4.215
Sensing Place: Photography as Inquiry
See description under subject 11.309[J] . Enrollment limited.
Spring 2024
This course explores photography as a disciplined way of seeing, as a research method, and as a medium of inquiry and of expressing ideas. Readings, observations, and photographs form the basis of discussions on landscape, light, significant detail, place, narrative, and how photography can inform research, design, and planning, among other issues. The class is highly recommended for students who want to employ visual methods in their thesis or dissertation.
Fall 2012
Topics
- Reading and Telling Landscape
- Lights of Day, in Season, in Place I
- Lights of Day, in Season, in Place II
- Workshop on Photoshop and Web Authoring
- Significant Detail I: Elements of Landscape Language in the Context of Place
- Significant Detail II
- Landscape Poetics I
- Landscape Poetics II
- Landscape Narratives I: Singles, Pairs, Series, and Sequences
- Storytelling: Words and Images I
- Review of Photo Essays in Online Galleries
- Photography as Inquiry
Readings
- [S1] = Spirn, Anne Whiston. The Language of Landscape . Yale University Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780300082944.
- Rowell, Galen. Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape . Sierra Club Books, 1986, pp. 4–9, 38–43, 58–67, and 73–94. ISBN: 9780685135679.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. Foreword in La natura delle città (The Nature of Cities) . Federico Motta Editore, 1995. ISBN: 9788871790954.
- ———. Selected images from La natura delle città (The Nature of Cities) . Federico Motta Editore, 1995. ISBN: 9788871790954.
- ———. Selected images from Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive . Phaidon Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780714846552.
- Rowell, Galen. Mountain Light: In Search of the Dynamic Landscape . Sierra Club Books, 1986, pp. 182–219. ISBN: 9780685135679.
- Misrach, Richard. Golden Gate . Aperture, 2012. ISBN: 9781597112031.
- Szarkowski, John. Atget . Museum of Modern Art, 2000. ISBN: 9780935112566.
- Spirn, Anne Whiston. Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange’s Photographs and Reports from the Field . University of Chicago Press, 2008.
- Deal, Joe. Southern California Photographs 1976-1986 . University of New Mexico Press, 1992. ISBN: 9780826313355.
- Vergara, Camilo Jose. The New American Ghetto . Rutgers, 1995. ISBN: 9780813522098.
- Welty, Eudora. “Livvie.” In The Wide Net and Other Stories . Harcout Brace and World, 1943.
- Welty, Eudora. One Time, One Place: Mississippi in the Depression . University Press of Mississippi, 1996. ISBN: 9780878058662.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. St. Louis and the Arch . Little Brown and Company, 1981. ISBN: 9780316809023.
- Sternfeld, Joel. American Prospects . Crown, 1987. ISBN: 9780812916591.
- Lyons, Nathan. “The Photographic Sequence,” and “Sequential Considerations.” In Nathan Lyons: Selected Essays, Lectures, and Interviews . University of Texas Press, 2012. ISBN: 9780292737716.
- Berger, Paul, Leroy Searle, and Douglas Wadden. Radical Rational Space Time: Idea Networks in Photography . Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, 1983. ISBN: 9780935558104.
- Lubben, Kristen, ed. Magnum Contact Sheets . Thames and Hudson, 2011. ISBN: 9780500543993.
- Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S. Taylor. American Exodus: A record of human erosion . Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939.
- Smith, Eugene W., and Aileen M. Smith. Minamata . Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975. ISBN: 9780030136368.
- DeCarava, Roy, and Langston Hughes. The Sweet Flypaper of Life . Hill and Wang, 1967.
- Lyons, Nathan. Riding First Class on the Titanic . MIT Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780262621359.
- Horn, Roni. Another Water: The River Thames, for Example . Steidl, 2011. ISBN: 9783869303185.
- Bateson, Gregory, and Margaret Mead. Balinese Character: A Photographic Analysis . New York Academy of Sciences, 1942.
- MacLean, Alex S. “Overview: The Houston Photographs of Alex S. MacLean.” Cite: The Architecture and Design Review of Houston 48 (2000): 14–39.
- Frayling, Christopher. “Research in Art and Design.” Royal College of Art Research Papers 1, no. 1 (1993).
- Corner, James, and Alex S. MacLean. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape . Yale University Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780300086966.
