Appropriation Photography

Credit to Linda Mc and Dawn Martin Supertramp on Facebook for the lesson ideas, links and resources.

In this lesson, you will learn how to take 'photographs' from Google street view. You will take your 'photographs' using screenshots. This type of photography is classed as 'appropriation'. You will first learn what this term means and then explore some of the fabulous work of photographers who use this technique. Then you will take some photographs of your own, edit them using Photopea and Adobe Spark (both free) and use them to display a cultural exploration of a particular location in the World.

This lesson is in five parts:

Part 1 - What is 'Appropriation photography'?

Part 2 - Who is the 'Agoraphobic Traveller'?

Part 3 - How to use Google street view to take your photographs

Part 4 - How to edit your photographs using Photopea

Part 5 - How to present your cultural exploration as a collage using Adobe Spark

WAGOLL

Below are an example of the type of photograph you will be able to capture following this tutorial. You can see on the photograph the tell tale signs of Google street view; logo, compass etc. You will learn how to remove those with editing in part 4 (but if you do this you must still attribute the image to Google). Or you may choose to keep them. You will then edit your photographs together into a cultural exploration collage in part 5. Have a look at past student examples by clicking on the student example link.

A remote town in Chile
(Copyright Google and Maxar Technologies)

Part 1 What is "Appropriation Photography"?

KS4 start here....

Appropriation – Taking something you didn't create/think of yourself and using it in your own work.


In this part you will explore how artist have used photographs that they have not taken themselves, sometimes edited them, sometimes not, then presented them as their own artwork. Some people class this as copying (a lot of people would say this!). Others class this as a form of photography/art in its own right.


  1. Have a look at this website which lists a variety of artists and photographers who used appropriation in their artwork. Click on the different artists names in the pink box and browse through their images. Find one that you really like and save it to your device. Briefly describe how the artist 'appropriated' the images taken by others.

(disclaimer: some of the artist on this website use inappropriate language and images. Please check with your teacher if you are old enough to do this part)

  1. Finally, scroll to the bottom of this webpage and read my thoughts regarding 'appropriation'.

Part 2 Who is the "Agoraphobic TRAVELLER"?

KS3 start here...

Jacqui Kenny lives in London but travels the world every day from the comfort of her home taking fabulous photographs. You can follow her on Instagram @streetview.potraits . She goes by the pseudonym "The Agoraphobic Traveller". People with agoraphobia suffer anxiety in situations where the person perceives their environment to be unsafe with no easy way to escape. These situations can include open spaces, public transit, shopping centers, or simply being outside their home.

  1. Watch this video

  2. While you are watching, consider the following questions :

  • How does Jacqui compose her photographs? Describe her 'style'?

  • How does Jacqui choose her locations? Why does she choose those particular locations?

  • What do you think of her photographs? What meanings do they generate?

3. Look through her instragram page at examples of her art.

4. Have a look at her website. She sells her photographs (with permission from Google) with all proceeds going to charity.

5. Read this article about her art.

6. Save your favourite photograph to your device. Briefly describe how Jacqui has composed the shot. Can you see how she may have edited the photograph? Describe what editing you think she has done.

Part 3 - How to use Google street view to take your photographs

  1. Watch the YouTube video showing you how to navigate Google earth and take photographs (screenshots):

2. You are now going to explore the world! You can go anywhere you want. Open up Google earth and zone in on a location that you have never been to before but would like to explore. It is important that you make a note of the name of the country/location so you can find it again another time. If you are using a Chromebook, watch this video that shows you how to take a screenshot.

3. Whilst you are there you should have a good look around and take lots of photographs. You should try hard to compose your photograph properly before you take your 'shot'. Remember to include the Google copyright information. You can edit this off later.

4. You will present your 'cultural exploration' as a collage in part 5. To give you an added challenge you should try and capture photographs of the following:

  • A typical street

  • A typical house

  • A place of worship (church, mosque etc)

  • A coastal shot (by the sea)

  • A busy city/town shot

  • A fabulous shot of the landscape (fields, hills etc)

  • Something of cultural interest that wouldn't see in your own town

  • Something you found funny!

  • Something your found strange or odd that you couldn't understand.

Alternative idea - trying this at home? Like computer games? You could definitely wander the virtual world of the game and take photographs as you go. Why don't you give it a try?

Part 4 - How to edit your photographs using Photopea

  1. Watch the YouTube videos which shows you how to edit your photographs (screenshots). The first one is an in-depth tutorial teaching you the different methods of removing objects in Photopea. The second one shows you some image editing techniques to improve your image.

  2. Choose your favourite photographs and edit them using https://www.photopea.com/

  3. You may want to crop down the photograph, remove some of the Google icons such as arrows or change the brightness/contrast. Google are happy with people using their Google earth images in creative projects but you must follow their attribution guidelines if you remove the copyright information. This link and this link explains what you need to do. Make sure you make a note of what your have removed so that you can a note regarding the copyright when you share it.

  4. There a few tools you can use in Photopea that you can use to remove the Google icons and logo. Watch this video to see how:

Part 5 - Presenting your cultural exploration

You will now collect together all your finished edited photographs and present them as a 'Cultural Exploration' collage. Because that's what you are; explorers! You will learn how to present them clearly to the other students in your class.

  1. Watch this YouTube video which shows you how to edit your photographs together into a cultural collage. Use https://www.photopea.com/ or https://spark.adobe.com/sp/ to do this (You will need to create an account for Adobe Spark using your school email address).

  2. Edit all your photographs together into a cultural collage, adding titles and anything else you think you need. Watch the video below to see how to do this using Photopea:

3. Send your finished collage to your teacher who will share it with the other students in your class so you can see where everyone else has been exploring.

WAGOLL

I explored Chile on Google earth and created this collage of what I saw. I then used Adobe Spark to create the collage.

Copyright Google and Maxar Technologies

Want to know more?

There are many other artist and photographers using screenshots to create amazing works of art. Read this article to learn more about them and how to do it for yourself.

Teachers click here for another Google Earth project.

A note about 'appropriation'....

As you can imagine, there is a very fine line between creating original artwork and copying someone else's hard work, creativity and effort. It can often be very controversial and sometime even result in litigation from breaking copyright laws if you don't attribute properly. It is important that you also understand that 'appropriation' can take many forms that can cause upset to people and cultures if you don't acknowledge their part in the original creation. Question you need to ask yourself is; is it morally wrong to 'appropriate' someone else's ideas? Some of the photographs I took along the Amazon river were taken by a real person using a 360 degree camera not a Google camera car. I believe it would be morally wrong for me to say 'look at the photographs I took on Google street view'. Because I didn't actually take them and without asking for their permission I wouldn't include them on this webpage. What are your thoughts? Why might you think people from other cultures would be offended if you appropriated their culture in this way?