Unit 2 Schedule and Assignments

Writing and Photography Unit 2: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men the Farm Security Administration

In this unit we will consider how photos and writing can be used to document people and place. In many ways, in this unit we will continue to question:

*What is the relationship between photography and “the truth”?

*How do these “documentary” photos, and the writing that goes with them, construct the place and the

people they document?

*What assumptions, both aesthetic and cultural, underlie the photos of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange,

and others of the Farm Security Administration?

*How do the photos function symbolically, and how do we read them?

*Note: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is on reserve at the library.

ESSAY ASSIGNMENT

1. Present 7-10 photographs that comprise your own “guide” to a place. This may be a place you know well, or a place where you are an outsider, or anyplace in-between, including a place you imagine, construct, and make “real.”
2. Include a 3-4 page (at least 3 pages) “Introduction” to your “guide.” Make sure you introduction complements your photos and gives the viewer a clue about how to interpret them. Also, make sure your introduction addresses, in meaningful ways, the questions above.

SCHEDULE

3/2: look carefully at the photos of Walker Evans in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and browse through the photos of the farm security administration. Ask and begin to answer for yourself the questions above.

3/4: have read all material in Let Us Now Praise Famous Men up to p. 45

Prompt for Friday Paper: Offer a brief reading, in the form of a short compare/contrast essay, that discusses how Agee’s writing style and Evans picture-taking style fit together, and compliment each other.

3/7: have read p. 27 -38 of Susan Sontag’s essay “America Seen Darkly Through Photographs.” Come to class with a list of 5 specific questions about the reading.

3/9: have read p. 38 – 48 of Sontag. Come to class with 5 more questions. Post 5 original pictures to your blog (these are meant as preliminary photos for your “guide”)

3/11: have “A Country Letter,” p. 47 – 95 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Prompt for Friday Paper: Take either an Evans photo or a small piece of Agee’s writing and analyze it in terms of Susan Sontag’s discussion in “America Seen Darkly Through Photographs.” (i.e. apply Sontag to Agee or Evans)

SPRINGBREAK

3/21: initial draft of Unit 2 photos and essay due in class

3/23: CONFERENCES: Revised Draft Due at Conferences

3/25: CONFERENCES

Prompt for Friday Paper: Either write a brief description of a place in imitation of Agee, or present an original photo that is inspired by Evans or other Farm Security Admin photographers and analyze it for the “truth” it suggests / constructs.

3/28: Final draft Unit 2 essay due