There is a web site, Picture This: California Perspectives on American History, which is meant to serve as ”an educational resource that features primary source images from the Oakland Museum of California’s collections that reflect the rich cultural diversity of California.”
The photographs in their historical section are interesting even if you are not from California. But the accompanying exercises (intended for young students) are also a lot of fun, and will make you consider the role of photography in the historical record.
On their page on visual literacy, they first state:
“Given that photography influences how we think about history, we should all be aware that photographs are not simply objective records of people, places, and events. Rather, each photograph is a highly edited production, and is created by a person who has unique opinions and views about the world. These viewpoints influence the types of images the photographer creates. In turn, our life experiences and personal opinions influence how we understand and “read” photographs.”
But then, a few paragraphs later, they say:
“By utilizing primary source material in your curriculum, you expose your students to artifacts from the past that are authentic and make history come alive. Students enjoy seeing objects from the period they are studying. The National Archives states that primary sources “fascinate students because they are real and they are personal: history is humanized through them.”"
If you read through the exercises they offer teachers, consider the validity of calling any photograph a “primary source”. In particular, the exercise on captioning, and the one on interpreting a historical image. [Do you say "an historical" or "a historical"? I know fancy writers use the former.]
Is a photograph a primary source in the same way that documents and other artifacts are? Is not a photograph something that is made with the intent of showing, whereas other historical objects were made for using without any eye to the future? The photographer making a photo is saying, look at this. He/she is choosing, including/excluding, intending, and overall editing, what is shown.
