Università Roma Tre

The course deals with the study and analysis of images and it refers particularly to the social aspects that affect the meaning construction. The first part of the course will provide the analytical and methodological tools to analyze images and photos (Roland Barthes' and Susan Sontag's theories will be considered). The second part will focus on the public and social uses of photos, devoting a special attention to the images of controversial pasts (wars, natural disasters, violence, terrorist attacks). Moreover the following topics will be illustrated: a) the relation between memory and photography; b) the digital photography; c) selfie and social identities; d) photography as art; e) photography and fashion.

1) Roland Barthes (1979), La camera chiara. Nota sulla fotografia, Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Torino.
2) Susan Sontag (1973), On Photography, Chapter 1 "In Plato's Cave, RosettaBooks, New York, pp. 1-19.
3) David Bate (2017), Il primo libro di fotografia, Capitolo 7 "Fotografia e Arte", Piccola Biblioteca Einaudi, Torino, pp. 193-211.
4) Barbie Zelizer (2004), The Voice of the Visual in Memory, in Phillips R. Kendall (Hg.), Framing Public Memory, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, pp. 157-186.
5) Anna Lisa Tota (2013), A Photo that Matter: The Memorial Clock in Bologna and its Invented Tradition , in Olga Shevchenko (ed.), Double Exposure: Memory and Photography, Transaction Publishers, pp. 41-64.
6) André Gunthert (2016), L'immagine condivisa. La Fotografia digitale, soltanto capitoli 11 e 12, Contrasto Edizioni, Roma, pp. 135-173.
7) Susie Linfield, La luce crudele. Fotografia e violenza politica, Contrasto Edizioni, pp. 10-46.
8) Nicholas Mirzoeff (2002), Introduzione alla cultura visuale, Capitolo Secondo, Meltemi, Roma, pp. 111-144.

The articles and essays will be available for the students on the website http://filosofiacomunicazionespettacolo.uniroma3.it (personal webpage).