Heinrich Kühn, Lotte und Mary auf der Wiese, um 1908, Autochrome, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien

Karl Blossfeldt, Pflanzenstudie, aus dem Buch Urformen der Kunst: photographische Pflanzenbilder, 1928, Bild: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Photographisches Institut der ETH Zürich, Scheinwerferaufbau für Zeitlupenaufnahmen an einer Kerbschlagmaschine, 1974, Negativ, 6 x 6 cm, ETH Bildarchiv

Leni Willimann-Thöni, Bally Schuhschachteln, 1937-41, Silbergelatineabzug, 114 x 85 mm, © Leni Willimann-Thöni / Fotostiftung Schweiz

Clarence H. White, Telegraph Poles, Fotogravüre ab originalem Negativ, aus der Zeitschrift Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly, 1903, Heft 3, Bild: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

Jack Delano, Kind vor Haus in Puerto Rico, 1941, Farbdia, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Giorgio Sommer, Klosterflur im Benediktinerkloster von Monreale, zwischen 1857-1914, Albumindruck, 196 x 249 mm, Bild: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Horace Nicholls, Arbeiterinnen in der Munitionsproduktion in der National Shell Filling Factory in Chilwell, Nottinghamshire, ca. August 1917, Imperial War Museum Photograph Archive Collection

Photoglob, "Gletscherpartie", um 1910, Photochrom, 227 x 166 mm, Sammlung Fotostiftung Schweiz

Fotografie der Flutkatastrophe in Erftstadt-Blessem, 16. Juli 2021, © DOCKS-Collective

Die Folgen der Klimakrise sind ohne Bilder nicht vermittelbar. Das ist eine wichtige Funktion der Pressefotografie.

Daniela Keiser, 8. Cyanocosmos, Modell a, 2020, Cyanotypie, © Daniela Keiser

Anonym, Boote im Hafen von Neapel, Italien, zwischen 1880-1900, Photochrom, 159 x 219 mm, Bild: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Eugene de Salignac, Painters on the Brooklyn Bridge Suspender Cables, 1914, Silbergelatineabzug, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego, CA, Bild: NYC Municipal Archives

William Henry Fox Talbot, Mer de Glace from Montanvert, 1852, Photogravüre, 6.9 x  6.7 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Eine der ersten fotografischen Erschliessungen der Alpenregion. Es handelt sich um eine frühe Reproduktionstechnik der Fotografie: Die Photogravüre.

Clarence H. White, Drops of Rain, Fotogravüre ab originalem Negativ, aus der Zeitschrift Camera Work: A Photographic Quarterly, 1908, Heft 23, Bild: Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

Kusakabe Kimbei, Samurai in Rüstung, 1870-1890, handkolorierter Albumindruck, 26.6 x 20.5 cm, The J. Paul Getty Museum

Lange vergessen, heute in der internationalen Forschung sehr präsent: Frühe Fotografien aus Japan. Die Kolorierung von Fotografien wurde häufig von Frauen ausgeführt.

Anonym, Trinkende Männer im Studio, 1860er Jahre, Albuminpapierabzug, 54 x 86 mm, Sammlung Fotostiftung Schweiz

Terry Haas, Plexiglasfiguren, 1974, Diapositiv, 2.4 x 3.6 cm, ETH Bildarchiv

Heinrich Kühn, Landschaft, 1897, Gummidruck, Sammlung Museum Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

James Nasmyth, Normal Lunar Crater, ca. 1870, Collotypie, 125 x 196 mm, Bild: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

Ueli Alder, Quelle (aus der Serie Field Notes, 2020-), 2020, Aerochrome Infrarot 4x5“ Slide-Film aus dem Jahr 1992, Cross entwickelt in C41 Farbfilm Chemie, © Ueli Alder. 

Thomas Annan, Head of High Street, 1868–1877, Kohledruck, 20.2 x 32.7 cm, The J. Paul Getty Museum

John H. White, Serie DOCUMERICA (1972-1977), 1973, Farbdia, National Archives Museum, Washington D.C.

Die Werke des Schweizer Fotografen Romeo Vendrame oszillieren im Spannungsfeld zwischen analoger Manipulation und digitaler Reproduktion. Vendrame projiziert Dias aus dem eigenen Erfahrungsschatz auf eine Folie, bearbeitet das temporäre Lichtbild mit transluziden Materialien („vendramisieren“) und fotografiert deren Übersetzung oppositionell wieder ab.

Romeo Vendrame, MB, 2010, from the series the chemistry of attraction, Lambda print, between acrylic glasses, 118 x 80 cm, Edition of 2

Julia Margaret Cameron, Sir John Herschel, 1867, Albumin-Silberdruck von Glasnegativ, 31.8 x 24.9 cm, Gilman Collection, Purchase, Robert Rosenkranz Gift, 2005, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Course Content

Course Content

This continuing education program CAS in Theory and History of Photography focuses on the cultural and historical significance of photography from its beginnings to the globalized present. Emphasis is placed on photographs in society and politics, in national and transcultural discourses, and in the museum, as well as on photographic images and processes in scientific theories and practices.

We provide participants with a deeper understanding of the medium from a theoretical, art historical, and media historical perspective. Drawing from more than ten years of insight, research, and experience built up by the program of international teaching and research on the Theory and History of Photography at the University of Zurich, we furnish program participants with knowledge in the follow areas: 

  • The theory and global history of photography as a medium, in both its analog and digital forms

  • Photography in its scientific, aesthetic, and historical contexts

  • Artistic, political, and not least ethical engagement with photographs

Learning Objectives

We provide the foundation for the intensive study of photography as a visual medium with a focus on theory, history, and practice.
As a participant, you will expand your research skills in the field of photography and critically engage with theoretical discourses about photography. You will learn to analyze photographs as visual and artistic objects, considering the relationship between the history of technology, materials, and the intellectual history of images. As a visual medium, photography thus emerges in relation to social and political discourses and to contexts of exhibitions, museums, the art trade, and public media. In a process of ongoing dialogue, we critically examine this network of relationships.

The continuing education program is designed to meet the following learning objectives:

  • As a graduate, you will be able to develop strategies for cataloging photographic works in museums, archives, and collections.

  • You will be able to formulate ideas for assessing and analyzing a historical collection or an exhibition concept.

  • You will be able to contextualize images within political discourse and as carriers of socially relevant messages.

  • You will understand photographic images as an active form of communication that shapes society, and not merely as historical testimonies and illustrations.