Virtual Field Trips: Social Documentary Workshops for Your Students

Long-Term Programs for Students

Online Educator Trainings

WHAT WE DO

Virtual Field Trips: Social Documentary Workshops for Your Students

Workshops begin fall 2022

VLP’s Virtual Field Trips are taught by working photographers and bring quality social documentary photography workshops directly into your classroom. Our three core workshops are designed to run for 90-minutes each, and to fit into a typical block schedule - they can also be tailored to fit other class lengths upon request. Click the button to the left to schedule a date for a virtual field trip with your class, or email us if you have questions.

Workshop fee: $250 for up to 25 students
Each workshop is 90 minutes

Schedule a
Virtual Field Trip

Engaging with Social Documentary Photography

In this workshop, a VLP instructor will introduce you and your students to the Social Documentary Network’s website, a source that has been publishing documentary photography from around the globe for over a decade. The workshop will teach your students how to engage with social documentary photography as a substantive source for research and critical thinking. We will capture students’ interest in contemporary social issues, and strengthen their visual literacy, close-reading, and research skills through engaging, hands-on activities. We will guide them in how to use documentary photo-essays as sources to research and learn about the issues that matter most to them, and show them how documentary photography can help to change the world. Students will leave the workshop with new resources, skills, and interests that they can apply to their studies in any class or pursue on their own outside of school.

Planning a Social Documentary Photography Project

Do your students have an idea for a documentary photography project, but are unsure how best to approach it? In this workshop, a VLP instructor will scaffold your students in understanding all the steps necessary to plan and execute a successful documentary photography project connected to an area of study in your class. Students will learn how to choose, plan, and research their project topic; how to approach going into the field to photograph subjects; and how to edit their work into a project for school or public exhibition. We’ll cover topics such as researching, pitching a project and gaining access to cover it, storyboarding, scouting locations and interviewing, sequencing images into a final portfolio, and getting the project ready for exhibition. We will emphasize using student projects as vehicles for larger engagement and education in your school and community.

Digital Photography 101 for Students

You and your students are ready to embark on a documentary photography project! What’s next? In this workshop, a VLP instructor will give your students a crash course in the fundamentals of digital photography and how to make images that look good. We will cover the basics of how digital cameras work (from cell phone cameras, to point-and-shoots, DSLR and mirrorless cameras), and how to use fundamental camera controls such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. Through a series of hands-on exercises, we will cover both technical and creative aspects of digital photography, including the basics of how digital cameras work, and fundamental camera controls such as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. We will consider aesthetic concepts such as framing, composition, and the use of light – all tools students can use to make meaning through images. Participants will leave the training with a solid understanding of the foundations of digital photography. If you sign your class up, we will provide resources on how to procure camera equipment (beyond cell phone cameras that students may already have) to use for practice during this workshop!