Visual Literacy. Photojournalism. 2700-ERASMUS-VLP

The term ‘visual literacy’ is used in Polish as ‘wizualny alfabetyzm’ and refers to the ability to ‘read’, interpret and understand information presented in visual form, as well as the ability to present information as a visual message. Another important aspect of this phenomenon is that this skill encompasses the social interpretation of the meaning of images. This means that the same visual messages may be interpreted differently or remain incomprehensible in cultural contexts different from that of the author or source of the message.
However, there are so-called ‘iconic images’ which, in a theoretically universal way, present facts and events. As symbolic photographs, they should be widely recognised and understood.
The main aim of the course is to present the most significant journalistic photographs documenting key political and social events, as well as contemporary images that both depict and characterise everyday and extraordinary reality. The collection of photographs is based on images that have won awards in the World Press Photo, Picture of the Year and Grand Press Photo competitions. An important part of the course is learning how to interpret photographs – that is, to read them both within a broader context and from an individual perspective. The aim is therefore to acquire the ability to analyse the content of an image in detail.