Bibliography

Skidmore College | Deb Hall

 
Selected Readings for PIXELATED

Readings, outside of the required texts, will be available through reserve in the library or online.

Please check Assignment page for most up-to-date information.

REQUIRED

Our Lincoln: New Perspectives on Lincoln and His World, ed. by Eric Foner
On Photography by Susan Sontag

Blink by Malcolm Gladwell

Introduction

John Berger, Ways of Seeing, (London: Penguin, 1972) pp. 7-33.
John Berger, “Understanding A Photograph,” Classic Essays on Photography, ed. by Alan
      Trachtenberg, (New Haven, Conn.: Leete’s Island Books, 1980) pp. 291-294.
Plato, “The Simile of the Cave,” Liberal Studies 1: Human Dilemmas, ed. Liberal
      Studies 1 Faculty, (Copley Custom Publishing Group, 2003), pp. 21-29.
Susan Sontag, “In Platos Cave,” On Photography (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977) pp. 3-22.

Photography: Technical Considerations

Paul Martin Lester, “The Media Through Which We See,” Visual Communication: Images with Messages,
      (California: Wadsworth/Thomson, 2003), pp. 108-115.
Critiquing Guidelines

Photography and Aesthetics

Edward Weston, “Seeing Photographically,” Classic Essays on Photography, ed. by Alan Trachtenberg,
      (New Haven, Conn.: Leete’s Island Books, 1980) pp. 169-175.
Annie Lamont, “Polaroids,” Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, (New York: Pantheon,
      1994) pp. 39-43
Malcolm Gladwell, “The Statue That Didn’t Look Right,” Blink, (New York: Back Bay Books, 2007)

Vantage Point | Viewpoint

John Szarkowski, “The Photographer’s Eye,” and Stephen Shore, “The Nature of Photographs,”
    Basic Critical Theory for Photographers, ed. by Ashley la Grange, (London: Focal Press, 2005) pp. 15-26.
Malcolm Gladwell, “The Theory of Thin Slices: How a Little Bit of Knowledge Goes a Long Way,”
      Blink, (New York: Back Bay Books, 2007) pp. 18-47.
Susan Sontag, “America, Seen Through Photographs, Darkly,” On Photography (New York: Farrar,
      Strauss and Giroux, 1977) pp. 25-43.

Documentation

Martha Rosler, In, Around and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography), The Photography Reader,
      (London: Routledge, 2003) pp. 261-274.
Susan Sontag, “Melancholy Objects,” On Photography (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977)
      pp. 45-74.

Truth, Appropriation and Alteration

Sherrie Levine, “Statement,” Art in theory, 1900-1990, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood,
      (Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 1038-1039.
Fred Ritchin, “Photojournalism in the Age of Computers,” Essays on Contemporary Photography:
     The Critical Image, ed. by Carol Squires, (Seattle: Bay Press), pp. 28-37.
Barbara Kruger, “‘Taking’ Pictures,” Art in theory, 1900-1990, ed. Charles Harrison and Paul Wood,
      (Massachusetts: Blackwell, 2003), pp. 1041-1042

Errol Morris, “Believing is Seeing,” New York Times, 2008.

Identity

Annie Lamont, “Character,” Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, (New York:
     Pantheon, 1994) pp. 44-53
Northrop Frye, “The Motive for Metaphor,” Liberal Studies 1: Human Dilemmas, ed. Liberal Studies 1
     Faculty, (Copley Custom Publishing Group, 2003), pp. 49-56.
Susan Sontag, “The Image World,” On Photography (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977)
     pp 135-147.
Cindy Sherman, “Untitled Statement,” Theories and Documents in Contemporary Art, (Berkeley:
     University of California Press, 1996), ed. by Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, pp 791-794.

Memory and Evidence

Italo Calvino, The Adventures of a Photographer, Difficult Loves, (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984),
     pp. 220-235.
Billy Collins, “Class Picture, 1954,” The Trouble with Poetry, (New York: Random House, 2005), pp. 72.
Malcolm Gladwell, “Paul Van Riper’s Big Victory: Creating Structure for Spontaneity,” Blink, (New York:
Back Bay Books, 2007) pp. 99-146. (Jonathan Schooler, Verbal Overshadowing)
Alex Williams, “ I Was There. Just Ask Photoshop,” New York Times, 2008.

The Original and the Reproduction

Rosalind Krauss, Photography’s Discursive Spaces, The Contest of Meaning: Critical Histories of Photography,    ed. by Richard Bolton, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1989) pp. 296-301.
Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction,” Illuminations: Essays and   

   Reflections,  (Schocken, 1969).
Mitsuhiro Yoshimoto, “Real Virtuality,” Global | Local: Cultural Production and the Transnational Imagery,
    ed. by Rob Wilson and Wimal Dissanayake, (Duke University Press, 1989) pp. 109-112.

Icons and Semiotics

Roland Barthes, “The Death of the Author”
Susan Sontag, “Heroism of Vision,” On Photography (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977) pp. 75-100.
Vicki Goldberg, “Icons,” The Power of Photography (New York: Abbeville Press, 1991) pp. xx-xx

The Violent Image

Sue Sorensen, “Against Photography: Susan Sontag and the Violent Image,” AfterImage, May-June 2004
Susan Sontag, “The Image World,” On Photography (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1977)
    pp. 147-158.
John Berger, “Photographs of Agony”, About Looking (New York: Vintage books, 1992)

Chris Burdin, “Untitled Statement,” Theories and Documents in Contemporary Art, (Berkeley: University of
    California Press, 1996), ed. Kristine Stiles and Peter Selz, pp. 768-773.
Adam Liptak, “Images, the Law and War,” The New York Times (May 16, 2009).

Archiving and the Commodification of the Image

Terence Smith, “Frozen in Time,” PBS, 2004
Linton Weeks, “Bill Gates Buys Photo Trove; Microsoft Chief Acquires Famed Bettman Archive,” The
Washington Post, 1995

Cathy Robbins, “Collecting Indians,” voice of sandiego.org

On Both Sides of the Lens: Privacy and the “Tethered Self”

Sherry Turkle, “Always-on/Always-on-you: The Tethered Self.” In Handbook of Mobile Communication
     Studies, ed. by James E. Katz, (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008).
Malcolm Gladwell, “Listening with Your Eyes,” Blink, (New York: Back Bay Books, 2007)

MOVIES

Image of an Assassination: A New Look at the Zapruder Film 1998, 60 minutes
Manufactured Landscapes: the photographs of Edward Burtynsky , 2007, 90 minutes

One Hour Photo, 2002, 90 minutes

Vantage Point, 2008, 90 minutes

Other Recommended Movies
Rear Window, 1954
Man with a Camera, 1929
Peeping Tom, 1960
The Cameraman 1928 (Buster Keaton)
Crash, 2005

Blow Up, 1996
Memento, 2000