What can make

a photograph interesting?

What can make a photograph interesting?

The Subject Matter (the things in a picture)

The Mood (the feeling a picture creates in the viewer)

The Ideas/Theme (what the artist wants to convey)

and Photographic Concepts (use of techniques)

can all play a part!

There’s more to photography than pushing a button.

The Goal

• Today we are going to look at a few photographs to develop our art vocabulary.

• We will also learn how to make pictures more interesting, and understand how images communicate ideas.

1. What’s going on in this picture?

2. What do you see that makes you say that?

3. What more can you find?

What is the subject matter (the recognizable stuff)?

What is the subject matter (the recognizable stuff)?

What is mood?Mood is the emotions that you feel

while you are looking at the work of art.

A

B

Calm

D

E

F

G

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What mood words might you use for this work?

What mood words might you use for this work?

What mood words might you use for this work?

Theme/ Big Idea

The theme, big idea, or message that

an artist may want to convey or show

to the viewer.

What Theme might this work be about?

What Theme might this work be about?

Now let’s try this on your own

• I will introduce two artist’s works to you and ask you to identify the subject matter, mood, and a larger idea the artist might be expressing.

• Then you will list similarities and differences between the works.

Compare & Contrast

Compare: List three or more similaritiesContrast: List three or more differences

(1890 –1976) Born Emmanuel Radnitzky, this Modernist American artist spent most of his career in Paris, France. He was a significant contributor to both the Dada and Surrealist movements. Best known for avant-garde photography, Man Ray produced works in a variety of media.

Man Ray

Dorothea LangeLang (1895-1965) has been called the greatest American documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers. She took pre-World War II photographs for the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA), investigating living conditions of families hired to work in cotton fields and farms in Arizona and California. Many of the families had fled the Dust Bowl, the lengthy drought which devastated millions of acres of farmland in Midwestern states such as Oklahoma. http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/lange/index.html