Photography seems like a simple act, but it camouflages complex cultural dynamics involving vantage, assumed ideals and ideological affiliations. In this course, you will examine photography's powerful role in constructing social identities, revealing how seemingly straightforward images contain complex cultural dynamics. You will investigate how photographs perform, reinforce or challenge normalised assumptions.

You will develop photographic artworks that engage with the complex territory of identity formation and performance. Working across various approaches to art photography-from staged portraiture to performative self-representation-you will learn to recognise and work with photography's dual capacity to expose and conceal. This is particularly important when most of our understanding of reality comes through mediated images rather than direct experience.

Through engagement with historical and contemporary photographers and critical texts, you will examine how photographic representations are tied up with performed identity, influencing our understanding of gender, culture and social power. The course emphasises developing a critical awareness of power dynamics in photographic practice, including questions of representation, consent and ethical image-making. You will build technical and conceptual skills to create sophisticated photographic artworks that contribute to contemporary discussions about identity.

This course is part of the Major and Minor: Art-centred Photography and Major and Minor: Photography