STUDY PROGRAMME
Photography and Visual design

AFAM CODE
ABPR31

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Photography

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Digital photography

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical/project based

The course aims at increasing awareness in the creation and interpretation of photographic images.

During the lectures, by analysing the typical tools of the photographic language, images are seen as open containers of meanings.

Centred on the practice of documentary photography, this course mainly focuses on two aspects: territory photography as a mapping, re-vision and transformation tool; and reportage photography, beside any reference to the news, used as a tool of social investigation and as a personal standpoint.

By providing high-level skills in the field of photographic projectuality, the course is integrated with equally advanced technical contents, and makes a comparison between the analogue production experience and tradition, and the contemporary digital universe.

The total CFA credits for this course are 6. The course includes the following didactic sections:

• EXHIBITIONS

• WORKSHOP REPORTAGE

Successful students will be able to:

• Develop complex projects of documentary photography

• Use images as tools for territorial and social investigation

• Create photography reportages

• Plan the shooting activities and anticipate the necessary passages to create photography projects

• Develop articulated and consistent conversation around personal works

• Deal with clients and manage their expectations and goals

The course contents include in-depth study of the following topics:

• Documentary photography authors

• Reportage authors

• Political and social value of photography

• Contemporary reportage: beyond current events

• Photo editing

• Logistics and planning of photography projects

• Open works

This is a theoretical/project based course Throughout the course, the students will carry out didactic activities that are functional to achieving the learning goals, that in all modules may include:

• Classroom lectures

• Exercises and revisions

• Field trips

• Development of individual projects

• Individual study and research

• Use of tutorials, videos or other media tools for detailed study

The didactic sections that are part of the course will be assessed separately. The final grade will result from the weighted average of the didactic sections marks. The assessment will be based on:

• Oral exam

• Presentation of projects

• Assessed revisions or mid-term tests

Further details on specific tests can be provided by the professors during the course. Assessment criteria include commitment, active participation and personal growth of the students during the course.

• Adams, Robert, Why People Photograph, Aperture, New York 2005.

• Agamben, Giorgio, Che cos’è un dispositivo?, Nottetempo, Milano 2008.

• Holland Day, Fred, Suffering the Ideal, Twin Palms, Santa Fe 1995.

• Shore, Stephen, Lezione di fotografia. La natura delle fotografie, Phaidon, London 2010.

• Soth, Alec; Zanot, Francesco, Conversazioni intorno a un tavolo, Contrasto, Roma 2013.

Further bibliographic recommendations may be provided by the professor during the course. A lot of the referenced material, together with other in-depth study material, can be consulted online in MyNaba, in the Library section.