VAM galleries including this work:
The Kentucky Historical Society | Everyday Life | Kentucky Past and Present || VAM Home

Harry A. Gretter earned his living as a studio portrait photographer in Frankfort, Kentucky’s capital, from about 1902 to about 1917. Though he was commissioned to take photos on location in the Frankfort area, his own candid family shots, like this one taken in Franklin County, are some of the most artistic and pleasing.

About the Artist

Photographers E. Carl Wolff, Harry A. Gretter, and J. Forrest Cusick successively occupied a studio at Number 43 St. Clair Street in Frankfort. The Kentucky Historical Society’s collection of material spanning the duration of the studio’s activity from 1898 to 1958 includes 100,000 negatives. In addition to the studio portraits, the collection focuses on families, local events, architecture, the Frankfort penitentiary, distilleries, Kentucky State University, school groups, and legislative portraits from Frankfort and surrounding areas.

Classroom Ideas

Discussion: “Read” this photograph by describing the setting of the photo, listing and describing the people, listing and describing other things in the picture, speculating about what is happening in the picture, and considering what the picture reveals about life in the past. (You might want to use one of the worksheets provided at the links below.) Discuss why people take snapshots and why they have formal photographic portraits made. What is the focal point of this photograph? Do you think this is a good composition?

Activity: Bring in pictures of yourself and/or take photographs of your classmates and class activities. In groups or as a class, select the photographs that best represent their subjects and create displays of them.

Links

A Photo Analysis Worksheet is included on the web site of the National Archives.
[www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/analysis_worksheets/photo.html]

The National Register of Historic Places offers a Teaching with Historic Places Photo Analysis Worksheet.
[www.cr.nps.gov/nr/twhp/photoana.htm]