Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
French language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the second semester
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
The course disproves theories of photography that claim that since it is not structured as a language, a photographic image cannot develop any discourse beyond 'this is what it was' (Barthes), it questions the various techniques photographers, photojournalists, publishers and editors have used since the origins of the medium to make photography 'speak' and to either explicitly or implicitly control its impact and meaning.
The course examines the various discursive photographic models that have been used in the course of the history of photography, and completes its contribution through the analysis of photographic images, sequences or sets such as: legal and forensic photography, ethnographic photography, scientific photography, war photography, or famous photographies by such well-known names as Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange, Joe Rosenthal, W. Eugene Smith, Robert Capa, Marc Riboud, Robert Frank, William Klein, Hocine Zaourar, Georges Mérillon, Andreas Gursky, etc.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
Learning methods of analysis and learning how to analyse visual discourses; more particularly: learning about some historical landmarks in the field of photography and photojournalism.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
None. Yet some basic knowledge about the history of photography may be useful.
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
Compulsory reading of the study by Roland Barthes, La chambre claire, Paris, Gallimard/Cahiers du Cinéma/Seuil, 1980.
Written essay: in-depth analysis of a 'photo-essay' published in Life magazine between 1945 and 1972. Issues of the magazine will be available in the reading room of the main library between 1 February and 1 March. Students must scan an issue of their choice, analyse the photo-essay sequence as a whole then in more detail.
Mode of delivery (face-to-face ; distance-learning)
Recommended or required readings
No syllabus: note taking is compulsory. But the slides shown in class will be available on MyUlg.
Assessment methods and criteria
The essay accounts for 40% and the oral examinationen for 60% of the final mark. The latter bears on the compulsory reading (commenting an excerpt from the book) and on the material covered in class (comparative analysis of two slides presented on two different weeks).
Work placement(s)
Organizational remarks
Contacts
Titulaire : Marc-Emmanuel Mélon, chargé de cours
Département des Arts et Sciences de la Communication - Service Cinéma et Arts Audiovisuels, Place du 20-Août, 7 - Bât. A1 - 2e étage - tél. 04.366.32.55 ME.Melon@ulg.ac.be
Assistant : Jonathan Thonon
Place du XX-Août, 7, 4000 Liège. Tél. : +32 (0)4 366 52 32.- jthonon@ulg.ac.be