ARTH3362 · Fine Arts

Photography and Modernism

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

After decades of constant change in photography's use and technology, at the turn of the twentieth century photographers began exploring the defining conditions of their quintessentially modern medium. Photography came into its own in the years that followed, as it became a primary medium of mass-communication and solidified its place among the fine arts. This course will trace the intertwined iterations of modernism in photography, focusing on European and American art movements. We will look at photographers including Alexander Rodchenko, László Moholy-Nagy, Alfred Stieglitz, Imogen Cunningham, Edward Weston, and Ansel Adams, and read both theoretical texts and artists' own writing about photography.