Look Again: New Approaches to the History of Photography
with Christopher B. Steiner, Ph.D.
Lucy C. McDannel ‘22 Professor of Art History and Anthropology, Connecticut College
Fridays February 13–March 13, with optional add-on Museum visit on March 20
$85 (Members 10% Discount); Participants choosing to attend the March 20 in-person visit to the Lyman Allyn Art Museum will pay a $10 group visit fee separately
Each week this short course, presented via ZOOM, will explore new approaches to the history of photography by moving beyond the usual “greatest hits” to explore the medium’s overlooked practitioners and its entanglements in our everyday life. Together these sessions offer a fresh, critical, and innovative way to understand photography’s past and its ongoing power in the contemporary world.
We begin by examining the multiple inventions of photography, from its technological origins in Europe in the 1830s to its “invented” assimilation into the history of art beginning in the United States a century later.
From there we examine the ethics and politics of documentary photography by exploring the works of well-known photographers like Jacob Riis and Dorothea Lang, as well as the unknown men and women who chronicled with their camera the peoples and cultures of their own communities.
In our third class session we dive into the uncanny world of spirit photography and so-called “hidden mother” portraits, as we consider ways in which photography can capture both the visible and the invisible.
Then we turn to the rich terrain of “vernacular” or amateur photography, asking what our family snapshots and anonymous albums reveal about ourselves and social life?
Finally, we conclude by looking at the fascinating intersection between photography and painting, highlighting the ways in which the two mediums have overlapped and complemented each other – through painted backdrops in studio portraiture; painted foregrounds in arcade or carnival photography; and the painted photograph itself, images enhanced, tinted or entirely transformed by the application of pigment and paint.
An extra optional bonus session will be offered on March 20 to take a guided tour of Photography and the Painted Image at the Lyman Allyn Art Museum, an exhibition curated by Christopher Steiner and students in his class AHI 250: Perspectives on Photography.
FEB 13: The Inventions of Photography
FEB 20: Documentary Photography: Insiders vs. Outsiders
FEB 27: Spooky Stuff: Spirit Photography and Hidden Mothers
MARCH 6: What About My Snapshots? Exploring Vernacular Photography
MARCH 13: Photography and the Painted Image
MARCH 20: Bonus Session: optional visit to the Lyman Allyn Art Museum to see Photography and the Painted Image
Please note: to receive a Member discount you MUST be registered with an online account. Not yet registered? Sign up here. All Membership discounts will be automatically applied after you login, enter registrant information, and add tickets to your cart.
The Museum’s educational programming is supported by the Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut; Connecticut Humanities; the Randolph and John Dirks Fund; the John and Kelly Hartman Foundation; the Sally Bill Children’s Education Fund; the Betty M. Challgren Education Fund; the Elizabeth Matthews Hubbard Education Fund; the Ingalls Foundation Education Fund; the Sali Godard Riege Educational Fund; and the Lelan F. Sillin, Jr. Education Endowment Fund.
Educational & Travel Program Refund Policy
No refunds for Broadway bus trips or Miss Florence’s Teas after transaction is complete. Refunds for programs over $20 are subject to a $20 cancellation fee. Refunds (less $20 fee) are offered for cancellations made prior to a program’s noted refund date. Programs without a refund date can be cancelled one hour prior to event. No refunds after program takes place. To request a refund or to transfer program fee into a donation, please email david@flogris.org. (Updated February 2022)
