The introduction provides basic expertise in the theory and history of photography, offering an overview of the study of photography in terms of its central objects of investigation, questions, and methods. Students will additionally learn skills in the visual analysis of images in order to develop analytic criteria for both historical and contemporary approaches to photographic media and techniques.

How are photographs collected and archived? And what are the conditions and narratives that shape how they are they published and exhibited? What scientific, artistic, art-historical, and cultural-political strategies lie behind their acquisition, circulation, and communication?
Not least in light of the current reappraisal of European colonialism and the debates this has prompted about the provenance and restitution of cultural assets, we see a growing awareness of photographic objects as image sources in their own right.
The module combines the study of original photographs in various collecting institutions in Switzerland with theoretical discussion, conducted with experts on site, about the cultural and political significance of collected objects and practices of collecting. Taking an overarching perspective, the module will also address strategies of knowledge organization and digital long-term archiving.

Hardly any other medium has emerged in so many forms over the past 200 years than photography. Both early photographic processes and the shift from analog to digital images have continued to expand the understanding of photography. Today, photography has become a visual medium pervading our lives like perhaps no other. And it is not only in new areas of social communication and collecting institutions that the digital circulation of photographic images has come to play a considerable role. In other areas, too, such as the digital humanities, opportunities for qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing digital stocks of images have become a topic of intense discussion. This module focuses on the various forms in which photography has emerged, ranging from selfies on cell phones to images appearing in print media, photographic-scientific visualizations, photo books, and exhibition prints.

The module is dedicated to current sociopolitical issues and theoretical approaches. Current postcolonial, antiracist, queer, and gender-theoretical discourses offer central approaches for interpreting contemporary and historical photographs. At the same time, it is often photographic images themselves that have produced or made visible precisely these discourses. In dialogue with photographs, we will discuss the ambivalences of the medium—in its function as a surveillance tool (facial recognition), an instrument of scientific illustration, a means of propaganda, or a manifestation of protest and activism. The module teaches skills for writing productively about photography and for analyzing image and text media with attention to forms of discourse.

The module examines case studies of historical and contemporary photographic positions from a range of different thematic frameworks. Through dialogue with international artists, gallery owners, and curators, from various artistic, economic, and curatorial perspectives, it singles out the field of tension that exists between photography and art. Students will reflect on historical and contemporary modes of collecting, exhibiting, and archiving in order to deepen their skills in contextualizing and visually analyzing photographic images.