Author: Lindsay He

In today’s society, we are constantly fed with hundreds of images everyday. As a result, we often accept the images without questioning the meaning behind them, and also because photographs have historically captured truth. If used positively, images serve a positive function, as tools that effectively convey messages universally, without the hindrance posed by the language barrier. Nevertheless, we are often subjected to propaganda images that have been misused through their removal from their proper context. Often as a society we overlook how these images are being framed in newspapers or on posters, and accept them as the truth without questioning the true intent of the presentation. In actuality, most of the time, images in the media are posed by photographers and Photoshopped by editors, and most of the time, we are unaware of these changes and the meaning contained within these photographs.

It is important to know the way each photograph is being used. An interesting art project posted on Urban Arts Partnership, incorporated into two global history classes taught by teaching artist Elise Rasmussen and Ms Delgado, helps students understand the usage of media photographs more fully. Throughout the year, students are incorporating photography and the visual arts to illustrate historical concepts and eras from the curriculum. One global history class, which explores student political revolutions around the world, utilizes photography to understand the roots of revolution and how it affects people. The students work together in groups to create propaganda posters that relate to specific revolutions. They present these to the class and explain their usage and background to their fellow students. Studying historical propaganda photographs and remaking them allows students to grasp the concept that not all photographs represent the truth. They created photographs to create the posters that helped to fuel their revolutions. This can also be done by governments and radical groups. This interactive technique in approaching the study of history allows students to grasp better the relationship between photography and propaganda. Even photography classes rarely address the fact that many photographs do not only convey the truth and are used in the wrong way. We should question the validity of images and their intention.

The main emphasis of this project is on illustrating historical events through interactive group artwork, which provides a new and exciting way for students to learn and reflect upon history. However, through the recreation of propaganda, the project also helps students to be more aware of their own media and the present time. This teaching method can be applied in most classes, to help students to gain a better understanding of their own culture and remind them not to believe every image they see. It would form a crucial part of cultural studies in the current era, especially in view of the growth rate of Photoshopped images and the fact that many young teens still believe in the truth of all the images that they see online and in magazines. There are also movements like SPARK, which has demanded that Teen Vogue show real, untouched photographs of girls. However, such single-issue activism is not enough. The misuse of images goes far beyond fashion magazines—it extends to human rights issues in the news. It is vital to educate young adults about the massive increase in photographic manipulation and synthesis.

While teaching, it is always nice to involve students in their own community in an interactive way. This semester, while teaching about future image-makers, we had the opportunity to engage students in a blogging competition. However, such opportunities for community engagement will not exist every semester. Searching for a creative outlet for students in this regard, recently I stumbled upon an interesting project on Urban Arts Partnership done by IS 230’s photography club, led by teaching artist Elise Rasmussen. In this project, students work together to produce a visitor’s guide book for their Jackson High neighborhood. They take neighborhood walks to explore their community and shoot pictures for the guide. The students also write brief articles to go along with their images. They are able to interact with, explore and develop a better understanding of their own community. In the process of introducing their home to visitors, they also get a chance to learn to view their community from a new perspective.

I found students never had issues doing independent projects, and that they had little opportunity to interact with their peers on group photography projects. Grouping students into departments and giving them the opportunity to work with each other would help students develop practical skills as directors and photographers. Students would also have to agree on the photograph that they select and edit as a group; they would thus be exposed to other students’ perspectives. By doing the project in class, the teachers would be able to pay attention to how students are working with their cameras and composing their photographs. Allowing students to write short articles to accompany the photographs can help them practice incorporating text and photographs. After producing the visitor’s guide, the students should feel a sense of accomplishment from having produced a document connecting them to the larger community. This project of Ms Rasmussen’s allowed students to produce a visitor’s guide for the community, and it is always interesting to see the town from a student’s perspective instead of an adult’s. I will incorporate this creative concept into my future teaching experiences in photography.

Photographic manipulation has always been an issue in the 21^st century. Because of the realism that a photograph can capture and depict, we often think photographs capture the truth, when in fact they can be (and often are) manipulated. Although photographs were also manipulated before the invention of the digital camera, with the introduction of Photoshop, photographic manipulation has transferred the emphasis from capturing to creating a photograph. Born into this era of photographic manipulation, many teens nowadays are not able to grasp the difference between the two. They are flooded by thousands of photographs daily that straddle the blurry line between creation and reality. A movement named SPARK questions the reality of images within teen magazines and has started a campaign to address this issue. Although we cannot ban photographic manipulation, we can educate students about it and highlight the artificiality that can exist in photographs.

In a PBS teaching blog,  a teacher’s guide entitled “Manipulating Photographs: Can You Trust Photographs?” shows creative ways to educate students on the topic of photographic manipulation, the power of photographs, and the role of ethics in photojournalism, the aim being to inform course-takers of the nature of the “new” photography. The guide starts out by asking students to list examples of photographs that have helped to cause changes throughout the 20^th century, and to consider how photographs can act as agents of change. This helps student to come to the realization that photography is powerful and not just limited to the thousands of mundane images that they see daily.  Students are also asked to look at several photographs that have been altered by the photographer, and to analyze these photographs and the motivation behind the changes. This idea is extremely clever in that it helps students to understand why and how photographers make such adjustments. In the process, students will develop the skills to critically analyze photographs before believing they are genuine. Trying to understand the motives behind a photograph will help students to understand that photographs are not necessarily depictions of truth, but may have been constructed with certain motivations in mind. Then the students get hands-on experience in manipulating photographs, and finally, they are asked if their manipulation is acceptable or not. By being on the other side and manipulating the photographs, students will gain a better understanding of the nature and ease of photo manipulation.

The rest of the guide deals with photographic credibility and the accuracy of photographs. The guide is extremely useful, because a topic like photographic manipulation is extremely hard to educate students about. They may know of Photoshop, but many do not consider its usage and simply accept manipulated photographs of models and the pictures shown in news coverage as reality, which they may not be. It is important to teach students to question the images they consume and assess the motivations behind them in order to draw their own conclusions.

They also have many interesting and creative teaching guides incorporating different ideas into the class room. Take a look at their site.