Handout 2B

Understanding Sontag: Historic Images of Suffering

This handout investigates Sontag’s arguments on historic images of war, violence, and suffering in Regarding the Pain of Others (2002)

PHOTOGRAPHY LESSON 5: HANDOUT 2B

Time Required

1 class period (45-60 min)

Resources

HANDOUTS:

Handout 2B

TEACHING PLAN:

Teach Handout 2B

Subject Areas

  • Art and Culture

Medium > Visual Arts
Subject Matter > Art History
Subject Matter > Philosophy

  • History and Social Studies

Place > Africa
Place > The Americas
Place > Asia
Place > Europe
Themes > Culture
Themes > Globalization
Themes > Immigration/Migration
Themes > War and Foreign Policy
U.S. History
U.S. > Civil War
U.S. > World War II
World > The Modern World

  • Literature and Language Arts

Genre > Essay
Place > American
Place > Modern World

Student Skills

  • Analysis
  • Compare and contrast
  • Critical thinking
  • Cultural analysis
  • Discussion
  • Evaluating arguments
  • Historical analysis
  • Interpretation
  • Literary analysis
  • Media analysis
  • Making inferences and drawing conclusions
  • Research
  • Summarizing
  • Synthesis
  • Textual analysis
  • Using archival documents
  • Visual analysis
  • Visual art analysis

Common Core Standards

  • ELA Reading: 1, 3, 7, 10
  • ELA Writing: 7
  • ELA Speaking & Listening: 1-2
  • HSS Reading: 1-3, 7-10
CONTINUE THIS LESSON

Proceed to Handout 3 or Handout 4

OR complete the lesson now with one of our Student Activity Options

LESSON 5 STUDENT ACTIVITY OPTIONS

Extended Learning

  • Assign the full text of Sontag’s Regarding the Pain of Others in advance.
  • Assign further excerpts on images of suffering from Lesson 3: Handout 2 (Photographs 5-12, 14) as part of the reading.
  • Include additional images from Regarding the Pain of Others in your discussion (see Photography Unit Research handout for a list of photographers).
  • For a more in-depth analysis, assign Erroll Morris’s essay “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?,” asking students to compare his investigation of Roger Fenton’s “The Valley of the Shadow of Death” with Sontag’s analysis of the photograph, then consider how Morris’s essay reshapes their understanding of Sontag’s arguments on the nature of photographic truth. Discuss as a class, or ask students to write a short reflection in response.
  • Reflection questions may also be assigned as short essays or response papers.