The Role of
Family Snapshots
in Teaching Art History
within a Dialogic Pedagogy
By Kristin Baxter
H
ow can educators use dialogic teaching strategies to build connections between artworks and life experiences of students in a survey
art history course? Can stories represented in one’s family snapshots
facilitate dialogue about formal content and conceptual issues present in
works of art in museums? My interest in understanding if discussions of snapshots could facilitate students’ insights into works of art was prompted, in
part, by the work of historian Julia Hirsch (1981). She investigates meanings of
family photographs by comparing twentieth-century snapshots of mothers
and children, weddings, and homes to works from art history, such as a fourth
century B.C. Roman marble stele depicting a wedding ceremony, Robert
Campin’s Annunciation triptych (Merode Altarpiece) (1427-32), and a documentary photographic portrait from 1866 by Solomon Butcher depicting
Nebraska homesteaders. Hirsch argues, “we still treasure paintings and create
photographs which relate, no matter how tenuously, to ancient metaphors of
family unity and cohesion: we still seem to acknowledge the values we have
shed” (1981, p. 28, 32).
Studying images of families in works of art and in snapshots is compelling, and
I further wondered if looking at both types of images side by side might help
students understand both kinds of images more fully. Snapshots often prompt
detailed and vivid stories among family members and friends. Therefore, I
wondered if dialogue about snapshots could be used, in an introductory art
history course, as a springboard to discussing related works of art with students
who are sometimes reluctant to fully participate in group discussions.
January 2012 / Art Education
11
Other researchers argue that family
photographs and the stories associated with
them are primary sources of information
about cultural systems, social practices, and
family/community histories (Akeret, 1991;
Barrett, 1996; Cronin, 1996, 1998; Geffroy,
1990; Lowenthal, 1985; Walker & Moulton,
1989). In addition, researchers maintain that
family photographs and associated narratives reveal interconnections between public
historical events and personal memory,
have communal and personal purposes
(Blomgren, 1999; Kuhn, 1995; Zelevansky,
1998; Zuromskis, 2006), and show potential
for improving family functioning if used in
therapeutic settings (Kobbe, 1993). At the
same time, by imagining what cultural practices are not represented in a collection of
family photographs, one can speculate what
is considered culturally taboo or mundane
(Beloff, 1985; Duncum, 1996; Holland,
1991).
The ubiquity of snapshots in daily life, the
cultural value they hold, and my own studio
art practice that incorporates the use of these
images (Baxter, Lopez, Serig, & Sullivan,
2008) prompted my dissertation research on
the educational potential of family snapshots, particularly for art education (Baxter,
2009, 2005a, 2005b). This research explored
how individuals organized, coded, and made
meaning of experience through material/
visual culture, especially family snapshots.
Though I propose a theoretical rationale
for using family snapshots within a visual
culture approach to art education, putting
theories to practical use in the classroom
lay outside the scope of this earlier research.
Therefore, this current research addresses
that limitation.
This article presents evidence that
dialogue is essential in the creation of
meaning, as students make critical observations between works of fine art and their
personal family snapshots. In doing so,
students internalize and construct personal
meanings about works of fine art, using
family snapshots as vehicles. Similarly, they
internalize and construct personal meanings
of their family snapshots using works of fine
art as the vehicles.
Exploring the Great Museums
of New York
“Exploring the Great Museums of New
York” is an introductory level, museumbased art history course that I taught at
Fairleigh Dickinson University in Madison,
NJ. The course meets six times in total,
including three classroom sessions and
three all-day meetings at museums. It is a
survey of art history, beginning with the
study of Ancient Egyptian art through
contemporary American art. In the spring
of 2008, we visited the Brooklyn Museum,
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Whitney
Museum of American Art, and the Newark
Museum. Through PowerPoint slide
presentations during the classroom sessions,
we studied the historical and cultural
significance of the works of art we would be
viewing the following day in the museums
and considered related snapshots from my
own and my students’ collections. Students
were instructed to bring in snapshots that
had conceptual and/or compositional
connections to the works of art that we
studied in class and would be viewing the
following day in the museums.
