1. In small groups, practice the exercises listed in Interpreting Photographs
2. Discuss the personal vision and style of each artist as presented in Interpreting Photographs
3. Discuss whether the intentions of the artists and the meaning of their work are clear
4. Discuss what can be learned about Mexico from this guide and what can be learned about photography
5. Discuss how the impact of the images would be different if the photographs were in color
6. Ask the students to discuss why they look at photographs differently if they are from a museum as opposed to the newspaper or a family album
Suggestions for class discussion
Foreign locations have stimulated artists for centuries. Mexico in particular offers American artists rich, exotic subject matter that is close to home. The artists whose work is on exhibit were no exception. Siskind traveled to Mexico and photographed there eight times over a thirty-year period beginning in 1955. Yavno visited one time, in 1981.
Ask your students to discuss a place they have visited that is either foreign or quite different than the place they live.
1. What sights, smells, colors, feelings, tastes, or sounds were different in the place you visited than they are where you live?
2. What about the place surprised you?
3. Did anything make you laugh? Or make you sad?
4. What do you remember most about the place?
5. Did people speak a different language? How did that make you feel?
6. Did people dress differently?
7. Did children act differently?
8. How did people get around? Did most people drive cars?
9. What are some words you would use to describe the place or the people there?
10. If you were able to take one picture of that place to share with us, what would it look like?
Next, if anyone in your class has been to Mexico or has a friend or relative who has been there, ask the person to describe things about Mexico using many of the questions listed above.
Show your students a picture of a foreign place. Have each of them think of one word to describe the place he or she sees in the picture. Share the descriptive words out loud and discuss how one person's opinions and feelings about something, like a photograph or a place, can be very different than others' opinions and feelings about that very same photograph or place.
1. Documentary photography
You will need an instamatic camera and one roll of color or black-and-white film, 36 exposures.
Take your class on a walk around your school block or visit another room at school, such as the cafeteria, gymnasium, nurse's or principal's office. Spend a few minutes looking around the area, taking in what is happening, studying the scene. Then allow each student to take one picture of their own choosing. As they make their exposures, list the students in order of their use of the camera so you will be able to match each student with his or her print. After getting the photographs developed, set up a display of the prints and discuss the different approaches your students took while documenting the same place or area. Which prints are documentary? Are any abstract? Which are close-up? Is the perspective the same in all of the photograph? Do any of the images have people in them? Are the people important to the photograph? Why did each student choose his or her particular view of that place?
2. Drawing
Ask your students to draw a picture of one particular place they all know. It could be the place you visited on your last field trip, the local park, or the front of the school, the gym, or football stadium. When they are finished, exhibit the pictures and discuss the different approaches the students took to describe one particular place.
3. Writing
Ask your students to write a paragraph about an experience they all shared with one another. It could be the first five minutes of that particular class period, or a recent assembly they all would have attended, or time spent on the bus during a recent field trip.
When they are finished, have the students read their paragraphs aloud and discuss the different approaches they used to tell about one shared experience.
http://www.creative photography.org
This page last updated June 29, 1999. oncenter@ccp.library.arizona.edu