Documentary Student Task

Research historical and contemporary documentary photography, and prepare a 300 word blog entry comparing and contrasting them.

Consider

(1) How do the photographers you examine exploit the technical possibilities offered by photography, and to  what political ends? What are the aims of the artist? How does mechanical reproduction facilitate their artistic project? How does their work contrast with realist artist's such as Millet, and Courbet?

(2) How do they make their work, and how do they show it? Where do they go to make their photographs, how are they lit? How are they composed? What is their relationship to their subjects? How do they use the darkroom? How are their photographs distributed? Who is their intended audience?

(3) How do they respond to changing social circumstances? How do they respond to the social circumstances of people throughout the world? How do they choose who to photograph? How do they plan particular projects? Do they simply intend to raise awareness, or do they seek to initiate more concrete social change?

(4) How do they deal with the question whether photography is truthful to reality?  How do they overcome or highlight the problems posed by this question? Do they consider that photographic images are indexical? Do they consider how contexts in which their images are used transform their meanings? Do they consider how socially constructed meanings inform the reception of their work?