Grades: 7–12
Subjects: Visual Arts, History—Social Science, English—Language Arts
Pre-requisites: For teachers with any level of proficiency in teaching with works of art, and students of all skill levels.
This curriculum is intended to provide students and teachers with the tools to analyze photography and is easily adaptable to enhance learning on any theme, topic, or historical period that is expressed by, or documented in, photographs. The skills students will learn can also be applied to any work of art. The curriculum works best when paired with a visit to a local museum or gallery to view photographs in an art-historical context.
The lessons in this curriculum are intended to be used sequentially. Ten photographs were selected from the J. Paul Getty Museum's collection for their potential use as teaching tools in the classroom. They represent a wide variety of applications of photography across historic periods and a diversity of formal qualities. Connections to National and California State Standards are listed in a chart accessible in the menu above, on the right side of this page. View photographs created by Los Angeles students with your class, either in preparation for teaching this unit or to inspire them to create their own photographs and artist's statements.
