Lesson Plan: Photojournalism
“Teaching with Photography,” UMMA Workshop for Educators, November 6, 2013
Objectives
Students will re-write a newspaper article, discovering how images can tell more than one story
National Core Standards
Perceive and analyze artistic work
Grades
9-12
Time Required
One class period, or partial class
Materials
- Excerpt from Errol Morris’ book Believing is Seeing: Observations on the Mysteries of Photography, Chapter 1, “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?” pages 1-4.
- Roger Fenton’s photograph, “The Valley of the Shadow of Death”
- Other war photographs, such as Civil War photographs by Matthew Brady and Timothy O’Sullivan
Lesson
- Students should read Errol Morris’ excerpt from Chapter 1: “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?”
- Observe Civil War photographs by photographers such as Timothy O’Sullivan and Matthew Brady. Are they “true?” Are they “documentary?” Who or what do they document? Whose perspective do they take?
- Discuss with students, asking them to consider:
a. the notion of “objectivity” and photography
b. what they think about the two Fenton photographs. Does one give more of a sense of “drama and danger” as suggested in the article?
c. if one can manipulate a photograph and publish it as factual information
d. whether citizen journalists can “democratize the news”
e. how they decide what to believe when they look at news photographs online
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& Author Notes
Creative Commons by-nc-sa (Lesson developed by Antje Gamble, former Mellon Fellow in History of Art)Last Updated
March 6, 2017 1:19 a.m.Report
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