-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.
you have quite a few important facts wrong. just for example: no, 'falling soldier' has NOT been proven to be a fake, or to have been staged. (there are some questions about details of exactly where and when it was taken, but there's no particular reason to think that that uncertainty equals proof of prevarication.) and capa did NOT "add[…] the effect to give the feeling he was more involved than he was"--that's completely made up. the original negatives were nearly ruined (most of the roll was ruined) by an incompetent darkroom technician back in england, who melted the emulsion in his rush to get the negs ready.
ReplyDeleteyou should delete your comments and try to include some sources when you make wild accusations.
William Edward Kilburn is recording (i.e. 'documenting' - the inference mistakenly given to 'documentary' photographers - as Graham Clarke notes in his excellent book. His vantage point is at a distance (large format camera) so he is detached and removed from the participants. Its a 'survey' photo rather like a victorian anthropologist. In effect opposite in standpoint from what you describe. Perhaps go on a photography course and learn this before the 'lecture'.
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