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3.3: Photo Essay -- Descriptive Writing Workshop

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    Descriptive Writing Workshop, pts. 1 and 2

    Pt. 1

    1. Organize class into four groups - four break out rooms. You should report back in ___ minutes.
    2. Two people will write down what is said. They will read what was written and put it in their Journal #4 with the names of all who participated in the conversation.
    3. Two other people will share what was discussed verbally with the class.
    4.  Choose one of the John H. White photos, and describe what you see as you see it. [Top - down or Bottom - up or foreground/background] (Describe it such that someone who hasn’t seen the photo would know what’s there.)
    5. Review the photos — what was written and what was seen — together both as is and through at least one extra lens: (social/economic issues, fashion/art, relationships, nature, and built environment)

    Pt. 2

    1. Each person should choose one of the John H. White photos (not one of the four already done), and describe what you see as you see it. (Describe it such that someone who hasn’t seen the photo would know what’s there.)
    2. Everyone will review at least one other person’s Journal 4 entry and offer thoughts based on details that were missed or on one of the lenses we discussed.
    3. Student will rewrite/revise the descriptive paragraph based on comments and add an overall topic sentence. (For a descriptive paragraph, the topic sentence should tell us what is being described and should tell us what the thing being described means.)

    Example Paragraphs
    In “John H. White: Photographs of Black Chicago for DocuAmerica (1973-74),” the photo of the woman with the off-gray dress holding smiley-face balloons makes a statement about fighting to stay positive in a harsh world. The photo shows the subtle contrast. Though the woman is holding balloons with happy faces, she herself is not smiling: The balloons smile for her.  Though she is sitting in the shade, the sunlight shining off of the cars and the large cup on the ground behind her suggests that she is enduring a hot day. Happy faces traditionally suggest positivity.

    In “John H. White: Photographs of Black Chicago for DocuAmerica (1973-74),” the photo of the woman with the off-gray dress holding smiley-face balloons is about a woman who has given up. The woman’s facial expression — her frown, her half-closed eyes — suggest that she’s upset or sad.  The fact that there is no one else in the photo and all the cars in the background convey loneliness or some sense of her being alone in the world.

     

    3.3: Photo Essay -- Descriptive Writing Workshop is shared under a CC BY-NC-SA 1.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.