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High School Grade  Project 5 weeks

Photography Show: What Does Community Mean To You?

Amy S
Updated
VA:Cr2.3
VA:Cr2.2.IIIa
VA:Pr6.1.IIIa
VA:Cr2.2
VA:Cr2.1.IIIa
+ 11 more
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Purpose

Students will learn the basics of photography and use professional cameras to investigate and communicate their own answer to the question of what community means to them. The will learn how to create photographs that tell a story with perspective and intention. Through repeated cycles of shooting, critique, editing, and revision, they build technical confidence, ethical awareness, and stronger visual storytelling while learning to notice people, places, and relationships more closely. Their work contributes to a shared intergenerational conversation with local adults and seniors through the Flockworks photography project, culminating in two professionally printed photographs, an artist bio, and a short community story for a public exhibition.

Learning goals

Students will build technical control of professional cameras and use focus, exposure, lens choice, composition, light, and editing intentionally to create stronger photographs. They will develop visual storytelling skills by investigating what community means to them, making artistic choices, and selecting two exhibition images that communicate a clear personal perspective. Through critique, reflection, and revision, students will strengthen communication, social reasoning, and self-direction as they give feedback, respond to multiple perspectives, and refine their work for a public intergenerational exhibition. They will also practice ethical and responsible artistic habits by caring for equipment, photographing people respectfully, and preparing artist writing that connects their images to Fort Bragg and their own experience of community.

Standards
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.3 - People create and interact with objects, places, and design that define, shape, enhance, and empower their lives.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.2.IIIa - Demonstrate understanding of the importance of balancing freedom and responsibility in the use of images, materials, tools, and equipment in the creation and circulation of creative work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr6.1.IIIa - Curate a collection of objects, artifacts, or artwork to impact the viewer’s understanding of social, cultural and/or political experiences.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.2 - Artists and designers balance experimentation and safety, freedom and responsibility while developing and creating artworks.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.1.IIIa - Experiment, plan, and make multiple works of art and design that explore a personally meaningful theme, idea, or concept.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cr2.2.IIa - Demonstrate awareness of ethical implications of making and distributing creative work.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Pr.6.1 - Objects, artifacts, and artworks collected, preserved, or presented either by artists, museums, or other venues communicate meaning and a record of social, cultural, and political experiences resulting in the cultivating of appreciation and understanding.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn10.1 - Through art-making, people make meaning by investigating and developing awareness of perceptions, knowledge, and experiences.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Re.7.1 - Individual aesthetic and empathetic awareness developed through engagement with art can lead to understanding and appreciation of self, others, the natural world, and constructed environments.
  • [National Core Arts Standards] VA:Cn11.1.Ia - Describe how knowledge of culture, traditions, and history may influence personal responses to art.
Competencies
  • Collaboration - Students co-design projects with peers, exercise shared-decision making, strengthen relational agency, resolve conflict, and assume leadership roles.
  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving - Students consider a variety of innovative approaches to address and understand complex questions that are authentic and important to their communities.
  • Effective Communication - Students practice listening to understand, communicating with empathy, and share their learning through exhibiting, presenting and reflecting on their work.
  • Content Expertise - Students develop key competencies, skills, and dispositions with ample opportunities to apply knowledge and engage in work that matters to them.
  • Academic Mindset - Students establish a sense of place, identity, and belonging to increase self-efficacy while engaging in critical reflection and action.
  • Self Directed Learning - Students use teacher and peer feedback and self-reflection to monitor and direct their own learning while building self knowledge both in and out of the classroom.

Products

Students will create a body of photographic work that includes camera experiments, composition and exposure studies, community photo walks, and edited digital files. By the end, each student will submit two carefully selected, edited photographs for professional printing by Braggadoon and exhibition alongside adult and senior photographers in the Flockworks community show. The culminating products are the two exhibition prints, the artist bio, the written community story/artist statement, and students’ participation in the public exhibit as contributing photographers.

Launch

Begin with a fast-paced gallery walk of strong photographs from youth, adult, and senior photographers, asking students to sort images by what they think each one communicates about community and discuss what makes the images compelling. Then move immediately into a hands-on camera challenge in pairs: learn safe handling, basic controls, focus, and framing by completing a short scavenger hunt of “community” images on campus in 20–30 minutes. Close with a circle debrief where students share one image, explain what they were trying to show, and compare how different viewers interpreted it, introducing the idea that they are joining a larger intergenerational Fort Bragg conversation. End by revealing that their work will be professionally printed by Braggadoon and exhibited with community members through the Flockworks project.

Exhibition

Participate in a public community photography show featuring each student’s two professionally printed photographs, artist bio, and short Fort Bragg/community story alongside work from adult and senior photographers in the parallel Flockworks project. Invite families, school staff, community members, Braggadoon, and participating photographers to an opening reception where students stand with their work, talk about their choices, and hear how different generations interpreted the same theme. Include a simple artist talk, gallery walk, and reflection station where visitors can leave written responses about what the photographs reveal about community in Fort Bragg. If possible, document the show with a digital gallery or slideshow so students’ work can continue circulating after the event.