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aperture

learning guide

This resource is intended to complement Apertures Workshop series book

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb


on Street Photography and the Poetic Image
and aid educators in leading meaningful discussion surrounding its content.
ALL AGES

The attentive eye


makes the world
interesting. A good
photograph, like
a good poem, is
a self-contained
little universe
inexhaustible to
scrutiny.
Rebecca Norris Webb

overview

suggested topics

key vocabulary

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aperture 

learning guide

About Apertures Workshop Series


The Photography Workshop Series is an accessible resource that can be used
to begin class discussions on photographys history, the nature of photography,
photographic techniques, the act of seeing, and the author of each book. The
books are formatted in such a way that each chapter contains its own mini lesson
or discussion, with bold headings or a bold quotation, and a brief elaboration or
explanation below. The bolded headings can act as discussion topics, and can be
easily rephrased as questions that you may pose to your class. The accompanying
photographs act as the slideshow for the lesson.

About This Learning Guide


Aperture Education staff have organized this learning guide thematically, highlighting
salient topics from Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webbs text. Within each theme,
relevant chapters, passages, and vocabulary are noted, along with guiding questions
to accompany specific images.

About Alex Webb and


Rebecca Norris Webb:
Alex Webb is best known for his complex, layered color street photography suffused
with decisive moments. He has published eleven photography books, and his work
has been exhibited widely at institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and
the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Originally a poet, Rebecca Norris Webbs photography is informed by the literary
sensibilities she has cultivated as a writer. Rebecca has published three photography
books that explore the complicated relationship between people and the natural
world: The Glass Between Us, The Violet Isle: A Duet of Photographs from Cuba
(with Alex Webb), and My Dakota. Rebeccas work has also been exhibited
internationally, including at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the George Eastman
House in Rochester New York.
Aside from their individual accomplishments, Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris Webb
are a creative team that often collaborate on projects and edit each others work.
Most recently, they have published The Violet Isle and Memory City. Through their
extensive experience as photographers and detailed observers of the world, the
Webbs each have distinct visions of photography and life that are worth listening
to. Throughout this Workshop book, the Webbs share personal insights whose
perceptivity is commensurate to the strength of their photographs.

[overview]

suggested topics

key vocabulary

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aperture 

learning guide

Color
Relevant Passage
I began to realize that color isnt just about color. Color is
emotion. If black and white comes from the heart or from
the head, color comes more from the stomach, as the
Belgian photographer Harry Gruyaert once put it. For me,
color seems more sensual than black and white. Sometimes
a red is a soothing red, sometimes its a threatening red,
depending on the sensibility, personal history, and cultural
background of the viewer. AW (p. 29)
Alex Webb, Guyave, Grenada, 1979

Topics for Discussion


Look closely at Alex Webbs image
Guyave, Grenada, 1979, and read his note on
Color Is Emotion (p. 29).

What does Alex Webb mean when he refers to

saturated color? How can saturation be used in


photography to complement the content of an image?

Alex Webb, Plant City, Florida, 1989

What are the dominant colors in this picture? How do

Relevant Sections

What are the dominant colors in Alex Webbs image

Color Is Emotion (p. 29)


About Blue (p. 32)
Symphony and Sonata (p. 93)

Does color have the potential to affect the

the colors affect the mood or tone of this picture?

Plant City, Florida, 1989?

meaning of an image?

Do you agree with Alex Webb when he suggests


that color can be integral to culture?

Vocabulary
tone
mood
contrast

overview

[suggested topics]

key vocabulary

saturated
foreground
background

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Photographing in a
New Community
Relevant Passage
Every culture has its own mores, its own traditions; every
group of human beings has a different sense of privacy
and personal space. And so photographing in the streets in
different cultures inevitably calls for different strategies.
AW (p. 37)

Topics for Discussion


Alex Webb, Bombay India, 1981

Read all three of Alex Webbs essays about


photographing in new places and citieswhat three
points do you take way from his observations?
Discuss students experiences photographing strangers.
What challenges do they face?
Discuss the various ways one might encounter a
subjects community, and strategies for connecting
with individuals and communities.
How does one portray a community accurately
is it by imitation or observation?

Alex Webb, Istanbul, Turkey, 2001

Relevant Sections

How can one have, as well as communicate, the most


immersive experience when shooting on the street?

The Grace of Others (p. 37)


Where the Road Is a River (p. 50)
Lost in Istanbul (p. 71)

Vocabulary
perspective
point of view
subject

overview

[suggested topics]

key vocabulary

landscape
context

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Composition and
Framing
Relevant Passage
I think that Ive always been drawn to visually complex
photographs. Many of my early photographs contain more
than one element, have more than one point of focus. As the
years have passed, theyve become even more complex.
These days, I often feel as if Im walking a fragile line
visuallypushing the frame to include more and more, just
up to, but falling short of, chaos.
AW (p. 41)
Alex Webb, Nuevo Laredo Mexico, 1996

Topics for Discussion


Look closely at Alex Webbs photograph Kampala
Uganda, 1980. What compositional elements do
you notice? How can one maximize the depth and
visual complexity of ones photographs without
complete chaos?

