Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company, 1880 - 1920

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Touring Turn-of-the-Century America: Photographs from the Detroit Publishing Company 1880-1920 can be used for a variety of arts-related projects. Historic photographs provide an opportunity to discuss the importance of composition while reproductions of paintings facilitate art criticism. Many images can also be the basis for creative projects such as writing a newspaper or creating a drawing around a photograph.

Photographic Choices and Composition

Photographers make a conscious effort to compose an image using their camera. Select a series of images of a single subject (and, if possible, from a single photographer) to study the composition of a photograph and the photographer’s decisions. Use the following questions as the basis for both a critique and for creating a portfolio of photographs on a subject of your choice.

Washington, D.C., Washington Monument (reflection).

Washington Monument with Trees.

Washington Monument, Wash., D.C.

• What are the similarities and differences among the photographs?
• What aspect of the subject does each photograph emphasize?
• How does viewing multiple images of the same subject help you to understand the choices that the photographer made in creating each image? What were some of these choices?
• What did the photographer leave out of the image?
• How else might the photographer have presented the subject?
• How does the photographer compose his or her image to highlight the subject matter? Does the photographer use the composition to say something about the subject matter or to emphasize some aspect of the subject matter?
• How does the composition create relationships between the subject matter and any other people or objects in the photograph? What do these relationships suggest about the subject?

Drawing Outside the Frame

A photographer is usually very deliberate in setting up an image. The borders of a picture can isolate a subject from its surroundings or emphasize its relationship to other items within the camera’s view. No matter how an image appears in a photograph, however, there is a complete world that exists just beyond the frame. Select a detailed photograph from the collection and print it onto a sheet of paper. Cut and paste this image onto a large sheet of paper and draw what you imagine would surround this scene by drawing around the edges of the photograph. Keep the following questions in mind:

Cabin John Bridge, Potomac River, Washington, D.C.

• What was the photographer trying to emphasize in the photograph?
• Are there any items within the photograph that need to be extended onto the rest of the page?
• How does your drawing alter the style and meaning of the image?

Art Criticism

A search on the term painting produces over 1,000 black-and-white reproductions of both famous and anonymous paintings. Although these images lack the colors of the originals, they can still be used to practice image-analysis and to examine an artist's style and technique. Examine and compare works by artists such as John Singer Sargent and William Sergeant Kendall and answer the following questions:

Is a specific style visible throughout an artist's work? How would you describe the style? Are there any common themes or ideas throughout an artist's work? What is your opinion of the artist's work? Do you think that the imagery, composition, and style are appealing? Why or why not? Do you find the subject matter compelling? Why or why not? What makes one painting better than another? Imagine that you are curating a museum exhibition of an artist's work. Write a description of the artist's paintings for a guide. Write a critical review of the artist's work.

William Kendall Sargent's "Alison."

Creative Writing: Journalism and Postcard Making

The photographs in this collection can serve as a catalyst for various creative-writing projects:

A Scene After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake From Market Street.

Imagine that you are a reporter for a nineteenth-century newspaper. Browse the collection and select a topic such as the Spanish-American War or the 1906 California earthquake. Research the general history of the topic and, if possible, the context of a specific image in the collection. Write an article using historical fact and imagined interviews with either the subjects in the photograph or nearby witnesses. A series of articles can be written from different perspectives to cover various aspects of a single event.

Or, choose a series of scenic images from the collection to document an imaginary journey across the late-nineteenth century U.S. Download and print out the images on recycled file folders to make postcards for the trip. Write messages on the back of the postcards to document your journey from the perspective of a traveler. Keep the following questions in mind.

• Who are you writing to?
• Where did you come from and where are you going?
• What is the purpose of your trip?
• What type of transportation did you use (horse and carriage, steamboat, locomotive, etc.)?
• What sites did you see on your trip?
• How did you feel when you saw these people and places?
• Are you looking forward to going home?