This course website includes the course schedule and syllabus for the Fall 2020 semester. Readings, slides and assignment instructions are linked on the schedule. Minor changes to the schedule may be necessary during the semester, and the most up-to-date information can always be found here.
Documentary Photography
photojournalism // news // online media
Week 1 | Aug. 24-28
Readings:
• Course Syllabus
• What the Still Photo Still Does Best (PDF)
• Pictures That Change History: Why the World Needs Photojournalists (PDF)
• MediaWise Voter Project tipsheet
Assignments (due Sundays at 11:59 p.m.):
❑ Photo Assignment: Five Days
❑ Find-A-Photo: Pandemic
Beyond the Studio
early cameras // street photography // visual impact
Week 2 | Aug. 31-Sept. 4
Readings:
• “I believe in faking”: The Dilemma of Photographic Realism at the Dawn of Photojournalism
• Through His Eyes: Charles Libby in Spokane
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 1-2 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo: Recently in Washington state
In the Frame
exposure // action // composition
Week 3 | Sept. 7-11
No class Monday for Labor Day
Readings:
• “Design Basics” chapter excerpt, The Photographer’s Eye: Composition and Design for Better Digital Photos by Michael Freeman
• Understanding Exposure in Photography (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Action
❑ Find-A-Photo: Sports
The Decisive Moment
breaking news // sports // right place, right time
Week 4 | Sept. 14-18
Readings:
• The Most Important Skill for a Photojournalist (PDF)
• Who I’ve Hired: Julianne Varacchi, Senior Photo Editor, ESPN
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 3-4 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo: Emotion
War & Crisis
bearing witness // victims // vultures // personal toll
Week 5 | Sept. 21-25
Readings:
• Beyond the Myth of the War Photographer (PDF)
• ‘Who is the Enemy Here?’ The Vietnam War Pictures That Moved Them Most (PDF)
• Gerda Taro: The First Woman War Photographer to Die in the Field (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• The True Story Behind an Iconic Vietnam War Photo Was Nearly Erased
• “Looking At War” by Susan Sontag
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Light
❑ Find-A-Photo: Familiar Place
Colonial Lens
indigenous people // power dynamics // representation
Week 6 | Sept. 28-Oct. 2
Readings:
• When the Camera Was a Weapon of Imperialism. (And When It Still Is.) (PDF)
• National Geographic’s November cover falls back on a racist cliché (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• Lynsey Addario: An Unexpected Retrospective
• How a Lack of Representation Is Hurting Photojournalism
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 5-6 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo: Enigma
The Photo Essay
LIFE // visual narrative // mid-century culture
Week 7 | Oct. 5-9
Readings:
• The Shock of Robert Frank’s “The Americans” (PDF)
• ‘Country Doctor’: W. Eugene Smith’s Landmark Photo Essay (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Here and Now
❑ Find-A-Photo: Protests and Demonstrations
Protest
social movements // visual symbols // first amendment rights
Week 8 | Oct. 12-16
Readings:
• Magnum Photos: On Protest Photography (PDF)
• Photographers are being called on to stop showing protesters’ faces. Should they? (PDF)
• Photos can show protests’ complexity—or they can perpetuate old lies (PDF)
• Twenty tips for staying safe while covering protests (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• In Photographing Social Justice Protests, Respect Means ‘Looking Again’ (PDF)
• The Superhero Photographs of the Black Lives Matter Movement (PDF)
• Interview with Photojournalist Evelyn Hockstein (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 7-8 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo: Voting in 2016
Race & Civil Rights
stereotype // contrast // conflict // celebrities
Week 9 | Oct. 19-23
Readings:
• Malcolm X as Visual Strategist (PDF)
• Why does this legendary Black photographer’s work continue to resonate today? (PDF)
• Teaching The Camera To See My Skin (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• Why We Need More Visual Journalists and Editors of Color (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Portraits
❑ Find-A-Photo: Celebrity Portrait
Portraits
environmental // series // lighting & posing
Week 10 | Oct. 26-30
Readings:
• The search for Jackie Wallace (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 9-10 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo: Animal
Environment & Landscape
animal life // large-scale composition // getting there
Week 11 | Nov. 2-6
Readings:
• Reckoning With Ansel Adams’s Photos Of A Mythic, Pristine American Wild West (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Day in the Life
❑ Find-A-Photo: Beauty
Death & Disaster
whose bodies // blood // survivors
Week 12 | Nov. 9-13
No class Wednesday for Veterans Day
Readings:
• When We See Photographs of Some Dead Bodies and Not Others (PDF)
• Evelyn McHale: Photojournalism as Iconography (PDF)
• Emmett Till’s mother opened his casket and sparked the civil rights movement (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• The War Photo No One Would Publish (PDF)
• Where Are the Photos of People Dying of Covid? (PDF)
• Behind the Scenes: To Publish or Not? (PDF)
• After Atomic Bombings, These Photographers Worked Under Mushroom Clouds (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Weeks 11-12 Quiz
❑ Find-A-Photo
In the Home
access // everyday life // invisible violence
Week 13 | Nov. 16-20
Readings:
• Photographing Domestic Violence: Showing Uncomfortable Truths (PDF)
• A Man Chronicles His Wife’s Battle with Cancer in Heartbreaking Photographs (PDF)
• When Struggling Families Spark Internet Rage (PDF)
• Live Chat Transcript: ‘Evicted in Colorado’ photographer (PDF)
Assignments:
❑ Photography Assignment: Pushing the Camera
❑ Find-A-Photo: Someone Like You
Thanksgiving Break: Nov. 23-27
Children
vulnerability // symbolic youth // legal considerations
Week 14 | Nov. 30-Dec. 4
Readings:
• The People in the Pictures – pages v to xi
• The Many Lives of Hazel Bryan (PDF)
Recommended Reading:
• Where Is She Now? The Famous Flying Patagonia Baby
Assignments:
❑ Final Quiz – includes review questions
❑ Find-A-Photo: Off Topic
New Perspectives
drones // surveillance // industry transformation
Week 15 | Dec. 7-11
Recommended Readings:
• The Problem With Police-Shooting Videos (PDF)
• Are the police trying to stop you from taking that cellphone video? (PDF)
• Photo Bill of Rights
• The Photo Bill of Rights: An Interview with Three Co-Authors (PDF)
• Designed to Deceive: Do These People Look Real to You?
Assignments:
❑ Final Project (due Dec. 16)
Finals Week
Week 16 | Dec. 14-18
There is no final exam for this course.