Skip to Main Content

Lesson 2

How did an iconic civil rights photograph document and influence history? We will examine one particular photograph by photojournalist Charles Moore, titled Birmingham, Alabama, taken in 1963. We will then read a 2010 newspaper article that focuses on Moore’s work and discusses how photojournalism has evolved since his time.

Lesson Goals

  • Can I analyze how Charles Moore’s perspective influences the purpose and ideas of his photographs?

  • Can I recognize points of connection among Moore’s photographs to make logical, objective comparisons?

  • Can I establish and provide an accurate understanding of the central idea of a newspaper article?

  • Can I gather and organize relevant and sufficient evidence to demonstrate an understanding of the central idea of a newspaper article?

  • Can I use a variety of strategies (e.g., context clues, word study, and vocabulary resources) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words and phrases in the article “What the Still Photo Still Does Best"?

Texts

Core

  • Digital Access
    • Artist Charles Moore, Charles Moore, International Center of Photography
    • Police Using Dogs to Attack Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, Alabama, Charles Moore, International Center of Photography
  • Unit Reader
    • “What the Still Photo Still Does Best,” Hank Klibanoff, The New York Times Company, 2010

Materials

Tools

Question Sets

Editable Google Docs

Activity 1: View – Discuss

We will examine one of Charles Moore’s photographs, birmingham, alabama, taken in 1963, and determine its perspective and purpose⁠.

Access Police Using Dogs to Attack Civil Rights Demonstrators, Birmingham, Alabama, a photo by Charles Moore, located in the Charles Moore archive of the International Center of Photography website.

Study the image by using a Visual Analysis Tool to note and analyze what you observe.

With a partner, compare your observations. Discuss the following questions with your partner, making note of your responses in your Learning Log:

  1. Looking at this image⁠—and thinking back to the other photos from the work of Charles Moore—what elements in Moore’s images make them stand out from everyday photographs that might appear in newspapers and magazines?

  2. How might have images portraying civil rights demonstrations captured by Moore and others influenced political leaders around America?

  3. Do the images tell a story without using words? What emotions do the images provoke in you? Are they an example of “truth” in photojournalism?

  4. How might a single photograph such as Birmingham, Alabama influence viewers and their perceptions of social issues?

  5. In what ways might such an image serve as a catalyst to propel a social movement forward and create a positive public perception of that movement?

Activity 2: Read – Discuss – Write

We will read the article “What The Still Photo Still Does Best” by Hank Klibanoff and consider questions about central ideas and evidence in order to determine what Klibanoff wants readers to understand about historical and more contemporary photojournalism.

Step 1

Read and annotate the article "What the Still Photo Still Does Best" by Hank Klibanoff and make notes in your Learning Log regarding the following questions:

  1. What more do you learn about the photojournalism of Charles Moore and its influence on his profession?

  2. What do you think the author is implying when he characterizes Moore as “a news photographer who became a photojournalist and died a visual journalist”? What does that characterization suggest about the filed of photojournalism?

  3. In what ways have the field of photojournalism and the sources of images changed since Charles Moore’s time?

  4. What is the central claim implied in the article? In other words, what is it that Klibanoff and others contend the photo still does best?

  5. Select a quotation that is closely related to the central claim implied in the article. How does that quote suggest, explain, or support the article’s central claim?

Step 2

As a class, discuss what the article has suggested about the photojournalism of Charles Moore and how the field has changed. Share and compare your inferences about the central claim of the article (what the photo still does best) and the evidence you have found that suggests, explains, or supports its central ideas.

Step 3

As a class, return to the opening paragraphs of the article and pay attention not only to what Kibanoff says about Charles Moore but also to how he says it. Closely read the following complex sentence from the second paragraph of the article:

Shooting first for Montgomery newspapers in his home state of Alabama, then more famously for Life magazine, Mr. Moore was probably the most influential of a battalion of still photographers who swept across the South to capture, with compelling clarity, the dramatic collision of massive and passive resistance, black and white, right and wrong.

Identify and discuss the main idea and claim of the sentence.

Step 4

Discuss the author’s use of parallel phrases after “the dramatic collision of…” What is the impact of the succession of phrases “massive and passive resistance, black and white, right and wrong”?

Write down this sentence in your Mentor Sentence Journal. Try to write a similar sentence about Moore’s Birmingham, Alabama photo, which you analyzed in the previous activity.