching and learning improve when we study and reflect on them. I have published a book chapter and a course portfolio about this course. This semester I am gathering data for a journal article about the relationship among TARs and your motivation and engagement. While I would greatly appreciate your help, you should know that your participation is completely voluntary and that I will not know who is or is not participating until after the final grades are submitted.

11. Flexibility. I believe the course plan outlined in the calendar is reasonable and attainable. Nonetheless, I reserve the right to revise topics and deadlines as necessary. I will do this in consultation with the class. Please tell me if you think such changes are warranted.

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How this course is different
On first glance, History of Twentieth Century Photography may look like other large lecture courses you’ve taken at IU, but it is different in fundamental ways. Understanding those differences should help you get off to a good start and enjoy the course better.

1. Most large courses are about transmitting knowledge. This course is about helping you respond to photographs and sharpen your critical thinking. You will gain plenty of knowledge, but you will construct it yourself.

2. Class activity in most large courses involves taking notes while you listen to a professor lecture. I will lecture, but we will also spend considerable time in discussion and other active-learning exercises. I believe you’re more likely to think critically when you are discussing than when you’re listening to me.

3. Because most large courses use a textbook, some students expect that if they miss a lecture they can gain that knowledge by reading the corresponding chapter. The readings in this course are intended to provoke your thinking. We will discuss the readings, but they will not duplicate the lectures.

4. We will look at many more images than are shown in most art history courses. Because I want you to look deeply at these images, I will not ask you to memorize titles, artists, dates, etc., and parrot them back on exams.

5. Work in most large classes involves intense reviewing of textbooks and lecture notes before taking two or three high-stakes exams. In this course, the work is spread across the semester, with a TARs, paper or quiz due almost every week. I hope this keeps you engaged in the course throughout the semester.

6. Some courses specify assignment topics. I believe much of your learning will come from the work you do on the papers and that you will work harder on topics you choose for yourself. Therefore, I am completely open on your paper topics so long as they fall within the broad scope of twentieth century photography. If you have doubts about a topic or you just want to brainstorm, please come see me.

7. Many professors use grades to motivate students to study. I believe the joy of learning and the satisfaction of succeeding at intellectual challenges are much more meaningful motivations than the carrot/stick of grades. Fortunately, twentieth century photography is so fascinating that the course content itself is all the motivation you will need.

8. Grades in most large lecture courses are based on multiple choice exams. This is a writing-intensive course with 80 percent of your grade based on writing assignments. Even the two quizzes, which comprise the other 20 percent, involve essay questions.

9. In many courses, students are ranked on a curve. In this course we will grade on criteria that we will share openly with you. We have set these criteria high, but everyone who meets them will get an A.
10. In most large courses students are anonymous. I will work hard to learn your names and to get to know you as individuals. Please help me by mentioning your name when you ask a question or make a comment in class and when we chat in the hallway. Even if I don’t always remember your names, I will recognize your faces, and you will never be a mere number to me.

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