STUDY PROGRAMME
Photography and Visual design

AFAM CODE
ABTEC37

DISCIPLINARY AREA
Project methodology of visual communication

DISCIPLINARY FIELD
Project methodology of visual communication

CREDITS
6

APPROACH
Theoretical/project based

The course focuses on three specific aspects of artistic research through the photographic language, in particular:

• The use of archives in the creation of artistic projects: from “found photography” to the Internet;

• Photography and words: relations and interactions among media, from captions to journals;

• Photography and travels: images as a tool for discovery, exploration and definition of new geographies.

Bound by being rooted into a tradition that goes beyond the origins of photography itself, these study and production areas are here investigated through mixed paths made of theory, creation of new images and use of existing photographs. The idea itself of authorship is questioned, due to the multiple competences that are usually associated with different figures: artist, curator, editor, publisher.

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

• PHOTOGRAPHY AND ARCHIVES

• CULTURE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

• PHOTOGRAPHIC PROJECT DESIGN

Successful students will be able to:

• Develop complex projects starting from existing images

• Archive photographic images

• Find required material in different typologies of archive (public and private, analogue and digital, institutional or not).

• Properly use systems and strategies to write titles and captions

• Deal with photography genres, applying categories from the past to the new languages of photography

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

• Photo archives

• Basics of archiving

• Open archives: use of archive images to create new photography projects: found photography, family photography, photo album, institutional archives, Internet

• Museum archives

• The Internet as an images archive

• Image re-semanticization processes

• Writing about images

• Titles of photography works

• Captions and content description

• Travel and photography

• A brief history of the photographic journey

• Portraying places

• Photography genres in history of art

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.

• Alys, Francis, Fabiola: An Investigation, Dia Art Foundation, New York 2008.

• Campany, David, Arte e fotografia, Phaidon, London 2011.

• Enwezor, Okwui, Archive Fever: Uses of the Document in Contemporary Art, Steidl, Gottingen 2008.

• Lugon, Olivier, Lo stile documentario in fotografia, Electa, Milano 2008.

• Prince, Richard, Collected Writings, Hatje Cantz, Berlin 2011.

• Thompson, Jerry L., A che serve la fotografia, Postmedia Books, Milano 2015.

• Wall, Jeff, Gestus. Scritti sulla fotografia e sull’arte, Quodlibet, Macerata 2019.

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.