LEARN NC

K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

American Photography: A Century of Images

http://www.pbs.org/ktca/americanphotography/

Provider: PBS and Twin Cities Public Television


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Imagine if there were no photographs. We have become so used to having images of everything, from news and public events to chronicling our family history. This site, a companion to a 1999 PBS program of the same name, captures the changes of the United States over the 20th Century and how the camera has documented it.

American Photography: A Century of Images features seven areas showing the influence of photography: as an art form, capturing images of war, the truth of photographic images, presidential image-making, advertising and persuasion, as an instrument of reform, and as a way to show cultural identity.

The Image Lab is a multimedia presentation that allows the viewer to experience how cropping a photo can change its meaning, how digital technology can change an image, and how Dorothea Lange made her most famous photograph, “Migrant Mother”, as an FAS photographer during the Dust Bowl period. Macromedia ShockWave and Flash are required for this feature.

Educators will find a Teacher’s Guide with lesson plans for use with the website. Each lesson plan follows the National Standards from McREL. From these plans, students will learn how photographs can be manipulated and the role of ethics in photojournalism. Other lesson plans explore the power of still photography, censorship of war photos, and the study of historical periods using photography.

The three piece video of the program is available for purchase on the PBS website.