Photografy and History Teaching: the exhibition ““Visualidades e conhecimento histórico- imagens narrando história e práticas culturais”

Abstract

The objective of this article is to discuss the use and didactic potential of photography in teaching, based on an experience of a photographic exhibition in the History course of UNEB / Campus VI, in the discipline of History Teaching Laboratory II. Nowadays, photography is an extremely accessible language, due to the technological advances provided by the internet, digital cameras and smartphones: the internet, for gathering websites that serve as an instrument to collect historical photos; and digital cameras and smartphones, for taking photos and managing digital images easily. The methodology adopted to make the didactic project followed those steps:  theoretical text readings in the classroom, division of the class into groups, action planning, production of photographic material (collection of sources and production of original photos) and finally its exhibition. The theoretical research for the field of History teaching is based on the Jörn Rüsen’s, Isabel Barca’s, Flávia Caimi’s, Circe Maria Fernandes Bittencourt’s contributions and, about the photographic approach, it was based on the Pierre Sorlin’s, Peter Burke’s, Ulpiano Menezes’s and Ana Maria Mauad’s studies. The result of the photographic exhibition and the experience accumulated in preparation and execution pointed out to a new redefinition of the students' relationship with photography and to a comprehension of the didactic applicability of this source in the classroom. That activity has also stimulated their desire to know more the photographic language and to develop skills to have a greater technical knowledge about the act of photographing.