IN PERSON: This course will examine the diverse roles photographs play in social life. Students will gain insight into how photographs can function as evidence, art objects, templates for social rituals, topics of conversation, visual reliquaries and tools for social control. We will also reflect on how the meaning of photographs is shaped by the cultural, economic and political contexts in which they are created and seen. Classes will be a mix of lecture, discussion and in-class viewing of images. Recommended readings will be available on the course web page. | Lecture + Q&A, Facilitated discussion.
Max enrollment: 30.
Location: Judea Reform Congregation, 1933 W. Cornwallis Rd, Durham NC 27705
Michael Schwalbe is a retired professor of sociology and a still-active documentary photographer. Over the last 30 years, he has done documentary projects on potters, residents of family care homes, victims of tobacco-related diseases, studio craft artists and public workers. His current project focuses on people who have lost family members to workplace accidents and illness.