Working with photographs as sources

Investigate the sources

1. Source 1: What can a photograph tell us?

   In this video we take you through useful questions to ask about a photograph. The questions are below – try answering them yourself before watching the video!

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   2. youtube.com

      What can a photograph tell us?

      

      Watch this starter video on YouTube.

   Look at the source

   • What type of source is this?
   • Who produced it?
   • When was it produced?
   • What can we infer from this photograph?
   • What values or attitudes does the photograph suggest?
   • How does the photograph relate to a historical situation?
   • Are there any clues about the audience of the photograph?
   • How reliable is the photograph? Does it have any limitations?
   • How does it relate to other sources from this period? Does it share the same ideas or arguments?

2. Source 2: How captions change meaning

   It is important to establish the context of a photograph in order to work out the truth of its caption. You may, for example, conclude that a photograph is propaganda once you know its origin or have assessed it as posed. However, even if this is the case, it does not reduce the value of the image as evidence for the past. It still offers insight into the motives for producing the image in the first place.

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   Look at the source

   • What do the packing cases contain?
   • What are they for?
   • Why are these men dressed like this?
   • Select the right caption for this photograph out of the below. Give reasons for your choice.
     • Portrait of the Savoy Gentlemen’s Fur Club (1867)
     • Antarctic expedition clothing (1901)
     • East India docks fur warehouse (1898)
     • Royal Marines show new winter campaigning outfits (1905)

   Answer below in the Teachers' notes.

3. Source 3: Faking reality

   The First Anglo-Boer War – also known as the First Transvaal War of Independence – was a conflict from 1880 to 1881 between the British colonizers and the Boers from the Transvaal Republic. The second conflict, from 1899 to 1902, is known as the South African War.

   Reginald Sheppard was in the Boer Commando in Pretoria (a guerrilla military unit in South Africa). He was a professional photographer who used his camera in the conflict. Some of his photographs, like this one, were posed.

   How can we tell?

   • The snipers look posed because they are all firing in the same manner with their rifles, and at the same height, which does not seem likely.
   • The men are not in safe or strategic positions. They are highly exposed – standing would have made them easy targets. Snipers are marksmen who tend to move undercover and at night. They often act in support roles in a concealed place, or outpost with a clear view. They stay at a distance from the main body of an army to protect it from surprise attacks. This photograph is not convincing as a war photograph taken in the field during this type of action.
   • The framing appears overly ‘scenic’ with the waterfall and river as backdrop. It looks too peaceful and does not capture the grim realities of war.

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   Look at the source

   • What makes this an artistically framed photograph? Explain how light, shade, angle, scale, and line are used.
   • What makes it difficult to believe that this photograph was taken during an exchange of sniper fire?
   • Where would the photographer have been standing with a tripod to take this photograph?
   • What would make this photograph more convincing as a piece of evidence for the Boer war?
   • If we didn’t have background knowledge of the situation in which this photograph was taken, what would be its value?
   • How do you interpret the meaning of the caption of the photograph?

4. Source 4: Studio photographs

   Do not dismiss a photograph if you detect that it has been altered or staged. Take, for example, this source. Clearly, this photograph has been taken in a studio. This interior scene is setup with typical props – an ornate screen, a pot plant (possibly an aspidistra) on a stand and some luxurious draped fabric.

   What do these props suggest? A well-dressed woman is kneeling on the left with a small boy wearing expensive looking clothes standing on the right. They seem to be in conversation. Perhaps they are mother and son? The caption for this original photograph reads like a set of instructions from the photographer about the pose required, and is perhaps revealing about the production of the image.

   Our photograph here can be seen as an ‘interpretation’ of two people.

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   Look at the source

   • Are these people wealthy? How can we tell?
   • What is the relationship between them? Are they mother and son or governess and child?
   • Why was this photograph taken?
   • Is the photograph meant to convey Victorian values?
   • What does this photograph imply about social class, childhood, the role of women, or fashion or interior design?

Extension activities

• Find your own photographic source from any period in history.
• Note down what you find out about your photograph and its date, content, producer, and background.
• Ask a partner to look at the photograph, but do not give them any information about it.
• What points can they make about the value of the photograph?
• Now share all your information about the photograph.
• Has your partner pointed out anything new in their evaluation?
• Why is it important to have information about the context and background when looking at photographs?

Background information

The National Archives has over 8 million photographs in its collection. They have been taken for many different purposes by different government departments.

They range from propaganda photographs taken by the Ministry of Information in the Second World War, to photos from the Foreign and Colonial offices or those held in Metropolitan Police files.

The largest collection of photographs, however, comes from the copyright records, called COPY 1. From 1862 to 1911, any image that an artist wanted to copyright was registered with the Government at Stationer’s Hall.

The earliest photographs were called daguerreotypes, invented by Louis Daguerre in 1839. The image was created by exposing a silver-plated copper sheet to iodide, which made a light sensitive coating. The plate was then exposed to light for up to an hour and then treated with other chemicals to fix the image. This meant that anyone photographed in this way had to sit still for some time. The process to create a daguerreotype was very expensive and only wealthier people could have afforded them.

From 1853, the development of ‘tintype plates’ made photography inexpensive and faster. People were able to go to photographic studios from the 1860s to have their photographs taken. Later developments in photographic printing and the invention of cheaper cameras meant that, by 1900, people could take their own photographs.

Further information

Other resources in this series

Teaching resource

Working with telegrams as sources

Telegrams were a form of instant communication. There are quite a lot of things you need to watch out for when using them as sources.

Teaching resource

Working with political cartoons as sources

This resource is intended to help students learn how to use cartoons as historical sources, including examples of useful questions to ask when using cartoons.

Teaching resource

Working with Second World War posters as sources

This resource includes various posters produced by the government during the Second World War with questions to help students interrogate them as sources.

Related resource

Teaching resource

Using photographs to find out about the past

This lesson shows us how we can use photographs, with examples from the Victorian period and more recent times, to uncover the past.