The Document

Lecture Notes - 09/12/09

Based alot on Photography
(Photography as a social activist)

Photography with a purpose vs Neutral photography

Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (1826) ‘View from a window at La Gras’ (earliest photo)

James Nachtwey (.com)
Photographers have not always been explicit about their role.

William Edward Kilburn (1848)
Photography always has a reason

Roger Fenton (1855)
Remnants of a battle

Neutral photograph is a myth.

Cartier Bresson
Jacob Riis (1888) Bandits Roost
Jacob Riis (1887) Growler gang in session
Lewis Hine (1908) Russian Steel workers
Lewis Hine (1908) Child labourers

FSA Photographers (1935 - 44)
Early forms of photo journalism during American Depression. Used shooting script.

Sharecroppers Home (1931)
Russell Lee (1939)
Dorothea Lange (1936)
Designed to reference art history 'Madonna and Child'
Walker Evans + Floyd Burroughs

Robert Frank (1958) Parade Hoboken

Carl Damman (1870 -1)
Cesare Lambroso (1890)

Robert Capa - Normandy 1945 (Dramatic blur?)

Magnum Group

Founded 1947 by Cartier Bresson + Capa
Documenting the World and social problems
Internationalism and Mobility
Each photograher has a very different style

Robert Capa "The Falling Soldier" 1936 (Staged photo?)

Hung Cong Ut (1972) 'Accidental napalm attack'
Don McCullin (1968) 'Shell shocked soldier'

Robert Haeberle (1969)

William Klein 1954 - 55 St Patricks day 5th Avenue

Bernd and Hilla Becher (worked for over 40 years)

Conceptual Art

Richard Long (1981) A long line + tracks in Bolivia

Critical Realism

Bertolt Brecht (1931)

(Narration vs Description)

Allan Sekula - Fish Story

Andreas Gursky (1999) 99 Cent

Jeff Wall (1992) Dead Troops Talk

Gillian Wesring (1992 - 3)
(Signs that say what you want them to say)

Jeremy Deller (2001) The Battle of Orgreave

Don McPhea.

Key Features of Document Photography;

- They offer a humanitarian perspective
- They tend to portray social & political situations
- They purport to be objective to the facts of the situation
- People tend to form the subject matter
- The images tend to be straightforward & unmanipulated