Face-to-face , second term, 30 hours of theory.

French

This course aims to give students the tools they need to engage in critical analysis of photographic expression.

None

As well as studying the technological aspects of photography, which are constantly changing, the course examines the photo's principal forms and applications, while at the same time considering the specific characteristics of this medium in comparison with other forms of expression. From an ontological point of view, photography has the uniqueness, as a fixed image, of offering a recording — faithful or not — of its referent, this specific relationship with the represented object conditions its relationship with the real world.

Based on an analysis of selected images, the course is divided into the following 6 parts:

1° Definition: what is photography? (review of how photography works; technological principles and image composition)

2° The portrait: from the industry to meeting others (the main use of photography : the portrait, is examined from normative representation to the representation of otherness, taking into account concepts related to its practice, such as voyeurisme or publicity rights)

3° The photo as a ‘document': informing through images. The encyclopedic mission of the photo implies that it has the role, potentially, of ‘representing' the whole of the visible world, which gives it a particular status in the fields of knowledge and evidence, especially in regard to humanitarian objectives.


4° Photojournalism and photographic essays: its rise, golden age and identity crisis (part 4 looks at the different aspects of the diffusion of photographs in the press, right up to the current crisis affecting photojournalism, and how professionals have responded).

5° Instantaneousness and its questioning (the concept of instantaneousness as intrinsic to photography - and which is dear to Henri Cartier-Bresson -, but which implies an artificial capturing of time whereas the photo is much more than this. Photomontage enables photography to represent simultaneity, long exposure times enables it to represent long durations, and sequences enable it to represent change over time, with each of these forms offering specific storytelling capabilities.

6° Photography: as a creative art tool. Photography was for a long time excluded from the fine arts. It would first become an autonomous art by imitating painting. Today, photography is viewed as a form of artistic expression in its own right, and enjoys fruitful interaction with all other forms of contemporary creative art.

Lecture

Written examination

None

A course syllabus including a course summary and all the photographic images shown during the course are made available via the IHECS intranet.