Documentary photography

Session notes: 
aim - examine how Walter Benjamin contrasts traditional art forms with mechanically reproducible ones
-consider how this facilitates the development of documentary


1. Q:what does walter benjamin consider to be happening to art at the beginning of the 20th century?
A:are is becoming less authentic because it is becoming reproducible
because of new modes of production in how we make images


2. Q:what is the effect upon notions that are traditionally associated with art?
A:disregard terms traditionally associated with art - genius, creativity, mystery
ideas about 'original'
reproductions become negatives 'fake' 'forged'


3. Q:how does he consider that these changes transform the way that we come into contact with art?
A:benjamin says our experience of place is transformed by photography
don't have to go places, places come to you
indexicality
'ways of seeing' by john berger




photography, difficult to determine concept of originality
negative produced many times
someone else can even make a print from your negative, even after you are dead
prints by famous photographers often not printed by them, but photograph still theirs


contrast to one photograph, image taken by one person at one time
exact moment can never be reproduced
even this is difficult though, often collaborations/assistants etc
someone can also photograph a photograph


reproduction detaches the scene from the original.
original becomes not about what it shows but what it is (the original)


benjamin says nature(eyes/medium its accomplished) and historical circumstances determine sensory experience (way we see)


don't just see colours and shapes
see things in a way developed from our environment
see according to meaning, meaning contextually created, so see according to what is around us, what we're used to


aura: presence


transcending status of what it is
e.g statue of zeus, thought to actually embody zeus,
but just stone. becomes more than stone


photograph- light on photosensitive paper
but transcends this and has huge value


benjamin says art no longer about religion , magic, beauty
has become about politics


watching a film, thought process continually changing as you are bombarded with constantly changing images
compared to image, you can stand and look at it, and think about it for as long as you like


documentary photography developed and came into widespread usage at time of 20th century benjamin was writing
understood to depict reality, trusted
e.g. documenting the depression, took images to mass audiences
photography understood as trace of actual event (indexicality)


certain conventions such as leaving in edge of negative used to prove authenticity - brassai etc




-Allan Sekula - fish story, about shipping industry
how documentary could be (status of genre)
reaprailed and reapplied
"placed value against capacity of photographic to bring attention to social injustices, but considered that documentary images should reference, the conventions through which they are produced, social frameworks through which they operate..."


we get an interpretation of an image, based on our environment, opinions, often these come from other images!
examining how we comprehend images


video - Hito Steyerl - wants to make us aware of how documentary forms are construced 


























Task:
One of the pioneers of documentary photography and one of my favourites is Garry Winogrand.

These photos are from his photobook 'animals' (1969). A very lovely and amusing photobook which comments on humans relationships with animals in a lightly mocking way. 

"Garry Winogrand was influenced by Walker Evans and Robert Frank and their respective publications 'American Photographs' and 'The Americans'. Henri Cartier-Bresson was obviously another primal influence although stylistically different." (from masters-of-photography.com) You can definitely see the influences of these practitioners in his work.

What I love about Winogrand's work is his ability to capture these moments in time. The photographs work perfectly because of the exact second they are taken. For example with the image above, the woman is moving her mouth in a similar way to a camel, however the alpaca (I'm not exactly sure what animal that is but I assume it's an alpaca because of how fluffy it is) has a straight and very regal face. Again, with the middle image the rhinos stand whilst the children on the fence remind us a lot of monkeys. 

A contemporary photographer I like the work of is David Ellicson.

The style of work is actually aesthetically very similar to that of Winogrand and also Evans and Frank.


“This photograph of peasants is from the village of Valeni in the Maramures region of northern Romania enroute to a livestock market in a neighboring town. Villagers meet on Thursdays to trade gossip, sell animals and enjoy themselves. I was 25, adventurous and in love with black and white film when I checked out of the modern world and lived with a family in Valeni, farming and photographing and savoring the last vestiges of European folk culture. I met the Nemes family in a field while they were making a haystack at the end of the summer and ended up staying for a year. Romania has since joined the European Union in 2007 and the youth from the villagers now spend most of the year abroad in Italy and Spain working itinerant jobs. The EU has strict agricultural regulations and the future of traditional life in Maramures is uncertain. There are now even plans to create commercial farms”.


What I love about this image is how it could easily be from the same time as Walker Evans and Robert Frank because of its timeless quality. And from reading the paragraph above this is obviously what the artist aimed to achieve, showing a culture of the modern day that is in fact living in the past. His use of film aids this as the old masters of photography all used film as it was all that was available before the onset of digital photography. Ellicson shows the indexicality of photography as he transports us into the path of these farm workers who, in our modern culture, we do not come accross. In the same way the masters transported us to those affected by the depression, and Winogrand shows us humans as we might not see them.