This activity will require you to practice visual sociology.
Reflect on ideas presented in the article Visual Sociology, Documentary Photography,and Photojournalism:
It’s (Almost) All a Matter Of Context and then try to practice developing “context” as Becker describes in the article.
This is a discussion post that will require you to submit your responses and then respond to two of your peers.
Directions
Complete the following tasks:
Review Becker’s description of the importance of context in the article.
Take a series of photos (at least four) that reflect something of sociological importance. You can take photos of anything you want but they should have something to say about people (and, more importantly, social groups). That doesn’t mean the photos need to have people in them though.Keep the following in mind when as you think about what you want to photograph:
Your series of photos should focus on one topic. The point of taking multiple photos is to help develop context and for each one to share additional detail. How you take your photos is entirely up to you though. You could take four quick photos of some event, or take four different photos over the course of weeks.
Your photos should be thoughtfully planned and taken. For example, snapping quick pictures out of your car window isn’t acceptable. You don’t need to take professional photographs though.
Do not take photos that focus on specific people without their consent. While it’s legal to take photos of anything/anyone you want in public spaces, people do not like to be photographed without their consent and you are expected to respect that. It’s OK to take photos that include people who have not consented as long as 1) they cannot be identified and/or 2) they are only a part of the background or setting.
Being homeless tends to force people into the public eye, making them very visible symbols of “disorder.” Photographing them from a distance does little but reinforce the stigma that already exists and there’s very little to “say” with photographs taken from an outsider’s perspective that we’re not all well aware of already.
There are a couple exceptions to this rule. If you are/were homeless or have established relationships with homeless people and want to document the experience from an insider’s perspective, you’re welcome to share those photographs.
Share your photos in a response to this discussion post.
Include a short description for each photo that explains why you took it and what you were trying to communicate with it. You can write as much or as little as you want.
If you click on the on the photograph symbol in the menu bar above the discussion post prompt, you will see that there is an option to “Upload Image.” Use that to upload and embed your photos in the discussion post response.
You are required to embed the photos in the discussion post so that they appear alongside your text. Do not copy and paste links to photos. That makes them more difficult to load and often result in permissions issues where they are not visible to anyone but you.
Review some of your peers’ photographs and respond to at least two of them.
