A really interesting course on the history of Photography throughout its main categories, on its relationship with the world, with society, with people, with media and technology, from early years to now. The course is organized in exhaustive and complete lessons and modules which include interviews, final texts, confrontation exercises with the community, free online sources and educational materials.

It was an inspiring, very interesting course through which a person whether new to photography or not, can get a grip on the multiple aspects that involve photography. The course has a lot of useful and inspiring information, photographers, projects but mostly it is designed in such a way that many things are said and left to the participant to work on them. Very interesting , well done. Thank you.

Excelente curso, la diversidad de enfoques y opiniones sobre el arte y la fotografía han sido de gran valía, muchas gracias por el curso, espero tener la oportunidad de estar en otros cursos con ustedes

Excellent course, the diversity of approaches and views on art and photography have been very useful, thank you very much for the course, hope to have the opportunity to be in other courses with you

El contenido y estructura del curso me parecen adecuados. Lo que realmente me parece MUY MAL es que se deje la responsabilidad total de la calificación a los compañeros, que no tienen el cuidado necesario para revisar. En mi caso, me asignaron 0 puntos en categorías que sí que cumplí (la extensión y la elección de fotos ajenas al curso). Debido a esto, tuve que hacer un nuevo ensayo. Esto fue muy molesto y desgastante. Me parece que el responsable del curso debería asumir esta calificación final.

************

The content and structure of the course seem adequate to me. What really seems VERY BAD to me is that the full responsibility for the final rating is left to the classmates, who do not take the necessary care to review. In my case, I was assigned 0 points in categories that I really did (the length and the choice of photos outside the course). Because of this, I had to do a new essay. This was very annoying and exhausting. It seems to me that the person in charge of the course should assume this final qualification.

really badly presented, going from one artist to another

very tokenistic and processes rarely explained

cannot seem to finish the course without purchasing the full certificate

even though i have finished the course and all the quizzes am just going to unenroll

http://researt.com/2016/03/11/e-learning-ed-arte-il-caso-moma/

I can't purchase the certificate.

Sin duda, he disfrutado mucho el curso porque me ha abierto los ojos y la mente en muchos aspectos que no habia tenido en cuenta antes o no tan en profundidad. Por ejemplo, a través de todo el curso veo que no solo se habla de la fotografía como objeto, sino que la gran diferencia está en prestar atención también a las dimensiones creativas, filosóficas y expresivas de las imágenes, es decir comprender también su significado que es en definitiva lo que nos enriquece como espectadores.

Yes, I feel I begin to see through photography again and again.

Incredible open content, with paths going towards photographs that I will follow.

In my opinion this course is based in strong concepts and gives a good learning opportunity for those who want to understand the role of photography as a important medium. I have learned very much and, more than that, the course inspired me to keep learning by myself about the subject. I would suggest including other important names of photographers, who were/ or are key people in the history of the medium. In some way, I came out of the corse with the impression that American photography was really the focus. Photographers from other nationalities where in focus when related to US someway. I missed that the course would have a broader vision to offer about photographers that were/are relevant in that medium. Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa for instance were merely mentioned and Helmut Newton (maybe I missed), I didn't see him mentioned.

My other suggestion is related to the quiz. Sometimes, the questions are focusing in aspects not really relevant of the theme of the week. There was a really relevant content and some questions would focus on for example the "Edson Chagas distribute his work himself or not" when his work has an important social impact to be called of the attention of the students. In the week 4, the content related to posed/unposed photography for example was not included in the quiz when it was a key part of the message of the week's theme. So, my point is to review the quiz, including content which is relevant and it might be out, and prepare the questions not necessarily focusing in aspects that are not really adding to the learning of the student.

Please feel free to ask if having interest in discuss my opinion further.

Jussara Nunes Pereira de Souza

jussaranpsouza@outlook.com

It was a difficult course for me. Coming from a technical side to photography, the artistic learning has always been a challenge for me. Indulging in what has come before was necessary yet daunting at times.

