Dorothea Lange/Vignette

LINK TO LIBGUIDE

• How to analyze a photo (three steps of visual analysis)
• In your projects, you are to analyze a photo and write a vignette. Find Dorothea Lange photography at The History Place.
• Choose a photograph and provide an analysis, using the three steps of visual analysis. 
• Step One: Description--Objective and descriptive; make no judgments
• What do you see? What is in the photo--objects, scenery, people? Where are they placed? What is happening? What are people doing?
• Step Two: Reflection--Subjective and speculative; inference
• What are the people in the photograph thinking about? What are they feeling? What emotions are they going through? Why? If there are no people in the photo, what might have happened here?
• Step Three: Formal Analysis
• A good place to start formal analysis is to look at a work of art and take note of how your eye moves around the object. Where does your eye go first, and why were you attracted to that part of the image? What colors, textures, and shapes appear in the image? What did the artist include in the composition to guide your eye or to direct your gaze to a certain part of the image? And most importantly, why did the artist compose the piece this way...what is she saying? Check out the elements and principles of composition to help you.
• Each step should be about a paragraph.

For your vignette, use the photograph you analyzed. Think of the two Steinbeck pieces we read-”Breakfast” and “The Turtle.” These pieces do not  necessarily have a plot, which would make it a story, but they do reveal something about the elements in them. Your vignette may reveal character, or mood or tone. It may have a theme or idea of its own that it wants to convey. It is the description of the scene or character that is important. This is your chance to be very descriptive and creative! Paint the picture with your words.

This vignette should be at least 3 paragraphs. You will be graded using a six-trait rubric—with emphasis on word choice and voice, i.e., how detailed and descriptive you are. Use Steinbeck as an exemplar.

Here is a student example of analysis and vignette. Here is another one.