This article analyses photography as a tool for reinforcing textual discourses in the written press and supporting the popularisation of certain methods and practices in the illustrated press and magazines. The photographs will not be analysed as educational documents or testimony to educational activities but rather in an effort to explore the attempts to illustrate a message graphically so as to influence public opinion and change society's perception of schools' role and the functions of education. The way in which the Maria Montessori method was graphically disseminated in Spanish illustrated magazines between 1911 and 1931 is the focus of this paper. (Contains 4 figures and 47 footnotes.)