UNDERGRADUATE SECTION ONLY

History of 20th Century Photography 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.