During the last module, my tutor raised the question about idealist photographers assuming that they can somehow change the world and whether this is a pure pipedream or images can in fact bring about some sort of social change through raising awareness on certain issues. Continue reading “Power of photography to change public opinion”
Category: Documentary and narrative traditions
Serving Up the Poor as Exotic Fare for Voyeurs
Searching online for the original article where this phrase was coined (unsuccessfully, as it happens), I came across this exhibition review in the NY Times, which although it doesn’t actually mention the original context in which the phrase was used, does touch on some interesting issues worth considering. Continue reading “Serving Up the Poor as Exotic Fare for Voyeurs”
David Antin
Another reference from Sekula, this time a poet and performance artist whose work looks at oral traditions as well as questioning traditional narrative structures. In an interview, he speaks of how his talk performances differ from traditional poetry readings in the sense that they are improvised rather than learned and recited – as he said in an interview, reading a poem is like “returning to the scene of the crime/you try to reenact it and the more you try to bring it back to life the deader it becomes.” Continue reading “David Antin”
Studs Terkel
Following up on the reference that Sekula made, I decided to research the work of Terkel. Although I could not find the entire works online, I managed to locate transcribed excerpts from Hard Times here, and some original recordings from all his publications here. This is work in the tradition of the Grimm brothers and Alan Lomax (whose recordings of delta blues artists are among my favourites), but Terkel gets his subjects (uncelebrated people) to relate their own stories in their own words. Continue reading “Studs Terkel”
Allan Sekula, photo works
“Documentary is thought to be art when it transcends its reference to the world, when the work can be regarded, first and foremost, as an act of self-expression on the part of the artist.” (Sekula 1984, p 58) Continue reading “Allan Sekula, photo works”
Phel Steinmetz
Looking up Steinmetz (which was not easy since Sekula called him Philip A, and online he’s listed as Phel) I came across this photo:
From left – Allan Sekula, Fred Lonidier, Phel Steinmetz, and Martha Rosler, San Diego, 1976
Continue reading “Phel Steinmetz”
Fred Lonidier
“Unlike Smith, Lonidier takes the same photographs that a doctor might. When the evidence is hidden within the body, Lonidier borrows and copies X-ray films. These pictures have a brute, clinical effect. Each worker’s story is reduced to a rather schematic account of injury, disease, hospitalization, and endless bureaucratic run-around by companies trying to shirk responsibility and liability.” (Sekula 1984, p 67) Continue reading “Fred Lonidier”
Allan Sekula, Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Politics of Representation)
Found an interesting essay by Allan Sekula in his collection of essays and photoworks.
“Political domination, especially in the advanced capitalist countries and the more developed neo-colonies, depends on an exaggerated symbolic apparatus, on pedagogy and spectacle, on the authoritarian monologues of school and mass media. These are the main agents of working class obedience and docility; these are the main promoters of phony consumer options, of ” lifestyle ,” and increasingly, of political reaction, nihilism, and everyday sadomasochism. Any effective political art will have to be grounded in work against these institutions.” (1984, p 55) Continue reading “Allan Sekula, Dismantling Modernism, Reinventing Documentary (Notes on the Politics of Representation)”
Thomas Annan: socially concerned photographer?
I always thought that Riis was the first to take ‘socially concerned’ documentary images, but recently found out that Thomas Annan was commissioned by the Glasgow City Improvement Trust to photograph slum areas in the heart of the city. According to the Glasgow University Library website, the aim of the photographic project was to provide evidence for the clearance and demolition of the slums as opposed to actually improving the lot of the inhabitants. Continue reading “Thomas Annan: socially concerned photographer?”
Erich Salomon
Newhall cites as case in point the photography of Erich Salomon, whose ‘candid’ style he claims has been imitated by anyone who can afford a camera and f/2 lens! Unfortunately, in Newhall’s opinion, the imitations fall far short of the original. Continue reading “Erich Salomon”
Carl Whetham photography 