Prior to taking my class, I visited each
of the museums on my own to select the
works of art that we would be studying. The
rationale for selecting the works of art was to
provide students with a survey of the history
of art focusing on iconic works in each
museum’s collection. In addition, I selected
works that represented familiar themes
or activities, such as family portraiture,
travel, people at work, homes, and funerals.
Table 1 was included in the syllabus and
indicates the works of art that we studied
at each museum, along with the kinds of
photographs that students were to bring to
class and to the museums. Students brought
framed pictures that they took right off their
dorm room walls; others were digital photographs that the students printed off on copier
paper; still others were traditional snapshot
prints.
Class discussions both on campus and
in the museums were tape-recorded and
transcripts were made. After reviewing the
transcripts and reading reflective papers
the students wrote after each museum visit,
Dialogic questions asked students to probe for meanings and
make interpretations, such as “What’s going on in this picture?,
What do you see that makes you say that?, Why do you say that?,
and What else do you see?”
12
Art Education / January 2012
I identified two outcomes of using family
snapshots in a dialogic pedagogy. The first
outcome is that students connect ideas
generated by the works of art to experiences
with family members. The second outcome
of this approach was that students drew
parallels between the formal qualities of
works of art and snapshots. A discussion of
these outcomes follows a description of how
dialogue was used in the museums to foster
students’ meaning-making.
Dialogic Questioning
While in the museum galleries, a series
of dialogic questions were posed about
the works of art. Dialogic questioning was
inspired by what McKay and Monteverde
(2003) call “dialogic looking.” By this they
mean, “viewers consciously articulate the
questions that arise while they look” (p. 42).
Dialogic questions have three parts, each
part based on observations and each part
building on the next. They are grounded in
formal analysis, they ask viewers to create
meaning based on visual evidence, and
they connect to viewers’ life experiences.
Students are first asked, “Describe the image.
What do you see?” In doing so, the group
acknowledges formal qualities of the work
of art, allowing each person to point out
things he or she sees. Dialogic questions,
based also on the visual thinking strategies
developed by Housen and Yenawine (2001),
then asked students to probe for meanings
and make interpretations, such as “What’s
going on in this picture?, What do you see
that makes you say that?, Why do you say
that?, and What else do you see?” Finally,
questions were posed that asked students to
make connections between the work of art
and students’ life experiences, such as “When
have you found yourself in this situation?
If you were the artist, how might you have
responded to this idea? What would you add
or change?”
After discussing these questions while
viewing works of art in the galleries, I then
asked students similar questions in relation
to their snapshots. Students were asked to
describe their snapshots and the personal
meanings they hold. Then they were asked
what formal or conceptual characteristics
were shared between the work of art and
snapshot. Finally, I asked, “How might
understanding your snapshot help us understand the work of art?” The purpose of using
snapshots with conceptual and/or compositional connections to works of art was to
encourage dialogue in galleries and to build
connections between artworks and the life
experiences of the students.
Works of Art and Museum
Themes of Related Student Snapshots
Brooklyn Museum
Kitchen scene; dinner party
Judy Chicago, Dinner Party, 1974-79
Brooklyn Museum
Memories, dreams, future goals
Miwa Yanagi, My Grandmother Series, 2000
Brooklyn Museum
Any photo showing everyday objects
Arahmaiani, Display Case, Etalase, 1994/2007
Brooklyn Museum
Egypt Reborn exhibition:
Senwosret III
Senenmut
Relief from the Tomb of Akhenthotep
Family Group
Portraits- groups and individual; school portraits,
wedding portraits, etc. Commemorates an event
American Identities exhibition:
Gilbert Stuart, Portrait of George Washington, 1796
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ancient Greek figurative sculptures
Brooklyn Museum
Egypt Reborn exhibition:
Hippos, reclining dog, hedgehog rattle
Brooklyn Museum
Tejo Remy, Chest of Drawers, Model #45 “You can lay
down your memories,” 1991
Visible Storage Study Center
A photo you consider a “keepsake”; or another
object from the home that you consider a
“keepsake” or a good luck charm
Any other object that tells a story, or triggers
a memory or is in some way nostalgic or
meaningful
Metropolitan Museum of Art
El Anatusi, Between Heaven and Earth, 2006
Joseph Cornell boxes and compare to the Meketre
models from Ancient Egypt
Newark Museum
Ballantine House
Brooklyn Museum
Albert Bierstadt, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains,
Mt. Rosalie, 1866
A tourist photograph or a postcard
Brooklyn Museum
Dana Schutz, Google, 2005
Working on your computer; or a picture of a
friend on the computer
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Kwoma Ceiling, New Guinea, 1975/2002
Your home, or the home of someone you know;
how does it represent the owner/family?
