AFAS C3930 - Topics in the Black Experience: African American Photographic Cultures

Institution:

Columbia University in the City of New York

Subject:

Description:

This undergraduate seminar explores the politics of representation in African American photography. We will examine a diverse range of visual "texts," including daguerreotypes, collages, installations, photo-essays, image-text collaborations, and multiple traditions, including social documentary, protest, street photography, photo-journalism, modernism and portraiture. Throughout the semester we will discuss the relationship of photography to some central themes in black culture and creative expression, including confined space, invisibility vs. visibility, heroism, and historical "truth." We will set photographs in their historical context, discussing slavery, lynching, migration, segregation and poverty. Engaging the debates surrounding representation and race, we will consider to what extent photography has subverted racial identities and social hierarchies, attacked caricatures and stereotypes, furthered protest movements, and dismantled the master's house with the master's tools.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.columbia.edu

Phone Number:

(212) 854-1754

Regional Accreditation:

Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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