Photography and the Brazilian 'Image World' circa 1840-1950

• Credit value: 30 credits at Level 7
• Convenor: Professor Luciana Martins

Through the study of a variety of examples of images of Brazil produced by Europeans, Americans and Brazilians from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century, this module will examine the material, social and political nature of photographic vision and representation. The term ‘image world’, borrowed from Deborah Poole, is intended to highlight the relationships of reference and exchange among images themselves, and the social and discursive relations linking image-makers and consumers. We shall also explore what distinguishes photography from other systems of visual representation; as Christopher Pinney puts it, ‘it is precisely photography’s inability to discriminate, its inability to exclude, that makes it so textured and so fertile’. Topics to be discussed include: imperial images; slavery on display; picturing race; the face of ‘order and progress’; photography and the geographical imagination; photography and documentary film; photography and modernism.

By the end of the module, you should have a critical understanding of the theory and history of photography in the context of Brazilian culture and society, and be able to examine critically past and present approaches to photography, identifying the complexities of the production, consumption and content of photographic images.