Newark Museum
Ballantine House
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Ancient Greek Vase, Geometric Period
Photographs taken at funerals; or a picture that
makes you think of your own mortality
Damien Hirst, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the
Mind of Someone Living, 1991
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Temple of Dendur
Any place of worship
Special exhibition: Blog.mode: Addressing fashion
Someone wearing a special outfit
Whitney Museum of American Art
Beth Campbell, The Following Room, 2007-2008
Any photograph that challenges our perceptions,
maybe you captured a really interesting angle of
a building, or it’s just a really strange depiction
of reality
Newark Museum
Joseph Stella, Voice of the City, 1920-1922
New York City skyline or any cityscape
Table 1 Works of Art Studied at Each Museum and Themes of Related Students’ Snapshots
January 2012 / Art Education
13
For instance, while in the gallery viewing
Judy Chicago’s, Dinner Party at the Brooklyn
Museum, a student brought in a snapshot of
a Christmas dinner and made connections
between the order of the imagined attendants at Chicago’s dinner table and the order
that her family appeared in the photo. The
student explained,
There’s no order to where we sit and
we all just get up and move around at
the table. I guess we all come together
on Christmas Eve all the time and so its
kinda like how… they all came together
for the party [the women represented at
the Dinner Party], they’re all different
people and they all bring something
different to the table but they still come
together for joint purpose. We’re all
really different people but we all come
together. (excerpt from transcript,
discussion at the Brooklyn Museum,
February 2, 2008)
Another student brought in a photograph
of the elementary school classroom where
she completed her student teaching. She
explained that the women represented in
Chicago’s Dinner Party, “were all making a
difference in the world that they were living
in. So I feel like that’s what I want to do. I
want to teach and make a difference in the
world” (excerpt from transcript, discussion at
the Brooklyn Museum, February 2, 2008).
Using dialogic questions to stimulate
meaning-making led to a discussion of why
Chicago placed the women in the order she
did at her table and why she selected the
women she did. Students also suggested that
if all of the historical women were indeed
present at Chicago’s Dinner Party, they
probably would not have gotten along. This
conversation then led back to the students’
snapshots. Having the snapshots allowed a
‘way in’ or an introduction into a discussion
of Chicago’s conceptually rich and multilayered installation. The snapshots and the
work of art stimulated discussion of one
another. The discussions with students in the
museums and in the classroom, as well as
their written reflective papers, were analyzed
and two outcomes emerged.
Connecting Art to Experiences
Shared by Family Members
The first outcome is that students connect
ideas generated by the works of art to experiences with family members. At the Brooklyn
Museum, we discussed Miwa Yanagi’s, Yuka,
from My Grandmothers series (2000) (Figure
1). This Chromogenic print depicts a woman
with shocking red hair holding a cigarette
in one hand and riding in a sidecar of a
motorcycle. The motorcycle is soaring across
a bridge, which recedes deeply into the
background. Both the woman and the driver
of the motorcycle, a man appearing much
younger than the woman, smile broadly as
they whisk across the frame. For the My
Grandmothers series, Yanagi asked young
women to describe the types of women they
might become in the next 50 years. Inspired
by the women’s descriptions, Yanagi created
photographs of fictitious grandmothers.
In that sense, the photographs illustrate
imagined, future biographies.
During classroom discussions in preparation for our visit to the Brooklyn Museum,
we studied the formal content and conceptual concerns of Yanagi’s photograph. I
invited them to bring a snapshot to the
museum that represented something they
hoped for themselves in the next 50 years.
The snapshot need not have compositional
connections to Yanagi’s, but it might have
similar conceptual interests, such as the
representation of a wish for one’s future.
