Course Syllabus

History of Photography in Europe: Technology, Culture, Art

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 from history to journalism, law, medicine, and science. Through hands-on exercises, field studies and meetings with professionals, we zoom in on the interplay of seeing and learning, investigating photography’s role in shaping societies, memories, and identities.

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. Analyzing the rhetoric of the photographic image in relation to its historical development and societal effect and presenting the analysis in independent written and oral formats.

LO4: Experiential process. Exploring Stockholm from the perspective of the course, engaging in field studies and other course activities that support the personal learning process within and outside the DIS classroom.

Faculty

Åsa Sjöström, photographer
Photojournalism Nordens Fotoskola 2000-2002, Stockholm International Art School 1999-2000 Freelance photographer since 2013, Director of Photography since 2018, staff photographer at Sydsvenskan 2005-2013, Dagens Nyheter 2004-2005, Göteborgs-Posten 2003, Aftonbladet 2002 With DIS since 2023

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 & Study Tour

Visits to three cultural institutions in Stockholm focusing on photography - Stockholm City Museum, Moderna Museet and Fotografiska - as well as city exploration in the onsite seminar Photography in action.

Study tour to London, July 19-23. Visits to museums, archives and galleries focusing on photography - Tate Britain, Victoria & Albert Museum, Atlas Gallery, Hamiltons Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery and The Photographers Gallery - as well as city exploration in the onsite seminar Photography in action.

The objective of the study tour is to achieve the course’s learning objectives regarding general overview, in-depth knowledge, methodological practice and experiential process in the context of the city of London, British photography and the role of Great Britain in the history of photography.

Grading

Academic Regulations  

Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on: 

• Course Enrollment and Grading  
• Academic Expectations and Honor Code 

DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org