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Photo Essay
AMST 201: Literary Approaches to American Studies
Instructor: Ben Bolling
ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION
For this assignment, you will create a photo essay consisting of 12 – 15
photographs on the theme of “home.” This subject is meant to be capacious; you
may interpret the theme in any way you choose as long as you defend that
interpretation through your work. The photographs you choose may be of any
style (landscape, portrait, self-portrait, screen captures, etc.) as long as they
contribute to the theme of your essay.
Along with the photos you will compose:
• A title page that includes your name, title of your project, and one of your
photos as a “cover” image
• A 250-350-word introduction to the images in the vein of those by Joseph
Rodriguez for Where Children Sleep and Yves Marchand and Romain
Mefre in The Ruins of Detroit
• Your 12 – 15 images, each on a single page with a title/caption (see
below), and preferably centered on that page
• A 750-1000-word analysis of the photos where you:
o Discuss your reasons (both rhetorical and aesthetic) for selecting
and editing the images
o Provide a narrative context for your images by telling a story of their
creation/discovery, providing historical or anecdotal background,
and/or creatively framing your connection to the images
o Conduct at least ONE “close reading” (200-300 of the 750-1000
word allotment) in which you analyze your “cover” image as
indicative of the larger project of your essay
• A Works Cited page in MLA format
Each image must feature titles or captions in the following format:
Name of Photographer, Title or Caption, Location of Photograph, Date of
Photograph.