Discuss the importance of the edge of the frame


how can one create tension and visual interest by
consciously deciding where the frame cuts?

Alex Webb, Kampala Uganda, 1980

Read Metzkers Shadows (p. 61) and discuss

Relevant Sections

Alex Webbs use of shadow as a compositional and


structural element in his photographs.

Crowded Frames (p. 41)


Metzkers Shadows (p. 61)
The Edge (p. 67)

Discuss how the composition of an image


can change its meaning.

Vocabulary
isolate
composition
tension
intuitive

overview

[suggested topics]

key vocabulary

rational
structure
frame

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The Relationship Between


Writing and Photography
Relevant Passage
My response to writers block was to buy a small camera
and travel for a year, hoping my photographs would
spark my poetry when I returned. Instead, I fell in love with
photography. I realized that the eye focusing on those
images in my poetry was the same eye looking through the
lens. RNW (p. 19)

Topics for Discussion

Rebecca Norris Webb, Ghost Mountain, 2005 11

Define symbols and metaphors within literature.


How can we capture symbols and metaphors
with a camera?
Look carefully at Rebecca Norris Webbs photograph
Ghost Mountain, 200511. What do you see? What is
this picture of? Can it be a read as a metaphor?

Rebecca Norris Webb, Broken Swallows Nests, 2005 11

Relevant Sections

Read The Unexpected Metaphor (p. 48). What


associations did Rebecca Norris Webb come to see in
her My Dakota project? How does she relate images of
waves to the word wave in her essay?
Read Novels as Guides (p. 75). What does Alex
Webb mean when he says that novels and photographs
both explore subjects elliptically?

The Camera Eye (p. 19)


The Unexpected Metaphor(p. 48)
Novels as Guides(p. 75)
On Text and Images (p. 80)

Discuss different types of captions, such as narrative


and additive. How can images and text work together
to enhance the meaning of a photograph or an idea?

Vocabulary
storytelling
poetry
narrative
metaphor

overview

[suggested topics]

key vocabulary

symbol
enigmatic
ambiguity
elliptical

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The Editing Process


Relevant Passages
Time is often the best editor. How you perceive your work
the day after you photograph is very different from a week
later, and signicantly different from three weeks later
or three months. Time helps get rid of those sentimental
attachments to a photographTime gives you the distance
necessary to see the work more clearly. AW (p. 98)
When Im choosing the nal selection of photographs for
a bookeither my own, Alexs, or another photographers
workone clue that I may be looking at a special
photograph is that I want to linger with it.
RNW (p. 101)

Topics for Discussion


How do each of the Webbs approach editing and
sequencing work?

Discuss the importance of revisiting work.


Rebecca Norris Webb, Contact Sheet for Blackbirds, 2006

Read The Wisdom of Re-Vision (p. 90). What does


Rebecca Norris Webb mean when she speaks about
attending to the work rather than intending?

Look closely at Rebecca Norris Webbs Contact Sheet

for Blackbirds, 2006. Why might she have selected this


photograph as the strongest from that particular scene?
Do you agree?

Alex Webb, Otay Mesa Mountains, California, 1979

Vocabulary

Relevant Sections

editing
sequence
intend/attend

The Wisdom of Re-Vision (p. 90)


Time as Editor (p. 98)
The Attentive Eye (p. 101)

overview

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Collaboration
Relevant Passages
Violet Isle didnt start out as a collaboration. It was only
just before our eleventh and nal trip to Cuba that Rebecca
and I realized we were working on a joint project. Through
the often arduous editing process, we slowly began to see
how our pictures could speak to one another.
AW (p. 105)
Fortunately one of our house rules is that the artist always
has the final say. RNW (p. 103)

Rebecca Norris Webb, Havana, 2008

Topics for Discussion


Discuss Alex and Rebeccas photos from their series
Violet Isle as a diptych:

What differences can you find in the way

each sees Havana?

What similarities can you find between the

two photos?

How do the photographs work together to

tell different parts of the story about the place?

Alex Webb, Havana, 2000

Introduce authorship to the conversation as it


relates to photographic practice. What message
do the Webbs send about authorship and
its importance in their collaboration?

Relevant Section
On Collaboration (p. 104)

Ask your students about their experiences collaborating.


Discuss the benefits and challenges of working
with a partner.

