Community PhotoWorks

Overview

Armed with cameras, seventh grade students from Mark Twain Middle School in Los Angeles, CA ventured out in their communities and came back to school with creative compositions. This online gallery displays the students’ photographic and literary compositions and offers a thorough method of analyzing photography that you can apply to virtually any classroom.

Suggested Use

With the help of the Getty Museum’s Education Department and non-profit writing organization 826LA, English teacher Kate Kausch at Mark Twain Middle School gave her students a chance to refine their analysis and writing skills through the study of photography and the creation of artist’s statements. You can re-create the Community Photoworks activities in your classroom with the ARTSEDGE lesson "Analyzing Photographs: From Theory to Practice."

Students can view the works in Community Photoworks as models for their own photographs and artist’s statements. Invite them to explore the "Analyzing Photography" section of the site to study the principles and elements of visual composition and learn a way to analyze visual media that can be applied to any work of art from any time period and geographical region. While students in older grades can explore this gallery, the images and methods of analysis are most appropriate for grades 6-9.

View the "Teaching Photography" section of Community Photoworks for myriad ways photography can be incorporated across the curriculum—from language arts and social studies to science and math.

Technical Requirements

To access the virtual gallery and the interactive, you will need the Flash 7 player.