This section for Graduate students only.  Undergraduates please use
FINA A443 section 2177.

We will survey photography as a medium of art and of communication,
with our primary emphasis beginning in the 1920s.

Most histories of photography present is as the interaction of two
major threads: 1) developments in optical, chemical, and mechanical
technologies, which make possible 2) the evolution of photographic
vision among master photographers.  A shorthand phrase for this
concept is:  "Technology drives the medium."

Most histories of photography attempt to organize the vast number of
important photographers and iconic images into chronological periods,
artistic movements, or into categories of theme and subject matter;
for example, such genres as the nude, portraiture, landscape.  Most
histories also situate the evolution of photography against
historical, biological, economic and social contexts.  We will
explore all these approaches and will also consider critical ideas
about photography and the photographic act.  Many of these ideas
begin in the 1970s with the advent of post modernism.