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2021/2022

Photography Cinema: Classicism and Postmodernity

Code: 100564 ECTS Credits: 6
Degree Type Year Semester
2500239 Art History OT 3 0
2500239 Art History OT 4 0
2504235 Science, Technology and Humanities OT 4 0
The proposed teaching and assessment methodology that appear in the guide may be subject to changes as a result of the restrictions to face-to-face class attendance imposed by the health authorities.

Contact

Name:
Nuria Llorens Moreno
Email:
Nuria.Llorens@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
catalan (cat)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
Yes
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Prerequisites

Good reading habits. English knowledge recomended..

Objectives and Contextualisation

The syllabus for this course consists of two parts. In the first part, we will take a survey of the history of photography, from its origins to the present day, based on a careful selection of themes. The aim of this part of the programme is to familiarise students with the broad panorama of the history of photography, and with the conceptual tools necessary to critically analyse the photographic phenomenon and to understand it from multiple perspectives.
The second, shorter part of the programme will be devoted to avant-garde cinema and its legacy in contemporary art and documentary cinema. The classes in this part of the programme will complement those in the first part, with the aim of deepening our knowledge of the artistic culture of the avant-garde and bringing us closer to one of the most relevant and active fields of contemporary filmmaking.

Competences

    Art History
  • Critically analysing from the acquired knowledge a work of art in its many facets: formal values, iconographic significance, artistic techniques and procedures, elaboration process and reception mechanisms.
  • Interpreting a work of art in the context in which it was developed and relating it with other forms of cultural expression.
  • Recognising the evolution of the artistic imagery from the antiquity to the contemporary visual culture.
  • Recognising the fundamental problems, vocabulary and concepts of the Theory of Art and Cinema.
  • Students must be capable of applying their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional way and they should have building arguments and problem resolution skills within their area of study.
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Accurately defining and explaining an artistic object with the specific language of art criticism.
  2. Analysing ideas about an artistic phenomenon in a given cultural context.
  3. Analysing the creators of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  4. Analysing the recipients of an artistic phenomenon in a specific cultural context.
  5. Connecting an artistic imagery with other cultural phenomena within its period.
  6. Critically analysing basic concepts of artistic and cinematographic theory and its evolution through history.
  7. Distinguishing the elaboration techniques and processes of an artistic object.
  8. Engaging in debates about historical facts respecting the other participants' opinions.
  9. Examining an artistic imagery and distinguishing its formal, iconographic and symbolic values.
  10. Explaining the reception mechanisms of a work of art.
  11. Identifying the artistic imagery, placing it into its cultural context.
  12. Reconstructing the artistic outlook of a particular cultural context.

Content

Programme
PHOTOGRAPHY
1. Thinking about, reading and studying photography. Introduction to the study of photography. Museums, Archives and Libraries: collections and holdings.
Modernity
2. What is photography? The invention of photography. Exploration of the medium and technique: the pioneers. Debates about the nature and uses of photography: the progressive recognition of the new art.
The photographic vision: itineraries
3. Travels and photography: the relief of picturesqueness and the colonial gaze. Photographic campaigns and expeditions.
4. The modern city photographed. Far from the city, the Mexican case, photography, painting and literature: Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Paul Strand, Juan Rulfo, Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo.
5. Photography and the avant-garde: experimentation and creation.
6. Photography as a social document: readings of Gisèle Freund and Susan Sontag.
Postmodernity. The "capitalism of images" and the phenomenon of post-photography.
7. Questions on photography today.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
8. The avant-garde and cinema. Soviet cinema: experimentation and theories of montage. Expressionism and surrealism.
9. Documentary cinema: characteristics and possibilities. Essay and poetic cinema.

Methodology

The teaching methodology and the evaluation proposed in the guide may undergo some modification subject to the onsite teaching restrictions imposed by health authorities

Lectures and dialogic classes.

Documents search and writing exercises

Individual work: writing a critical essay

Text analysis of the readings assigned to the topics covered in the course.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Seminar lectures 50 2 6, 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 8, 12, 5
Type: Supervised      
Tutoring sessions 20 0.8 6, 3, 4, 2, 8
Type: Autonomous      
Bibliographic and documentary search 40 1.6 6, 3, 4, 2, 1, 7, 8, 12, 5
Writing papers, reviews, text commentaries, etc. 40 1.6 6, 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 8, 5

Assessment

The assessement will draw in three exercices.

Three papers consistint on works and readings comentaries. These papers are not a face-to-face examination.

In the event that the lectures cannot be taken onsite, they will be adapted to an online
format made available through the UAB’s virtual tools.
Homework, activities and class participation will be carried out through forums, wikis and/or
discussion on Teams, etc. Lecturers will ensure that students are able to access these virtual
tools, or will offer them feasible alternatives

In case of plagirarism:

In the event of a student committing any irregularity that may lead to a significant variation
in the grade awarded to an assessment activity, the student will be given a zero for
this activity, regardless of any disciplinary process that may take place. In the event of
several irregularities in assessment activities of the same subject, the student will be given
a zero as the final grade for this subject.

