"While we tend to think of photographs as rearview mirrors, the reality is that photography aggressively moves us forward and changes everything." With these words, Marvin Heiferman introduced the 2012 volume Photography Changes Everything, which showed photography's impact on various aspects of human lives by using the rich collections of the Smithsonian Institution. Drawing from this provocative and interdisciplinary study, this course will investigate how photography – as a technology, a document, and an art practice – has affected North American history and culture. By analyzing art trends, vernacular pictures, influential exhibitions, and photo-optical innovations, this class will examine the role of photography in historically defining nations, territories, communities, and identities; at the same time, we will address the contemporary debate by exploring the digital sphere and by interviewing photo practitioners.
- Trainer/in: Noemi Quagliati