Reading a Photograph

"Reading photographs is assuredly analogous to pursuing history. Inquiry is crucial to both." (Thomas Schlereth)

Photographs are valuable primary resources which can reveal information about the people, places, and events of the past. Using photographs in the classroom is a way to bring history to life pictorially. The following are questions which can be used to dissect and analyze many photographs.


What is happening in the picture?
What objects in the picture can you identify?
With which general time period are those objects associated? What would be the same or different if the photograph were taken today?
Is there anything in the photograph that you cannot identify?
How are people dressed?
What are they doing?
Do you think that the people in the photograph are related? If so, how?
What clues suggest this?
What do the facial expressions or body language suggest?
Where do you think the photograph was taken?
Are there structures in the photo? What are they used for?
What distinguishing characteristics of buildings or environment give you clues to the location?
Why do you think the photographer shot this picture?
What do you think she was trying to tell you?
How does this compare/contrast with other works by the photographer?


When using photographs as documentary evidence, it is important to remember that photographs can be staged or altered. Also, the photographer may be shooting scenes to represent a particular point of view. When using photographs for research, don't draw conclusions from just one print. Further sources must be utilized, such as historical records, other photos, or books.

Composition

Taking a photograph is a selection process, because the photographer has to make choices. She must think about the subject, what is most important, and how she will photograph the subject. For artistic effect, photographers also strive to achieve interesting compositions with light and shade, shape, texture, scale, and line.

The viewfinder is the small window on the outside of a camera. A photographer looks through the viewfinder to compose the picture. When she decides on the limits and boundaries of the scene, she creates the frame.

The following are questions for discussion about the composition of a photograph:




Did the photographer arrange the picture (pose it) or was it taken as the events happened (candid shot)?
What do you think is happening outside the frame?
What might have been the conversation between the subject(s) and the photographer?
Where was the photographer positioned when the picture was taken?
What kinds of scenes did the photographer focus on?
Consider the composition of the photograph. How did the photographer use light and shade, vertical and horizontal lines? Where did the photographer place the center of interest?


Reading Details

The details a photographer chooses to include can create the meaning and provide clues to the identity of the photograph. You can read a photograph as you would a book, from left to right, and then downward. When studying details in a photograph a magnifying glass can be used to isolate different sections of the photograph.

General Suggestions

Divide the class into small groups. Using the questions on the previous page ask each group to spend some time 'reading. a single photograph.

The photographs that follow give clues to understanding New York City in one of its most tumultuous decades, the 1930s. Display all the images for the students. Have students make note of the questions these images provoke. They will be the basis for future discussions.

Before relating the background information supplied with an image, ask your students to examine each photograph and describe what they see. Encourage them to extract as much detail as possible. After your discussions, refer back to the images and reevaluate your descriptions of the photos. Encourage your students to examine the clothing, architectural designs, and methods of transportation depicted in the photographs.

Have your students, individually or in groups, examine the photographs for detail. After they have studied a photograph, ask them to turn the photograph over. Have them list every detail of the photograph they can recall. Students can share their lists with each other and discuss the following questions: Which items did they easily remember? Which items were most difficult to remember? Why? Which items did most of them agree on? Which items were incorrectly listed? Have your students look at the photograph again and determine: What items do they see now that they didn't see before? What do they think the photographer was trying to communicate?