Author: Frank W. Baker     Email: fbaker1346@aol.com
Time: One or two class periods
Original: yes
Title: Critically Viewing Photographs
Abstract:  Today, images in photography are easily manipulated with the advent of computer imaging software. But could early American photographs have been manipulated?
Students will use critical viewing skills to question a Civil War photograph.
Grade: 6-8
Subjects:  ELA;  Social Studies; Visual & Performing Arts
Objective:

1. Students will learn about the early uses of photography in the US
2. Students will learn about the language of photography
3. Students will learn about the “constructed” nature of media
4. Students will use critical viewing skills to think about how photography can be used to sway public opinion
    

McRel National Standards Correlation:
Language Arts            Standard 9 Uses viewing skills and strategies to understand and interpret visual media
                                    Standard 10 Understands the characteristics and components of the media
Arts & Communication  Standard 1. Understands the principles, processes, and products associated with arts and communication media
                               Standard 4. Understands ways in which the human experience is transmitted and reflected in the arts and communication

National Standards for History: (Grades 5-12)
Chronological thinking, historical comprehension, historical analysis and interpretation, historical research capabilities, historical issues-analysis and decision-making

South Carolina ELA Standards Correlation:

6-C3.1, 7-C3.1, 8-C3.1  Demonstrate the ability to make predictions about the content of what he or she views
6-C3.2, 7-C3.2, 8-C3.2  Demonstrate the ability to summarize information that he or she receives from nonprint sources
6-C3.3, 7-C3-3, 8-C3.3  Demonstrate the ability to analyze details, character, setting, and cause and effect in material from nonprint sources
6-C3.4, 7-C3.4, 8-C3.4 Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between fact and opinion, to compare and contrast information and ideas, and to make inferences with regard to what he or she has viewed
6-C3.5, 7-C3.5, 8-C3.5 Demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast different viewpoints that he or she encounters in nonprint sources
6-C3.6, 7-C3.6, 8-C3.6  Demonstrate the ability to compare and contrast the treatment of a given situation of event in nonprint sources

South Carolina Social Studies Standards Correlation:
Standard 4-6  The student will  demonstrate an understanding of the Civil War and its impact on America.

South Carolina Visual & Performing Arts
Grades 9-12
The student will analyze the origins of specific images and ideas and explain why these elements are of value in their own artworks and in those of others.

 
Focus Question: Was the manipulation of photographic images possible during the Civil War?

Summative Assessment: Students will use a rubric (see below) to create a list of questions about a specific photograph which will help them analyze its meaning and intentions.

Background, Resources/Materials:
In general, teachers and students need to know that photography was still in its infancy during the 1860’s in America. There were no high speed shutters, which today, can “stop” a race car going 150 mph.  President Lincoln, for example, had to sit still in a chair in a photographic studio for many minutes at a time, in order for the photographer to open the shutter, expose enough light on his photographic plate, and then close the shutter.  For this reason alone, there are no photographs of actual Civil War battle action scenes.

Suggested website:  http://web.archive.org/web/20051231062051/http://www.civilwarphotography.com/

Teachers should log onto the Library of Congress web page and download and read “The Case of the Moved Body”  from  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cwcam3.html  What is presented here are readings from noted Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner, which correspond to particular photographs, and originally published as: Gardner's Photographic Sketch Book of the War. Gardner worked for the famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. (Some experts say that Brady's men shot most of the images,
but put his name down as the photographer of record.)
 

Of particular interest here is the photograph (below) now known as “The Home of the Rebel Sharpshooter’s Den” by Gardner. 
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cw00171.jpg

 
Teachers may wish to download this photo and create an overhead transparency of it.
Historian William Frassanito in his book Gettysburg: A Journey in Time, contends that
the soldier’s body was in fact moved to the location of the den.  
Teachers may assign these pages to their students to read, as well as the accompanying 
short piece “Does The Camera Ever Lie?” http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cwcam1.html

Teachers should also read and print out for students “Word & Image: The Language of Photography” 
http://www.time.com/time/teach/archive/981012/text5.html

This is a good site which introduces students to some of the key concepts in photography.

The photo, “The Sharpshooter’s Den,” therefore was published and distributed in its time as one way of swaying public opinion against the war. By seeing the horrors of a dead solider, or hundreds of dead soldiers on a battlefield, the photography and its accompanying captions, could communicate to readers much more than just words alone. Remember the phrase, “ a picture is worth a thousand words.”