Vocabulary
authorship
collaboration
editing

overview

[suggested topics]

key vocabulary

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Key Vocabulary
Alienate: cause (someone) to feel isolated or estranged
(pp. 61, 64)

Discursive: digressing from subject to subject (p. 75)


Duet: a performance by two people (pp. 15, 93)

Ambiguity: uncertainty or inexactness of meaning in language


(p. 103)

Editing: making selections of which photographs to include


in a project (pp. 90, 98, 105)

Attend: to pay attention to (p. 90)


Authorship: the fact or position of someones having written a
book or photograph

Elegy: a poem of serious reflection, typically a lament


for the dead (pp. 27, 49, 65, 72)
Elliptical: of or relating to deliberate obscurity (p. 75)

Background: the part of the photograph thats farthest


from the viewer (p. 58)

Elusive: difficult to find, catch, or achieve (p. 25)

Beguile: charm or enchant (someone), sometimes in


a deceptive way (p. 72)

Enigmatic: difficult to interpret or understand; mysterious


(pp. 47, 65, 103)

Collaboration: the action of working with someone


to produce or create something (pp. 89, 104)

Entwine: wind or twist together; interweave (p. 72)

Compelling: evoking interest, attention, or admiration in a


powerfully irresistible way (p. 64)
Composition: the placement or arrangement of visual elements
or ingredients in a photograph

Foreground: the part of a photograph thats closest


to the viewer (pp. 58, 65)
Frame: a rigid structure that encloses something such as
a door or window (pp. 41, 65, 67)
Gaze: a steady intent look (p. 23)

Context: the circumstances that form the setting for an


event, statement, or idea, and in terms of which it can be fully
understood and assessed
Contradiction: a combination of statements, ideas, or features
of a situation that are opposed to one another; a person, thing, or
situation in which inconsistent elements are present (p. 64)
Contrast: the state of being strikingly different from something
else, typically something in juxtaposition or close association
(p. 111)
Diffuse: spread or cause to spread over a wide area; cause
(light) to glow faintly by dispersing it in many directions (p. 57)

overview

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[key vocabulary]

Ineffable: too great or extreme to be expressed or


described in words (p. 37)
Integral: necessary to make a whole complete;
essential or fundamental (pp. 29, 65)
Intend: have (a course of action) as ones purpose or
objective; plan (p. 90)
Interiority: the quality of being interior or inward; inner
character or nature; subjectivity (p. 44)
Intuitive: using or based on what one feels to be true even
without conscious reasoning; instinctive (pp. 14, 75, 90)

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Key Vocabulary
Isolate: cause (a person or place) to be or remain alone or
apart from others (pp. 51, 61)

Rational: based on or in accordance with reason or logic

Juxtaposition: the fact of two things being seen or placed close


together with contrasting effect (pp. 76, 85)

Saturated: (of color) very bright, full (p. 29)

Landscape: all the features of an area of countryside or land,


often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal
(pp. 15, 44, 48, 72, 80, 88, 114)
Meditation: a written or spoken discourse expressing
considered thoughts on a subject (p. 107)
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or
phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not
literally applicable (pp. 48, 49, 95)
Mood: inducing or suggestive of a particular feeling or
state of mind
Mysterious: difficult or impossible to understand,
explain, or identify (pp. 25, 46, 72, 101)
Narrative: a spoken, written, or photographed account of
connected events; a story
Palpable: (especially of a feeling or atmosphere) so intense
as to be almost touched or felt (p. 67)
Perspective: a particular attitude toward or way of
regarding something; a point of view
Poetry: literary work in which special intensity is given to
the expression of feelings and ideas by the use of distinctive
style and rhythm
Point of View: the position from which something or
someone is observed
Preconceived: (of an idea or opinion) formed before having
the evidence for its truth or usefulness (p. 14)

(p. 14)

Serendipity: the occurrence and development of events


by chance in a happy or beneficial way (p. 72)
Sequence: (photography) to arrange images in a
particular order (pp. 8, 76, 101)
Spontaneous: performed or occurring as a result of a
sudden inner impulse or inclination and without premeditation or
external stimulus (pp. 14, 90)
Storytelling: conveying of events in words, sound and/or
images, often by improvisation or embellishment
Structure: the arrangement of and relations between the parts or
elements of something complex (pp. 65, 93, 107)
Subject: the object, scene, incident, etc., chosen by an artist for
representation (pp. 67, 75)
Suggest: to indicate or evoke something

(pp. 25, 50, 61, 65, 80, 95, 103)


Symbol: a thing that represents or stands for something else,
especially a material object representing something abstract
Syncopation: a temporary displacement of the regular metrical
accent in music caused typically by stressing the weak beat

(p. 93)
Tension: the state of being stretched tight; mental or
emotional strain (pp. 64, 65, 67, 75)
Tone: the quality of color (warm or cold, bright or dull) (p. 87)
Vibrant: full of energy and enthusiasm;
(of color) bright and striking (pp. 14, 29, 76)
Source: Oxford Pocket Dictionary of Current English

overview

suggested topics

[key vocabulary]

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aperture 

learning guide

Alex Webb and Rebecca Norris


Webb on Street Photography
and the Poetic Image
Photographs and text by Alex Webb
and Rebecca Norris Webb
Introduction by Teju Cole
7 x 10 inches (19.5 x 25.4 cm)
128 pages, 50 duotone and four-color images
Paperback with flaps
$29.95/19.95
ISBN 978-1-59711-257-4
May 2014

OTHER TITLES IN THIS SERIES

Larry Fink on Composition and


Improvisation

Todd Hido on Landscapes, Interiors,


and the Nude

Mary Ellen Mark on the Portrait


and the Moment

ISBN 978-1-59711-273-4

ISBN 978-1-59711-297-0

ISBN 978-1-59711-316-8

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