Fall 2003 · Sites in Sight: Photography as Inquiry
Topics
- Reading and Telling Landscape
- Site Selection due by 5PM
- Light I
- Light II
- “Knowing Where to Stand”
- Elements of Landscape Language
- Significant Detail
- The Context of Place
- Field Trip to Nahant
- Landscapes Poetics
- Images and Words
- Meetings with Individual Students
- Landscape Narratives
- Review of Photo Essays in Online Galleries
Readings
- Spirn, Anne Whiston. The Language of Landscape. Yale, 1998.
- Spirn. Language of Landscape. Pp. 3-81.
- Meinig, D. W., ed. The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. Oxford, 1979.
- Potteiger, Matthew, and Jamie Purinton. Landscape Narratives. Wiley, 1998.
- Watts, May. Reading the Landscape of America. Collier, 1975.
- Cronon, William. “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative.” Journal of American History 78, no. 4 (March 1992).
- Elkins, James. How to Use Your Eyes. Routledge, 2000.
- Cosgrove, Denis, and Stephen Daniels, eds. The Iconography of Landscape. Cambridge, 1988.
- Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia. Prentice-Hall, 1974.
- -–. Space and Place. Minnesota, 1977.
- Clay, Grady. Close Up: How to Read the American City. Chicago, 1973.
- Berger, John, and Jean Mohr. Another Way of Telling. Pantheon, 1982.
- Collier, John, Jr., and Malcolm Collier. Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method. New Mexico, 1986.
- Lange, Dorothea. American Country Woman. Amon Carter Museum, 1967.
- Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S. Taylor. American Exodus. Yale, 1969.
- Adams, Robert. Beauty in Photography. Aperture, 1981.
- Rowell, Galen. Mountain Light. Sierra Club, 1986, pp. 4-9, 38-43, 58-67, 73-94.
- Lynch, David K., and William Livingston. Color and Light in Nature. Cambridge, 1995.
- Minnaert, M. G. J. Light and Color in the Outdoors. Springer-Verlag, 1974.
- Rossing, Thomas, and Christopher Chiaverina. Light Science: Physics and the Visual Arts. Springer, 1999.
- Swirnoff, Lois. Color of Cities. McGraw-Hill, 2000.
- Freeman, Michael. Light. Amphoto, 1988.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. Cape Light. Boston Museum of Fine Arts, 1985.
- -–. St. Louis and the Arch. Little, Brown, 1980.
- Misrach, Richard. The Sky Book. Arena, 2000.
- White, Minor. Light 7: Photographs from an Exhibition on a Theme. MIT, 1968.
- Adcock, Craig. James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space. California, 1990.
- Rowell, Galen. Mountain Light. Sierra Club, 1986, pp. 182-219.
- Callahan, Harry. New Color: Photographs 1978-1987. Hallmark, 1988.
- Albers, Josef. Interaction of Color. Yale, 1963.
- Itten, Johannes. The Elements of Color. Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1970.
- Gage, John. Color and Culture. California, 1993.
- -–. Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism. California, 1999.
- Spirn, Language of Landscape. Pp. 85-132.
- Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S. Taylor. American Exodus. Yale, 1969.
- Caponigro, Paul. Landscape. McGraw Hill, 1975.
- Appleton, Jay. The Experience of Landscape. Wiley, 1975.
- Arnheim, Rudolf. “Order and Complexity in Landscape Design.” In Toward a Psychology of Art. California, 1966.
- -–. Visual Thinking. California, 1969.
- Alexander, Christopher, et al. A Pattern Language. Oxford, 1977.
- Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City. MIT, 1960.
- Westerbeck, Colin, and Joel Meyerowitz. Bystander: A History of Street Photography. Bullfinch, 1994.
- Caponigro, Paul. Landscape. New York: McGraw Hill, 1975.
- Vanderbilt, Paul. Between the Landscape and Its Other. Johns Hopkins, 1993.
- -–. Wise Silence. Little, Brown, 1983.
- Fuchs, R. H. Richard Long. Thames and Hudson, 1986.
- Smithson, Robert. Photo Works. New Mexico, 1993.
- Goldsworthy, Andy. A Collaboration with Nature. Abrams, 1990.
- Caponigro, John Paul. Adobe® Photoshop® Masterclass. Peachpit, 2000.
- Blatner, David, and Bruce Fraser. Real World Photoshop® 5. Peachpit, 1999.
- Szarkowski, John. Atget. Museum of Modern Art, 2000.
