Alexander Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the Civil War
Google Books Limited Preview of the book
How to read a photograph
- What do you see? Take stock of all of the elements of the image (Write Down)
- What patterns do you notice? Are there repeated shapes?
- Is there a hierarchy to the image? Are some figures privileged over others in the image? What objects of figures seem most important, and how does the image make them seem so?
- What interpretations can you make of the patterns and the hierarchies? WHY does the image present its information that way? What does it mean?
- Does the image suggest an Emancipationist or Reconciliationist vision for America?
page revision: 11, last edited: 27 Nov 2012 04:41