Visual ethics: Photography and the politics of representation

Lea Vene
Design, Applied Photography and Time-Based Media
2025S, Vorlesung und Übungen (VU), 2.0 ECTS, 2.0 semester hours, course number S05493

Description

This course is dedicated to the critical review of photography practice in relation to 
the concept of the ethical turn but will also create a space of reflection on the context of dignified image production. Course will trigger discussions around the responsibility of those who create images, but also those who observe them. The course introduces different approaches to self-reflexivity/self-observation as an ethical decision that exposes the process/performance of constructing the visual. The course critically examines queer, feminist, class and decolonial representations based on theoretical and practical image analysis. Students will encounter the work of theorists such as Susan Sontag, Arielle Azoulay, Judith Butler, Thomas Keenan, Mark Sealy. The course covers topics of social
photography, photo reportage, war photography and the work of artists such as Diane
Arbus, Sally Mann, Mary Ellen Mark, Larry Clark, Nan Goldin, Claude Cahun, Lee Miller,
Zanele Muholi, Robert Mapplethorpe, David Wojnarowicz, Shirin Neshat and Cindy
Sherman among others.

Visual ethics: Photography and the politics of representation will be held as a blocked course.

Course dates:

13-14/3 (10:00-15:00, incl. one hour lunch break)    

22-23/5 (10:00-15:00, incl. one hour lunch break)

6/6 (online, 10:00-17:00, incl. one hour lunch break) 

Examination Modalities

Oral exam or essay

Key Words

visual ethics, photography, visual arts, feminism, class, queer, decoloniality

Course Enrolment

From 03 February 2025, 00:00 to 03 March 2025, 14:00
Via online registration

Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (1. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Theories and History of Applied Photography and Time-based Media 626/103.08

Design: Specialisation in Applied Photography and Time-based Media (2. Section): Methodological and Theoretical Basics: Theories and History of Applied Photography and Time-based Media 626/203.06

Co-registration: possible

Attending individual courses: possible