Developing a keen understanding about our history can be immensely helpful in moving into our future with purpose. And this notion often applies to all aspects of life, including our career or areas of study.

As your current area of study is photography and you’re already starting to develop an understanding of the history and development of this creative art form, this is the perfect opportunity to dive a bit deeper and explore a variety of subjects, photographic styles, themes, and trends, both historical and contemporary.

To present all of the information you will be researching online into an organized and relevant format, you will be creating a highly visual timeline of ‘Photography Through the Ages.’

Let’s start with the specifics about what you will need to research and include on your timeline:

At least three different historical periods in time to examine and explore in terms of art and photography as well as our current time period (you will therefore research four time periods in total).
For each historical period that you choose, as well as the current time period:
Explore and identify at least one artistic theme associated with this period
Explore and identify at least one artistic trend associated with this period
Explore and identify the most popular or relevant photographic styles used during this period
Explore and identify the most popular or frequently photographed subjects during this period
Now for the fun part! Your timeline should feature more images, graphics, and visual components than text. While you will certainly need to include text to further explain the images that you include and the research that you do, you want your timeline to ultimately appear as a beautiful work of art—a visual exploration through the history of photography and art in general. This timeline can be created using any program you wish, or feel free to use actual paper and pencil and submit several images of your timeline so your instructor can easily make out the details of your entire assignment.