Description
This course introduces students to making documentary work with still photography, and considers approaches that range between, but fall short of including, photojournalism and photographic essay. Doing documentary work is challenging and often highlights ethical issues pertaining to the process itself. All documentary work touches on the human condition, to some extent includes photographs of people, and consequently requires attention and sensitivity to the subject/object relationship. To prepare for such challenges, students will study exemplary photodocumentaries, put into practice core visual and technical skills, collaborate with peers and community partners, learn to photograph empathetically and express their understanding of particular issues in relation to systemic patterns.
Sewanee is in close proximity to one of the poorest counties in the nation. It is widely understood that poverty, environmental and human health, education, race and human rights are correlated.
This class therefore collaborates with Professor Deborah McGrath’s Biology 232: Human Health and Environment (Spring 2012) and Professor Paige Schneider’s Political Science / Women’s Studies 310: Politics of Poverty (Fall 2011) courses. Course projects will be defined by the relationship between particular community issues and the systemic and societal dynamics that determine them.
Paramount in the course objectives is that students learn to contribute to a discourse about the human condition in visual terms.