Module Information

Module Identifier
AH24020
Module Title
Documentary Photography
Academic Year
2025/2026
Co-ordinator
Semester
Semester 2
Reading List
Other Staff

Course Delivery

 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment Essay  2500 Words  85%
Semester Assessment Essay plan  (comprising thesis statement, annotated bibliography of >8 sources, annotated list of 4-6 illustrations) 1500 Words  15%
Supplementary Assessment Essay  2500 Words  85%
Supplementary Assessment Essay plan  (comprising thesis statement, annotated bibliography of >8 sources, annotated list of 4-6 illustrations) 1500 Words  15%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

​Identify the key individuals, institutions, practices, contexts, and ideas associated with documentary photography.

Locate and assess primary and secondary sources.

Analyze, evaluate, and compare relevant critical theories of documentary photography.

Interpret photographs based on knowledge of their historical and interpretative contexts, and in light of relevant theoretical understandings.

Construct and justify a written argument about documentary photography, using the appropriate scholarly apparatus.​

Brief description

Can a photograph lie? Can it even tell the truth? If so, whose truth?

Since its inception, photography has been understood as a process for faithfully recording the actual. On this basis, it became an instrument of both power and resistance. While photography’s capacity to tell the truth has, for decades, been the subject of sustained critical and deconstructive pressure, it seems we still have difficulty in letting go of a belief that the camera never lies.

Centered on the 1930s to 1960s—a period in which the documentary possibilities of photography came into sharp relief—and focusing on the USA in a global context—drawing connections with, for example, Japan, Latin America, South Africa, USSR, UK, and Europe—this module intersects the history of documentary photography with the most important critical and theoretical responses to the problems it continues to raise.

Content

1. Truth & Evidence
2. Power & Resistance
3. Ethics & Suffering
4. Narrative & Memory
5. Reading Week
6. Invisibility & Representation
7. Discourse & Archive
8. Authenticity & Reproduction
9. Assessment Preparation Week
10. Style & Aesthetics
11. Individual Tutorials

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number
Communication Articulating orally ideas in seminar discussions, and textually in essay.
Improving own Learning and Performance Independent study reading around seminar topics; written and oral feedback on seminar contributions, essay plan, and essay.
Information Technology Conducting research through library catalogues, online scholarly databases, and museum websites; engaging with digital platforms like Blackboard and Turnitin.
Personal Development and Career planning Emphasis on professional presentation of research in assessment using MLA style.
Problem solving In seminar preparation and discussion, essay research and writing.
Research skills In seminar preparation and discussion, essay research and writing.
Subject Specific Skills Ability to analyse, contextualise, and interpret photographs; and navigate historiographic and theoretical debates.
Team work

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 5