Introduction to Seeing Through Photographs

Since its invention in 1839, photography has served as a medium for documenting,
understanding, and interpreting the world. It has been reinvented continually through
technological advancements and by the diverse ways in which artists and professionals have
used it. Today nearly two billion images are uploaded daily to the internet, and our exposure
to images has never before been more continuous or potentially consequential. But while
taking, viewing, and sharing photographs has become almost second nature, we may not be as
visually literate as our engagement with images suggests.

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” Ansel Adams’s statement reminds us that
photographs are shaped by a series of choices made by the photographer. Moreover, the way
we interpret a photograph is influenced not only by the photographer’s intention, but by the
ways in which a picture is produced, edited, and circulated.

Using works from the collection of The Museum of Modern Art as a point of departure, this
course will help you learn to look critically at photographs by introducing a diversity of ideas,
approaches and technologies that inform their making. You will hear from artists and curators
who offer a variety of perspectives on what a photograph is and the ways that photography
has been used throughout history and into the present day: as a tool for science and
exploration; as a means of documenting people, places, and events; of telling stories and
recording histories; and as a mode of communication and critique in our ever increasingly
visual culture.