Grade levels:
9 - 12
Duration:
Minimum one 45-minute classroom period
About this Exploration
Who inspires you?
Some changemakers know exactly what change they want to see in the world, and how they’re going to accomplish that change. But each person needs inspiration, guidance, assistance, and encouragement.
This lesson begins with some inspiring photographs to explore and consider. With inspiration as your foundation, you'll translate your general advocacy plan into a detailed plan of action that includes the strategic use of photography. In a collaborative process, peers and mentors will check the plan for thoroughness and feasibility. Then, you'll use your photographic skills and talents to advance and document your plans. Reflection is as important step before taking action. Make time at the end to reflect on your advocacy actions and your related photographs.
Vocabulary
Advocate, Advocacy
Someone who publicly supports and speaks up for an idea, a cause, or members of an identity group.
Agency
Denotes an individual’s power to think independently and act freely in a social context, in ways that determine their experiences and life trajectories. Can also take collective forms.
Bias
A preconceived and unreasoned inclination or preference, especially one that interferes with impartiality or fairness.
Community
A network or group of people, sometimes living in a particular place, who share interests, values, characteristics, responsibilities, or physical spaces.
Discrimination
Actions stemming from conscious or unconscious prejudice, which favor and empower one group over others based on differences of race, gender, economic class, sexual orientation, physical ability, religion, language, age, national identity, and other categories.
Disenfranchised
Deprived of access to rights, opportunities, and services.
Equity
When all people or groups gain access to the resources needed to realize equal results. Differs from equality, which focuses on the equal distribution of resources rather than equal results.
Identity
An individual’s distinguishing characteristics. May include age, gender, religious or spiritual affiliation, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, ability, education, and socioeconomic status. Some identities confer majority status or privilege, while some confer minority status.
Institutional Racism
Institutional racism refers specifically to the ways institutional policies and practices create different outcomes for different racial groups. The institutional policies may never mention any racial group, but their effect is to create advantages for whites and oppression and disadvantage for people from groups classified as people of color.
Justice, Injustice
In different contexts, “justice” refers to both moral correctness and fairness, and also the rule of law. By contrast, “injustice” usually describes unfairness.
Marginalize
Treatment of a person, group, or concept as insignificant or powerless; placing them outside of a group, society, or community; and enforcing prejudice through societal institutions.
Nonviolence
A strategy employed by social justice and civil rights advocates that stresses social and political change through acts that do not involve physical violence against oneself or others.
Oppression
The systemic use of power and privilege to disenfranchise, dominate, or marginalize a group of people, for the benefit of another group.
Power
The ability to make decisions and set rules regarding access to resources, or to control or influence people, based on privileged identities. Power may be personal, social, structural, or institutional.
Prejudice
A preconceived judgment or attitude about a person or group; usually a negative bias, often based on stereotypes.
Race
A term used to identify individuals as part of a distinct group, based on physical characteristics and heritage. Though, at one time, the term purportedly was based in biology, race is now understood as a social construct that is not scientifically based.
Racism
Prejudiced thoughts and discriminatory actions by individuals or institutions with power, based on perceived racial groups, to benefit a dominant group. Racism differs from mere prejudice, hatred, or discrimination, because of the power dynamics employed to carry out systematic discrimination through institutional policies and practices, and by shaping cultural beliefs and values that support racist policies and practices.
Social Justice
The practice of ally-ship—taking action to promote equality, equity, respect, and the assurance of rights to fair treatment and resources, both within and between communities and social groups.
Upstander
A person who chooses to take positive action in the face of injustice. Can refer to individual incidents or broader societal situations. The opposite of a bystander.
White Privilege
Refers to the unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits, and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white.
White Supremacy
The idea (ideology) that white people and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions are superior to people of color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. Not confined to extremist groups, white supremacy is found in institutional and cultural assumptions that assign value, morality, goodness, and humanity to the white group while casting people and communities of color as worthless, immoral, bad, inhuman, and “undeserving.” Drawing from critical race theory, the term “white supremacy” also refers to a political or socioeconomic system in which white people enjoy structural advantages that other racial and ethnic groups do not.
Lesson
Introduction
Inspiration and motivation are the first steps to taking action. In this lesson, you'll pinpoint what inspires you, consider what might inspire others, decide how photography can help you in your efforts, and create a detailed plan.
Key questions in this lesson include:
- What sparks my curiosity and drive?
- How do I spark curiosity, interest, and action in others?
- What unique skills or points of view do I bring to the conversation?
- How can I use photography to boost others’ understanding and excitement?
- At a tactical level, how do I break big projects down into small steps, and what are the features of a good action plan?
