Visual Sociology2013-14Carol Wolkowitz and Cath Lambert

Week 1Introductory lecture

Today’s lecture

• Today’s lecture will:• outline the module structure• describe the organisation of teaching• module resources, equipment and ‘training’• detail the assignments• use photographs chosen for covers of handbook as a

brief introduction to the kinds of issue we will be discussing

Module Structure• Two terms of weekly

teaching, plus preparation and support for final project• Term 1: The Photograph as

Image, Evidence and Social Practice• Term 2: Methods of Visual

Sociology• Term 3: Support for final

projects

Practical training• Introduction to digital photography Week 3 lecture (RO39,

Ground floor of library. Includes tips on taking pictures, storing them, manipulating them with GIMP, and scanning them into your assignments as necessary.

• If you feel that you know all this, you should take a more advanced course from IT, or you may like to move on to that.

• See handbook for Autumn short courses.

Module assignments

• Photographic Portraits• The Faces of Work (non-assessed: weeks 8-10• Analysing a Single Image (assessed, 1500 words, 25% of

marks. Term 2, week 11)• A photo-elicitation Interview (assessed, 15 words, 25%.

Term 2, Week 17)• A Final Project (assessed, 3000 words, 50%. Term 3,

Week 3)• No Unseen Examination; Exempt from the 50/50 rule,

even for third year students

Teaching and Learning

• Weekly lectures and seminars of one hour: failure to attend = your disadvantage (no catch up teaching)• Basic photo ‘training’ (week 3)• Visit to Modern Records Centre/BP Archive (week 4)• Possible visit to Photographers’ Gallery, London in

Reading Week• Student Presentations (weeks 8-10)• Film showing (you must see this film)• Project Clinics (weeks 19 and 21)• Festival of Images (week 20)

Dorothea Lange (1936) ‘Migrant Mother’ February 1936 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Lange-

MigrantMother02.jpg

Photographer Dorothea Lange, from ‘Dorothea Lange: Drawing Beauty Out Of

Desolation’ http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.

php?storyId=126289455

 Thompson (seated) with her three daughters, (from l. to r.) Katherine, Ruby and Norma, in 1979—43 years after Migrant MotherFrom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Owens_Thompson

• Norma, the baby in the pictures, said of her mother that she “… was a woman who loved to enjoy life, who loved her children. She loved music and she loved to dance. When I look at that photo of mother [the Migrant Mother], it saddens me. That’s not how I like to remember her.” Troy recalled about his childhood years, “They were tough, tough times, but they were the best times we ever had.” Norma agreed: “We also had our fun.” We also had our fun: that is what is so notably missing from every face in Lange’s Nipomo series - a single smile that signals fun. Professor Michael Stones, Lakehead Univ, CA

• http://www.openphotographyforums.com/art_MICHAEL_STONES_001.php

SourcesRosler.. M. (1989 and later editions) ‘In, around, and afterthoughts (on documentary photography’ in Bolton. R (ed.) The Contest of Meaning, MIT Press, pp. 303-342. Available on line at http://education.victoriavesna.com/sites/default/files/pdfs/Rosler-In_around.pdf

Morgan, Bethan ‘Dorothea Lange: A Powerful Photographic Portrayal of Strength Through Suffering’http://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/california/articles/dorothea-lange-a-powerful-photographic-portrayal-of-strength-through-suffering/

Stones, Michael ‘The Other Migrant Mother’ Open PhotographyForums .comhttp://www.openphotographyforums.com/art_MICHAEL_STONES_001.php