Student Rubric For Analyzing the Civil War Photograph “The Sharpshooter’s Den”

One of the key principles of media literacy education is the principle of inquiry, asking questions.

Students gain a deeper appreciation of media by asking questions like the ones proposed here:

1. who is the producer of the message? ( in this case, who took the photograph?)

2. what is the purpose of the message? ( why did the photographer take the picture)

3. what techniques are used to make the message believable? (Solider alone)

4. in what ways could a photographer “construct” a photograph?

5. what do you already know about the message? (prior knowledge) What don’t you know?

6. where can you go to find credible answers? (research skills, information literacy)

Using a blank sheet of paper, students should create a list of their own questions about the Civil War photograph. (Listed below are some possible questions that could be among those proposed by students. Some of the answers proposed here can be found in the readings; other questions may take some digging in books or other Civil War photography web pages.)  
 

1. Was the photograph taken in proximity to a famous battle?  
2. Was the solider fighting for the North or the South?  
3. What were the circumstances surrounding his death?  
4. Who shot him?  
5. Who took the photograph?  
6. Why was the photograph taken?  
7. Was the photo published? If so, in which newspapers?  
8. Is there something wrong with the photo?  

Lesson Plan Script
Teacher Does:

1. Teacher talks in general about photography as an emerging invention in the 1860s. The Civil War was the first to be photographed.
2. A general discussion around the key media literacy questions should be presented.
3. Using the overhead or SmartBoard, the teacher presents the image “The Sharpshooter’s Den”
4. Students are asked to generate their own questions about the photo.
5. After exhausting all possible questions, the teacher reveals that the soldier’s body was moved to the den from the 
   battlefield. Now, what question would students ask?
6. They will want to know why.
7. They should be assigned now to read: “The Case of the Moved Body” and “Does the Camera Ever Lie?”
8. A final discussion can take place around the ethics of manipulating the image. Teachers may also want to log onto the 
   author’s web site “Is Seeing Believing?” http://www.frankwbaker.com/isb 
   which utilizes a half dozen or more contemporary examples of the digital manipulation of images. 
   On this site is a review of a curriculum called “Is Seeing Believing?” as well as links to contemporary news articles about the same topic.

 Student Does:

Students listen to the teacher talk about early Civil War photography and take notes on some of the key media literacy questions  After viewing “The Sharpshooter’s Den” photograph, they will have to come up with their own critical viewing skills questions.  When the teacher reveals that the soldier’s body was moved, students will ask why, and should speculate on a possible answer. They will read two articles from the Library of Congress web page. After which, they will engage in more discussion about the ethics of manipulating images. They may even be asked if they can locate other examples of the digital manipulation of photographs.

They may also be directed to log onto the “Is Seeing Believing?” web page and write an essay on the ethics of manipulated images.
 

Extension Activity #1   1 or 2 class periods

Using the “Is Seeing Believing?” website, assign students to do some research onto a recent story in the mainstream media on the digital manipulation of images. Students may want to determine if there are any rules among professional photographers or news photography associations regarding the digital manipulation of images.

A helpful videotape is included as part of the Newseum curriculum “Is Seeing Believing?” available from both the Newseum, http://www.newseum.org/  and the Center for Media Literacy, http://www.medialit.org/  (A portion of the video is also available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNYPEuZDjS0)

    You may wish to set up a debate assigning students to those FOR and those AGAINST the digital manipulation of images.

    Resource Materials List:
    Background on Civil war photography: http://web.archive.org/web/20051231062051/http://www.civilwarphotography.com/   
    Key Questions to ask about media:  http://www.frankwbaker.com/media_messages

     Video: Civil War Journal: Alexander Gardner: War Photographer (A&E/History Channel)

    Is Seeing Believing? http://www.frankwbaker.com/isb
    Library of Congress “Case of the Moved Body” http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cwcam3.html 
    The Sharpshooter’s Den photo http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cw00171.jpg
    The Center for Civil War Photography  http://www.civilwarphotography.org/
    Word & Image, The Language of Photography http://www.time.com/time/teach/archive/981012/text5.html
    Does the Camera Ever Lie?  http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/cwpcam/cwcam1.html