Social documentary photography
Encyclopedia
Social documentary photography may be defined as the act of recording, with a camera, human beings in their natural (ie unposed) condition. Often is also refers to a socially critical genre of photography dedicated to showing the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people.
Social documentary photography has its roots in the 19th Century work of Henry Mayhew
, Jacob Riis
, and Lewis Hine
, but began to take further form through the photographic practice of the Farm Security Administration
(FSA). The FSA hired photographers and writers to report and document the plight of poor farmers. Under Roy Stryker
, the Information Division of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many noted Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project, including Walker Evans
, Dorothea Lange
, and Gordon Parks
. The photographers documented the situation of poor farmers, whose economic existence was threatened, and created a new style with photographic documentation of social problems. FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty, but only about half survive. These are now housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress and online. From these some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images from 1,600 negatives.
, homelessness, poverty among segments of society, impoverished children and the elderly, and hazardous working conditions. The poor, the social outcasts, or lower classes are portrayed in compassionate observation. The documentary power of the images is associated with the desire for political and social change.
photographed the book London Labour and the London Poor
, a representation of the depiction of London's working class. The book was illustrated by woodcuts, from photographs by Beard. Thomas Annan
published "Photographs Of The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868-77", a documentation of the slum areas in Glasgow. Yet another example is the book published by Smith and Thompson in 1877 "Street Life in London", which also documented social life. England was the birth place of social documentary photography, given the advanced stage of industrialization, and its impact on society.
In the United States two outstanding photographers got involved at the end of the 19th century in favor of people on the margins of society, Jacob Riis
and Lewis Hine
. For them the camera was an instrument of accusation against social injustice. In 1890 Jacob Riis documented the living conditions of the unemployed and homeless in New York ("How the Other Half Lives
"). He was also interested in the fate of immigrants, many of whom lived in extreme poverty in the New York slums. Riis clearly takes sides for the people he photographed and appeals to the social conscience of society. In 1908 the National Child Labor Committee
hired Lewis Wickes Hine, a sociology
professor who advocated photography as an educational medium, to document child labor in American industry. In the early 20th century Hine would publish thousands of photographs designed to pull at the nation's heartstrings. Child Labor was widespread in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Lewis Hine equally drew attention to the situation of immigrants. The work of Riis and Hine had political influence. Riis' commitment to the people in the Mulberry Bend neighborhood led to its demolition. The building of schools and educational programs can also be attributed to Riis. Lewis Hines work culminated in a law against child labor, which was repelled shortly after its introduction as a result of the entry of the U.S. into the 1st World War.
An English pioneer of socially committed photography is Bill Brandt
who as a photographer was a great artist. Brandt is particularly renowned for his experimental studies of the nude. Brandt moved to England in 1931 and worked for several magazines, for which he published coverages on people affected by the Great Depression. In 1936 he published the illustrated book "The English at Home", in which he portrayed the English class society. He traveled to the Midlands and to northern England where he photographed the effects of the Great Depression.
After 1945 the dedicated, collectively organized social documentary photography no longer was able to gain ground, except in England, where the tradition lingered on a bit longer. The vigorous anti-communism of the McCarthy era had anathematized the engaged, liberal social documentary photography with the verdict of evil. Great documentary photographers of the postwar era, such as W. Eugene Smith
, Diane Arbus
, Robert Frank
, William Klein
or Mary Ellen Mark
were either lone fighters or were forced to work as story-suppliers for the large illustrated magazines (especially Life
). Squeezed into the economic restraints of circulation increases, political outsider positions found little room. Nevertheless photographers devoted themselves to social issues in the second half of the 20th century. Thus W. Eugene Smith
documented in the late 1960s the fate of the inhabitants of the Japanese fishing village of Minamata who had fallen ill as a result of mercury poisoning.
A important social documentary photographer of the present is Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado
, who has published an impressive documentation of the industrial age ("Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age", 1993, includes photos from 26 countries). Another central theme of his work is the global phenomenon of migration, which he documented in the publications "The Children: Refugees and Migrants" (2000) and "Migrations" (2000, includes photos from 39 countries). In both documentaries he demonstrated the incredible plight of refugees in many countries around the world Salgado contributes to a differentiated public awareness and supports the work of UNICEF.
