The Photograph as a Document

The Lecture;

The lecture will look at:

• A short history of documentation photography
• Images of the working class/poverty
• Reporting war
• Photographing other cultures
• The concept of decisive moment
• The constructed document, then and now.

William Edwards Kilburn ‘The Great Chartist Meeting At The Common’ 1848

• His presents is not acknowledged by the people in this picture.

Grahame Clarke quote.

• no such thing as a nuetral recording.

"How the other half live" Jaboc Riss, 1890 'Bandit's Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street'

• Being told what to think by the photographer
• People hanging around on the street
• The poor moved towards crime is indicated in the image
• The way they are standing is that they are interested in what Riis was doing

 'A Growler Gang in Session (Robbing a Lush)' Jacob Riis

• The image is all constructed, this isn't actually happening
• Got the children to reenact this and paid them with cigarettes

Lewis Hine, Russian steel workers, Homestead, Pa.,1908

• He would describe himself as a sociological photographer

'Duffer Boy' Lewis Hine, 1909

• Doesn't attempt to shock the viewer

Margeret Bourke-White 'Sharecroppers Home' 1937

• Relationship brought up in the image
• Images not seen as subjective
• Young man in a sharecroppers home
• Constructed and lined with newspaper, practical use of materials, generating warmth
• Contrasting wealthy and more privileged world with the poor, something that is directive.
• Newspapers represent the American dream.
  

Russel Lee 'Interior Of A Black Farmers House' 1939

• No human presents in the image
• Magazines and newspapers on the wall
• There is a way of photographing without manipulating the scene

Dorothea Lnge 'Migrant Mother' 1936

• The mother will children
• She describes her process, approached the hungry and desperate women
• Didn't ask her name or history, didn't get involved in the womens situation
• Treats the women as an object
• The image becomes everything, more important than the poverty

Walker Evans, Floyd Burroughs (George Gudger), Hale Count, Alabama, 1936

• Looking at the edge of the image, black lines mean there was no cropping
• Modernist aesthetic
• There shouldn't be any editing or manipulation
• This show that there is a truth about this image
• Documentary approach of an American style
  

Bill Brandt 'Northumberland Miner at His Evening Meal' 1937

• Photographs lots of different people in different classes
• Not just a document, everything is symbolic
• Making ordinary lives into a museum culture
• Distance from the subject
• 'Northernness'

Robert Frank 'Parade - Hoboken, New Jersey' 1958

• Outsider looking at the nation
• Travels through America
• He is privately funded
• Has a lot of freedom of expression
• Redefines documentary
• Beat poetry

William Klein, St Patrick's Day, Fifth Avenue 1954-55

• The photographer is involved, in the action
• Someone is always looking at him in the image
• His presents is recognised

William Klein, Dance in Brooklyn 1955

• Gets away from being aesthetically precise
• Dark view of the children in the image
• Attempt to redesign the traditional photography

Magnum Group

• Found in 1947 by Cartier-Bresson and Capa
• Ethos of Documenting the world and its social problems
• Internationalism

Henri Cartier Bresson: Magnum

• Influence of surrealism
• The subject doesn't know the photographer is there
• Mystery about the image

The Decisive Moment quote by Cartier-Bresson

• The photographers signature in the image
• The moment where the image is captured

Henri Cartier Bresson FRANCE. Paris Place de l'Europe. Gare Sinat Lazare 1932

• He sees the world as if is is a stage
• Truth to material
• There is nothing set up about this image

Robert Capa 'The Falling Soldier' 1939

• Camera is used as something to document in war
• The moment of the soldiers death
• Not the real place were it was photographed
  

Robert Capa 'Normandy, France '1945'

• Imply his presence in the water
  

George Rodger 'Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp' 1945

• The way he has photographed the bodies but in a respectful way
• Keeping the distance from the dead bodies
• Shows the horror of the situation
• No exploitation
  

Lee Miller Buchenwald 1945

• Shows the people who made it through
• Showing respect by keeping a distance

Hung Cong Ut 'Accidental Napalm Attack' 1972

• Descussing the relation of the photographer to the subject
• Just to document or to intervene?

Robert Haeberle 'People About to be Shot' 1969

• Gets the image before the people are shot
• Holt the process to get the emotion
• The desire to gather that information overrides any social response
  

Don McCullin 'Shell Shocked Soldier' 1968

• See how traumatised the soldier is
• Retreats after these pictures

Documentary constructed: William Neidich 1989

• Deliberately set something up, showing something that is missing
• Attempt to rewrite American history
• Some parts of American history is glossed over

Bruno Barbey 'Left Wing Riot Protesting The Building Of The New Narito Airport, 1972

• Like an abstract painting
• Aesthetic rather than being political

Jeremy Deller 'The Battle Of Orgeave' 2001

• Recreated history
• Recognisies the political bias, acknowledging the different view point
• Some of the voices that were not heard