This was an informative class. As a "newbie" to the Coursera community, I wanted to take a course that would expand my knowledge of art and culture while fitting within my hectic work and family schedule. Photography is something I engage in almost daily with my iPhone, so I took a chance and was not disappointed. Sarah Meister has curated a wonderful assortment of photographer artists that typify the historical and aesthetic advances in photography. The articles, videos, and slideshows were well constructed around the theme of each module. The articles would benefit from including some of the images discussed. This was not a major problem as I was able to Google most of them. The videos were interesting and of sufficient length not to strain my attention. The slideshows were my favored documents due to the inclusion of images and explanatory text. I did find it frustrating that some of the answers to the quiz assignments could not be found in the required reading, videos, or slideshows. As an educator, I can certainly understand wanting students to think critically but some of the questions were misleading, unanswerable based on the content, or appeared unrelated. Many of the items did not assess my understanding of the information so much as how closely I read for specific quotes or other esoteric content. This is further evidenced by the posts in the forums requesting guidance about certain items. Overall, the course is worth the effort and time if you are interested in the history of photography and its most notable practitioners.

This Course is very interesting because it covers the work from iconic photographers since its invention in 1839 to these days. The "but" I found is : first, the required readings are very extensive, and second , the questions for the quizes are most of them too much specific, and there are so many photographers names that it is quite a challenge to have more than five questions right. Otherwise, it is a captivating MOOC, designed more for Photographers than lay public.

Course content is very good, you learn a lot, or think about what you already know deeper - only real let down is that its peer graded rather than graded by someone who grades papers and you get a certificate if you pay for it that says its non-credited and you just completed, rather than passed - so if you want knowledge, great, if you want to bump your CV, maybe not for you.

I DON'T KNOW WHY IT IS A COMPULSION TO UPGRADE YOUR COURSE TO GET A CERTIFICATE EVEN THOUGH I WAS ABLE TO COMPLETE THE ENTIRE COURSE WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF A FINANCIAL AID.

Teaches the history well, but doesn't focus much on helping to improve.

Shouldn't lead people into working hard and long to complete a course only to "force" them to subscribe to finish for certificate - that is not a good practice!

Allow them to finish and then choose to purchase the certificate but do not make them surrender credit card information to get it - that is very very wrong!!!

Pick better photographers to feature, the early lessons were okay but it got worse towards the end!

AWESOME, VERY INTERESTING, SPECIAL ... A photographer has more than one way to represent reality. There are those who choose to do so by putting an artistic touch that creates a very personal vision of the subject, and there are those who, on the other hand, prefer to reproduce reality as faithfully as possible. During this course we have seen many artists who have used photography in one way or another. Thanks to the interviews with the authors and above all thanks to Sarah Meister I was able to have a new and different perspective regarding the extent of the change from analogue to digital photography. I am a big fan of photography and of all genres, from landscapes, to portraits to macro photography to fine art and I know very well that there are many factors that can influence our photographic style, so we cannot limit the definition to a couple or even only to one. That's why I believe that this course for me was a great source of inspiration also for some ideas and photographic projects that I already have in mind. Each of us is the synthesis of all those things that have impacted our lives, the things and people that have surrounded us, the things we love, the things we hate, the things we admire and the things we have experienced. And it is in this human chaos that the use of a camera can help create those closets of memories and emotions, ugly or beautiful, old or new, certain and uncertain, but still moods of that moment. This course was a well-organized journey to experience very important pieces of the history of photography up close and I am very pleased to have done so. Thanks to the MoMA staff and in particular Sarah Meister for this great opportunity. I hope to return to New York and immerse myself in the maze of one of the most extraordinary museums in the world.

For me, the experience I get after completing the Seeing Through Photographs course is extremely positive from the point of view of photographic reading.

Throughout the day we received veritable bombardments of photographs. Thousands of images pass before our eyes and it is very easy that, because of that, we end up simply consuming photography and that is not the way to see. Photographs must be read. With the course I have learned, apart from its history since its inception, to analyze it from various points, to see what it is, what it means and what it tries to mean. In this course I have learned to look carefully, analyze each of the details that make it up, study it and discover what it hides from us. Reflect on what we have read to draw conclusions, because photography is not just about seeing it, but by reading and analyzing it we get closer to the universe of the photographer and photography.

Each photograph is made up of many planes of information, although independent, each one related to each other. To be able to read and analyze a photograph we must be aware at a narrative, compositional and technical level, all of this brings us closer to a reflection and an opinion and thus arrive at the purpose, style and process of each photographer.