Second chance examination:

The student could submit a second chance examination of the papers with a rating inferior to 5.

Exams and papers review procedure:

Durig the evaluative process, the lecturer will inform students (Moodle) of the examns and papers review procedure.

The Student will be rated as ‘Not assessable’ if he/she has not delivered more than 30 % of the evaluation work.

 

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Works and readings commentary 2 35 % 0 0 6, 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 5
Works and readings commentary 3 30 % 0 0 6, 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 5
Works and readings commentary 1 35 % 0 0 6, 3, 4, 2, 11, 1, 7, 9, 10, 8, 12, 5

Bibliography

BIBLIOGRAFIA

FOTOGRAFIA

BARTHES, Roland, La càmera lúcida. Nota sobre la fotografia, Barcelona, Paidós, 2009.

BATCHEN, Gofrey, Arder en deseos. La concepción de la fotografia, Barcelona,GG, 2004.

BENJAMIN, Walter, Breve historia de la fotografía, Madrid, Casimiro, 2011.

Burgin, Victor. Ensayos. Barcelona, GG, 2004.

CLARKE, Graham. The Photograph. Oxoford University Press, 1997.

FONTCUBERTA, Joan (ed.), estètica fotogràfica, GG, Barcelona, 2012.

FONTCUBERTA, Joan, La cámara de Pandora: La fotografí@ después de la fotografia, Ed. Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 2010.

FONTCUBERTA, Joan, La fúria de las imágenes, Galaxia Gutemberg, Barcelona, 2020.

Freund, Gisèle, La fotografia como documento social, GG, Barcelona, 2017.

FREUND, Gisèle, La fotografia como documento social, GG, Barcelona, 2017.

FRIED, Michael. Why Photography Matters as Art as Never before / Michael Fried. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.

HENISCH, Heinz K., The Photographic experience, 1839-1914 : images and attitudes, University Park, Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994.

KRACAUER Siegfried, and Laura S. CARUGATI. La Fotografía y otros ensayos : el ornamento de la masa 1, Barcelona: Gedisa, 2008.

MARIEN, Mary Warner, Photography and its critics : a cultural history, 1839-1900, Cambridge,  Cambridge Univ. Press, 1997.

NEWHALL, Nancy Wynne, and Beaumont Newhall. From Adams to Stieglitz : Pioneers of Modern Photography , New York: Aperture, 1989. 

NEWHALL, Beaumont, Historia de la fotografía, Barcelona, Gustavo Gili, 2002.

SHARF, Aaron, Arte y fotografía, Madrid : Alianza, 1994.

SONTAG, Susan, Sobre la fotografia, Barcelona, Arcàdia, 2019.

SOUGEZ, Marie-Loup (Coord.), Historia general de la fotografia, Madrid, Cátedra, 2007.

CINEMA

BRESCHAND, J., El documental. La otra cara del cine, Barcelona, 2004.

BRESSON, Robert, Notas sobre el cinematógrafo, Árdora, Madrid, 1999.

CATALÀ, Josep Maria, Estética del ensayo. La forma ensayo de Montaigne a Godard, Publicacions de la Universitat de València, València, 2014.

EISENSTEIN, Sergei M., Teoría y técnica cinematogràfica, Rialp, Madrid, 1989.

DULAC, Germaine, Ecrits sur le cinema 1919-1937, París, 1994

DURAS, Marguerite. Les yeux verts / Marguerite Duras. Paris?: Cahiers du Cinema, 1987.

EIZYKMAN, Claudine. La Jouissance : cinéma. Paris: Union Générale d’Éditions, 1976

KRACAUER, Siegfried. Teoría del cine, Barcelona, Paidós, 2001.

KRACAUER, Siegfried. De Caligari a Hitler : historia psicológica del cine alemán. Barcelona, Paidós, 1985

KAHANA, Jonathan,  The Documentary film reader: History, Theory, Criticism,  Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2016.

MICHAUD, P. A., Sur le film, Macula, París, 2016.

RAGGHIANTI, Carlo Ludovico. Cinema arte figurativa. 3a ed. Torino: Giulio Einaudi ed., 1964.

SÁNCHEZ-BIOSCA, Vicente. Cine y vanguardias artísticas, Barcelona, Paidós, 2004.

TORREIRO, Casimiro i CERDÁN, Josetxo (eds.),  Documental y vanguardia, Madrid, Cátedra, 2005.

VERTOV, Dziga, Cine-ojo: [textos y manifiestos], Funsamentos, Madrid, 1974.

Software

If a specific software is necessary we will inform the student