Latin American Photography

SPLA30022 Latin American Photography 20 Semester 2 Undergraduate Level 3 James Scorer Unit coordinator Spanish, Portuguese and Latin 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Last part of a Bachelors ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 10.0 This unit explores Latin American photography as a field of political struggle. It will look at how, from the turn of the twentieth century on, art and documentary photography has been used to shape the modern nation state, deployed as a means of controlling what people look at and how they are supposed to look. But it will also think about how photographers have used images to create alternative narratives and identities – to look otherwise –, whether through ideas of self-fashioning, the creation of counter-imaginaries, or mobilising photography’s claim to indexical truth. To enable this discussion of photography and power relations, students will consider the technological apparatus of the camera, how images were disseminated and consumed, and the role of the photographic archive, as well as undertaking close analysis of individual images.Though the course will include discussion of photographs by key practitioners in Latin American photography (e.g. Martín Chambi, Paz Errázuriz, Diego Levy, Pedro Meyer, Graciela Iturbide, Enrique Metinides, Annemarie Heinrich, Sebastião Salgado, Daniel Mebarek, Tina Modotti, etc.), the unit will be shaped less around photographers than thematically assembled images. Students will be required to undertake independent research to bring to class additional images for discussion. Organising the unit around thematic nodes will ensure that the region’s visual landscape is understood situationally, that is, both in relation to specific socio-political and national contexts, but also as a networked set of practices and tropes. Each node will be explored through different time periods (from the late nineteenth-century to the present) and across the diverse cultures and societies of Latin America. Nodes that might be covered include: gender identities; environmental destruction; urban life; political disappearance; revolution; indigeneity.  Students will be required to produce a creative output as part of the assessment for the unit.N.b. Students should be aware the nature of the course means that they will be exposed to images of diverse forms of violence, both explicit and implicit.  This unit explores Latin American photography as a field of political struggle. It will look at how, from the turn of the twentieth century on, art and documentary photography has been used to shape the modern nation state, deployed as a means of controlling what people look at and how they are supposed to look. But it will also think about how photographers have used images to create alternative narratives and identities – to look otherwise –, whether through ideas of self-fashioning, the creation of counter-imaginaries, or mobilising photography’s claim to indexical truth. To enable this discussion of photography and power relations, students will consider the technological apparatus of the camera, how images were disseminated and consumed, and the role of the photographic archive, as well as undertaking close analysis of individual images.Though the course will include discussion of photographs by key practitioners in Latin American photography (e.g. Martín Chambi, Paz Errázuriz, Diego Levy, Pedro Meyer, Graciela Iturbide, Enrique Metinides, Annemarie Heinrich, Sebastião Salgado, Daniel Mebarek, Tina Modotti, etc.), the unit will be shaped less around photographers than thematically assembled images. Students will be required to undertake independent research to bring to class additional images for discussion. Organising the unit around thematic nodes will ensure that the region’s visual landscape is understood situationally, that is, both in relation to specific socio-political and national contexts, but also as a networked set of practices and tropes. Each node will be explored through different time periods (from the late nineteenth-century to the present) and across the diverse cultures and societies of Latin America. Nodes that might be covered include: gender identities; environmental destruction; urban life; political disappearance; revolution; indigeneity.  Students will be required to produce a creative output as part of the assessment for the unit.N.b. Students should be aware the nature of the course means that they will be exposed to images of diverse forms of violence, both explicit and implicit.  The unit aims to: <ul><li>Introduce some of the key developments in the history of Latin American photography, including basic knowledge about photographic techniques, technologies and terminologies; </li><li>Explore the work of a selection of work by Latin American photographers from across the region from the late nineteenth century up to the present; </li><li>Encourage reflection about how photography has been used as a tool of political oppression, control and resistance; </li><li>Highlight how photography has depicted social issues such as Indigeneity, gender, urban life, war and civil conflict, and environmental crises, among other topics; </li><li>Think about how photographs have circulated as both material and digital objects within Latin American society.</li></ul> <ul><li>Understand key developments in the history of Latin American photography </li><li>Demonstrate familiarity with the work of several key Latin American photographers</li><li>Analyse photographs both as images and as material/digital objects  </li></ul> <ul><li>Explain how photography has been used as a tool of political oppression/resistance </li><li>Compare the work of photographers from different time periods and different national contexts </li><li>Use photographic theory to analyse specific photographs </li></ul> <ul><li>Produce photographs that engage with material analysed and offer self-reflection on the photographic creative process </li><li>Deploy effective research strategies </li><li>Communicate ideas in visual and written form </li></ul> <ul><li>Engage in group work and develop interpersonal communication </li><li>Produce creative outputs</li><li>Demonstrate independent, analytical and critical argumentation through writing  </li></ul> 1 x 1hr synchronous lecture per week1 x 2hr in person seminar per week  0 Other 100% <figure class="table"><table style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Assessment Task</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Formative or Summative</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Length</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Weighting within unit</td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Self-reflective learning log(each entry to include one photograph and a mini essay) </td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Summative</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">3×600 words</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">50%</td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Exam (on campus)</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Summative</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">2 hour</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">50%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure> Resit Assessment<figure class="table"><table style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;"><tbody><tr><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Assessment Task</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Length</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Weighting within unit</td></tr><tr><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">Essay</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">3,500 words</td><td style="border-color:hsl(0, 0%, 90%);border-style:solid;">100%</td></tr></tbody></table></figure> - Y Billeter, Erika. (1998) A Song to Reality: Latin American photography, 1860-1993. Barcelona: Lunwerg.Cánepa Koch, G, and Kummels I, eds. (2016) Photography in Latin America : images and identities across time and space. Bielefeld: Transcript Verlag.Fabry, Alexis and María Wills, eds. (2013) Urbes mutantes: Latin American Photography. Barcelona: RM.Sá Carvalho, C. (2023) Traces of the unseen: photography, violence, and modernization in early twentieth-century Latin America. Chicago: Northwestern University Press.Watriss, W., and L. Parkinson Zamora. (1998) Image and memory : photography from Latin America, 1866-1994 . Austin, Tex: University of Texas Press.Poole, D. (1997) Vision, race, and modernity : a visual economy of the Andean image world. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press; 1997.  Gardner, Nathanial. (2023) The Study of Photography in Latin America: Critical Insights and Methodological Approaches. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press.Majluf, Natalia. (2000) ‘Photographers in Andean visual culture: traces of an absent landscape.’ History of photography 24(2): 91-100.Rojinsky, D. (2022) Viewing photography in post-dictatorship Latin America : visual interruptions, 1997-2016 Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.Scorer, J. (2014). Andean Self-Fashioning: Martín Chambi, Photography and the Ruins at Machu Picchu. History of Photography, 38(4), 379–397.  Lectures 11 Seminars 22 0 167