I've been doing amateur street photography for a few years, but I didn't know much about the history of this art. The "Seeing Through Photographs" course was an amazing experience for me. I really enjoyed learning about the beginnings of photography and how difficult the process was. Reading about the clash between professionals using large format cameras and amateurs using "detective" cameras was also fascinating, it seems that now 100 years later we have a similar clash between people using bulky DSLRs and people using mobile cameras. I also enjoyed discovering the history of Gordon Parks, who I only knew as the director of the "Shaft" movie. Moreover, watching the Harrell's Fletcher exhibition on "The American War" was very moving, it much reminded me of "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon" which I've just rewatched recently. On the other hand, I don't quite understand the latest digital works of Anouk Kruithof "Subconscious Travelling" and Lucas Blalock "Strawberries", but maybe I need to spend some more time to get the idea behind them. Thank you for this excellent course and also for making it available online. :)

Dear All, This is my first course that I have learned and completed on Coursera. I had a lot of fun learning, I learned a lot of new things for me. I met interesting artists and their projects. Thank you for all of this. Since it was my first course, I didn't know how it would be and signed up for the free version. Now after completing the course I would love to receive a certificate because I put in a lot of time and work, but I can't pay because I don't have a credit card, a debit card is not accepted by your system, and I don't have access to Pay Pal. I could ask someone to pay for me, but I have read that this is not possible. My husband tried to pay with his credit card and our bank blocked the transaction. I could try to do a bank transfer, but I don't know what account to transfer the money to. I am interested in other courses in art, painting, sculpture, but would like to verify payment options first. Best regards Anna Sawanna Sawicka e-mail: annasawanna@gmail.com

Excellent course - highly recommended. The material is super interesting and varies from week to week so there's always a new topic or idea to be reading about. The content is well put together and comprises a mix of videos, short 'look & learn' slideshows as well as many excellent articles and essays to read at your own pace. I'm a working photographer with an interest in history and theory and I got a lot of mental stimulation from this course - am a bit sad now that I've finished it!

One word of note is that the "1-2 hours per week" commitment is on the low side. You might get away with 1-2 hours if you are a fast reader and only do the bare mimimum readings, but if you want to deep dive into the topics, look up photographers mentioned in articles as you go, and really get into the material you'll need to set aside more time. I ended up spending way more time than anticipated but loved doing it so it was ok ;D

A very accessible, thought-provoking, and often surprising introduction to the most underrated of the visual arts: photography. The instructor, Sarah Meister, has structured the course very cleverly to give you a comprehensive and historical view of photography as a technology, an ever-evolving artform, an institution, and as a way of structuring how we see the world and ourselves. The photographers and images she focuses on are as varied as the field itself. The readings are short yet insightful and engaging. There are plenty of additional resources so that you can delve as deep into any specific topic that you want. Ms. Meister is continuously adding new resources to build on an already excellent course. Highly recommended to anyone immersed in a world saturated with photographic images – that is to say, everyone. You won't see the world the same again.

It was a well organized and magnificent course and highly engaging for those who passionate about understanding photography. Thanks Coursera, MoMA and other sponsors for such an opportunity and platform for learning exploration and all from the comfort of my home, through self-paced yet timed 7 modules' sessions within the course explains in depth the meaning of photography, the importance of context, and how you should learn to "read" photos, not only as a passive spectator but more actively. I also appreciated that there were scans of books and articles for us to read in combination with images and videos. Sarah Meister and her team did a great job not to mention the invaluable sharing of her knowledge as curator of the MoMA Photography Department. I was really lucky and honoured to be part of the course. Regards

Thanks to this course, I began to understand what the author wanted to convey in his photography. Photography is not just any picture or frame, it is what the photographer feels and sees. Photographers capture what touches them. They share their feelings through their work. If you look closely at any work of any photographer, you can understand what this photographer wanted to show us, but not everyone can do this. Before, I did not understand art, I liked it, but I did not understand it. After this course, I became more confident when I look at a photo and talk about it. I can safely tell what is said in the photo. I began to look at the world differently, to see beauty in everything. It's great, because now I can draw inspiration from the photographs that surround me.