Lecture Five

The Document

9th December

-Documentary practice

Purpose vs Neutral (it has value vs just a recording)

- Joseph Nicephore (1826) 'view from..' first known surviving photograph
- James Nachewey - never denies his intervention in the image
- Frances Frith - denied he had any intervention at all

i.e. photographer always influences what they are photographing
- William Edward Kilburn, 'great chartist...' 1848 - no influence, a historical fact - dangerous

Always have a reason for taking a photo even neutral photos
- Roger Fenton,1855, 'Into the valley...' - title makes you view the photo differently

The decisive moment
'photograph achieves at its highest distinction, reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never to be retrieved fraction of a second'- Henri Cartier Bresson France 1932


but
It is still influenced by the photographers eye
- Jacob Riis, 1888, bandits roast- all are aware of photographer- obvious construction
1887, 'a growler gang in session (robbing a lush)' all quite obviously staged
- Lewis Hine, Russian steel workers, Honestead, Pa, 1908 'child labourers in glass works, indiana'


FSA photgraphers, 1935- 44
- Director Roy Stryker
- Depression 11million unemployed
- Mass migration of farm labourers (oakies)
- The photograph as both photojournalism and emotive lobbying tool
- Included shooting scripts


- Margaret Bourke-White, 'Sharecroppers Home' 1937 - images of ads vs poor child
- Russel Lee ' Interior of a black farmers house' 1939


- Dorothea Lange, 1936, 'Migrant mother' compared to Raphael 'Mother and child'
- Walker Evans
- Robert Frank
- John Lamprey
- Carl Damman
- Cesare Lombroso ' portrait of melancholy' 1890


War/conflict photography
- Robert Capa 'Normandy, France' 1945
- Magnum group, founded in 1947, documenting times of historical importance all around the world
- Nick Ut, 1972, 'Accidental Napalm Attack'
- Don McCullin, 1968, 'shell shocked soldier'
- Robert Haeberle, 1969
- Willia Klein
- Bernd and Hilla Becher


Conceptual Art
- Richard Long
- Vito



Critical Realism
- Bertolt Brechtt, 1931

- Allan Sekula, 'fish story'
vs
- Andreas Gursky


- Jeff Wall
- Gillian Wearing, signs that say what you want them to say', 1922 - 1993
- Jeremy Deller, 'The battle of Orgreave' 2001