Global Photo Exhibitions
SESSION: TBA
INSTRUCTOR: TBA
Day & Time: TBA
VISUAL ARTS
SUMMER 2027
This course is in development for Summer 2027.
What happens to the meaning of a photograph when it moves from the world into an exhibition? This course considers photographs and photographic exhibitions as sites of cultural exchange, historical inquiry, and knowledge production. We will examine how museums collect, classify, preserve, sequence, caption, and display photographs, asking how these choices influence public understanding and reflect questions of power, representation, colonial history, migration, identity, and memory. Visits to institutions such as the International Center of Photography, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Brooklyn Museum, Aperture, and Penumbra Foundation will turn exhibitions and collections into active sites of research. For a culminating project, students will curate an exhibition using their own photographs, the work of other photographers, or both, and write a critically informed exhibition statement. No prior experience in photography or curating is required. This course fulfills the Global Core requirement, pending approval by the CC-GS and Global Core Committees on Instruction.
Columbia students do not need to apply, but they do need to register. All visiting students will need to apply to the School of Professional Studies and register upon acceptance.