Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer: 

PHOTO ESSAY
Objective: To identify and analyze how the contemporary Communication Arts are indebted to the legacy of the past.

Assignment: Each student will create a photo essay that draws analogies between 4 contemporary examples of graphic design, advertising, or illustration and 4 pre-1975 historical examples, in order to answer the following question:

 

• What do you think is the legacy of the past in shaping the contemporary field of the Communication Arts?

What is a Photo Essay? A photo essay uses photographs and visual images to narrate a story or to present an argument.

• Imagine that you are writing an essay for a heavily illustrated magazine like the National Geographic. Your written text would likely be built around the images--both in terms of content and design. Images would be used as a form of primary evidence to prove your thesis. Images would be annotated, and you might even use pull-out quotes to capture your reader’s interest.

• The difference between a photo essay and a conventional paper that uses images is that the images in a photo essay are treated as of equal (or more importance) to the written text. They are used as a form of rhetoric, and are accordingly, framed/ cropped, positioned, and sized to persuade the reader of the importance of your argument/ thesis. In a conventional paper or essay, images tend to serve more of an illustrative role, and are often used to support the written text. In a photo essay, the images are given equal weight.

Requirements:
• Essays will present an argument about the legacy of the past in contemporary Communication Arts. Essays should include between 1750-2000 words. Please include a word count at the end of the essay.
• Each photo essay will include 8 visual examples: 4 historical examples and 4 contemporary examples that draw upon the past in an intertextual manner. Your contemporary examples should be photographed from your physical environment and wanderings.
• All visual images must be contextualized. Use your research to elaborate upon the historical periods in question, and to elaborate upon contemporary trends or movements.
• Your consideration of the contemporary examples should also discuss where you found the examples (i.e. a billboard, building, shopping center, museum, dorm room, etc.), and present a survey of your observations.
• Be sure to consider what the examples share in common, and how, due to different historical contexts, they differ.
• All visual images should include citations below the images. You could choose to annotate the images as part of your required word count.
• All essays will use the images and research as evidence to advance a specific thesis (argument).
• Essays must demonstrate critical thinking (criticality). Criticality is attained by two main aspects of analysis:

1)  a comparative discussion of contrasting perspectives on the same issue
2)  your own interpretation and argumentation demonstrating the ability to follow a line of reasoning that is both informed by research and is shedding light on the topic or focus of your project.

• Essays should aim to synthesize multiple critical vantage points into one cohesive whole.
• Essays will include a minimum of 5 bibliographic sources that are found using Otis library’s databases for articles and OPAC for books. Do not count the Drucker and McVarish textbook or class readings among your 5 required sources. They may be included as additional sources.
• You are required to annotate a minimum of 2 of the 5 bibliographic sources following sample citations the Otis way. Please consult the following link, especially the section on sample annotations:
http://www.otis.edu/library/information-literacy-research-how-tos