COP Lecture 8 : Photography

" The lecture provides a brief history of Documentary photography themes and traditions. These include

• images of the working class and records of poverty in the US and the UK from the 1800’s to the 1950’s.

•Reporting and war both in Europe and during the Vietnam war. •Photographing ‘other’ cultures – documents of travel and conquest •The concept of the decisive moment
•The recognition of an ‘always constructed’ document

The lecture seeks to dispel the myth of ‘the medium of truth’ and to recognise the guises of construction in documentary photography from the beginnings of photography to the present day. In doing so it recognises that rather than asserting that ‘there is no truth’, Postmodern photography can acknowledge that truths are constructed though a multiple of viewpoints and that this is the function of the camera today.  "

Photography is a form of documentation, document means to evidence, photography as documentation functions as evidence for events.

"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."~ Clarke: 1997:145

"How the Other Live" is a written and visual account of New York by Jacob Riss in 1890, revealing cultural ideologies of ethnicity, poverty and 'the other side'. Riss used this as a tool for social reform, but hypocritically, made a lot of money, yet in one of the photographers paid the men in cigarettes, therefore defeating the point of natural documentation. Photography used through educational purposes, often in these cases they are poorly staged and posing occurs, placing the middle class in a negative light.

The magnum group, founded in 1947 by Cartier-Bresson and Capa, with the ethos of documenting the world and it's social problems. This group were no longer bound to the ties of a huge a camera, they could take photos out and about, these photographers operated with "the velvet hand,...the Hawk's eye." This is when the start of the photographers personality started to ooze from the photo's.

The images above are all taken by Henri Cartier Bresson(Magnum). The one of the couple of the beach was in the presentation, but I really liked it so I decided to look at some of his other work and some of the images are just so visually compelling. They are such strong photographs and this is mainly down to the composition although they're probably a lot of other factors like lighting etc that effect them. But to me what takes me a back is the compositions. This is one weakness I have really had with my animations because I am always stricken by such perfect compositions in the film world and I just wish I could get that into my own work. But these are some very beautiful photographs, it's so much more complicated than being on thirds, these photographs have whole curves in the images that drags the eye round the focal point and are just perfect.

"Photography achieves it's highest distinction reflecting the universality of the human condition in a never-to-be-retrieved fraction of a second" Cartier-Bresson.

Then in the lecture there was photo's of documentary in war, I didn't make it to this lecture because of sickness, but I'm really greatful, there is something about documentation of war, that I really really struggle to appreciate. It upsets me too much, I don't believe that it should be ignored, and that it shouldn't be studies. Of course it should as it works as a prevention method so people know why they are bad. But I struggle to believe that anyone in a war is truly happy because even the winning side must suffer loss and some pain to win in the first place. Can you even begin to imagine the guilt of killing another human? I certainly can't and I don't want and to be perfectly honest I don't want to empathise with soldiers who do because I just find it all ridiculous. I was actually an air cadet for two years and the whole institution was so rigurous and creativity and identity strickening there was minimal individuality, your name is your surname which is almost as bad as a number, I am not the same as anyone else in my family with my surname and I don't want to be labelled with that. Although I learnt a lot of skills and built up my confidence and friend making skills (massive loser at school), I don't think I could live in an institution like that, I imagine under a system like that a mass of deaths and loss would be easier if people are put down to being the same. For me I respect and admire photographers who go out there and document but how can you do it without trying to put a stop to it. It just blows my mind. Photographs like these that were shown aren't going to change the system without proper education and alteration of mind sets which takes time. I can understand arguements against this about it being a start and people needing to see it, but I personally don't see it like that.

Another personal opinion of mine which not many people share is that I have no time for Jeremy Deller as an artist, conceptually yeah very thought provoking, but never is it visually stunning, never do I think ooh that's beautiful. Art you should either love or hate and deller's has the visual imprint of being indifferent on me.


"To speak of documentary photography (at this point in its history) is to run headlong into a morass of contradiction, confusion and ambiguity, a position made more problematic by the way in which the increasing sophistication of visual technology makes it difficult to know what is 'real' and what has been 'faked'." ~ Clarke:1997:163