Mosaic of Family Pictures

I have been studying genealogy for over twenty years; it is my passion. At Christmas time I made a calendar of extended family birthdays and anniversaries to send to my aunts and their cousins. On the front cover I put a photograph of the last family reunion, but on the back cover I made a mosaic of headshots of fifty family members. I used older black and white and newer color photos; I tried to place them randomly.
After our class on visual literacy and discussion about photo essays, I looked at the back cover of the family calendar. I realized that because I had deliberately tried to place the photos randomly I had created a theme or message. No brothers' or sisters' headshots were by each other. No spouses' photos were close to each other either. No children's photos were by their parents. By working hard to not create groupings, I had portrayed the idea that the entire group was a family. There were no small units in this large photo essay. No one was connected to anyone else except as a member of the larger unit.
A photo essay would be a good assignment for my students to do so they could see how connections can be made even when someone is trying NOT to have any connections. One of the hardest tasks for my students is finding connections in their reading and putting connections into their writing. Giving my students a collection of photos and asking them to make a photo essay would be good practice for them to learn how to make connections. Creating a mosaic would really get them thinking.