Artesis Plantijn Hogeschool Antwerpen
Koninklijke Academie van Antwerpen
Photography: History and -actuality 312322/3580/2627/1/52
Study guide

Photography: History and -actuality 3

12322/3580/2627/1/52
Academic year 2026-27
Is found in:
  • Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts, programme stage 3
    Specialisation:
    • Photography
  • Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts
    Specialisation:
    • Photography
  • Bridging Programme Visual Arts
    Programme option:
    • Photography
  • Preparatory Programme Visual Arts
    Programme option:
    • Photography
This is a single course unit.
Study load: 3 credits
Special admission is required to enrol in this course unit under
  • exam contract (to obtain a credit).
  • exam contract (to obtain a degree).
Co-ordinator: Henneman Inge (dut,eng)
Languages: Dutch, English
Scheduled for: Semester 1
This course unit is marked out of 20 (rounded to an integer).
Possible deadlines for learning account: 01.12.2026 ()
Re-sit exam: is possible.
Possibility of deliberation: You have to pass this course unit (will never be deliberated).
Total study time: 78,00 hours

Prerequisites

previously registered for Photography: History and -actuality 2.

Short description

Exploring the field of actual photography from 1975 to today. In-depth discussion of selected topics of contemporary photography practices and theories.

Learning outcomes (list)

BA2 - The student has the necessary knowledge, skills and insights regarding material, form, action, concepts, function and contents of the chosen medi
The student knows (the field of) contemporary photography.
BA5 - When developing his/her personal visual language the students starts from a searching and reflective attitude when developing one's own visual language.
The student can place his / her personal work in a photo-historical context.

Course content

Thourough discussion of actual photographic practices and reflections on the photographic medium. Focus on the actual field and condition of the photographic image from 1975. Themes discussed include 'the urban and the everyday', 'appropriation', 'the original copy', 'the studio image'. Based on David Campany 'Art and Photography' and Reader. Focus on the problematic topic of images of conflict and on 'the photographic' or the specific condition of making art with a camera.

Study material (list)

Mandatory
  • Author: David Campany
ReaderMandatory
Regarding the Pain of OthersMandatory
  • Author: Susan Sontag
The Photograph as Contemporary ArtMandatory
  • Author: Charlotte Cotton
Recommended
  • Author: Jacques Rancière
A.D. Coleman’s online newsletter on photography and related matters. The original version of this blog was called C: the Speed of Light. - http://nearbycafe.com/artandphoto/photocritic/Recommended
After Photography - Fred Ritchin’s blog that explores the effects of the digital, and whether more effective and expansive media strategies can now emerge - http://www.pixelpress.org/contents/content_fs.htmlRecommended
American Suburb X: Photography and Culture - Archive of photographers, interviews, reviews, videos and more - http://www.americansuburbx.com/Recommended
An Anthropology of Images: Picture, Medium, BodyRecommended
  • Author: Hans Belting
An online photography magazine dedicated to work that successfully captures, represents, and encourages acute observation via the photographic medium - http://seesawmagazine.comRecommended
Art and Ventriloquism (https://www.routledge.com/Art-and-Ventriloquism/Goldblatt/p/book/9780415370608)Recommended
  • Author: David Goldblatt
Artforum - Online magazine contains guide to museum shows, short essays on art and art education, exhibition reviews, bookforum, and videos of artists and artworks - http://artforum.com/Recommended
Benjamin Buchloch and Allen Sekula (Interview) in: Fish StoryRecommended
BlogRecommended
Bookworm - Reviews of books, author interviews, reading lists, news of literary events, and more - http://bookforum.com/Recommended
Classic Essays on Photography - Five Notes for a Phenomenology of the Photographic Image (Hubert Damisch)Recommended
Classic Essays on Photography - Photography (Siegfried Kracauer)Recommended
Classic Essays on Photography - The Ontology of the Photographic Image (Andre Bazin)Recommended
  • Author: Alan Trachtenberg
Conscientious - Writer and editor Jörg M. Colberg’s website dedicated to contemporary fine-art photography with daily profiles of photographers, interviews, exhibition and book reviews - http://www.jmcolberg.com/Recommended
Criticizing Photographs: An Introduction to Understanding ImagesRecommended
  • Author: Terry Barrett
Critique Handbook (http://www.kendallbuster.com/)Recommended
  • Author: Kendall Buster and Paula Crawford
De FotodetectiveRecommended
  • Author: Hans Aarsman
Foam: What's next? - A search into the future of Photography - https://www.foam.org/events/what-s-nextRecommended
http://blog.fotomuseum.ch/ Still Searching, an online discourse on photographyRecommended
http://www.nytimes.com/Recommended
http://www.reframingphotography.comRecommended
http://www.terrybarrettosu.com/articles and http://www.mhprofessional.com/contributor.php?cat=115&id=30564Recommended
Interpreting Art: Reflecting, Wondering, and RespondingRecommended
  • Author: Terry Barrett
Looking at PhotographsRecommended
  • Author: Victor Burgin
MagazinesRecommended
Making Art: Form and MeaningRecommended
  • Author: Terry Barrett
Marks of Indifference. Aspects of Photography, in or as, Conceptual Art (1995)Recommended
  • Author: Jeff Wall
Notes on the Index: Part 1 and Part 2in The Originality of the Avant – Garde and other Modernist MythsRecommended
  • Author: Rosalind Krauss
Photography Today (Kask library)Recommended
  • Author: Mark Durden
Post Photography, the artist with a camera (Kask library)Recommended
  • Author: Robert Shore
Sean O'Hagan on Phtography - Explorirg photography, art, photojournalism and everything in between - http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/series/sean-o-hagan-on-photographyRecommended
SFMOMA SYMPOSIUM IS PHOTOGRAPHY OVER - https://www.sfmoma.org/?s=research&type=pages&_page=2Recommended
Shooting space: architecture in contemporary photography (Kask library)Recommended
  • Author: Elias Redstone
TATE PAPERS - https://www.tate.org.uk/researchRecommended
The Contest of Meaning - The Body and the Archive (Allan Sekula)Recommended
The Photobook, A History, Part 3 (Kask library)Recommended
  • Author: Martin Parr & Gary Badger
THE PHOTOGRAPHY CRITICISM CYBERARCHIVE - https://nearbycafe.com/photocriticism/members/archivetexts/photocriticism/coleman/colemanfuture.htmlRecommended
  • Author: A.D. Coleman
Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema in Visual and Other PleasuresRecommended
  • Author: Laura Mulvey
Walker Evans. Magazine Work (Kask library)Recommended
  • Author: David Campany
Ways Of SeeingRecommended
  • Author: John Berger
Ways of Seeing (www.ways-of-seeing.com)Recommended
  • Author: John Berger
Ways Of Seeing - TV documentary - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnfB-pUm3eIRecommended
WebsitesRecommended
Why Photography matters as Art as never before, 2009Recommended
  • Author: Michael Fried

Educational organisation (list)

Learning Activities
Collaborative learning52,00 hours
  • Description: looking, thinking and reading together - group discussions
Lectures and / or tutorials26,00 hours

Evaluation (list)

Evaluation(s) for first exam chance
MomentForm%Remark
1st examination periodKnowledge and comprehension test during the examination series30,00• Students are expected to be present during classes. Absences can have a negative impact on your study results.
1st examination periodResearch Assignment70,00
Evaluation(s) for re-sit exam
MomentForm%Remark
2nd examination periodResearch Assignment100,00

Evaluation (text)

First semester: Oral Exam + Paper

Re-examination: Oral Exam + Paper