Course Syllabus

SYLLABUS

Photography in Europe: Technology, Culture, Art

Semester & Location:	Summer 2026 Session 3 - DIS Stockholm
Type & Credits:	Summer course - 3 credits
Faculty:	Vendela Nike Grundell Gachoud Robert Stasinski - Contact via Canvas Inbox
Time:	See Course Summary below
Classroom:	1D-509
Major Disciplines:	History, Media Studies, Photography, Visual Studies
Related Disciplines:	Art History, Visual Arts
Program Contact:	humanities@dis.dk

Course Description

This course investigates the impact of photography on culture, art, and society from the first photographic images recorded in Europe around 1840 and up until today. We explore the role of photography beyond mainstream cultural accounts, integrating a diversity of disciplines. Through hands-on exercises and field studies, we zoom in on the interplay of seeing and learning, investigating photography’s role in shaping societies, memories, and identities.

Please find the syllabus under Files/Course Information.

Warmly welcome!

Learning Objectives

LO1: General overview. Grasping the historical development and societal effect of technologies, practices and concepts comprising the photographic apparatus.

LO2: In-depth knowledge. Understanding the interplay between the photographic apparatus, memory and identity formation.

LO3: Methodological practice. Analysing the rhetoric of the photographic image in relation to its historical development and societal effect and presenting the analysis in written and oral formats.

LO4: Experiential process. Exploring the perspectives of the course and engaging in course activities that support a personal learning process, in and outside the classroom.

Faculty

Head teacher: Vendela Grundell Gachoud
Vendela Grundell Gachoud (b. 1977) is an interdisciplinary researcher, a teacher in advanced education and a professional photographer with a PhD in Art History. Her work features in international settings since 1998, exploring how photography shapes identities and communities. Born in Stockholm, living in Montreux, with DIS since 2016.

Co-teacher: Robert Stasinski
Robert Stasinski (b. 1980) has worked as an artist, critic, magazine editor, author, and curator for twenty-five years. Currently Editor-in-chief of Konstnären Magazine, and host of the Konstnären Podcast. He was course leader for Art & Organizing at Curating Art – the International Master Program in Curating at Stockholm University between 2018-2024. Currently artistic researcher at Linköping University.

Readings

Excerpts from the following books:

Behdad, Ali, and Luke Gartlan, eds., (2013) Photography's Orientalism: New essays on Colonial Representation. Getty Publications. [224 p.]

Karlsson Rixon, Annica (2016) Queer community through photographic acts: three entrances to an artistic research project approaching LGBTQIA Russia. Stockholm: Art and Theory. [207 p.].

Ruchel-Stockmans, Katarzyna (2015) Images Performing History: Photography and Representations of the Past in European Art after 1989. Leuven: Leuven University Press. [304 p.]. 

Wells, Liz, ed., (2021) Photography: A Critical Introduction. London and New York: Routledge. [464 p.]

Changes and additions may occur.

Field Studies

Visits to four leading cultural institutions - Moderna Museet, Fotografiska, Kulturhuset and Stockholm City Museum - as well as explorations of the city in the workshop Doing photography, and other forms of co-creation and exchange.

Grading