One student brought in a picture of herself
at the age of two (Figure 2), standing and
looking squarely at the camera; its composition and formal qualities are much different
than Yanagi’s photograph. Yet they do
share conceptual connections. The student
described how the photo not only documents a past, but also implies a future, as
does Yanagi’s image. While in the galleries,
Danielle explained,
The student has internalized and constructed personal
meanings about the work of fine art, using her family snapshot
as a vehicle. Similarly, she has internalized and constructed
personal and rich meanings about her snapshot, using the work
of fine art as a medium.
14
Art Education / January 2012
You were talking about the future. And
this was nostalgic when I looked at it
and the memories from the summers I
spent [at my summer house in Ocean
Grove, NJ]. Every day I would go to the
beach. And the friends that I had there,
I still keep in touch [with friends] that
I’ve known since I was two, three years
old. We grew up on the same block and
we still keep in touch. And I just see
myself going back there in the future
and that still being part of my life. It
was part of my life, and I look forward
to it being part of my future. And when
I looked at this, I was like ‘Wow,’ all these
memories automatically came back.
(excerpt from transcript, discussion
at the Brooklyn Museum, February 2,
2008)
Yanagi’s image represents a future based
on imagination and fantasy. Danielle’s
snapshot represents a hoped-for future, but
that future is based on real memories of
the past. The student recognized, through
dialogue, that experiences as a child, “were
part of my life and I look forward to it being
part of my future.” Dialogue is essential
in the creation of meaning, as the student
saw conceptual connections between her
snapshot and Yanagi’s photograph. In
doing so, the student has internalized and
constructed personal meanings about the
work of fine art, using her family snapshot
as a vehicle. Similarly, she has internalized
and constructed personal and rich meanings
about her snapshot, using the work of fine art
as a medium. Therefore, the act of creating
meaning from the work of fine art through
the discussion of snapshots is a reflexive act
(Dewey, 1934; McKay & Monteverde, 2003).
Through this act, the individual’s method of
meaning-making is revealed.1
Parallels between Formal
Characteristics of Works of Art
and Snapshots
The second outcome of this approach
was that students drew parallels between
the formal qualities of works of art and
snapshots. For instance, in studying an Old
Kingdom limestone sculpture of a family
group from Saqqara, Egypt (Figure 3), we
discussed the postures and poses of the
figures, the proportions of their bodies, and
their garments, and what these formal qualities may say about the work’s meaning. For
Figure 1. Miwa Yanagi, Yuka, from the My Grandmothers series (2000), Chromogenic print on Plexiglas, mounted on aluminum.
Used with permission of the artist and Yoshiko Isshiki Office.
Figure 2. Danielle Bussani at age two. Family snapshot. Collection of Danielle Bussani.
Used with permission.
January 2012 / Art Education
15
instance, curators Fazzini, Romano, and Cody
(1999) suggest that in sculptures like this
family group, the father’s large size indicates
his dominance; the woman’s small size and
her embrace suggest her loving support; the
boy’s nudity, his hair pulled up on one side,
and the gesture of his finger to his lip, indicate
his youth.
After discussing the ancient Egyptian
sculpture of the family group, a student
shared a story in the galleries about her
family portrait from the early twentieth
century. She later further explained her
narrative:
[In] this snapshot [Figure 4], taken in
1911 of my great grandmother and
her parents, … one smile is shown,
my great grandmother, Elsa’s. In 1911,
photos were taken without “attraction”
allowed. In this photo, I see myself, a
woman who sees society as a whole,
but knows there are ways to show individuality. If I learned anything from
my great grandmother it would be to
express myself in this ever-changing
world, because no one can take away
your smile or your heart. (personal
communication, September 16, 2009)
Discussion of the formal characteristics
of the Egyptian sculpture allowed students
to see and consider how a figure’s attributes,
pose, and gestures all shape meaning, such
as the recognition that men were “supposed”
to stand, and women “did not typically
smile” in early twentieth century portraits.
Another student suggested that the standing
male figure in both the snapshot and the
sculpture “signifies how significant the male
role was and how it is carried on through
thousands of years” (student written reflection, February 2, 2008).
Implications for Art Education
Figure 3. Statue of a Family Group. Old Kingdom, ca. 2371-2298 B.C.E. Limestone.