- John Jr. and Malcolm Collier. Visual Anthropology. New Mexico, 1986, pp. 29-42.
- Levi-Strauss, Claude. Saudades do Brasil: A Photographic Memoir. Washington, 1995.
- Szarkowski, John. Looking at Photographs. Museum of Modern Art, 1973.
- Thomas, Ann, ed. Beauty of Another Order: Photography in Science. Yale, 1997.
- Welty, Eudora. One Time One Place: Mississippi in the Depression. Mississippi, 1996.
- Agee, James, and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Houghton-Mifflin, 1941.
- Cartier-Bresson, Henri. City and Landscapes. Bullfinch, 2001.
- -–. The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photographs and Photographers. Aperture, 1999.
- Adams, Ansel. Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs. Little, Brown, 1983.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. La natura delle città. Motta Editore, 1994.
- -–. Paul Strand . Aperture, 1971.
- Spirn. Language of Landscape. Pp. 133-188.
- Tice, George. Paterson. Rutgers, 1972.
- Heaney, Seamus. “The Sense of Place.” In Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980.
- Hoskins, W. G. The Making of the English Landscape. Penguin, 1970.
- Lynch, Kevin. What Time Is This Place?. MIT, 1972.
- Philip, and Phylis Morrison, and the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. Powers of Ten. Scientific American, 1982.
- Corner, James, Alex S. MacLean. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape. Yale, 1996.
- Ward, Alan. American Designed Landscapes. Spacemaker, 1998.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. St. Louis and the Arch. Little, Brown, 1985.
- Caponigro, Paul. Paul Caponigro. Aperture, 1967.
- -–. Landscape. McGraw Hill, 1975.
- Morris, Wright. The Inhabitants. Scribner’s, 1946.
- Adams, Robert. From the Missouri West. Aperture, 1980.
- Evans, Terry. Prairie: Images of Ground and Sky. Kansas, 1986.
- Jackson, J. B. The Essential Landscape: The New Mexico Photographic Survey. New Mexico, 1985.
- Klett, Mark. Revealing Territory: Photographs of the Southwest. New Mexico, 1992.
- Viewing Olmsted: Photographs by Robert Burley, Lee Friedlander, and Geoffrey James. MIT, 1996.
- Trager, Philip. Villas of Palladio. Text by Vincent Scully. Little, Brown, 1986.
- Kenna, Michael. Le Notre’s Gardens. Ram, 1997.
- Siskind, Aaron. Harlem Photographs 1932-1940. Smithsonian, 1990.
- Vergara, Camilo Jose. The New American Ghetto. Rutgers, 1995.
- Balmori, Diana, and Margaret Morton. Transitory Gardens. Uprooted Lives. Yale, 1993.
- Hood, Walter. Urban Diaries. Spacemaker, 1997.
- Spirn, Language of Landscape. Pp. 216-239.
- Heaney, Seamus. “The Sense of Place.” In Preoccupations. Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980, pp. 131-149.
- Dewey, John. Art as Experience. Capricorn, 1958.
- Lakoff, George, and Mark Johnson. Metaphors We Live By. Chicago, 1980.
- Bourassa, Steven. Aesthetics of Landscape. Belhaven, 1991.
- Fowles, John, and Frank Horvath. The Tree. Little, Brown, 1979.
- Bye, A. E. Art into Landscape, Landscape into Art. PDA, 1983.
- Jussim, Estelle, and Elizabeth Lindquist-Cock. Landscape as Photograph. Yale, 1985.
- White, Minor. Mirrors Messages Manifestation. Aperture, 1969.
- Lange, Dorothea. American Country Woman. Amon Carter Museum, 1967.
- Vergara, Camilo Jose. American Ruins. Monacelli, 1999.
- Morris, Wright. The Inhabitants. Scribner’s, 1946.
- Morris, Wright. Time Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory. Aperture, 1989.
- Caponigro, Paul. Landscape. McGraw Hill, 1975.
- Sommer, Frederick. Words and Images. Center for Creative Photography, 1984.
- Spirn, Language of Landscape. Pp. 240-265.
- Ando, Tadao, and Richard Pare. The Colours of Light. Phaidon, 1996.
- Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S Taylor. American Exodus. (Compare two editions: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939 and Yale, 1969.)
- Potteiger, Matthew, and Purinton, Jamie. Landscape Narratives. Wiley, 1998.
- Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as Public History. MIT, 1995.
