AMST 850 - The Social Conscience and American Photography,1839-1946

Institution:

Trinity College

Subject:

Description:

"The camera never lies," but it certainly can persuade. From its inception, photography has been employed in the cause of social change in the United States. During the Civil War, the images from the Brady studio helped persuade the Union of the justice of its cause. Anthropological images made from the 1860s to the 1880s helped define the vanishing Native American communities of the West, and the romantic images of photographers like Edward Curtis created sympathy among white Easterners for their plight. In the later 19th century, photography became the handmaid of Progressive reform in the hands of Jacob Riis, whose book, How the Other Half Lives, convinced the public of the need for urban reform. Sociologist Lewis Hine found his photographs of child labor far more effective than text alone in stimulating change. And in what may be the most comprehensive photographic project yet undertaken, the Farm Services Administration under FDR's New Deal program created a body of iconic images of the Great Depression that abide to today. In the hands of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Russell Lee, and Gordon Parks, among others, the FSA body of work remains the visual definition of the Depression. We will examine how it served the agendas created by the agency head, Roy Stryker, and the photographers themselves. Two papers during the term, one final paper or project and presentation. Texts will include Liz Wells, Photography: A Critical Introduction; Alan Trachtenburg, Reading American Photographs; Fleischhauer and Brannan, Documenting America: 1935-1943 1.00 units, Seminar

Credits:

3.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.Trincoll.edu

Phone Number:

(860) 297-2000

Regional Accreditation:

New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Calendar System:

Semester

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