Visual literacy

We come into contact with hundreds of photographs and images every day. From your first baby photos and photos you have taken yourself, to photos in magazines, adverts, on the street, in newspapers or in museums: photographs are everywhere and form an important part of our daily life. They can evoke memories and raise questions, inform, tell stories, shock and move. When we look at photographs, we are quick to assume that we know what they are depicting. Often, however, additional knowledge or a new way of looking is needed in order to truly understand a photograph. This new way of looking can be learnt. We call the skill of looking at and analysing photographs 'visual literacy'.

Documentary photography is an ideal medium for holding a mirror up to people, for telling (background) stories, addressing global problems, drawing attention to high-profile topics or generating new insights. Documentary photography as a specific discipline is not only artistic by nature; it is also a medium par excellence with a direct social function through the subjects it records. Just like (modern) art, documentary photography is linked to the social, cultural and political context in which it is created.

FOTODOK’s educational programmes highlight these different aspects of documentary photography. By looking actively at photos and taking photos themselves, children and teenagers learn to understand the effect of documentary photography, to interpret it and to apply it to their own work. Developing visual literacy is in each case the most important overarching learning goal: how do images gain meaning? How does this meaning influence you, the group or society? Visual literacy falls under the broader term media wisdom. By media wisdom we mean the knowledge, skills and mentality required to participate consciously, critically and actively in the world of today and tomorrow, in which media plays a defining role.

FOTODOK believes it is important that young people adopt an active and critical stance within today’s complex and influential visual culture. Visual literacy is a skill with which we learn to deal critically and knowledgeably with this visual culture. For young people, this critical awareness of visual culture provides insight into the diversity, richness and beauty that many media can offer, alongside the dangers they also occasionally bring with them.

 
For more information about visual literacy and media wisdom:

Mediawijsheid.nl

Stichting Leerplan Ontwikkeling (SLO)

Advies Mediawijsheid Raad voor Cultuur