- Smith, Kevin. Structure of the Visual Book. Visual Studies Workshop, 1984.
- Lyons, Nathan. Notations in Passing. MIT, 1974.
- Adams, Ansel. Examples: The Making of 40 Photographs . Boston: Little, Brown, 1983.
- -–. Ansel Adams in Color . Edited by Harry Callahan. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1993.
- Adams, Robert. From the Missouri West. New York: Aperture, 1980.
- -–. Beauty in Photography. Millerton, NY: Aperture, 1981.
- -–. Notes for Friends. University Press of Colorado, 1999.
- Adcock, Craig. James Turrell: The Art of Light and Space. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1990.
- Agee, James, and Walker Evans. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1941.
- Alexander, Christopher, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray Silverstein. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977.
- Appleton, Jay. The Experience of Landscape. London: John Wiley and Sons, 1975.
- Arnheim, Rudolf. “Order and Complexity in Landscape Design.” In Toward a Psychology of Art. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1966, pp. 123-35.
- -–. Visual Thinking . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1969.
- Balmori, Diana, and Morton Margaret. Transitory Gardens, Uprooted Lives. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.
- Barthes, Roland. Camera Lucida. New York: Hill and Wang, 1975.
- Beahan, Virginia, and McPhee, Laura. No Ordinary Land: Encounters in a Changing Landscape. New York: Aperture, 1998.
- Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books, 1977.
- -–. About Looking. New York: Pantheon Books, 1980.
- -–. Sense of Sight. New York: Random House, 1985.
- Berger, John, and Mohr, Jean. Another Way of Telling. New York: Pantheon, 1982.
- Blatner, David, and Bruce Fraser. Real World Photoshop® 5. Berkeley, CA: Peachpit Press, 1999.
- Bourassa, Steven C. The Aesthetics of Landscape. London: Belhaven Press, 1991.
- Brown, Julia, ed. Occluded Front: James Turrell. Larkspur Landing, CA: Lapis Press, 1985.
- Bye, A. E. Art into Landscape; Landscape into Art. Mesa, AZ: PDA Publishers, 1983.
- Greenough, Sarah. Harry Callahan. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1996.
- Caponigro, Paul. Paul Caponigro. New York: Aperture, 1967.
- -–. Landscape . New York: McGraw Hill, 1975.
- -–. Meditations in Light. Morris Press.
- Caponigro, John Paul. Adobe® Photoshop® Masterclass. San Francisco: Peachpit Press, 2000.
- Cartier-Bresson, Henri. The Mind’s Eye: Writings on Photographs and Photographers. New York: Aperture, 1999.
- -–. City and Landscapes. Bullfinch Press, 2001.
- Clark, Kenneth. Landscape into Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1979.
- Clay, Grady. Close Up: How to Read the American City. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1973.
- Collier, John Jr., and Malcolm Collier. Visual Anthropology: Photography as a Research Method. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1986.
- Corner, James, and Alex S. MacLean. Taking Measures Across the American Landscape. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
- Cosgrove, Denis and Stephen Daniels, eds. The Iconography of Landscape. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Cronon, William. “A Place for Stories: Nature, History, and Narrative.” Journal of American History 78, no. 4 (March 1992).
- Evans, Terry. Prairie: Images of Ground and Sky. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1986.
- Evans, Walker. American Photographs. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1938.
- Fowles, John, and Frank Horvath. The Tree. Boston: Little and Brown, 1979.
- Freeman, Michael. Light. Amphoto Photography Workshop Series_._ New York: Amphoto, 1988.
- Fuchs, R. H. Richard Long . New York: Thames and Hudson, 1986.
- Gerster, Georg. Below from Above. New York: Abbeville, 1986.
- Goldsworthy, Andy. A Collaboration with Nature. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990.
- Hayden, Dolores. The Power of Place: Urban Landscape as Public History. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1995.
- Haynes, Barry, and Wendy Crumpler. Photoshop® 5 Artistry. Indianapolis: New Riders, 1998.
- Heaney, Seamus. “The Sense of Place.” In Preoccupations: Selected Prose 1968-1978 . New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1980.
- Hockney, David. Hockney on Photography. New York: Harmony Books, 1988.
- Hood, Walter. Urban Diaries. Washington D.C.: Spacemaker Press, 1997.
- Hoskins, W. G. The Making of the English Landscape. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books, 1970.
