Photography has been experimental since its birth because it is the result of a series of experimental, new, transformative reflections and discoveries. In its evolution, the industry was conquered to democratize it and make it a business, but there were always scientists, artisans and artists creating in another way, from another place. Scientists have advanced technology, artists have advanced visual representation, and historians and philosophers have tried to explain what was happening in a very complex and diverse field.

In the last ten years, this type of photography is experiencing a great boom, not only in the number of artists, scientists and artisans involved, but also in the philosophical conception that gives it meaning. The experimental has stopped being something secondary and hidden in the archives to be Art, Science and Crafts in capital letters, to be a dignified and valuable, community search. Although much progress has been made, there is a lack of an in-depth historical vision that allows us to know where we come from and where we are going, and a philosophical reflection that allows us to understand the reasons why we do what we do.

This course, for the first time, recovers these genealogies, because we need to tell this story and understand it among all members of our community in order to continue moving forward. To do this, we will cross three levels of analysis (history, theories and debates) that have taken place in different spaces and moments and that have given meaning to what we know today as experimental photography. We will carry out the tour in two quarters of seven sessions each: the first, from October to December, where we will work from the beginnings of photography to the avant-garde and, the second, between January and May, where we will see contemporary experimental photography. In each class there will be a theoretical presentation with images, the reading of original texts and then a space for collective discussion.