Photographing the City: Exploring Visual Stories Through Time and Place

Early vs Contemporary Approaches to Photographing the City

1) How was the city originally photographed? What did the early photographers have to ‘say’ about the city? How did they go about doing this? How have contemporary photographers explored the city differently? What are some of the new visual stories being told about the city? In your answer compare and contrast two specific image examples: one representing the early days of photography, and the second illustrating your discussion of the contemporary photographic approach to picturing ‘the city’.

2) How did Atget view photographing the Parisian city? How did this differ from photographs of New York City? In your answer, cite one specific image by Atget and one specific image of New York City in your response to illustrate your comparison.