Social documentary, photojournalism, street photography

Walker Evans, Steel mill and graveyard, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 1935

This was an FSA photo, meaning is metaphorical as well as descriptive. Evans had been a writer.

dye transfer print

labor intensive, lots of control...

magnesium flash

producing a flare of light by initing powdered magnesium. Leaves smoke.

Nickolas Murray, Hand and Machine (x-Ray), Carbro print

Advertising and society portraits. Carbro prints.

Gordon Parks "American Gothic" 1942

African American photographer, hired by Roy Stryker to present racially segregated society in DC. Parker ultimately became a fashion photographer and "blacksploitation" movie director ("Shaft"). While most of his shots were not this posed, this is considered his signature early image, was taken in Washington, D.C., in 1942, during the photographer's fellowship with the FSA--he was hired by Stryker.

William Eggleston, First color photographer to get a 1-person show at MoMA. Dye transfer prints to control lush colors. Humdrum or somewhat garish locations inside and outside in south, at times with figures.

Cover for William Eggleston's Ride, dye transfer print.

Humanist Photography

Documentary or street photos of people, or their use, to that assert notions of commonality and feelings of emphathy. Themes like motherhood, , love, loss, death, etc.that all humans experience. Emphaisis is not so much on particulars of a cultre or sub-cultre, their distinctions or difference, but rather on a universality, connections and strennth of social fabric. Viewed with suspicion starting in the 1960s.

Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother, 1936

"Migrant Mother" 1936. A pre-eminent American photographer of the Great Depression etc; most famous picture is Migrant Mother. Employed by FSA, and freelanced for papers like the San Francisco Chronicle. Typical of her close, intimate, approach to the subject; candid. Did not really talk with the woman, and misrepresented her for the paper when the image was published. She was in fact Native American and her account.

August Sander Pastry Cook, Cologne 1928 from Face of our time

- one of many environmental type pictures (not really "portraits" because the individual's identity is overwhelmed by the intended portrayal of profession type.)

The Dust Bowl

1930s, a Midwest environmental disaster caused by bad farm techniques and droughts. Mainly in Great Plains, esp. Oklahoma, Caused mass migration of people, "Okies", westward to California. During the Great Depression. Photo by FSA photographer, Arthur Rothstein

New Documents (1967)

1967 exhibition at NYC MOMA featuring the work of Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, and Gary Winograd. significant because it brought three of the most influential new photographers of the time to the attention of the art community and the general public. A movement away from "humanistic" photography.

photo essay

A story told chiefly through photos and cutlines (captions), sometimes supplemented with a lengthier (though still brief) caption. Usually the product of one photographer working closely with an editor of a magazine. Editor selects from contact sheets the "story-telling" images. The photographer who has become "intimate" with the subject (sent on assignment).A specialty of magazines like LIFE.

Jacob Riis -

A "Gilded Age" NYC police beat reporter who turned to photography in order to show the terrible conditions of immigrant tenement life, street gangs, and sweatshops. also part of the Progressive Era of reform. He was untrained. .One of the first to take candid images of people inside, using magnesium flash. Traveled and lectured, showing "lantern Slide" shows. Was a catalyst for citywide reform of building codes and slumlord-tenant relations,

Carbro Print

Common in advertising ... (Please see the processes documents online)

Social Documentary Photography

Differs from the earlier documentary photography of people. Social doc. projects portray circumstances that are little known to mid-to-upper class people, or to the dominant social group, and have the objective to raise awareness, to change the public's views, and possibly to influence policy. Sometimes funded by a government agency (as in the FSA during the Great Depression), or by advocacy organizations, such as labor unions. Not intended to be about the photographer's subjective POV, or style. E.g.: Lewis Hine, "Sadie Pfeiffer, Spinner in Cotton Mill, N.C." 1910.

Paul Outerbridge,

Dutch Girl, 1930s Carbro print. commercial photographer in color. Successful in new advertising medium of color photography. Ventured into art photo making nudes and failed. His pictures were considered too real, like porn, not art. Quit photography due to lack of work after nudes were put out.

Garry Winogrand, Central Park Zoo, 1967

From book, The Animals

Lewis Hine - A sociologist turned photographer, who used his pictures to draw attention to social problems such as child labor and the poor living conditions of immigrants in New York City. Known to enter cotton mills under false pretenses, in order to shoot and take notes on size, age of child workers.