- Jackson, John Brinckerhoff. The Essential Landscape: The New Mexico Photographic Survey. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press, 1985.
- -–. Discovering the Vernacular Landscape. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1984.
- -–. A Sense of Place, A Sense of Time. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994.
- -–. Landscape in Sight: Looking at America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1997.
- Jussim, Estelle, and Elizabeth Lindquist-Cock. Landscape as Photograph. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1985.
- Kepes, Gyorgy. Language of Vision. Chicago, IL: Paul Theobald, 1944.
- Klett, Mark. Revealing Territory: Photographs of the Southwest. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1992.
- Lange, Dorothea. Dorothea Lange Looks at the American Country Woman. Fort Worth, TX: Amon Carter Museum, 1967.
- Lange, Dorothea, and Paul S. Taylor. American Exodus. New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1939.
- -–. American Exodus. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969.
- Levi-Strauss, Claude. Saudades do Brasil: A Photographic Memoir. University of Washington Press, 1995.
- Lynch, David K., and William Livingston. Color and Light in Nature. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- Lynch, Kevin. Image of the City. Boston, MA: MIT Press, 1960.
- -–. What Time Is This Place? Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1972.
- Lyons, Nathan. Notations in Passing. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1974.
- Margulis, Dan. Professional Photoshop® 5. New York: John Wiley, 1998.
- Maynard, Patrick. Thinking through Photography. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1997.
- Meinig, D. W., ed. The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.
- Meyerowitz, Joel. Cape Light. Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1985.
- -–. St. Louis and the Arch. Boston: Little, Brown (New York Graphic Society), 1980.
- -–. La natura delle città. Motta Editore, 1994.
- Minnaert, M. G. J. Light and Color in the Outdoors. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1974.
- Misrach, Richard. The Sky Book. Santa Fe, NM: Arena, 2000.
- Mitchell, William J. The Reconfigured Eye: Visual Truth in the Post-Photographic Era. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1992.
- Morris, Wright. Time Pieces: Photographs, Writing, and Memory. New York: Aperture, 1989.
- -–. The Inhabitants. New York: Scribner’s, 1946.
- Morrison, Philip, Morrison, Phylis, and the Office of Charles and Ray Eames. Powers of Ten. New York: Scientific American Books, 1982.
- Pfahl, John. A Distanced Land. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1990.
- Potteiger, Matthew and Jamie Purinton. Landscape Narratives: Design Practices for Telling Stories. New York: John Wiley, 1998.
- Rowell, Galen. Mountain Light. Sierra Club, 1986.
- Siskind, Aaron. Harlem Photographs 1932-1940. Introduction by Gordon Parks_._ Washington D.C.: Smithsonian, 1990.
- Smith, Kevin. Structure of the Visual Book. Rochester, NY: Visual Studies Workshop, 1984.
- Smithson, Robert. Photo Works. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993.
- Swirnoff, Lois. The Color of Cities. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
- Szarkowski, John. Looking at Photographs. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1973.
- -–. American Landscapes. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1981.
- -–. Atget . New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2000.
- Thomas, Ann, ed. Beauty of Another Order: Photography in Science. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.
- Tice, George. Paterson . New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1972.
- Trager, Philip. Changing Paris. Arena, 2000.
- Tuan, Yi-Fu. Topophilia. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974.
- -–. Space and Place. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press, 1977.
- Vanderbilt, Paul. Between the Landscape and Its Other. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1993.
- Vergara, Camilo Jose. The New American Ghetto. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1995.
- Vergara, Camilo Jose. American Ruins. New York: Monacelli Press, 1999.
- Ward, Alan. American Designed Landscapes. Washington D.C.: Spacemaker Press, 1998.
- Welty, Eudora. One Time One Place : Mississippi in the Depression. University Press of Mississippi, 1996 (Reprint).
- White, Minor. Mirrors Messages Manifestation. New York: Aperture, 1969.
- White, Minor. Light 7: Photographs from an Exhibition on a Theme. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1968.
Prerequisites & course information
Same subject as 11.309[J] Prereq: None G (Fall) 3-0-9 units
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026–2027
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Spring 2024
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2012
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OpenCourseWare ↗Fall 2003
- MIT OCW readings ↗
- MIT OCW calendar ↗
- MIT OCW syllabus ↗
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.
- Historical MIT OpenCourseWare offering. Named reading entries and schedule topics are automatically extracted from the linked source pages.