Photography as Social Practice
This print viewing set introduces students to artists who use their practice to elevate awareness of social, economic, and cultural issues and to inspire positive social change.
In this photographic approach, the process of collaboration is often as important as the physical artwork and the relationships between subject, audience, and community are paramount. This selection of work encourages students to discuss perceptions of social issues and how photography can either represent or misrepresent these topics, while also navigating the artists’ formal choices.
Download an educational guide on Photography as Social Practice here.

Fifth Street Tavern and Braddock Hospital, from the "Notion of Family" series
Frazier, LaToya Ruby
2011
Hoe sharpener and the line, from "Conversations with the Dead"
Lyon, Danny
1967-1969, printed c.1980
Cell of two Chicano convicts, from "Conversations with the Dead"
Lyon, Danny
1967-1969, printed c.1980

Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven children without food. Mother aged thirty-two. Father is a native Californian. Destitute in a pea pickers camp because of the failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tires in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute. Nipomo, California
Lange, Dorothea
1936

Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother aged 32, the father is a native Californian. Destitute in a pea pickers camp because of the failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tent in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute. Nipomo, California
Lange, Dorothea
1936

Migrant agricultural worker's family. Seven hungry children. Mother aged 32, the father is a native Californian. Destitute in a pea pickers camp because of the failure of the early pea crop. These people had just sold their tent in order to buy food. Most of the 2,500 people in this camp were destitute. Nipomo, California
Lange, Dorothea
1936