Visual Authenticity: Constructing and Capturing Images

What's constructed and what's captured?

What makes for more compelling images?

Project Aims

• Read images "between the lines" to determine authenticity
• Build photographic vocabulary for telling stories through images
• Publish our work to a global audience
• Explore new tools: Cowbird.com

Project Overview

Today we will be reading and writing images, both constructed and captured, and exploring the differences between the two.  After investigating and discussing an image, groups will go off on their own and construct and capture images that tell stories of connection.  Then photographers will publish their images on Cowbird, adding a title, tags, and short text to flesh out the stories.

Connect: Back-to-Back Stories

Think of a moment of connection in your life-- with a person, a place, an idea, an object, an animal-- and start to visualize it.  What were the circumstances, the sounds, the weather, the colors, the smells?  How did the connection manifest?  How did you know?  What did it look like?

Consume: Reading an Image

This image was sent out by the Obama campaign on Nov. 6, 2012 and instantly became viral.  This election was tweeted about 20 million times, but this photo was re-tweeted over 800,000 times and liked over 4 million times on Facebook.

Photograph by Scout Tufankjian for Obama for America via Flickr

Was this image constructed or captured?  

What makes this image so compelling that it was the most Tweeted image of all time?

For more information about this image and an interview with the photographer, click HERE.

For more information about Interpretive Discussion, click HERE.
For outline of Interpretive Discussion questions we used today, click HERE.

Common Core Standards Addressed:
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1: Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5: Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.SL.1: Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

Create: Constructing Images

In your school group, find a spot in the school and construct an image showing a moment of connection.  Think about how to communicate that visually: the context, angle, the lines, characters, etc.  Meanwhile, one group member will be documenting your process.

When you return, upload the images from both cameras to your laptop and curate your images down to 3.  Then choose the most compelling image of the batch to publish.

Common Core Standards Addressed:
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
-CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.W.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

Connect: Cowbird

Go to www.cowbird.com and login.  

Click on the red "Tell a Story" button in the top right corner.

Click on the photo button and upload the photo you've selected.

Add your title, then tag as "Connect" and "#Convergence" and any other tags that would make sense.

Once your photo is up, compose a Tweet-length (140 character) story to accompany your image.

If you finish early, play around with Cowbird: explore other stories, connections, and the audio function.

For an example of student work up on Cowbird (from Chicago, no less), click HERE.

Critique

Let's look at one of our images.  Is this constructed or captured?  What makes you think that?  What makes this a compelling image?  Why did the artist choose this image?

Reflecting on Process

What did you do in each of the 3 circles of Convergence?

How might you use elements of this activity in your classroom?

Digital Place Making

How are we connected to this place?
How do our individual perspectives of a place contribute to its identity?

Placemaking

Placemaking is a collective approach to community development, an "of the people, by the people, and for the people" philosophy for how to nurture neighborhoods, cities, and nations.  It is not a new concept, but with the rapid development and ubiquity of connective technology, digital placemaking has become a way of rethinking how to engage people in the conversation and redefining "Place."

For more about Placemaking, check out the work of Project for Public Spaces.

Today we will be engaging in collective digital placemaking through photo mapping.    

Project Aims:

• Discover a place through photography
• Share our personal relationships with a place to create a more complete picture
• Publish our work to a global audience
• Explore new tools: Picasa, Panoramio

Project Overview:

Using a photographer's lens, we will go out and explore this area.  By composing images, we will tell the story of what we see and what this place is, through our own perspectives.  Then we will publish our images to Panoramio, along with very short poems that help flesh out our stories.  Panoramio is an online photo mapping program that regularly selects images to included on Google Earth, visible to a truly global audience.

Connect: Back-to-Back Stories

Think of a place that is meaningful to you, and start to visualize it: the smells, the people, the textures, the light.  What is it that makes that place? 

Consume: Reading an Image

Observe: What do you see?  

Reflect: What is the mood of the photo?  How do you feel viewing it? What does it remind you of?

Interpret: What is going on in this image? What's the story here?  What do we know about this place?  Is this image candid or staged?  Why did the artist make this?

Decide: Does this work as a photograph?  What techniques might you use for your own work?  What would you have done differently as the photographer?

*This critique structure hits the Common Core Reading Anchor standards 1-6.

Create: Photo Walk

With a team of 3-4 people, take your camera for a walk around the neighborhood and compose images that tell the story of what you connect with about this place.  Be sure to notate your exact location for each shot.  Jot down words or phrases that come to you in connection with your image.

Connect: Publish

• Upload your images to your laptop or tablet.
• Log onto Picasaweb.com.
• Upload one image per artist to the Album "Digital Placemaking"
• Log onto Panoramio.
• Upload the images from your group.
• Title each image based on the words or phrases you jotted down.
• Map the images.
• Tag the image with your handle.
• If there's time, write a short (1-5 line) poem as the description.

Connect: Comment

Explore the other photos on our map, and let the photographers know how you are interpreting their work, and how their perception of this place connects to yours.  Remember the rules for comments:

Be known: Always tell us who you are, no anonymous posting.  It helps to drive the conversation in a positive, community-oriented direction if we use each other's names.

Be nice: No hating, sniping, or bullying.  Even if you disagree, do so decently, while maintaining everyone's dignity.

Back it up: Link to your sources and always be able to point to sound reasoning from a careful examination of the facts.

Write for real: This isn't a text message.  Use actual words (no abbreves), proper capitalization and punctuation, and the best spelling you can muster. 

Trust intent: If you feel bristled by what someone said, chances are they were guilty of being clunky rather than cruel.  Approach the poster in person and ask for clarity, then respond in person.  Do this within 24 hours, or breathe and let it go.

Reflect: How are we connected to this place?

What did you notice in looking at everyone's images?  What similarities or patterns?  What were some major differences?  What did you learn from looking at other people's images that you didn't see before?