4.341 | Fall 2007 | Undergraduate

Introduction to Photography and Related Media

Course Description

This course provides practical instruction in the fundamentals of analog and digital SLR and medium/large format camera operation, film exposure and development, black and white darkroom techniques, digital imaging, and studio lighting.

This semester we will explore the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences …

This course provides practical instruction in the fundamentals of analog and digital SLR and medium/large format camera operation, film exposure and development, black and white darkroom techniques, digital imaging, and studio lighting.

This semester we will explore the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences for our theme- and site-specific term project, which provides opportunities to develop technical skills and experimental photographic techniques, and for personal artistic exploration. Final projects will be presented on site in exhibition format.

Work in progress is continuously presented and discussed in a critical forum. Lectures, readings, visiting professionals, group discussions, and site visits encourage aesthetic appreciation of the medium and a deeper understanding of our semester theme, as well as a critical awareness of how images in our culture are produced and constructed.

Learning Resource Types
Projects with Examples
Photograph showing display of student final projects.
This semester’s course was based on the theme of “Through the Lens: Exploring the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences” and explored how cognition, vision, and memory might be thought about in the context of photography. Here, student final projects are displayed in the MIT Brain and Cognitive Sciences building. (Photograph courtesy of the course teaching assistants.)