In our era of mass visual culture, we are surrounded by images that express identity, from selfies to mugshots to paparazzi pictures. If today everyone is a photographer and everyone has been photographed, what can we learn about identity through close examination of photographs of people as well as a rich primary and secondary literature on the subject? This course is organized into four units: self or individual, "family," group, and state. Taking a thematic approach, we will look at examples from throughout the broad temporal sweep of photography's existence, exploring issues such as how gender, race, sexuality, and class are differentially represented through photography and how those differences have come to be. We will also consider the role of various photographic formats and technologies in signaling the intended uses of certain photographic types (e.g. passport photos, family snapshots, and profile pics). Throughout, we will be guided by two central questions: what constitutes identity and how does photography intervene in its creation, performance, and/or representation?

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