MAKING

Picturing Change
Create pictures and words to create positive change

Overview

Documentary photographers create images that record important information, but also share opinions and stir emotions. In many cases, documentary photographers create images to educate people about a certain issue, and to encourage positive change. In this activity, students will view images by documentary photographer Dorothea Lange, and then work in teams to make images of their own about issues they care about. Students will write about their photographs and create informational flyers to motivate others for positive change. Students will learn motivational writing, and gain understanding of how to express themselves clearly and powerfully in words and pictures.

Length of Activity

• 30 - 40 minutes for classroom discussion on first day
• 1 - 2 hours to create photographs
• 1 hour to write about photograph by filling out Picturing Positive
• Change handout
  
  

  Materials
• Camera with film
• Pens
• Picturing Positive Change handout
• Glue to mount photographs

Activity

1. View Dorothea Lange images below one at a time with your students. As your students view the image, share information below that is appropriate for your students' grade level.

Information about the photograph:
This photograph was taken by Dorothea Lange. She photographed the harsh conditions of poor families in hard times. This photograph was taken in 1935, and shows migrant farm workers in the Imperial Valley in California. Under President Franklin Roosevelt in 1935, the United States government created the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA was an agency that hired artists to work on projects during the Great Depression. Dorothea Lange was one of many photographers hired under the FSA to record the dire conditions and hard circumstances resulting from the economic crisis of the Great Depression. The images raised awareness among the greater U.S. population and lawmakers. In 1935 legislators created new laws and programs to help people in need, such as the Social Security Act.

2. Ask your students:

• What type of conditions did people live in during
  the Great Depression? What do you see in the
  photograph that makes you say that?
• Do you think photographer Dorothea Lange spent
  much time with the people in the photograph
  before taking their picture? Why or why not?

3. As your students view the image, share information below that is appropriate for your students' grade level.

Information about the photograph:
Dorothea Lange was hired by the War Relocation Authority to document the evacuation of Japanese Americans during World War II. Lange disagreed with the government's treatment of the Japanese Americans. Because her photographs reveal their hardships-such as being forced to leave their homes, living in intolerable conditions, and having their legal rights as United States citizens violated-many of her photographs were never published. Her photographs often focused on the bleak and desperate conditions of the internment camps.

4. Ask your students:

• What do you see in this photograph?
  What do you see that makes you say that?
• How would you feel if you had to wear a tag
  and were referred to as a number?
• Do you think Dorothea Lange does a good job
  of stirring emotions with her photographs?
  Why or why not?

5. After viewing the images, start a discussion with your students. Tell your students they will be working in teams of three to make photographs about issues they care about. Students will write about their photographs and create informational flyers to motivate others for positive change. The flyers will be posted in the classroom, or if possible, in a public area of the school, such as the main office, auditorium, cafeteria, or library.

(Note to teachers: There is no shortage of issues that students care about, and things they would like to see change. Encourage students to be creative in thinking about this activity.
Students may want to take on issues close to home, such as: garbage in the playground; broken equipment at school; or they may be interested in documenting larger social problems in their town like poverty or homelessness.)

6. In the classroom, have student teams discuss what they would like to photograph. The more specific the problem, the better. Have your students think about what they want to see happen as the result of their photograph. What are your student's ideas about solutions to the problem? Let your students know they will be mounting their finished photograph on the Picturing Positive Change handout and proposing a solution to the problem.

Before students set out to photograph, discuss their ideas as a group.

• How can each group best photograph their subject?
  Would a close up shot be best to show the problem,
  or something taken from farther away?
• How can they photograph their subject in the most
  straightforward manner that will make it clear to the
  viewer what the problem is?

7. After students document their subjects and the film has been developed, work in the classroom together to complete Picturing Positive Change flyers. Have copies of the flyers ready for your students and glue on hand to mount photographs.

8. Once the students have completed their Picturing Positive Change handouts, post them in a public area of the school. You may want to create a mini exhibit, and invite parents and community members to view the exhibit.

9. Follow up on the activity in a day or two by asking your students about their experience. o How did they find the process?

• How did it feel to decide on an issue and
  then present possible solutions?
• Was it easier or harder than they thought it
  would be to photograph and write about their
  selected problem?
• Would they do this again?
• Do they have other ideas about how words and
  pictures can be used to motivate others?
  
  10. In a month, revisit the activity with your students.
  
  
• How has the school and community responded to the flyers?
• Has there been any discussion generated from it?
• Were there any reactions that came as a surprise?

Teacher: please click here for PDF file of the Picturing Positive Change handout.

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