Author: jmcminn

Change For The Better?
Art as a voice - photography—a social record through time

Year 6
Autumn

In this unit the children will:
Explore the photographic work of Gordon Parkes in the context of civil rights and social history
Make personal responses to the work of Gordon Parkes and compare to their life experiences
Explore the use of light and dark in art for effect
Use digital equipment at home and at school to record aspects of life that are important or significant to them
Make a collaborative collage of the photographs they take to show what life in Reading is like for a 9/10/11 year old

Key Vocabulary
Photograph (photo—light Graph—image) - a picture made using a camera
Collage: a piece of art made by sticking various different materials such as photographs and pieces of paper or fabric on to a backing
Digital: computerised
Civil rights: the rights of citizens to political and social freedom and equality
Segregated: separated or divided along racial, sexual, or religious lines

Key Knowledge
Gordon Parkes was born on 30/11/1912 and died 7/3/2206
He was a photographer in America and was a photojournalist who particularly focused on civil rights from 1940 through the 1970s
He attended a segregated primary school.
He was a photographer for life and Vogue and was the first black photographer to publish a picture on the cover of life

The link below takes you to a page with a montage of photos—if you click on a picture you get a slide show with some explanations of the pictures. The pictures below are the ones I think are most interesting! In particular the comparison between the two commissioned pics and the natural ones!
https://www.nga.gov/education/teachers/lessons-activities/uncovering-america/parks-photography.html