For this paper, you will construct a visual essay. Locate 10 images that somehow ‘tell the story' of contemporary American culture. Search Google images, www.bigfoto.com, www.picsearch.com, www.flikr.com, www.locimages.gov, etc. The direction in which you take this is entirely up to you. You may wish to consider creating a visual representation of one of the following themes: the American family; technology in contemporary America; persuasive advertising in contemporary American culture; poverty and marginalization; America's relationship to violence. (These are just examples.) Basically, you will search for images/pictures that, when displayed together (as a whole), tell a story. Be creative; this is YOUR interpretation.
*You will need to download, copy, etc. your chosen images onto standard-sized (8.5 X 11) paper
Accompanying the visual portion of this paper shall be a two-page written component. This explanation/discussion of the ‘story' your collection of images tells should provide an insight into your thought processes and the decision-making strategy you employed during the construction of your visual essay. In 2 pages, address the following questions in a cohesive statement (i.e. do not answer each question individually):
o What is your theme?
o How do your images visualize your theme? Why did you arrange these images in this particular sequence?
o What is your strongest image? Where in the sequence did you place it, and why?
Visual Sequence:
o Remember that you are trying to "write" with these images-your visual essay should have a beginning, middle, and end. The first few images should set up your theme in the clearest way possible, the middle images provide details, and the final images offer a conclusion.
o You may add a caption (written text) to each of your images. You can add the text as a description (comment underneath the image) or as a note on the image itself (to highlight a particular detail). The text can be written by you, or it can be a quote from a secondary source. Text and image must be in tension with one another. This means that the text cannot simply be a description of the image, or the image an illustration of the text. Rather, the interaction between image and text should encourage the viewer to think about how image and text relate to one another.
o You may edit your images with Photoshop/other image editing software. If you completely distort an image, you need to explain why you chose to do so in your written accompaniment.
o You may change the size of your images. You can re-size your images or crop them to highlight details.