Grades/Level: Adult Learners
Subjects: Visual Arts, English–Language Arts, ESL
Time Required: Single Class Lesson

Author: Getty Museum Education Staff

For the Classroom


Curriculum Home
Lesson Plans
Still Life Overview and Vocabulary
Decorative Arts Overview and Vocabulary
Photography Overview and Vocabulary

Lesson Overview

Students learn about and discuss why photographs are made.

Learning Objectives

• Students will analyze the difference between artistic and documentary photography.
• Students will discuss why photographers made certain photographs.
• Students will analyze why they make photographs.
• Students will use new vocabulary.

Materials

• Image of Running (Galloping) by Eadweard J. Muybridge
• Image of Still Life with Pear and Bowls by Paul Strand
• Looking at Photography Student Worksheet 9b
• Looking at Photography Student Worksheet 10

Lesson Steps

• Explain to students that this lesson will look at photography as a medium that is sometimes documentary, sometimes artistic, and sometimes both.

• Display Running (Galloping).

• Ask students what they see in the photograph.

• Ask students why they think the photograph was made.

• Utilize Student Worksheet 9b to explore the story of the photograph.

• Display Still Life with Pear and Bowls.

• Ask students to describe what they see in the photograph.

• Ask students why they think the photograph was made. Was it made for documentary or artistic purposes?

• Ask students if they recognize the still-life imagery.

• Ask students what shapes they recognize in the photograph.

• As a class or individually, examine other works by Paul Strand in the Getty's collection.

• Have students list the subjects Strand chose to photograph.

• Ask students why they think each photograph was made. Was it made for documentary or artistic purposes? Discuss.

STUDENT WORKSHEETS
• Use Student Worksheet 9b as a reading activity. Distribute the worksheet to students and have them discuss Running (Galloping) and answer the questions.

• For reinforcement of the concept of still life, with additional discussion of the elements of photography, use Student Worksheet 10. Distribute the worksheet to students and have them write short answers to the questions.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITIES
• Conduct a class photography project using disposable cameras. Have students make photographs that they feel represent documentary and aesthetic subjects.

• Have each student bring a photograph from home and write a short paragraph about the picture.

Running / Muybridge
Running (Galloping), Eadweard J. Muybridge, 1878–1879