Context_and_Meaning-_Frances_Benjamin_Johnston.docx

Context and Meaning: Frances Benjamin Johnston

Frances Benjamin Johnston, a white woman photographer, took a series of photographs of Black and Indigenous students at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute in 1899. In addition to the photographs included in the course readings (Week 9 Social Documentary to 1945, Rosenblum 340 – 391), you can see the photographs Johnston produced here: 
http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=LOT%2011051&fi=number&op=PHRASE&va=exact&co!=coll&sg=true&st=gallery (链接到外部网站。)
 and as they were exhibited by artist Carrie Mae Weems here: 
http://carriemaeweems.net/galleries/hampton.html (链接到外部网站。)

To get a sense of how the photographs were circulated in their contextual moment, have a read through Sarah Bassnett’s article “From Public Relations to Art: Exhibiting Frances Benjamin Johnston’s Hampton Institute Photographs” (pay most attention to the beginning and end of the article, but you can skim the middle section, pages 160-165): 
IN COURSE FILES HERE

 
 下载or at 
http://www.torontophotographyseminar.org/sites/default/files/uploads/5_Bassnett.pdf (链接到外部网站。)

The bibliographic citation for the essay is: Bassnett, Sarah. “From Public Relations to Art: Exhibiting Frances Benjamin Johnston’s Hampton Institute Photographs.” History of Photography 32.2 (Summer 2008): 152-168
On the basis of the images and Bassnett, write a reflection paper of 700-800 words that considers how the meaning of Johnson’s photographs changed when they were exhibited in different venues and contexts. Finish by describing a new context for Johnston’s photographs: where would you display/circulate them, and what would this new context say about them? At OCAD’S Onsite Gallery, as a pamphlet, on Instagram, on a billboard over the Gardiner Expressway… wherever you can imagine! What impact would your new context have on meaning?
Your writing must include:
·
· one quote from the Bassnett essay, properly cited, which you engage with directly
· deep contextual and visual engagement with at least 1 but no more than 2 Johnston photographs either form Rosenblum or the above websites, (include the images, a caption for the images, and reference number form the textbook if applicaple)
· no need for additional research beyond Bassnett and Rosenblum, but sources used should be cited in Chicago Manual of Style (https://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html (Links to an external site.)