Photograph as a document notes

Documentary Photography

• William Edward Kilburn - 1848 - 'The Great Chartist Meeting at the Common' - A gorgeous Daguerreotype photograph that depicts a sea of heads as they support the Chartist Movement and stand together.
  
  
  
• Jacob Riis - 1890 - 'How the other half live' is a representation of one social group to another and portrays the public in the New York Slums. Riss would use his photography and written work to inform the Upper class in his lectures.
  'Bandits Roost, Mulberry Street' -1888 - people looking at the technology that they have never seen before, - 'A Growler Gang in session' - 1887 - was a staged scene, Riis wanted to portray the kids as societies neglect, and paid them in cigarettes.
• Lewis Hine - 1908 - takes photography that has a human feel to it, and strongly believes that photography should not be used as propaganda, approaching it in a more psychological manner. For example he draws attention to the conditions of working in the factories, showing how hardworking they are and how they help the economy. He doesn't present them as the victim but in a sense of self, just about them.
• F.S.A - Farm Security Administration was formed by Franklin Roosevelt around the time of the Great Depression. Photographers with in this group each had a different approach to how they would capture and store the scene.
  Margeret Bourke-White 'Sharecroppers Home' in 1937, was a visual contrast made by the photographer, showing the living conditions, poverty, and the visual irony created by the use of the advertisements that they use for practical reasons rather using them to influence them to buy the products.
  Dorothea Lange 'Migrant Mother' in 1936, symbolises poverty is an iconic image with in the photography world. It is something we are familiar with through the Renaissance imagery, the mother in the centre with the children around her. An idea of patriotism that they will be fine even though they have a lower quality of life compared to other families. The idea of using straight photography was crucial as the idea of manipulating photography was frowned upon - it was a scandal when the public realised that she has in fact manipulated the image.
  When the F.S.A photographers would enter a home it was debated that they would move objects to stage the scene.
• Post Modernism - Robert Frank - 'Parade -Hoboken' 1958, his book 'The Americans', denying the audience the choice to see them. The American flag is one of the recurring symbols in his work. He doesn't show the viewer the parade, he shows the people looking at the parade.
  
  
  
  
  
• Magnum Group was founded in 1947 by Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa, it was the ethos of documenting the world and its social problems. Its sole ambition being to bring Photography to the furthest reach of the world. It was regarded as surrealism.  

'The Decisive Moment - Photography achieved its highest distinction - reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never to be mentioned reaction of a second'

- Cartier Bresson

• Robert Capa - 'The Falling Soldier' - 1936, appears to show the photographer as another soldier though how hes in the water however he was actually in a boat.  
• George Rodger - 'Bergen Belsen Concentration Camp' 1945, goes for the shocking appeal, through the view of dead bodies on the side of the road, shows the horror of what happened but shows respect by keeping a distance from what lies inside. Shows the contrast between the young boy and the bodies. 

• Robert Haeberle - 'People about to be shot' 1969 - told soldiers to stop, so he can take a photograph. It makes the photographer not human, the stereotypical portrayal of greed, trying to get the best photograph, not caring about anything else. A lust for that capture of an image.