Instructors: Susy Bielak & Jesse Mockrin

Instructor Email: susybielak@gmail.com; jmockrin@gmail.com
Prerequisites: No prerequisites. In fact, because of the interdisciplinary nature of this class, we welcome students with a variety of interests: including journalism, history, anthropology, video, photography, and sociology.

Course Description: Documentary photography is a powerful medium capable of reaching diverse audiences and generating awareness about social and political topics from the kitchen table to the front lines. Ethnography also uses the power of observation to bring attention to real lives and issues. This class will integrate documentary photography and ethnography, incorporating historical background, critical theory, and hands-on investigation to show students how to creatively document and interpret stories from real life. Students will create a series of photographs and brief writings based on fieldwork conducted during the course of the class in neighborhoods across San Diego. Students will approach subjects in pairs or small groups, interviewing and photographing people on the street, inside their homes and in community spaces.

The class will include readings and presentations from the fields of anthropology and ethnography, community cultural development, and photography history. Both a research and production course, the class will provide a dynamic learning environment including guest lectures, film screenings, field trips, as well as writing, photographing, printing and editing. Students will be presented with many ways in which ethnographers, artists, and nonprofits negotiate working in community: from a nonprofit facilitating new immigrant and refugee youthsí documentation of their lives and journeys (AjA Project), to a photographer creating a portrait of Asian-America through a 9-month road trip (Wing Young Huie), to a photographer documenting her own personal relationships (Nan Goldin). Students will receive hands-on training in the interviewing process and the pairing of image and text to create portraits and explore public and private space in San Diego.

Course Objectives: This course is intended to provide theoretical knowledge and practical experience. By the end of the course students will:

• Produce a photographic essay paired with short writings based on interviews conducted during the course;
• Learn how different aesthetic and conceptual strategies are used to activate images and stories from everyday life;
• Strengthen skills of observation and interaction;
• Gain a new understanding of San Diego communities and a re-visioning of the social environment;
• Learn how documentary photography can be combined with ethnographic study to conduct social research, tell stories and become a catalyst for change.

Expectations:

Attendance, punctuality, and full participation in and out of the classroom are imperative. The classroom and field trip sites will be learning laboratories whose success will depend upon studentsí active engagement, contribution to discussion, and completion of assignments. Classroom topics will require critical thinking skills. The interactive nature of the course will require cultural sensitivity. Students will be expected to demonstrate respect for classmates, instructors, guest lectures and community members. Many projects will be collaborative, with each student accountable for his or her participation. Students will submit proposals for each project, including a short description and references to relevant work discussed in class.

Course Outline:

Week I:

Introduction to documentary photography, ethnography history and hybrid ethnography. Presentations on oral history, narrative journalism, multi-media ethnography, interviewing methodology. Demonstrations on photography, portrait/storytelling and site visits within the San Diego region.

Week II:

Conduct neighborhood fieldwork, multi-media student presentations about contemporary artists and ethnographers, visit galleries and community-based organizations and have slide lectures, guest lectures, and film screenings.

Week III:

Finish neighborhood fieldwork, production: editing and group critiques, and present final exhibition of work.