For this image, Hine chose a vantage point that emphasizes the enormity of the child's environment. A series of tall windows on the right illuminates the large spinning machine that recedes into the distance and dominates the room, dwarfing the figure. Sadie Pfeiffer, pictured here, was forty-eight inches tall when Hine captured this image. Hine's photographs of kids were, made while on assignment from the National Child Labor Committee, and were instrumental in the passage of child labor laws in the United States.

Henri Cartier Bresson

French photo-journalist active from. Images around the Spanish Civil War, WWII, and post-war Europe are best known. Used a Leica. First to use the term "the decisive moment" to refer to his goal of shooting spontaneously to make meaningful photographs-street photography; documentary photography without much immersion/contact with the subject. Co-founder of Magnum Photos.

Car Culture -

Gary Winogrand, New Mexico The automobile industry changed the face of America, the popularity of the automobiles jumped from 26 million in 1945 to 60 million in 1960 (80% of homes had at least 1 car by 1960). Gave young freedom from parents. Gave rise to new kinds of establishments, for eating, watching film, etc. Las Vegas Strip, etc. Well paying car industry jobs were part of the growing middle class. Captured by many post-war photographers in the us. New car, with house made wtih it in mind. Middle calss "mobility", suburban sprawl, etc.

Leica: the first 35mm camera, invented in 1925. it offered fast shutter speeds, and celluloid (prev. used just for movies), and fast film advance, excellent image quality, and great portability.

Great for journalism and street shooting.

William Eggleston - one of his most famous images, the brilliant scarlet ceiling with bare bulb dangling, images of sex positions on a poster cropped at right, and the strange angle capturing an intersection of diagonal lines are all typical. Unlike documentary work he does not intend to give us much more information than what we see int he image.

Greenwood, Mississipi, 1973. Dye transfer print

halftone

Halftone process reduces black and white photographs to an image that is printed with only one color of ink, in dots of differing size or spacing. This reproduction relies on a basic optical illusion: the tiny halftone dots are blended into smooth tones by the human eye. Revolutionized print media, by making photography easily reproducible.

Roy Stryker

Head of Farm Security Administration (FSA). Instructed photographers what to shoot during the Great Depression, such as signs, Shown here: Margaret Bourke White, Louisiana Flood victims.

Margaret Bourke White

Her photo of the dam was the first cover of LIFE magazine, for which she also shot for a photo essay on life around the dam. Photo-journalist and industrial commercial photographer. First foreign photographer permitted to take pictures of Soviet Industry. First American female war correspondent, and the first female permitted to work in combat zones. She shot the Kentucky Flood image while on assignment for LIFE.

Lee Friedlander

Humorous, like many of his generation. Sense of irony. Focus on place. Evolved an influential and often imitated visual language of urban "social landscape," often with himself reflected in it. Reflection and interior framing shapes block views and reveal others.

Diane Arbus, Usually shot with a with Rolleiflex camera. Penchant for shooting marginalized or "different" people, whom she called "freaks", but with whom she empathized.

Identical Twins, 1967

Robert Frank

In his introduction to Robert Frank's photo book, "The Americans," Beat Generation author, Jack Kerouac said that the photographer had captured "scenes that have never been seen before on film." Some seem typical, however it's his sense of irony that makes them also stand out from the norm.

Robert Frank, Trolley, New Orleans, 1955

Included in his book, the Americans, which stressed the divisions and ironies of postwar American culture. at the time of Jim Crowe laws. Probing, awkward, pointing to hypocrites at a time when dominant culture would have us believe that America was "great!

Celluloid film

Invented by George Eastman in 1885. Simplified shooting photos, and is the basis for moving pictures, 35 mm, etc.

William Eggleston shoots people with a characteristic slight formality/ distance, which makes one aware of the distinct Americanness of the place and its inhabitants. South, primarily in Nashville, Los Alamos, Memphis.

Los Alamos. Dye transfer print

Autochrome

Lumière brothers. Earliest commercially available process--color transparencies. Uses dyed potato starch "dots"...

