Saturday 2 February 2013

The Photograph as a Document

The Photograph as a Document

Document- evidence that things had happened or are real. 
images of the working class / povertyreporting warphotographing other culturesthe concept of a decisive momentthe constructed document, then and now


William Edward Kilburn 
protesting against victorian working conditions and attempting to reform, Kilburn is recording an important historical event. Camera is a witness, a certain amount of evidence. An invisible observer, his presence is not noticed by the people in the photograph. 


Grahame Clarke

'How the Other Half Live' Jacob Riis, 1890 Recording slums in New York.He is middle class male, access to the technology, making money from them.  One social group viewing another 'othering' 

'Bandits Roost, 59 and 1/2 Mulberry Street' 1888 Idol poor ideology, move towards crime. More indicates the interest in the camera that they had never witnessed, a stranger. 


'A Growler Gang in Session (Robbing a Lush), 1887'Robbing a drunk man. It is however constructed. Represented them as criminals. Nothing actually documentary.


Lewis Hine ' Russian Steel Workers, Homestead, P.a.' 1908A sense of dignity and respected, not represented as immigrants. Their is eye contact. A sociological photograph

'Duffer Boy' 1909Changed the way children worked. Hine doesn't attempt to shock , He just reports. 

FSA Farm Security Administration 
Created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his New Deal

•increase public awareness of the problems of migrants, and the FSA sponsored a documentary photography program.A response to the depression caused by the wall st crash in 1929 and the Dust Bowl disaster in Oklahoma•11 million were unemployed•Migration to California for work•Grapes of Wrath etc Steinbeck


Migration from Oklahoma to California



FSA- Margeret Bourke- White ' Sharecroppers Home' 1937 Documenting the truth Magazine format added the text to confirm the truth of the image.Sharecroppers home, a temporary structure, of immigrants Ironically made from newspaper which this image could probably be shown in Also very contrasting the wealthy images on the newspapers and the actual young boy w/c boy. 


Russel Lee ' Interior of a Black Farmers House' 1939 Opressed Photograph, Photographed on an Angle, No human present Merely recording. Not trying to manipulate a viewer




Dorothea Lange 'Migrant Mother' 1936 Very Iconic , D. Lange : 'I saw and approached the hungry desperate mother, I felt drawn. I did not ask her about her history or background or name.' Treats the person as an object. Children create an arch like a renaissance of Madonna and Child, almost religious. Woman never asked any questions , more important things to worry about. 
More unpublished photographs provide the context and the situation.First one chosen for its drama, and artistic aesthetic. 







Walker Evans 1936 'Floyd Burroughs ( George Gudger), Hale County, AlabamaModern Photography techniques, shows no editing and frame can be seen,  shows it is truthful . 


Clarke- Documentary Approach Walker Evans -Coco Cola Shack .



Walker Evans Graveyard, putting his project to rest . 



Bill Brandt 'Northumberland Miner at His Evening Meal' 1937German Photographer, documenting in this photo the w/c conditions in Britain .Making ordinary lives into like a museum culture . Othering again Cliches of Northern 



Robert Frank ' Parade- Hoboken, New Jersey' 1958Travelling through america, privately funded, a certain amount of freedom. Redefinition of documenting. Uses the Caption to contradict the Image. Faces are covered, unusual, revolutionary. The flag runs throughout the book examining what it means to be american



William Klein, Also part of redefinition Irish Community Human Approach 'St Patricks Day, Fifth Avenue 1954-55'Always involved, in every photograph at least one participant gives eye contact to William 
Also known for blurring



'Dance in Brooklyn' 1955 Dark Connotations, Captures with grain and blur, the movement of the city. 

Magnum Group Founded in 1967 Cartier- Bresson and Capa Ethos of Documenting the world and its social problems, Internationalism 



Henri Cartier Bresson: 'Magnum' Small portable camera Street photographerAllowing the photographer to get really close without being noticed. Surrealism influenced by parisMystery


The Decisive Moment - Cartier Bresson 


When you clic the shutter on the camera. Photographers signature in the photograph
1932 Man jumping over a puddle, reflections are enhanced in the image. ParisCamera used for its specific qualities not to imitate painting. 




Robert Cappa ' The Falling Soldier" 1936 Much discussed Been disputed, as to whether it is real. 



"Normandy France' 1945 Implies he is one of the soldiers in the water, however he was on a boat. 




'Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp' 1945 Liberation of the Camp , Respectful Distance, Shows the horror but a repeat no explotation .Contrast of young boy and the bodies. 



Lee Miller 'Buchenwald' 1945Portrays the Survivors 



Hung Cong Ut ' Accidental Napalm Attack' 1972. Anti War statement. Shows the real effect. Relation of the Photographer to the photo, is it to document or intervene.



Robert Haeberle' People About to be Shot' 1969. During the Mai Line Massacre. He halted the before they shot, he saw a moment. Overrides any human response. Implicit 



Don McCullin 'Shell Shocked Soldier' 1968 After the war the only thing left is to document the effects. Vietnam War- War in colour, TV, Photography , Colour imagery. 
Documentary Exhaustion Over Exposure.


Edward Curtis 
Romanticising
Pictorial 
Documenting disappearing the Native Americans, but not showing who is responsible. 
Curtis, Wealthy, time to travel.
Not fully understood at the time

Rodger Korango Nuba Tribesmen Victor of a wrestling contest 
A way of documenting less staged and more documentary like. 


Bruno Barbey 'Left wing riot protesting the building of the New Narito Airport 1972


Jeremy Deller ' The Battle of Orgreave' 2001
Recreated the battle to photograph and asked original participants to help him 
he attempts to recreate this to capture all the view points

Rania Matar
Photographer who documents war but in a different format
In the Middle East
2010 won a prize. 
Interested in scars and impacts of war
Doesn't sensationalise the action
Scars- of the Landscape

http://www.raniamatar.com/portfolio/middle-east/lost-memories.php#lost-memories/06.jpg

http://www.raniamatar.com/portfolio/middle-east/aftermath-of-war.php#aftermath/01.jpg




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