Explore photography as activism in this live online workshop with Michelle Bogre, examining how images expose injustice, challenge power, and inspire social change.

At a time when questions of fairness, equity, and human rights dominate public discourse, photography has become one of the most powerful tools for social engagement. Photographic activism begins with a simple but urgent premise: images can expose injustice, challenge dominant narratives, and inspire change.

This course offers a global overview of the theory, history, and philosophy of activist photography, tracing its evolution from the late nineteenth century to the present. Rather than proceeding strictly chronologically, the course examines activist photography through key themes such as labor, race, gender, environment, migration, and power, revealing how political context, and cultural attitudes shape the photographic response to similar subjects across time and place.

Asselin - by Michelle Bogre
© Mathieu Asselin, Canfield, Ohio, 2012, Heather Bowser describes herself as a child of Agent Orange. She was born with several fingers and part of her right leg missing. Her father, Bill Morris, fought in Viêt Nam and was exposed to Agent Orange. From the book and exhibition Monsanto: A Photographic Investigation.
Hammond - by Michelle Bogre
© Robin Hammond/Witness Change, Jean Yannick, from a collaborative series, Where Love is Illegal.

The hybrid course is for students who are working on projects and those who are not. It will combine short lectures, guided discussions, and close analysis of photographs to examine how images communicate political ideas and  how photographers can responsibly engage with urgent social issues.

By the end of the course, students will have a deeper understanding of how photographs function as tools of advocacy—and how their own photographic practice can engage with larger cultural and political conversations.

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Instructor: Michelle Bogre

Michelle Bogre is an educator, copyright lawyer, documentary photographer and author of four books, Photography As Activism: Images for Social Change, second edition; Photography 4.0: A Teaching Guide for the 21st Century; Documentary Photography Reconsidered: History, Theory and Practice; and The Routledge Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century.

Bogre currently holds the title of Professor Emerita from Parsons School of Design, after a 25-year career that included being Chair of the Photo department, and teaching a variety of photography classes. She is the co-founder of the CRUX Photography Research Network, based at the Arts University in Bournemouth, UK. CRUX is an international network of artists, researchers, educators and theorists who engage in making work that makes a difference. She is currently working on a long-term documentary project and regularly writes and lectures about photography and copyright.

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