Studies in 20th & 21st-Century Art (460-0-3)
Topic
Black Lens: Reframing Photographic Practice
Instructors
Krista Thompson
Meeting Info
Kresge 4354 Art Hist. Sem. Rm.: Thurs 2:00PM - 4:50PM
Overview of class
From the daguerreotype to the meme, this seminar examines how the history and materiality of photography and other lens-based practices have been reframed through the lens of Black experience. Concentrating primarily on new scholarship, we interrogate themes of fugitivity, collaboration, death, futurity, diaspora, diffraction, skin, blur, surface, and artificial archives. Focused largely on the United States and the Caribbean, the photographic and videographic practices of Dawoud Bey, Arthur Jafa, Rodell Warner, Carrie Mae Weems, and Cosmo Whyte, among others, will be considered. We investigate this work through site visits to exhibitions around Chicago, including at the Arts Club and the Museum of Contemporary Art. Readings include texts by Siobhan Angus, Sampada Aranke, Ariella Azoulay, Emilie Boone, Rizvana Bradley, Tina Campt, Saidiya Hartman, and Legacy Russell.
Class Materials (Required)
Sampada Aranke, Death's Futurity: The Visual Life of Black Power. Duke University Press, 2023. ISBN-10 1478019301
Emilie Boone, A Nimble Arc: James Van Der Zee and Photography. Duke University Press, 2023. ISBN-10 1478024909
Crooks, Julie, et al. Fragments of Epic Memory. DAP/Distributed Art Publishers, 2022. ISBN-10 1636810128
Angus, Siobhan. Camera Geologica: An Elemental History of Photography. Duke University Press, 2024. ISBN-10. 1478030186
Azoulay, A. A., Ewald, W., Meiselas, S., Raiford, L., & Wexler, L., Collaboration: A Potential History of Photography. Thames and Hudson, 2023. ISBN-10 0500545332