Photography, as a nonverbal language, allows students to increase their visual perception and provides a medium for creative expression. The history of photography will be evaluated in the context of historical, social, cultural and artistic developments. Students learn to understand the artistic qualities of the photographic medium while acquiring the techniques for utilizing photography for expressive purposes. Instruction includes studio and field techniques, photojournalism, fashion photography, and commercial, portrait, scientific, nature, wildlife and sports photography. In producing their own works and by studying the photographs of others, students will develop a base for making informed aesthetic judgments. Integrated throughout the course are career preparation standards which include basic academic skills, communication, interpersonal skills, problem solving, workplace safety, and technology and employment literacy.

Kodak engineer Steven Sasson invented the digital camera in 1975. Within 25 years the technology would overtake analog film materials and dominate the photographic industry and practice. This chapter features a timeline of digital camera technology starting with Steven Sasson’s first completely digital camera prototype and takes us all the way to the smart phones of today. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

Students will analyze a photograph to learn about body image. They will also discuss how society views the human body in different cultures.

Students will engage in visual and written activities that will support their creative process of choreographing a solo dance composition. The lesson includes motifs and the movement components -- body, effort, shape, and space (BESS elements from Laban Movement Analysis).

Students will analyze a 20th century photograph of a Los Angeles landscape, utilizing the principles of design and discussing the message of the work. They will also consider the history of Los Angeles within the broader context of population expansion in U.S. history and write a research paper about the environmental impacts of overpopulation.

Per their website, the mission of The Everyday Project is as follows:
"The Everyday Projects uses photography to challenge stereotypes that distort our understanding of the world. We are creating new generations of storytellers and audiences that recognize the need for multiple perspectives in portraying the cultures that define us."

The Everyday Project began as Everyday Africa, a collection of photographs and stories depicting life in Africa from different perspectives. The website as it is now is dedicated to using photography to combat inequality and perception.

This Project can be used in a variety of different ways in the classroom, and can definitely be a cross-curricular project. It encourages students to research and explore different areas or communities, especially their own. It promotes creativity and self-expression. Although the Project is primarily focused on photography, it can also open avenues for reading, research, and writing.

Students analyze Dorothea Lange's photographs and identify key themes in her work. They then create a thematic exhibition pairing Lange's work with work by artists who explore the same themes in other media.

This resource provides an inquiry-based exploration of the cyanotype photograms using examples from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and video explanations of the history, science, and artistic process of cyanotype photograms.

This resource provides an inquiry-based exploration of the cyanotype photograms using examples from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and video explanations of the history, science, and artistic process of cyanotype photograms.

This resource presents a variety of digital resources hosted by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that students can use to explore the life and work of renowned African-American photographer Louis Draper.  

Students will learn the basic tools for analyzing images using description, reflection, and formal analysis.

Students will read an artist's statement by Dorothea Lange and write an artist's statement based on their own photographs.

Students will create a timeline outlining various groups' struggles for equal opportunity and create a 30-second radio or video public service announcement (PSA).

Students will create a timeline outlining various groups' struggles for equal opportunity and create a 30-second radio or video public service announcement (PSA).

Students will analyze shapes and patterns in a photograph, hear stories about people who were forced to move to internment camps because of their ethnicity, and create drawings that tell a story about a young girl's life in an internment camp.

Students will analyze shapes and patterns in a photograph, hear stories about people who were forced to move to internment camps because of their ethnicity, and create drawings that tell a story about a young girl's life in an internment camp.

Students will read primary source documents about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and will examine various versions of a photograph by Dorothea Lange and explore how cropping can evoke different effects.

Students will read primary source documents about the U.S. internment of Japanese Americans following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and will examine various versions of a photograph by Dorothea Lange and explore how cropping can evoke different effects.

The gelatin silver process was introduced at the end of the nineteenth century and dominated black-and-white photography in the twentieth century. The paper or film used to make gelatin silver prints and negatives is coated with an emulsion that contains gelatin and silver salts. Gelatin silver prints and negatives are developed out rather than printed out, which means that exposure to light registers a latent image that becomes visible only when developed in a chemical bath. This process requires shorter printing times than earlier printed-out processes such as salted paper prints and albumen prints. George Eastman’s introduction of flexible roll film and the Brownie camera revolutionized photographic practice and industry, putting photography into the hands of the masses for the first time. This process is responsible for all the black and white, color and motion pictures produced in the 20th century with analog materials. This project is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-10-13-0194.

Students examine primary resources, photographs by Dorothea Lange, and a U.S. map to understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression.