- Share full article
Advertisement
Supported by
Lesson Plan
Five Photography Assignments That Invite You to Look Closely at the World
Students, try one of these exercises inspired by the visual series The Take. What can you learn about the world by looking at it through a particular lens?
By Natalie Proulx
How often do you look — really look — at the world around you? Below, we offer five photography assignments that challenge students to do just that, all inspired by The New York Times visual series The Take .
In this series, The Times asks photographers to explore different cultural themes through images — for example, to document what they see when they look up, to capture the sounds they hear in New York City or to find dance in everyday movements.
What can you learn about the world by looking at it through a particular lens? Choose one (or more) of the five assignments below to try out. For each, we’ll guide you through a warm-up activity, a reading of the Take article that inspired the exercise and your own photo shoot. When you’re done, you can create your own visual article by putting together a gallery of your images and writing a short commentary on what they mean to you.
These exercises are meant to be accessible to anyone with a camera or smartphone, whether you’re an experienced photographer or you’re just looking for a fun visual challenge. If you’d like to experiment with some composition and editing techniques, see our related photography lesson plan .
And if none of these projects inspires you, look through The Take’s archives for more ideas.
Assignment No. 1
Most of us spend our days looking down: at our phones, computers, homework, meals. What would you see if you looked up instead? For this assignment, we invite you to photograph what you see when you turn your gaze to the sky.
Warm-up: Wherever you are right now, look up. What do you see?
Spend some time studying the images, shapes, patterns, colors, lines, light, shadows, angles or movements above you. What catches your attention? What have you never noticed before? How is this angle different from looking at something straight on, straight down or from the side? Is there anything you see that strikes you as artistic, that might make for an interesting photograph?
How often do you look up? What does this quick exercise tell you about what might happen when you do?
Read “ When 4 Photographers Looked Up, This Is What They Saw .”
For this assignment, The Take simply asked photographers to look up. View the photos they made and their commentary on them. Then choose one that stands out to you. What did the photographer want to capture in it? Was the photo successful in your opinion? What does the image say to you? What does it show us about looking up?
Your turn: Photograph what you see when you look up.
You might approach this assignment in two ways: 1) You can carry your camera around with you for a day or several days and photograph anything interesting you see when you look up, as the photographer Ali Cherkis did venturing around New York City. 2) Or you might start with a specific place and idea in mind that you want to photograph, as Stella Blackmon did when she wanted to capture the “sense of wonder” she felt from seeing children climbing in the trees at her great-aunt’s home in Ozark, Mo.
Assignment No. 2
Capture the Sounds of a Place
Photography might seem like it’s all about sight, but it can evoke other senses, too. The Take challenged four photographers to try to capture the sounds of New York City in images. How can you show what the place you live sounds like?
Warm-up: What sounds can you hear in this photograph?
Study the photograph above closely. What might you hear if you were in the scene? Which elements of the image help convey those sounds? What senses or emotions does the photograph evoke in you? What story does it tell about New York City?
Read “ Sounds of the City .”
For this assignment, The Take sent four photographers to capture New York’s soundscape in images. Spend some time with the photos and the photographers’ commentary on them. Which images most strongly and clearly imply sound to you? Which ones surprise you or perhaps challenge an assumption you have about life in New York City? Choose one of these photos and repeat the exercise you did in the warm-up.
Your turn: Photograph the sounds of a place.
For this assignment, you might travel around your city or town and photograph the sounds you find. Or you might focus on a more contained space, such as your school, the skate park, your neighborhood or any other place where you spend time. You might try to capture many disparate sounds — quiet ones, loud ones, harsh ones, pleasant ones — as Daniel Arnold did in his photos of various corners of New York City. Or you can try to capture a particular type of sound, as Ike Edeani did in his photos of the subway stations’ “mini concerts.”
Assignment No. 3
Find Art Wherever You Go
Four photographers went in search of candid moments and images that struck them — impressionistically, conceptually or naturally — as art. Where can you spot art in the world around you?
Warm-up: What does art look like?
How do you know when you see something that is art? What elements make it so? What does it do to you, the viewer?
Look around the space you are in right now. Is there anything that strikes you as art? Perhaps it’s the way your jacket is draped over a chair, how light is coming in through a window, the interesting pattens created by a shadow on your desk or the shape someone’s face makes when they smile or frown. What about this thing makes it seem artistic to you?
