Lesson 5

Lesson Goals

Texts

Optional

• • “Meet 10 Depression-Era Photographers Who Captured the Struggle of Rural America,” Kat Eschner, Smithsonian Magazine, 2017

Materials

Tools

• Visual Analysis Tool

Reference Guides

• Annotating and Note-Taking Reference Guide
• Questioning Reference Guide

Question Sets

• Photojournalism: Section 2 Question Set

Editable Google Docs

• Photojournalism: Section 2 Question Set

• Visual Analysis Tool

Activity 1: Read – Discuss

We will determine which depression-era photojournalist we will research further using primary and secondary sources.

Step 1

Reconsider the Depression-era photojournalists that Ken Burns briefly profiled in his short documentary Photographers of the Dust Bowl:

• Walker Evans (1903-1975)

• Russell Lee (1903-1986)

• Dorothea Lange (1895-1965)

• John Vachon (1914-1975)

• Marion Post Wolcott (1910-1990)

• Arthur Rothstein (1915-1985)

• Gordon Parks (1912-2006)

As a starting point in learning more about the photographers, access the 2017 Smithsonian Magazine secondary source article titled “Meet 10 Depression-Era Photographers Who Captured the Struggle of Rural America,” by Kat Eschner.

Scroll through the article, noting the featured images and short blurbs for six of the previously identified photographers (Gordon Parks is missing) and four others:

• Theodor Jung

• Ben Shahn

• Carl Mydans

• Jack Delano

Think about the images and brief biographical sketches that interest you.

Step 2

Select (or be assigned) a photojournalist from either the Ken Burns documentary or the Smithsonian article to study further through primary and secondary source research.

With a partner who has selected the same photojournalist, brainstorm a list of “want to know” inquiry questions that might guide your search for sources, examination of photos, reading of additional information, and note-taking.

You might revisit the Questioning Reference Guide to learn more about crafting inquiry questions.

Step 3

With your research partner, begin searching for significant photographic images and other information about your journalist, as directed and modeled by your teacher.

Activity 2: View

We will individually select a primary source photograph by our photojournalist to study further.

Step 1

Using either a general keyword image search with your photojournalist's name or another resource such as Google Arts and Culture, find a gallery of significant photographs taken by that photojournalist.

With your research partner, review the possible images you might study (including those from the Smithsonian article) and identify ones that interest you.

Step 2

Individually, select an image to examine further through visual analysis and extended research.

You and your research partner should select different images from your photojournalist, so that you can later compare what you learn after you examine the photos closely and analyze them with a Visual Analysis Tool.

Activity 3: View – Write – Discuss

We will individually do a visual analysis using a Visual Analysis Tool to examine more closely the photograph we have selected or been assigned.

Step 1

Using a Visual Analysis Tool, closely examine your selected photograph, considering these text-specific questions:

1. In what ways does this photojournalistic image represent the challenges people faced during the Depression?

2. How might its visual details and story have aroused “sympathy among the public,” as Roy Stryker and the FSA photojournalists intended to do?

Step 2

Share and compare your visual analysis of your selected photograph with that of your research partner, who has examined a different photograph by the same photojournalist.

Make a list of connections you see between the photographs and between your observations in response to the text-specific questions.

Activity 4: Read – Write

We will do additional searching and reading to learn more about our selected photojournalist and the image we examined closely. We will then use the information we find to write a short research-based analysis of our photojournalist and photo in our Learning Logs.

Step 1

As guided and modeled by your teacher, search for additional information about your photograph, its subject, or your photojournalist through online secondary sources. Use keywords you have found in any description of your photograph and photojournalist. To find more information on using keyword searches, you can use websites such as the following:

• Library of Congress

• Paul J. Getty Museum

• Northwestern University Libraries

• Google Arts and Culture

• The Smithsonian

Step 2

In your Learning Log, use a two-column note-taking format (as presented in the Annotating and Note-taking Reference Guide) to take and make notes about information you find on your photographic image, its historical and social context, and the photojournalist who took it.

Once you find interesting and reliable sources of information, think about the “want to know” questions you and your research partner listed in Activity 1. See what else you can learn that might enrich your understanding of the image and its significance in representing Depression-era life and influencing public opinion.

Step 3

Use your visual analysis and any other information you have identified through additional research to write 1-2 paragraphs in your Learning Log in response to the questions you considered earlier:

1. In what ways does this photojournalistic image represent the challenges people faced during the Depression?

2. How might its visual details and story have aroused “sympathy among the public,” as Roy Stryker and the FSA photojournalists intended to do?

Activity 5: Discuss

We will join a discussion team to present what we have learned about our depression-era photojournalist and a specific image we examined and analyzed closely.

Step 1

As directed by your teacher, join with other students in a discussion team.

Your discussion might focus on only one photojournalist and multiple images, or it might address a number of different photojournalists and images.

Begin the discussion by identifying your photojournalist and image, and preferably showing it to your group.

Step 2

Using your Visual Analysis Tool, research notes, and written analysis, share what you have learned about your photographic image and photographer, as well as about Depression-era photojournalism. Use the questions you considered earlier to guide your presentation and discussion:

1. In what ways does this photojournalistic image represent the challenges people faced during the Depression?

2. How might its visual details and story have aroused “sympathy among the public,” as Roy Stryker and the FSA photojournalists intended to do?

Step 3

After all members of your group have presented what they have learned, have a concluding discussion in which you make some observations across all of the photographs you have studied concerning the following:

• what, as primary historical sources, they tell you about the challenges people faced during the Depression

• how their visual details and the stories they tell might have aroused “sympathy among the public”

In a full-class concluding discussion, share what you have learned and observed in your discussion groups about other Depression-era photojournalists, their images, and the ways they might have influenced public opinion and politics.