British photojournalist Don McCullin
has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished. He is also recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. A younger representative of social documentary photography of the present is Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
, an independent photographer documenting the lives of people in developing countries. Affected by his own experience of growing up poor in rural Puerto Rico
, Rivera-Ortiz refers to his work as a celebration of life, in poverty.
. Luc Delahaye
, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz and the members of VII Photo Agency
are among many who regularly exhibit in galleries and museums.
or Tina Barney
. While Arbus created haunting images of disabled and other people on the margins of society, Barney documented the life of the white upper class in New England
.
Social documentary in the literal sense are multifaceted documentations from workaday life in certain cities, landscapes and cultures. The examples are equally varied as the opportunities. Roman Vishniac
may be mentioned as a characteristic representative, who documented Jewish life in Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust (Verschwundene Welt, A Vanished World)|.
Another genre close to the procedures and results of social documentary photography can be found in the ethnographic photography that often documents people in precarious situations, however intending to document disappearing traditions, clothing or living conditions.
Social Realism
is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts working class activities as heroic. Many artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in certain Communist nations.
Origin of social documentary photography
Henry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days...
, Jacob Riis
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...
, and Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine
Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.-Early life:...
, but began to take further form through the photographic practice of the Farm Security Administration
Farm Security Administration
Initially created as the Resettlement Administration in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty...
(FSA). The FSA hired photographers and writers to report and document the plight of poor farmers. Under Roy Stryker
Roy Stryker
Roy Emerson Stryker was an American economist, government official, and photographer. He is most famous for heading the Information Division of the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression and launching the documentary photography movement of the FSA.After serving in the infantry...
, the Information Division of the FSA adopted a goal of "introducing America to Americans." Many noted Depression-era photographers were fostered by the FSA project, including Walker Evans
Walker Evans
Walker Evans was an American photographer best known for his work for the Farm Security Administration documenting the effects of the Great Depression. Much of Evans's work from the FSA period uses the large-format, 8x10-inch camera...
, Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange
Dorothea Lange was an influential American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration...
, and Gordon Parks
Gordon Parks
Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...
. The photographers documented the situation of poor farmers, whose economic existence was threatened, and created a new style with photographic documentation of social problems. FSA made 250,000 images of rural poverty, but only about half survive. These are now housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress and online. From these some 77,000 different finished photographic prints were originally made for the press, plus 644 color images from 1,600 negatives.
Characteristics of social documentary photography
Social documentary photography or concerned photography may often be devoted to 'social groups' with socio-economic and cultural similarities, showing living or working conditions perceived as shameful, discriminatory, unjust or harmful. Examples include child labor, child neglectChild neglect
Child neglect is defined as:# "the failure of a person responsible for a child’s care and upbringing to safeguard the child’s emotional and physical health and general well-being"...
, homelessness, poverty among segments of society, impoverished children and the elderly, and hazardous working conditions. The poor, the social outcasts, or lower classes are portrayed in compassionate observation. The documentary power of the images is associated with the desire for political and social change.
History
As early as in the 19th century the living conditions of the lower classes were the subject of photography. Henry MayhewHenry Mayhew
Henry Mayhew was an English social researcher, journalist, playwright and advocate of reform. He was one of the two founders of the satirical and humorous magazine Punch, and the magazine's joint-editor, with Mark Lemon, in its early days...
photographed the book London Labour and the London Poor
London Labour and the London Poor
London Labour and the London Poor is a work of Victorian journalism by Henry Mayhew. In the 1840s he observed, documented and described the state of working people in London for a series of articles in a newspaper, the Morning Chronicle, that were later compiled into book form.-Overview:The...
, a representation of the depiction of London's working class. The book was illustrated by woodcuts, from photographs by Beard. Thomas Annan
Thomas Annan
Thomas Annan was a Scottish photographer, notable for being the first to record the poor housing conditions of the poor. Born in Dairsie, Fife he was one of seven children of John Annan, a flax spinner....
published "Photographs Of The Old Closes and Streets of Glasgow, 1868-77", a documentation of the slum areas in Glasgow. Yet another example is the book published by Smith and Thompson in 1877 "Street Life in London", which also documented social life. England was the birth place of social documentary photography, given the advanced stage of industrialization, and its impact on society.