Helen Levitt, New York city, 1940

Lyrical street pictures often of children using a hand camera. Black and white until the 1970s. Often uses interior framing devices, with figures actively around.

LIFE magazine

Magazine first published by *Henry Luce* in the 1930s. First American mag to rely on photojournalism and photo-essays (thus helping to establish the genre) by noted photographers. Very popular until replaced by television as a primary source for news and social stories. Covered many wars including WWII and the Vietnam War (first media war) extensively.

The "decisive moment"

Mistranslation of "Images a la Sauvette" (images that are snatched, or spirited away. Cartier-Bresson's idea. The moment captured by surreptitiously releasing the shutter at the "climactic" moment, and where form and content (story/meaning) are equally powerful, and in perfect harmony. EG Henri Cartier Bresson's "Behind the Gare St. Lazar". Common motif: foot about to touch ground

Lewis Hine, Newsies, 1910

Newsies is one of the pictures that shows the perils of a lack of education due to being forced to work too early. The idea is they are head to depravity. Child photos commissioned by National Child Labor Committee.

Color photography as art

Not considered an artistic medium until late...1960s. Normally associated with commercial work.

Margaret Bourke White Louisville Flood 1937

On assignment for "Life Magazine". The Louisville Flood shows African-Americans lined up outside a flood relief agency. In striking contrast to their grim faces, the billboard for the National Association of Manufacturers above them depicts a smiling white family of four riding in a car, under a banner reading "World's Highest Standard of Living. There's no way like the American Way." As a powerful depiction of the gap between the propagandist representation of American life and the economic hardship faced by minorities and the poor, Bourke-White's image has had a long afterlife in the history of photography.

How the Other Half Lives (1890)

One of the first doc. books meant to sway public attention to help the poor, illustrated with his photos (photogravures of then) to educate the public about the lives of the "nameless" immigrants, many homeless, working sweatshops, idling on the street, or living in the cheap tenements of the Lower East Side (NYC). This is a book by a writer-journalist, and so is NOT really "photojournalism" (as some have described it). Book was a major catalyst for getting reforms passed regarding landlords, safety, sanitation

Weegee

Pseudonym of Arthur Felling. NYC's Daily News photographer. Made sensational, harshly styled photographs of crime scenes, criminals, disasters, and urban crowds. Often shot during police beat at night, using a flash, making the image look non-artistic but therefore "authentic." Kept a police radio in his car so he could arrive at the crime scenes quickly, as though by "magic." His book, Naked City was a hit. This image is called "First Murder"

Chromogenic color print

Photographs made from a positive color transparency or a negative. The color is achieved in the print by the layering of silver salts sensitized to the three primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. After each emulsified layer has been exposed, colors emerge in a chemical development process.

The Family of Man (1955)

Popular travelling Exhibition started at MOMA in NYC, curated by Edward Steichen. Humanistic photography. Criticized for his cropping and scaling of images without consent, often without labels, and sown within his own categorical groupings--universal themes like death, work, etc which often did little to connect with the story that the images documented in the first place.

FSA (Farm Security Administration)

Pres. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's plan for the American population aimed at aiding depression relief efforts in the program known as the New Deal. He put many people to work through agencies such as the Work Progress Administration (WPA) and the Farm Securities Administration (FSA) which employed photographers. S

Walker Evans

Shot on leave from Resettlement commission, photos of the Burroughs family was published in the book collaboration with poet James Agee, entitled Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941)

Garry Winogrand

Street photographer is known for his images of daily life unfolding. His apparently random style and his tendency to shoot hundreds/thousands of rolls of the film has prompted criticism. Believed that the camera neither lies nor tells the truth, rather it transforms the world. Wide Angle, often at a tilt. Right: an LA street shot from "Women are Beautiful"

Robert Frank

Swiss-American pioneer of anti-humanist street photography. his "frank" Views of American culture perhaps enabled by his foreignness.

Helen Levitt, New York 1970s

Switching to color in the 1970s. Usually chromogenic color prints. Sticks with the idiom of a structural frame for the human figure.

August Sander

a German photographer who published book entitled "Face of Our Time."A photographic taxonomy of humanity. Still, there's as much diversity and individuality as "type" in his work. Banned by Nazis for its depiction of a diverse German population.