ASSIGNMENT
While the expression “A picture is worth 1,000 words” is meant to convey that an image means more than “talk,” images can also compel us to volunteer, donate money, vote a certain way, or join a group.
Photographs can be even more convincing, especially if they are not altered by digital editing software. Take a look at the photo below. What do you see? How do you feel looking at the image? Why do you think the photographer took the picture?
Dorothy Counts (1957) Photo by Douglas Martin, winner of 1958 World Press Photo of the Year
In 1957, fifteen-year-old Dorothy Geraldine Counts and three other students became the first African American students to attend the previously all-white Harding High School in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were greeted by angry white mobs that screamed obscenities and racial slurs at the African American students. Counts’ picture appeared in many newspapers, as did others of black students attempting to attend white schools for the first time. Counts’ family feared for her safety and withdrew her from Harding and sent her to a completely integrated high school in Pennsylvania, after four days of her enduring the taunting. The image, by Douglas Martin for the Associated Press, was the photo of the year in 1957.
Later that year, language was added to the decision Brown Vs. Board Of Education that read that communities were to desegregate their schools.
Step 1
Consider these questions for the discussion:
- What components of the image stand out?
- Is there a sign of weakness or strength?
- Does the image appear posed?
- Think about why the image was taken from the angle the photographer chose.
- Does it bring the viewer closer the subject?
- Are there details in the image that tell more of the story?
- Which elements bring up new questions?
Step 2
Be a journalist! write a headline for the newspaper story about the incident documented in the image. Think about what impact that action had on the individual in the photograph, and/or on the community in which they live