Jacob Riis
Jacob August Riis was a Danish American social reformer, "muckraking" journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help the impoverished in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific...
and Lewis Hine
Lewis Hine
Lewis Wickes Hine was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. His photographs were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the United States.-Early life:...
. For them the camera was an instrument of accusation against social injustice. In 1890 Jacob Riis documented the living conditions of the unemployed and homeless in New York ("How the Other Half Lives
How the Other Half Lives
How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s...
"). He was also interested in the fate of immigrants, many of whom lived in extreme poverty in the New York slums. Riis clearly takes sides for the people he photographed and appeals to the social conscience of society. In 1908 the National Child Labor Committee
National Child Labor Committee
The National Child Labor Committee, or NCLC, is a private, non-profit organization in the United States that serves as a leading proponent for the national child labor reform movement...
hired Lewis Wickes Hine, a sociology
Sociology
Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...
professor who advocated photography as an educational medium, to document child labor in American industry. In the early 20th century Hine would publish thousands of photographs designed to pull at the nation's heartstrings. Child Labor was widespread in the U.S. in the early 20th century. Lewis Hine equally drew attention to the situation of immigrants. The work of Riis and Hine had political influence. Riis' commitment to the people in the Mulberry Bend neighborhood led to its demolition. The building of schools and educational programs can also be attributed to Riis. Lewis Hines work culminated in a law against child labor, which was repelled shortly after its introduction as a result of the entry of the U.S. into the 1st World War.
An English pioneer of socially committed photography is Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt
Bill Brandt was an influential British photographer and photojournalist known for his high-contrast images of British society and his distorted nudes and landscapes.-Career and life:...
who as a photographer was a great artist. Brandt is particularly renowned for his experimental studies of the nude. Brandt moved to England in 1931 and worked for several magazines, for which he published coverages on people affected by the Great Depression. In 1936 he published the illustrated book "The English at Home", in which he portrayed the English class society. He traveled to the Midlands and to northern England where he photographed the effects of the Great Depression.
After 1945 the dedicated, collectively organized social documentary photography no longer was able to gain ground, except in England, where the tradition lingered on a bit longer. The vigorous anti-communism of the McCarthy era had anathematized the engaged, liberal social documentary photography with the verdict of evil. Great documentary photographers of the postwar era, such as W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...
, Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus
Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
, Robert Frank
Robert Frank
Robert Frank , born in Zürich, Switzerland, is an important figure in American photography and film. His most notable work, the 1958 photobook titled The Americans, was influential, and earned Frank comparisons to a modern-day de Tocqueville for his fresh and skeptical outsider's view of American...
, William Klein
William Klein
William Klein is a photographer and filmmaker noted to for his ironic approach to both media and his extensive use of unusual photographic techniques in the context of photojournalism and fashion photography...
or Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark
Mary Ellen Mark is an American photographer known for her photojournalism, portraiture, and advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades, including three Robert F...
were either lone fighters or were forced to work as story-suppliers for the large illustrated magazines (especially Life
Life (magazine)
Life generally refers to three American magazines:*A humor and general interest magazine published from 1883 to 1936. Time founder Henry Luce bought the magazine in 1936 solely so that he could acquire the rights to its name....
). Squeezed into the economic restraints of circulation increases, political outsider positions found little room. Nevertheless photographers devoted themselves to social issues in the second half of the 20th century. Thus W. Eugene Smith
W. Eugene Smith
William Eugene Smith was an American photojournalist known for his refusal to compromise professional standards and his brutally vivid World War II photographs.- Life and work :...
documented in the late 1960s the fate of the inhabitants of the Japanese fishing village of Minamata who had fallen ill as a result of mercury poisoning.
A important social documentary photographer of the present is Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado
Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.-Biography:Salgado was born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado initially trained as an economist, earning a master’s degree in...
, who has published an impressive documentation of the industrial age ("Workers: An Archaeology of the Industrial Age", 1993, includes photos from 26 countries). Another central theme of his work is the global phenomenon of migration, which he documented in the publications "The Children: Refugees and Migrants" (2000) and "Migrations" (2000, includes photos from 39 countries). In both documentaries he demonstrated the incredible plight of refugees in many countries around the world Salgado contributes to a differentiated public awareness and supports the work of UNICEF.
