Snapping Up the Snapshot: Photography Today
Activity: Photography in the United States has often been overshadowed
by more traditional art forms such as painting and sculpture. This activity
will allow students to explore photography and then report to each other
about what they've found.
- Discuss basic categories of photography that students are familiar
with: documentary (press), landscape (nature), portraits (celebrity
or not), and fashion (high and low) are some possible examples.
- Divide the class up into as many groups as there are categories, with
each group using one of the photographic categories as its subject.
- Ask students to collect examples of the category.
- As a group, have the students discuss the elements of the photograph:
What makes a color photo different from a black and white one? What
elements are necessary and specific to a fashion photo that aren't
for a landscape or for a journalistic photo?
- Have the students compile a list of these specifics and, as a group,
create a poster in the style of an advertisement. Ask the students to
argue for their photographic category as the best or most interesting
style of photography.
- Once the posters are complete, have each group present them to the
rest of the class. Are there overlaps? Similarities? Gaps? Allow the
whole class some discussion time together to talk about their choices.
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