History Through Images
How has photography changed the way that we understand and study past historical events? This course explores
how historians might learn to see better, how we might learn to “read” images, and how photographic images
change our relationship with the past. During the first weeks of the class, we’ll read debates over the nature of sight
and the types of evidence provided by photographic images. During the following weeks we’ll trace over a 150
years of the wider history of photography as it shaped a range of fields and became a powerful tool for the sciences
and medicine, colonial infrastructure, wartime propaganda, communicating the news, constructing individual and
national identities, advertising, protest, environmental activism and feminist critique around the globe. While this
curated history of photography includes the Euro-North American context, it will amplify perspectives from East
Asia, India, Africa, and Central and South America. The seminar will combine short background lectures with
active group discussions and activities, visual analysis of photographs, film viewings, and in-depth engagements
with online photography archives.