- a short history of documentary photography
- images of the working class/poverty
- reporting and war
- photographing other cultures
- the concept of the decisive moment
- the constructed document, then and now
William Edward Kilburn The Great Chartist Meeting At The Common' 1948
The chartists were an early union movement, and this photograph is protesting about conditions in factories. Recording an important event, the camera is a witness for us.
Grahame Clarke
In many contexts the notion of a literal and objective record of history is a limited illusion. It ignores the entire culture and social background against which the image was taken, just as it renders the photographer neutral, passive and invisible recorder of the scene.
'How The Other Half Live' - Jacob Riis, 1890
He records slums in New York, wrote and photographed about the conditions, as a push for social reform
Jacob Riis Bandit's Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street 1888
Jacob Riis A Growler Gang in Session (Robbing a Lush), 1887
He got the children to reenact this scene, it is purely constructed, but he said that it was reak.
Lewis Hine, Russian Steel Workers, Homestead, Pa., 1908
Hine has a different photographic style, he gives them more of a dignified look, like this image is a portrait, whereas Riis observed from a far and referred to them in derogatory forms.
Lewis Hine, Duffer Boy, 1909
Margeret Bourke-White, Sharecroppers Home, 1937
Her images were put in LIFE magazine
Russel Lee, Interior Of A Black Farmers House, 1939
FSA photgraphers documented the conditions in America during poverty and the dustbowl.
Bill Brandt, Northumberland Miner at His Evening Meal, 1937
He documents lots of objects in the image as well as the people eating
Robert Franks exploration of Americans, Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey, 1958
William Klein is known for his use of blur and grain in images. Rather than having a voyeuristic take on images, it is like he is actually part of the group he is photographing
William Klein, Dance in Brooklyn, 1955
Magnum Group
- Founded in 1947 by Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Ethos of documenting the world and its social problems
- Internationalism and mobility
Cartier-Bresson coined the term 'decisive moment'
'photography achieves its highest distinction - reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never-to-be-retrieved fraction of a second'
Documentary and War
Robert Capa, The Falling Soldier, 1936
Originally said it was the moment the soldier was captured just before his death
But it has been disputed since, and it has been said it was taken somewhere were there was no fighting, and it was at a different time.
Robert Capa, Normandy, France, 1945
George Rodger, Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp, 1945
Retains a respectable distance to the dead
Lee Miller, Buchenwald, 1945
Shows survivors with a sense of respect and distance
Hung Cong Ut, Accidental Napalm Attack, 1972
Shows real effects of so called accident, and is seen as an anti war image
Very iconic
Robert Haeberle, People About To Be Shot, 1969
The photographer witnesses the shooting and before the people are shot he shouts 'hold it', so that he can get the image.
Don McCullin, Shell Shocked Soldier, 1968
Documentary Exhausted
Grahame Clake - To speak of documentary photography (at this point in its history) is to run headlong into a morass of contradiction, confusion, and ambigioty, a position made more problematic by the way in which the increasing sophistication...
Edward Curtis, Native North Americans, early 20th century
Sepia tone and soft focus romanticises the end of the native americans
He is a wealthy man who has money to travel, and makes this big document, as a way of documenting his travels, but it has a cliche presentation of what is thought of the native americans in that time
Rodger, Korango Nuba Tribesman, Victor of a Wrestling Contest, 1949
Less of an artistic statement, taken during the wrestling match
Jeremy Deller recreated the Battle of Orgreave in 2001, almost rewriting history
Deller is both preserving the memory of political struggles which no longer have force in the culture, and indicating how contemporary sensibilities have come detached from those histories which have formed it. (Nash: 2006: 49)
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