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Lesson 1

We will examine the ideas and work of famous photojournalists and discuss the unit’s Central Question: How do images change the world?

Lesson Goals

  • Can I explain the power of an image and the responsibility of photojournalists?

  • Can I provide evidence, such as details and examples from a video, during a discussion?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • Get the Picture, Cathy Pearson, Archive.org, 2013

Materials

Tools

Reference Guides

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: Discuss – Write

We will discuss the unit’s Central Question and reflect on its significance by completing a quick-write in our Learning Logs.

Step 1

Review the Central Question of the unit:

How do images change the world?

Use the following questions to guide a discussion with a partner or small group:

  1. What is the Central Question asking?

  2. What might you already know in relation to the Central Question?

  3. What about the question piques your curiosity?

  4. How do you think this question might relate to the texts or topic of the unit?

  5. If you were to provide an answer to the Central Question today, what would it be?

Step 2

In your Learning Log, write a response to Question 5. You will return to this initial response in later lessons to examine how your understanding of the Central Question has evolved.

Activity 2: Read – Discuss

We will begin the unit by examining a collection of Quotations About Photojournalism written by famous photographers.

Step 1

With a partner, discuss the following questions:

  1. What do you already know about photojournalism?

  2. How might you define the term photojournalism?

  3. How might images taken by photojournalists change the world?

Step 2

Access the Quotations About PhotojournalismHandout, which contains a set of interesting ideas about photography and photojournalism. The quotations are drawn mostly from famous photographers, some of whom you will study in this unit.

With a partner, read through the quotations, paraphrasing and discussing what they say about photojournalism. Note connections and contrasts among the various ideas.

On your own, select one of the quotations that seems most meaningful to you. In your Learning Log, paraphrase what the quotation is saying and then explain why the idea is interesting to you.

Activity 3: Discuss

We will discuss our observations and responses to the Quotations About Photojournalism.

After reading the quotations about photojournalism with a partner, discuss the following questions with another partner:

  1. Which quotations about photojournalism are most interesting, meaningful, or relevant to you? Why?

  2. Which quotations leave you with a question or make you wonder about what the photojournalist meant?

  3. What do the quotations suggest about how photographic images might change the world?

Be prepared to share your answers in a whole-class discussion.

Activity 4: View – Discuss

We will watch an excerpt from a documentary titled Get the Picture and consider what it means to be a photojournalist and to balance the quests for truth and beauty when taking photographs of significant historical events, issues, and people.

Step 1

Access and watch a documentary by Cathy Pearson about photojournalism and photo editor John Morris, titled Get the Picture. Begin watching the first excerpt at the 2:37 mark, when the title appears, and watch up until 5:31.

Note key moments in the documentary in which John Morris discusses his experiences, considering the following text-specific questions, which can be found on the Section 1 Question Set:

  1. What does Morris say photojournalists do, and what do they think is important?

  2. What does Morris say about truth and beauty in photography?

As you watch and listen, pay attention to the photographic images that are interspersed within Morris’s commentary.

  1. Which images stand out to you as especially powerful, moving, or important?

  2. What might you learn about history from the photographic images that stand out to you?

  3. How might those images have changed the world?

Step 2

With a viewing partner, compare and discuss what you learn in response to Question 2, and compare your observations about the photographic images presented in the documentary.

Step 3

As a class, read closely and discuss Morris’s ideas and his quotation about the objectives of achieving truth and beauty in photojournalism:

Truth is the objective of good journalism; beauty is secondary to the truth. But the great photographers usually manage to get pictures which are not only truthful but beautiful.

Step 4

Reexamine the four photographs presented in the film as Morris talks about truth and beauty:

  • a man bent over at the waist in the dusty rubble of a building (3:40)

  • a silhouette of an apparent body outlined in the snow (3:50)

  • a soldier holding an infant outstretched in his two hands (3:56)

  • a robed woman kneeling on the cracked earth in a graveyard (4:07)

As a class, make a list of details that stand out to you in each of the photographs.

Then discuss and compare observations you make in response to these questions:

  1. In what ways are each of the photographs truthful?

  2. To what degree do you think the photographs capture actual moments as they happened? To what degree might they have been staged or scripted?

  3. What do you find beautiful or emotionally moving about each of the photographs?

Step 5

In your Learning Log, describe one of the four photographs, noting its key details and how it represents the relationship between truth and beauty, as described by John Morris.

Activity 5: View – Write

We will watch a second segment of Get the Picture, focusing on what John Morris says about the relationships between text and pictures.

Step 1

Access and watch a second segment of Get the Picture, from the 6:48 mark to 11:27. Take notes about John Morris’s work as a picture editor for Life Magazine and what he says he learned about the relationship between text and pictures in photojournalism.

Examine the series of photos presented that document the internment of Japanese-American citizens at the start of World War II, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Step 2

In your Learning Log, make an additional entry focused on what you observe about the images presented in this segment of the video, in response to these questions:

  1. What emotional responses and questions do the photos of Japanese internment raise for you?

  2. What truth do they represent?

  3. If you were a photo editor and needed to add text to tell the story in those photos, what might you say?

Activity 6: Read

We will review the Culminating Task and the Unit Text List to familiarize ourselves with what we will learn and the texts we will analyze and discuss throughout the unit to support our learning.

Step 1

Access the Culminating Task Checklist to preview what you will be doing at the end of the unit and what you will need to learn so that you can be successful.

Note the Culminating Task question you will respond to:

How has the work of a photojournalist highlighted and defined important moments and figures in American history and culture?

Note that you will be writing an expository essay in response to this question and that you will need to cite one or more written texts and at least two photographs from the photojournalist you decide to study further.

Preview the organization of the unit, and briefly discuss the photojournalists you will study, any of whom might be your focus for the Culminating Task:

  • Mathew Brady and Alexander Gardner – Civil War photojournalism

  • Edward S. Curtis – The North American Indian project (documentary photojournalism and ethnography)

  • Dorothea Lange – Depression-era photojournalism

  • Charles Moore – civil rights-era photojournalism

  • Richard Drew – photojournalism during and after 9/11

Step 2

Access and review the Unit Text List to see more specifically what you will be reading, viewing, and analyzing as you study American photojournalism. Note the information that is included about each text. These texts are also listed in the activities in which they appear, under the Materials tab. You will notice that each text has an icon by it. These indicate where the text is located, which corresponds to the Location column in the Unit Text List.

Text locations:

  • Tradebook: These texts are full-length novels or nonfiction books you will most likely have copies of.

  • Digital Access: You can find these texts online. Use the information provided in the Unit Text List or on the Texts tab for the activity to conduct a web search for the resource. Digital Access resources include online articles, videos, podcasts, and other web sources.

  • PDF Texts: These are formatted PDFs of texts that are available for download on the Materials tab.

  • CD/DVD: These materials are available on CD or DVD and might also be available through online content providers.

Step 3

Review the Independent Reading Text Options. Here, you will find suggested options for independent reading related to the unit.

Note that one option, associated with Section 1 of the unit, is to read a nonfiction historical narrative about the life and work of photojournalist Edward S. Curtis, titled Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher and written by Timothy Egan.