Introduction to the history of photography
Discover the history of photography
- Get inspired from pioneer photographers
- Learn about photography within historical art movements
- Explore the effect of the new medium on everyday life
- Study photography’s chemical and technological development
Schedule and pricing
- Each photo course is comprised of five two-hour sessions
- Individual course: flexible schedule day, evenings or weekends
- Schedule your classes directly with Oliver : oliver.ohanlon@me.com
- Price CHF 800.-
- Valid 12 months
Overview
Photography has become the the main medium for image-making and visual communication since its development in the nineteenth century. This five-part course introduces you to past and present photographic practices and cultures. You don’t need previous knowledge of photography or history of art. We will view images made by important contributors to photography’s histories, as well as images that are important less for who made them than for their power within the discourses of mass culture. We will also learn about various technical processes, the camera’s evolution, and the vocabulary and issues of photographic theory. You will experiment with historical practices and aesthetics by completing four homework assignments.
What you will learn
- The camera obscura: photography before light sensitive chemical processes
- The inventors: Nicéphore Niépce, Louis Dageurre, Henry Fox Talbot and Richard Maddox
- The first one hundred years, from 1826 to 1926: chemical processes, camera technology, aesthetic styles and pictorialism
- Chemical processes: Daguereotype, Salt, Van Dyke, Albumen, Callitype, Collodian, Cyanotype, Palladium Platinum and Silver Gelatin
- Pioneer photographers: Roger Fenton, Edward Curtis, Mathew Brady, Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Steigletz, Edward Steichen, Man Ray, Nadar, Jean-Jaques Lartigue, Paul Strand, Ansel Adams and Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Master photographers: Weegee, Robert Capa, Eilliot Erwit, Richard Averdon, Diane Arbus, William Klein, Robert Frank, Cindy Sherman and Nan Goldin
- Photography within fine art movements and styles: Dada, Surrealism, Mixed Media, Pop-Art, Modernism, Abstraction, the California Modernists, Snap-shot Aesthetic and the New Social Landscape,
- Humanistic photography: the Farm Security Administration, the Family of Man, the Concerned Photographer
- Photographic genres: portraiture, landscape, still life, documentary, photojournalism, scientific, family and commercial
- Contemporary photographic practices and cultures
Program
- Class topics below feature the work of the photographers listed above
- Classes 2-5: Include a review session of your homework
- Class 1: Camera Obscura. The inventors. First one hundred years 1826-1926 timeline.
- Class 2: Chemical processes. Photography within fine art movements and photographic theory 1926-1975.
- Class 3: Pioneer photographers
- Class 4: 20th century master photographers
- Class 5: Contemporary photographic practices and cultures
Address
- 88 Rue de Saint-Jean, 1201 Geneva
- Public transport: bus 7 stop Ormeaux tram 15 stop Mercier
- Walking: 3 minutes from Manor department store or 6 minutes Cornavin railway station
