This course examines the history and strangeness of this medium from its simultaneous invention in more than one country during the early nineteenth century to its practice by artists (and non-artists) today. We will introduce students to the rich theoretical literature on the medium as well as the historical circumstances of its production. Throughout the course we will examine how photography was deployed by the state as well as by the marginalized; we will also examine its roles in the construction of gender, class, and race. Among topics to be considered are photography during the civil war and the Civil Rights movement; photography in nineteenth-century England and France; the mutual construction of photography and anthropology; the use of photography in global Conceptualisms; the "queer camera;" and citizen journalism.