-On copperplate. A one off, no way to reproduce it as it imprints straight on the plate rather than a negative.
-This even is made a significant event in history because of its recording.
-The position of the photographer makes him one of the audience/rally. He is invisible, an observer unobserved.
-First working class rally.
*Graham Clarke
"In many contexts the notion of a literal and objective record of ‘history ‘ is a limited illusion. It ignores the entire cultural 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
-Wanted to record the life of the poor. However, he had already formed an image of how they lived so set up his photographs.
-He was able to do this as he was a middle class gentleman with money. Wouldn't have a camera is poor.
*Bandits Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street, 1888
-Theatrical feel to it, the men feel placed. The eye is led down the image due to the way the men are placed.
- Cleaner, brighter future? Due to the White space at the top, back of the image when the eye follows the alleyway
A Growler Gang in Session (Robbing a Lush) 1887
-He paid the children in cigarettes to pose for his photographs. Middle class man slightly abusing his power. Recording their lives as he wants them to look.
*Lewis Hine, Russian Steelworkers, Homestead, Pa, 1908
-Allowing the men their dignity- even though they are not 'dressed up'. 'human image'
*Duffer boy, 1909
-No sense of the boy as a pitiful figure- not pot rayed as someone being crushed by the environment he is in. Again Hine is portraying factory workers as people who do not sympathy but deserve dignity.
*F.S.A.
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
*Margaret Bourke-White Sharecroppers Home, 1937
-Each photographer has their own way to pot ray the poverty. This photograph is successful as tells a story.
-Poor, young boy in rags but surrounded by newspaper clippings that portray 'The American Dream.' The show adverts for products that can 'improve your way of life'.
-An example of the huge contrast between the rich and the poor within America.
*Dorothea Lange, Migrant Worker, 1936.
-Hungry and desperate mother symbolises the poverty and suffering at the time. Real people, real heartache.
-Madonna and child arch.
-Appears to be looking for an absent father? Ideological family, missing father, and missing wealth?
-Lange actually removed a thumb from the foreground of this image and got a lot of stick for it as it goes against the F.S.A. recordings/photo's.
*Walker Evans, Floyd Burroughs (George Gudger), Hale County, Alabama, 1936
-Visual strategies used to provoke an emotional response? Like an advert for a charity?
*Walker Evans, Graveyard, Houses and Steel Mill, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935
-End of American Dream?
*Bill Brandt, Northumberland Miner at his Evening Meal, 1937
-Everything in this picture has a meaning. It shows what it is really like to be a miner.
-One room existence. All objects and possessions in one room.
-photo sums up claustrophobia of poverty.
*Robert Frank, Parade- Hoboken, New Jersey, 1958
-Post war America. Parade is a celebration but instead of showing the parade itself, he is showing us separate viewer. He is a separate viewer himself.
-An outsider looking in.
*William Klein, St. Patricks Day, Fifth Avenue 1954-55
*William Klein, Dance in Brooklyn 1955
-He went to immigrant areas in New York to record their lives.
-He has become and outsider in his own country.
*Magnum Group
-Founded in 1947 by Cartier- Bresson and Capa.
-Ethos of documenting the world and it's social problems
-International
*Henri Cartier Bresson: Magnum founder and a full member since 1947
Quote: "To take a photograph is to align the head, the eye and the heart. It's a way of life."
-When we first view his photograph we are unsure what is going on.
-Has a strangeness that reflects the surrealist movement at the time. Comic style
-Captures the 'decisive moment'.
-Something happens and he happens to be there to record it.
-No manipulation or change. Truth to materials and image.
*Robert Capa, The Falling Soldier, 1936
-Recently found out to be a fake. Capa used to be famous as an amazing chance photographer, However he staged this photograph
*Robert Capa, Normandy France, 1945
-Feels like the photographer is in the water amongst the action, almost as one of the soldiers.
-The blur gives the feeling of movement and action, capturing the sensation of battle.
-However the photograph had been criticised recently as he added the effect to give the feeling he was more involved than he was.
*George Rodger, Bergen- Belsen Concentration Camp, 1945
-No sensationalising of the horror
-controlled and removed view point as sensationalism could be seen as inappropriate.
*Lee Miller, Buchenwald, 1945
-Contrast to George Rodger. More sensational as her photographs were for the news.
*Huynh Cong Ut, 'Accidental Napalm Attack', 1972
-Hugely famous photograph.
-Anti-war statement is taken over by the drama in the children's faces. Their silent screams are horrifying to see.
-It would be hard not to be affected by the horror of this image.
*Robert Haeberle, People About To Be Shot, 1969
-People being lined up to be shot. Photographer shouts "Hold it' so he can take his picture- wants the moment just before death.
-Camera becomes like the gun itself due to photographer intervention.
*Don MCCullin, Shell Shocked Soldier, 1968.
-Rather than photographing the war itself, he chooses to show the effects on the soldier.
-The soldiers expression and body position shows the horrors of war, and all the he has seen.
-McCullin actually stopped photographing the war as he hated what he saw during his time documenting the Vietnam war. He went back to landscapes and portraits.
*Documentary Constructed: William Neidich (1989)- Period of its making alone shows us that it is constructed. Faking of history.
*Edward Curtis, Native North Americans (early 20th century)
The old-time warrior: Nez Percé, c.1910. Nez Percé man, wearing loin cloth and moccasins, on horseback.
-Showing Native Americans as noble.
*Bruno Barbey, Left Wing Riot Pursuing the Building of the New Narito Airport, 1972
*Jeremy Deller, The Battle of Orgreave, 2011.
-Re creation of the Minor Strike.
-It was a battle re-inactment as Deller wanted to re-live the event in case it could be therapeutic.
-Event not just made up of one persons experience- he wanted to show everyones perception, get across everyones own memories.
