Jour/IMC 150: Mediaculture–Photography and the Documentary Tradition
Roosevelt University: Spring 2012
Michael Ensdorf, Professor of Photography
Department of Communication
How to reach me:
E-mail: mensdorf@roosevelt.edu
Phone: 312-341-6458
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2:00pm, Gage 506
The best way to reach me is by e-mail. I check it daily.
Course description: An exploration of the history of documentary photography from the origins of the medium to the present. The course will consist of slide lectures and discussion, as well as individual and group photography projects. No previous photography experience required.
Time: 11am-12:15pm, Tuesdays/Thursdays
Place: Gage 215
Evaluation: Shooting assignments: 25%, attendance and participation: 75%
Attendance: Mandatory. Lateness and any unexcused absence will affect your final grade. Three absences is considered to be deserving of a failing grade.
Textbook: None
Plagiarism: All work must be original. Parts of published photographs may be scanned for manipulation if changed so that they no longer represent their original state. Using another artist’s illustration, photograph, or design without giving the artist credit is considered plagiarism and will not be accepted.
Accommodation of students with disabilities: Students with disabilities or other conditions that require special accommodations should let me know or contact the Academic Success Center/Office of Disability Services at (312) 341-3810 as soon as possible.
Final date for official withdrawal: The final date for an official withdrawal from a spring-term course is Monday, March 26th. If you withdraw by that date, your grade for the course will be a “W” for withdrawal. After that date, if you wish to withdraw from the course, you will need to petition the registrar for late withdrawal.
Goals of the class: To introduce the history of the documentary photography as a genre within the medium 0f photography and relate it to current practices. To develop effective ways to talk about photographic work.
Class Structure: Slide lectures, readings and shooting assignments related to the technique, theory, history, ethical considerations, and creative process of documentary photography.
Class organization:
Week 1: What is Documentary Photography?
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 2: Contemporary Documentary Photography: The Ninth Floor/Sleeping by the Mississippi
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 3: Photography and the Internet: A New American Picture
ASSIGNMENT: FIND pictures using Google Street View and upload to Flickr
Week 4: The Making of a Documentary Photography Exhibition
Week 5: The 60’s and 70’s
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 6: The New Topographics
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 7: Robert Frank’s Americans
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 8: Social Documentary Photography
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 9: SPRING BREAK!
Week 10: National Geographic
Week 11: Photography of War: From the Civil War to Iraq
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 12: Crime Photography
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 13: Street Photography
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 14: Documentary and Art
ASSIGNMENT: Shoot pictures and upload to Flickr
Week 15: The Future of Documentary Photography
Note: Weekly course content is subject to change.
About your instructor:
Mike Ensdorf, Associate Dean/Arts & Sciences, Professor of Photography/Journalism & Media Studies, Founder and Director/Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University. Master of Fine Arts, University of Illinois at Chicago.
Ensdorf helped develop the Journalism and Media Studies program at Roosevelt University in Chicago. In Roosevelt’s Department of Communication he teaches: Film and Digital Photography, Photobook History and Practice, and Pinhole to Cameraphone: Photography’s History and Practice. Ensdorf’s photographic work was included in the Iterations exhibition at the International Center of Photography in New York, and in the book of the same name published by MIT Press. His work was also included in the Photography after Photography exhibition, touring museums in Germany, Austria, Denmark, Switzerland, Finland, and finishing at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. His work is represented in the German and English editions of the book, Photography after Photography: Memory and Representation in the Digital Age, published by G+B Arts. Ensdorf’s work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Contemporary Photography in Chicago. As founding director, Ensdorf has developed the Gage Gallery at Roosevelt University into “Chicago’s premier space for showcasing contemporary critical social photo-documentary work.” (Michael Weinstein, NewCity, Chicago.)