Photo Essay Study Questions

Photo Essay Study Questions

Photo Essay Directions
A photo essay is a set of photographs selected to tell a story about a certain topic or make the
viewer feel a certain emotion. While some photo essays may contain no text, in this case, the
photographs may have captions or brief notes to explain their meaning.
Photo essays should be designed to be viewed in a particular .

Directions: Create a photo essay about the cause and effects of your chosen issue. Following
these steps will help you create a coherent photo essay:
1. Review the information you have collected. Look for big ideas about the causes and
effects of the topic that emerge from the evidence. Choose one big idea that you think is
important. It might relate to one effect (such as the effects of racially disproportionally
discipline and the school-to-prison pipeline) or it might concern how a specific group
(such as how Native American children may be disproportionately impacted by school
discipline policies). Make sure you have a coherent idea!
2. First, create a thesis statement that clearly states your big idea.
3. Outline the body of your photo essay. Write 6 to 8 points that you want to make to prove
your thesis statement. Select photos that will illustrate each of these points. Organize
your points and the photos into an essay. If you want viewers to look at the photos in a
certain , make that clear. For example, you might number the photos or use arrows
to show the “path.” You may also use quotes from the sources you examined. You can
also use Google slides or PowerPoint and create a different slide for each image.
4. As you work, think about the photos you picked, why you picked them, why they fit in a
particular in supporting your thesis. Will someone looking at your photo essay
understand how the photos relate to your thesis?
5. Create a concluding statement for your essay.
6. Review photo essay to ensure APA or MLA guidelines are met for in-text citations and
Reference List.
7. Make sure your photo essay meets the criteria on the Photo Essay Checklist.

Examples
Garbage Wars in Naples: http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,1702831,00.html
Coming Home (second from the top): https://www.behance.net/gallery/3848853/Newspaperphoto-essays-and-layouts

A Place to Call Home (see three images at topic of the webpage):
https://blogs.baruch.cuny.edu/art3064/2010/10/17/examples-of-community-photo-essays-bybaruch-student-photographers/

“Harold Scott” (this is not a formal essay but still should give design ideas):
https://sites.lps.org/gkeller/web/Pages/PhotoEssayexamples/PhotoEssayExamples.htm

Checklist
Every photo essay should:
___Identify an issue clearly related to option #1 or option #2 that you decided to
investigate and better understand. (5 points)
___ Include a clear thesis statement presenting a big idea about the cause and effects of
your topic. (5 points)
___ Provide a photo illustrating each supporting statement. Not including thesis and
concluding statement, there may be 6 to 8 supporting statements that clearly convey the
causes and effects of your issue. (8 points)
___Include a concluding statement that is not simply a restating of the thesis. (5 points)
___Use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation and be visually appealing. (2 points)

https://www.ppic.org/blog/tracking-anti-asian-hate/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/30/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-additional-actions-to-respond-to-anti-asian-violence-xenophobia-and-bias/
https://www.google.com/search?q=new+york+policy+about+asian+people+during+covid&oq=new+york+policy+about+asian+people+during+covid&aqs=chrome..69i57.21194j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8