Read “ Art Is Everywhere. Just Look to the Streets. ”
The Take invited four photographers to look for art in the streets of New York. Spend some time looking at all of the photographs and reading the commentary. Then, focus on one photographer’s images. How does this photographer conceptualize art? How does that idea come through in one of his or her photos? What do you think makes this photo artistic — impressionistically, conceptually or naturally?
Your turn: Photograph candid moments and images that look like art to you.
Where can you find art in the world around you? You might take your camera out for a day and start shooting anything that strikes you as art. Or you might shoot with a particular vision in mind, such as Sabrina Santiago who was “interested in what people are saying from the back,” or Trevor Wisecup who looked for “abnormalities in our day-to-day life, glitches in the matrix if you will.” Challenge yourself to capture candid moments, rather than trying to stage images.
Assignment No. 4
Explore the Ways We Move
The Take asked four photographers to find dance in our everyday gestures, whether reaching for a jug of milk, hugging a loved one or scaling a rock wall. How can you find beauty in how we physically navigate the world?
Warm-up: Can you see beauty in the ways that people move, even when there is no music?
Can you find dance in people’s everyday rituals and routines? To answer this question you might go somewhere crowded — your school’s hallway, a park, a basketball game — and spend a few minutes just observing people. Do any gestures look like dance to you? What is it about these movements that resemble those that dancers might make?
Read “ There’s Dance All Over, No Matter Where You Look .”
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, The Take asked photographers to show how people were physically navigating a world in which awareness of our bodies — how much space we took up, whether we were six feet from our neighbor — had become the norm. What they found was a kind of dance in these everyday movements.
Spend some time with the images and photographers’ commentary. Then choose one photograph to look at more closely. Why does this image speak to you? How does it represent dance? What emotion, experience or idea do you think the photographer wanted to capture in it?
Your turn: Photograph how people move through the world.
For this assignment, you can take your camera around with you for a day or two and snap a photo anytime you see a movement, posture or gesture that looks like dance to you. Or, you can go to a specific place. For example, the photographer Camilo Fuentealba went to Costco to document “the daily rituals we must partake in just to survive,” while Noah Sahady went to the San Bernardino National Forest to capture “the harmony of rock climbers and nature.” You might play with taking both candid and staged shots, or, like Jillian Freyer, shooting the “fragments in between.”
Assignment No. 5
Show Us What Fun Looks Like
Three artists photographed the many forms fun can take. An end-of-day ice cream ritual. Caring for rescued chickens. A bubble bath for an inanimate friend. What does a good time look like to you?
Warm-up: What do you do for fun?
Brainstorm a big list of everything you’re doing for fun these days. Do you play video games? Hang out with friends? Play sports? Make things? Write down everything you can think of, whether it’s an everyday ritual or a special event.
Then go through your list. Which of these activities feels most compelling or unique to you and your friends? Which might make interesting photographs?
Read “ Making Your Own Fun .”
The Take asked three photographers to document how they were having fun during the lockdown period of the coronavirus pandemic. Spend a few minutes looking at the photos and reading the commentary. Then choose one photographer’s images to focus on. What do you notice about their artistic choices — about their composition, the photographic style, how they were made? What do you wonder? What can we learn about fun from these photos?
Your turn: Photograph your fun.
Return to the list you made in the warm-up and choose one or several things from it to photograph. You might consider how you can get creative with your photographic style and composition, as the photographers in the article did. You can stage photos, as Sheida Soleimani did, or you can try to capture more candid moments.
Going Further
Make a Visual Article
Put together your photos with a written reflection to create your own The Take-inspired piece.
Related Article
Once you have completed one of the exercises above, choose three to six photos from your shoot and create a gallery of images that speaks to the theme of the assignment. Then, write a short commentary reflecting on the assignment and what you learned from it, just as the photographers and Times editors do in The Take.
Here are some questions that can help guide your reflection:
Who or what inspired you? Did you stage your photos or seek out candid moments? What composition and editing techniques did you use, and why?
Is there a thread — some theme, emotion or experience — that connects your images? Was it something you set out to capture? Or something you discovered during the shoot or after seeing your finished photos? Taken together, what do your photos reveal about the subject of the assignment?
What is something new you discovered or learned through this exercise? How, if at all, did it make you look at the world or the people around you differently?
How challenging did you find this assignment? Why?
You can put your images and commentary together using a digital program like Google Slides or Canva . Teachers might invite students to share their work via a gallery walk , whether in the classroom or online.
Find more lesson plans and teaching ideas here.
