Introducing the body of photographic work and integrated approach to discussion in What Teaching Looks Like: Higher Education through Photographs, this chapter invites readers, particularly those working in colleges and universities, to engage in a new way of thinking with images about postsecondary teaching and learning, and offers guidance on an approach to close reading of the images that will follow. The introduction also traces the beginnings of The Teaching and Learning Project, a fifteen-year photographic exploration of postsecondary education in the United States. The chapter shares examples of early student and faculty photographs, explores the new kinds of conversations that emerged, and discusses how visits to campuses sparked a clear need for updated images of teaching and learning in today’s diverse colleges and universities. The chapter places this work in the context of documentary photography and of photographic projects involving higher education. Finally, we identify the unique contribution that this volume makes to the field: why images are a powerful and important way to understand, reflect on, and improve education in the face of crucial social pressures and a need for greater public understanding and transparency.