The Golden Age Of Documentary Photography (why "post documentary photography" s.u.c.k.s)
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- čas přidán 19. 10. 2023
- In todays video I respond to the proliferation of the genre 'post documentary photography' by going way back to the birth of documentary photography itself to find it's TRUE POWER.
I look through a TIME LIFE Library Photo Book from the 1970's and get into some of the greats of the genre who, without question, changed the world at the start of documentary photography as a genre.
The video includes some thoughts on these amazing crusaders with cameras who honoured humanity:
Jacob Riis
Lewis Hine
The Photo-League of New York
Henri Cartier-Bresson
and many more...
I know documentary photography is not a trendy genre in the tapestry of Photoland....but I love it!
CORRECTION
The organisation doing the "post documentary photography" mentoring is PhotoWork (USA) not PhotoWorks (UK).
Movie Clips from:
Nanook of the North. Robert J. Flaherty. (Totally ethically questionable)
'Ordinary Miracles: The Photo League's New York'. Daniel Allentuck / Nina Rosenblum
#postdocumentaryphotography #truepowerofdocumentaryphotography #documentaryphotography
A new photo league. Yep I’m in ✅
It would be amazing wouldn't it? I think the world needs a Photo League, now more than ever.
Yeah, me too!
Great video. I vaguely remember this book; my school bought the whole series and I've managed to pick up copies of eight of them, but not this one. It must have had an affect on me because that was over 50 years ago!
Thank you! Yes, I must admit I only stumbled across them recently. I think studying photography in the 90s / 00s I might have overlooked a book like this. We were all being pushed conceptual photography on the photography degrees back then. For me it's so powerful. A revelation.
Nice. I just bought a copy - £11. We just need to get to a "post-bullshit" world and we will all be living in a much better society.
Ah no way! BARGAIN! it's a lovely little book, alas my copy is from a library I have to return it to :(
Surprised you stopped before the part of this book I found most engaging: "critics of complacency." Will there be a part 2? I think about them a lot given their explicit project in the world (thin Winigrand's grant application, and R Frank's). Somehow it has all gone wrong now, and "street photo" which claims to inherit from them has become a glib commercial segment.
Thanks Kevin, yes some heavy hitters in that chapter! The video was an intro to documentary photography using the book as a springboard. The Photo League section was eye opening for me as I didn't know of most of them. The HCB chapter was good as it was a specific project in Russia. The other chapters were more like greatest hits of each photographer and I'd rather have some focus on them as they are photographers I really love.
What would it take to create a new version of the Photo League for that is fit for our era. It would need an education arm, it would need a fundraising arm, it would need an advocacy arm to promote its aims. It would need a core group of committed photographers who wanted to make images that are mostly social documentary in nature and it would need a good bit of luck to get off the ground. It will take a bit of time for everyone involved and it could be a way of helping photographers to document the social landscape that both sides of the political establishment have helped to create with the UK. Maybe you need to think about what would be involved in getting it off the ground and then put a call out to ask who would be interested in being involved.
I'd happyily do it and probably loads of others would too. But people would need to be paid for their time and quite simply there's no funding for this in the UK. The social documentary element is passé to the current state of acceptable "photographic art" that is Photoland and it would also probably inhibit any funding, much the same as the original liberal and progessive Photo League was demonised for being "socialist". Then again there is hope, if you're a billionaire and reading this give me a shout! 😉
"Post doc photography", sounds like a post-modern expression, from the same people that said photography is dead.
Can't wait for your Arbus video cause I hate her work! Great picture maker. But with questionable ethics?
Anyway, speak your mind, maybe you'll change mine. So you don't feel bad with what I've said, I was influenced by aspects of Riefenstahl's work!
Is this photography or politics?