Set the Stage
Untitled, Grecia Carey Ortega, 2018
Look at the image shown here. Or, download the image in the Resources section.
Questions for Discussion:
- What do you notice first about this image?
- What do you think the photo is documenting?
- What compositional and photographic elements do you notice, and why?
- How is the photo framed?
- What other compositional elements did the photographer use?
- Do you think the photographer has a message they are trying to convey with this photograph?
About the Photographer and Subject
Grecia Carey Ortega began taking photos in middle school with her dad’s camera and credits her time in the Getty Unshuttered Program as an opportunity to learn more of the technical skills. “I tend to focus on telling stories, whether it’s my own or others’, about love, trust, forgiveness, and other themes. I use a lot of symbolism or the materials I have around me that have influenced me or reflect what I want to showcase in my photos.”
Discuss: Pairing Community Issues with Opportunities for Advocacy
Julia, 1990, from the series “Latina Lesbians,” Laura Aguilar, gelatin silver print. The J. Paul Getty Museum. Purchased with funds provided by the Photographs Council. © Laura Aguilar Trust of 2016
Look at the image shown here. Or, view the image on getty.edu.
Questions for Discussion:
- What do you notice first about this photograph?
- What do you notice about the subject in the image?
- What compositional and photographic elements do you notice, and why?
- How is the photograph framed?
- What other compositional elements did the photographer use?
- What does the use of black-and-white do?
- Once you read the text, how does it add to your reading of the photograph?
- Would you say this photograph is inspirational? Would you consider this work an act of advocacy?
About Laura Aguilar
Through photography, Laura Aguilar (1958-2018) explored notions of identity, the female body, and society’s assumptions about beauty. In her “Latina Lesbians” series of black-and-white portraits of women who self-identify in those terms, she aimed to provide role models to defy negative stereotypes and foster empathy and understanding. Referring to her own experience, Aguilar said, “I am a mostly self-taught photographer. My photography has always provided me with an opportunity to open myself up and see the world around me. And most of all, photography makes me look within.”[1]
Exercise: Creating a Plan of Action
In this exercise, you will translate your plan into action. Using the Advocacy Action Plan Organizer in the Resources section, you will break down your advocacy plan into goals, tasks, budget, and timeline. This organizer follows a standard approach to project planning and management, with a couple of twists. First, you'll need to think through and clearly set out the role of photography in your project. Second, you will complete the statement, “I am the right person to implement this advocacy action plan because …” Both of these steps are intended to help you see yourself as a photographer and to affirmatively set your intentions as a social justice advocate.
After completing the organizer, discuss your action plan with a mentor and/or your peers to sharpen your ideas and assess any potential pitfalls and alternatives. If a peer shares their plan with you, keep in mind that it can feel vulnerable to share ideas and try to create a safe space by asking questions and keeping your feedback constructive.
Practice: Taking Action for Advocacy
In this photography exercise, implement your plans and photograph them in action. Remember to document it all with photographs—including the successes and the challenges.
Before taking your photos, review photographic elements such as framing, perspective or angle, lighting, color versus black-and-white, foreground and background, and the subject’s position and pose. The related photography skill videos listed under Resources also provide quick skill refreshers. Think about how you will apply these skills and understandings.
Do this exercise as homework to give you time to practice your photography skills, put your action plans to the test, ask for help from community partners, and become an advocate for social justice in your community.
Reflect
The next lesson focuses entirely on reflecting on advocacy actions, so if you're planning to continue to that lesson, you may choose to skip this section. If time is too short to do the next lesson, use this quicker reflection exercise instead.
Gather with your class after completing your advocacy actions and the related photography exercise so that you may share your experiences. Sharing your work can feel vulnerable, so creating a safe space for sharing is important for this exercise. In small groups or with a partner, share one to three of your photographs of your advocacy actions. You may choose to speak about your experiences taking the photograph(s), or not. Alternatively, this exercise can be done on your own as an individual reflection.
Consider the following questions as you look at each others' photographs and think about what it was like to make them. As you discuss them with your peers, think about ways you can share positive feedback with them.
Questions for Discussion:
- What is the first thing you notice about the photograph?
- What works artistically in the photograph?
- What story is the photographer telling about the advocacy action?
- What do you think is the photographer’s point of view on the action? Is the photographer documenting or advocating?
- What part are you most proud of, and why?
- What would you do differently next time?
Banner Image: Untitled, Mia Bella Chavez, 2018
[1] Laura Aguilar, “Artist Statement,” Nueva Luz, Vol. 4, #2, 1993 and Gallerie: Women's Art, Vol. 1, #1, 1988