British photojournalist Don McCullin
Don McCullin
Donald McCullin, FRPS CBE is an internationally known British photojournalist, particularly recognized for his war photography and images of urban strife...
has specialised in examining the underside of society, and his photographs have depicted the unemployed, downtrodden and the impoverished. He is also recognised for his war photography and images of urban strife. A younger representative of social documentary photography of the present is Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz
Manuel Rivera-Ortiz is an American documentary photographer of Puerto Rican descent, the author of several photographic collections and the recipient of a number of awards. He is best known for his documentary photographs of people's living conditions in less developed countries...
, an independent photographer documenting the lives of people in developing countries. Affected by his own experience of growing up poor in rural Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Rivera-Ortiz refers to his work as a celebration of life, in poverty.
Acceptance by the art world
Since the late 1970s, social documentary photography has increasingly been accorded a place in art galleries alongside fine art photographyFine art photography
Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created in accordance with the creative vision of the photographer as artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism, which provides a visual account for news events, and commercial photography, the primary focus of which is to...
. Luc Delahaye
Luc Delahaye
Luc Delahaye is a French photographer known for his large-scale color works depicting conflicts, world events or social issues. His pictures are characterized by detachment, directness and rich details, a documentary approach which is however countered by dramatic intensity and a narrative...
, Manuel Rivera-Ortiz and the members of VII Photo Agency
VII Photo Agency
VII is a photo agency representing 30+ photojournalists, known for its focus on conflict photography. This collective employs a three tier system: members, non-members and mentorees, titles which reflect the level of service and commitment provided by the company to the photographers.VII derives...
are among many who regularly exhibit in galleries and museums.
Border areas and related genres
Some photographers address social issues without dedicated advocacy for the victims of social inequality and grievance, such as Diane ArbusDiane Arbus
Diane Arbus March 14, 1923 – July 26, 1971) was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal." A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid.....
or Tina Barney
Tina Barney
Tina Barney is an American artist photographer best known for her large-scale portraits of her family and close friends, many of whom are well-to-do denizens of New York and New England....
. While Arbus created haunting images of disabled and other people on the margins of society, Barney documented the life of the white upper class in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
.
Social documentary in the literal sense are multifaceted documentations from workaday life in certain cities, landscapes and cultures. The examples are equally varied as the opportunities. Roman Vishniac
Roman Vishniac
Roman Vishniac was a Russian-American photographer, best known for capturing on film the culture of Jews in Central and Eastern Europe before the Holocaust. A complete archive of his work now rests at the International Center of Photography....
may be mentioned as a characteristic representative, who documented Jewish life in Eastern Europe prior to the Holocaust (Verschwundene Welt, A Vanished World)|.
Another genre close to the procedures and results of social documentary photography can be found in the ethnographic photography that often documents people in precarious situations, however intending to document disappearing traditions, clothing or living conditions.
Social Realism
Social realism
Social Realism, also known as Socio-Realism, is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts social and racial injustice, economic hardship, through unvarnished pictures of life's struggles; often depicting working class activities as heroic...
is an artistic movement, expressed in the visual and other realist arts, which depicts working class activities as heroic. Many artists who subscribed to Social Realism were painters with socialist political views. The movement therefore has some commonalities with the Socialist Realism used in certain Communist nations.
Further reading
- London Labour and the London Poor; selections made and introduced by Victor NeuburgVictor E. NeuburgVictor Edward Neuburg was a scholar.Neuburg was born in Steyning, Sussex, the son of Victor Benjamin Neuburg and his wife Kathleen Rose Goddard....
, Penguin Classics 1985, ISBN 0-14-043241-8 - Geoffrey Dunn, "Untitled Depression Documentary", 1980
- Robert J. DohertyRobert J. DohertyRobert J. Doherty is an American photographer, scholar and museum professional. His photographic work was first shown at Watertown, Connecticut, then at The Arts Club of Louisville, Louisville Art Center Association School, and at the Allen R. Hite Art Institute, University of Louisville...
, Social-Documentary Photography in the USA, Hardcover, Amphoto, ISBN 0-8174-0316-7 (0-8174-0316-7) - The New Documentary Tradition in Photography (Lisa Hostetler, The Metropolitan Museum of Art)