THE MISSION: To use the life and life's work of one prominent American photographer to highlight selected themes in American history.

PROCEDURE:  Pick one photographer from the list below.  Research his or her biography and produce one or more poster boards that uses the photographer as an entry point into certain aspects of U.S. History.  Include imaginative captions that not only describe your selected images but also highlight interesting issues and offer historical interpretation.  You can choose either to include all your text on the poster board/s or to complement the poster board with a short accompanying essay.  Whichever option you decide upon, your project should have the equivalent of 3+ typed pages of text.  You will be asked to give a 10-minute  class mini-presentation in conjunction with your research.  The mini-presentation itself will not be graded.  This assignment will count for 30% of the First-Half Portfolio (the Malcolm X review will be worth 50% and the 2 Reading Responses 10% apiece).  Note that some of the photographers below had not just an American but also an international focus.  You need not ignore the latter, however, your emphasis should be placed upon their American images.  Talk to me if you have any issues researching your subject.

• Berenice Abbott: Best known for chronicling New York City in the 1930s.

• Ansell Adams: The famed naturalist and western photographer also took official images of the Japanese-American internment during World War II.

• Diane Arbus: 1960s-era photographer of those on the margins of society in one way or another.

• Margaret Bourke-White: Her long career spanned the Great Depression, World War II and the Korean War.

• Matthew Brady: The lead photographer for the Union during the American Civil War.

• Robert Capa: Probably the most famed war photographer of the 20th century, he died in Vietnam in 1954.

• Edward Sheriff Curtis: Early 20th century photographer and chronicler of Native American culture.

• Walker Evans: One of the important photographers of the 20th century, his collaboration with writer James Agee on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is one of the most important works to emerge from the Great Depression.

• Robert Frank: A Swiss photographer who produced The Americans in 1958.

• Lewis Hine: Social reformer of the early 20th century.

• William Henry Jackson: Late-19th-century and early-20th century explorer, painter and photographer who took some 80,000 images of the Old West.

• Frances Benjamin Johnston: One of the earliest important female photographers, she is perhaps best known for her 19th-century pictures of Virginia's Hampton Institute.

• Dorothea Lange: Her images of the Dust Bowl and of the westward migration during the 1930s have become icons of the Depression.

• Russell Lee: An important chronicler of the Depression years.

• Jerome Liebling: A photographer and documentarian of the post-World War II era.

• Gordon Parks: An African-American photographers who became one of Life Magazine's most important contributors.

• Marion Post-Wolcott: Perhaps the highlight of her long career as a photographer was her stint with the Farm Security Administration during the 1930s.

• Jacob Riis: Author of the first important American photo expose, How the Other Half Lives (1890).

• Arthur Rothstein: Yet another of the members of the 1930s-era FSA Photo Project.

• Ben Shahn: A polymath who combined photography and painting.  You may want to focus on both media if you choose to research Shahn.

• Cindy Sherman: A contemporary photographer known for her self-portraits.

• James VanDerZee:  The most famous photographer of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

• Pulitzer-Prize Winning Photos:  Explore the stories behind selected U.S.-related Pulitzer-Prize-winning news images.