28 ¹⁵⁄₁₆ x 9 ¹ ⁄₁₆ x 9 ¹³⁄₁₆ in. Brooklyn Museum, 37.17E Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund.
Used with permission.
Students expressed willingness to deepen
their understanding of works of art through
discussion of snapshots. For instance, one
student echoed Hirsch’s (1981) claims when
he wrote that this process “helped show
that we’re still the same. Even though things
are different now, we may have different
symbols, but we still have the same tendencies” (student written reflection, February 29,
2008). Another student wrote,
I think snapshots allow us to open up
our imaginations more than we ever
could because we all imagine things
very differently from one another.
By looking at any picture we already
16
Art Education / January 2012
formulate a story to go along with it.
I think it takes the [art] object out of
context and enlarges all the possibilities
and meanings behind the relevance of
the artwork. (student written reflection,
February 4, 2008)
Though the students responded favorably to this investigation, there are criticisms
to consider. For instance, some students
simply do not own a collection of family
photographs. Other students may have a
limited number of photographs or have
family members reluctant to describe painful
memories associated with images. Another
shortcoming of this approach to teaching art
history is that for seasoned museum-goers,
talking about snapshots in museums can be
cumbersome and interfere with a more purist
interaction with the works of art. Despite
these limitations, art educators may consider
expanded possibilities of using snapshots in
their own teaching contexts and consider
these points in doing so:
• Once you have selected the works of art
that you will study at the museum, give
students a list of the kinds of photographs
they should look for that will relate to the
works of art. This will help focus their
ideas. Give students time to locate the
images on their computers, in shoeboxes,
or in attics. The excavation is part of
the experience. Where were the images
stored? What other things were stored
with them? How do these contexts shape
meaning of the images?
• Ask students to create a list of themes
present in their collection of family
photographs. Working in groups in a
museum, have students review their list
of themes and examples of snapshots
and ask them to identify works of art in
a museum that embody similar themes.
What are the similarities and differences
between the way the theme is presented
in a snapshot versus a work of art?2
• Important human issues, or big ideas
(Walker, 2001), generated from discussions of snapshots and works of art can
be the source of ideas for students’ studio
practice. Exploration of important human
issues, or themes (Anderson & Milbrandt,
2005), are vital if we want experiences in
art education to be a “meaning-making
endeavor rather than simply the crafting
of a product” (Walker, 2001, p.1). Invite
students to interrogate the themes and
issues evident in their snapshots through
art-making activities.
Figure 4. Studio Family Portrait. Collection of Lauren Haller. Used with permission.
Conclusion
Expanding understanding of snapshots is important because snapshots
are tangible, personal memory prompts
that often provide a sense of comfort
and familiarity when viewed by family
members and friends. Analysis of
the discussions that emerged from
my students’ familiar family snapshots yielded two outcomes. The first
outcome is that students connect
ideas generated by the works of art to
experiences with family members. The
second outcome of this approach was
that students drew parallels between
the formal qualities of works of art and
snapshots. Moreover, there is evidence
that dialogue about works of art and
family photographs is a reflexive act;
the images and the viewer generate and
January 2012 / Art Education
17
exchange ideas in a dynamic act of meaningmaking. Snapshots can also be the scaffolding
on which new ideas about works of fine art
can be constructed. This scaffolding would
make unfamiliar concepts or forms within
works of fine art seem less daunting, and
meaning-making attainable.
Kristtin Baxter, EdD is Assistant Professor
of Art and Coordinator of the Art Education
Program at Moravian College in Bethlehem,
PA. She can be reached at kbaxter@
moravian.edu
Author’s Note
The author wishes to thank Elizabeth Vallance, Clare
Humphries, Chizuru Kaplan, and Jan Ciganick for
their support in the preparation of this article, and
the students in the spring 2008 course, “Exploring the
Great Museums of New York,” at Fairleigh Dickinson
University.
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ENDNOTES
1 I thank artist and researcher,
Clare Humphries, for suggesting
that not only are works of fine art
understood through connections to personal experiences, but
perhaps in doing so, the students’
personal ways of meaning-making
are also revealed and understood.
2 The author wishes to thank one of
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