Natalie Proulx joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2017 after working as an English language arts teacher and curriculum writer. More about Natalie Proulx
12 Exciting Photography Assignments to Challenge and Inspire
Everyone likes a good photo challenge. But photography assignments can also be very discouraging if they’re approached the wrong way. A good photography challenge will strengthen your photo skills and inspire you in multiple ways. A bad one will leave you wondering why you even tried photography in the first place.
12 Exciting Photography Assignments
Here are 12 exciting photography assignments to help you find the right one.
1. Shoot With a Limited Amount of Equipment
Whether you’re a full-time photographer , a hobbyist , or a beginner , you’re probably itching to invest in all kinds of equipment to take your photos to the next level. But here’s a challenge. Make the most of what you already have first. Limit yourself to one camera body and lens. This challenge isn’t linked to a specific period of time. So feel free to create a plan that fits your schedule. But I recommend doing this for at least a week. If you work with the same equipment every day, you’ll become artistically (and maybe physically!) flexible. For example, if you only use a zoom lens , you’ll have to be extra creative when you shoot indoors . If you only use a wide-angle lens , you’ll have to improve your cropping and distortion-fixing skills.
2. Take a Photo Every Day for a Year
This daily photo challenge not only gives you an excuse to be creative every day. But it also teaches you how to find beauty in the details. A 365-day challenge is simple. Take a photo every day for a year. Some photographers challenge themselves even further. They come up with specific themes every week or month. Others also embrace a more spontaneous approach. Either way, taking photos daily inspires you to make time for photography. Be open to failure, and get out of your comfort zone. Treating this project like a fun assignment will help you take your work to the next level!
3. Limit Yourself to X Photos a Day
4. Take Photos With Your Smartphone Camera Only
Modern smartphones are ideal for budding photographers who want to learn more about the technical side of photography. Take photos using only your smartphone camera for a week. Invest in a great camera app , and familiarize yourself with all its settings. This will help you get stunning images. If you’re up for an extra photography challenge, try to recreate some of your portfolio photos with your smartphone camera. This challenge will give you a break from your camera. And it lets you appreciate all the challenges of professional photography. It might also inspire you to get into smartphone photography ! Check out our Urban Smartphone Minimalism e-book for creative ways to start taking pictures with your camera phone.
5. Experiment With a Completely Different Genre
There’s a wide variety of photography genres out there. There’s underwater, glamour , smartphone , landscape , and portrait , to name a few. Trying something new can help you fall in love with photography all over again. So take a temporary break from your main photo genre. If you’re a portrait photographer , take panoramic photos of your neighborhood. If you spend lots of time photographing animals, improve your self-portrait photography skills. When you expose yourself to different genres, you’ll learn many valuable lessons. And they will be useful long after the photography assignments end.
6. Photograph the Same Person or Object Every Day
If you often get tired of photography, take photos of the same person or thing every day for a week or month. This could help make photography fun again . Like the smartphone photo challenge, this also helps you appreciate the freedom to photograph whatever you want. Photographing the same object will also improve your lighting knowledge . To make your daily photos look exciting, you’ll have to experiment with different angles, types of lighting, and editing. These more focused photography assignments will make you an incredible still-life photographer . If you’re feeling extra creative, take photos of simple objects you wouldn’t usually photograph. And find ways to make them look like paintings.
7. Quit Social Media Temporarily
8. Create a Stop-Motion Video Using Photos
Stop-motion films, like Isle of Dogs and Corpse Bride , are made of thousands of photos. These are neatly organized to make it look like they were filmed. You can use the same stop-motion technique to create your own puppets. Or you can cleverly use everyday objects in surreal compositions . If you need a quick boost of inspiration, check out this Academy Award nominated film by PES .
9. Take Creative Self-Portraits With a Friend
10. Crop or Rotate All Your Photos in a Specific Way
It’s normal to have a comfortable artistic routine. But it’s important to get out of that comfort zone once in a while. If you take the same kinds of photos all the time, it’s time to turn your world upside down. Literally. Crop or rotate your next 50 to 100 photos the same way. You can experiment with square photos and rotate every photo 180 degrees. Or do something even more unusual than that. This forced perspective will compel you to look at the world from a different angle and get creative.
11. Include the Same Object in Every Photo
12. Invest in a Photo Book and Complete Every Assignment in It
Conclusion: Exciting Photography Assignments
You don’t need to travel the world or break the bank to improve as a photographer. A single assignment that lasts at least a week can teach you many lessons. And it’ll help you become a better photographer. All you have to do is find photography assignments that work for you. Then, dedicate some time to it, and watch your photo skills strengthen!
Popular Content
How to Easily Create Cool Glitch Art Photography
IMAGES