"Our Declaration" Value Photo Essays and Artist Statements

As part of our study of colonial America, students learned about the early meetings of the Founders and the eventual writing of the Declaration of Independence. We explored this text through a close reading of the document as well as through reading Danielle Allen’s book Our Declaration. After learning about the power of language in the Declaration, it was up to the students to judge whether or not the US is living up to the values that the Declaration lays out. Students identified one value from the Declaration and made a claim about whether or not it is true today. They proved this claim via the medium of photography. We spent some time in class examining photography as a tool of interpretation, learning techniques and looking at models.

Some of the values that students chose to focus on were equality, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and agency to name a few.

Please enjoy their photo essays and artist statements!

What value from the Declaration of Independence might you try to capture with photography? How might the Founders view progress (or lack thereof) on the values which they write about in the Declaration?

August's Artist Statement