Politics, activism & advocacy:
- A concern for human consequences
- Strong desire to promote something that has been witnessed and want for change in some way.
- The Western cultural perspective in the 70s is that photography can't make change but simply document events that are witnessed.
- A photo essay carries a factual representation- it gives the viewer a real sense of voyeurism.
- Documentary photography could be considered part of a public art, as a part of activist action & protest.
- It enables the viewer to perceive a way of responding rather than remaining a passive observer
- No one can truly understand a culture unless they've lived within it for a long period of time, however the Photo essay tries to combat this issue by bringing a variety of cultures to their audience.
Photo essay Photographers
Jim Goldberg
- While visually & photographically recording the subjects Goldberg also records the subjects thoughts usually handwritten by them.
- The work is all about storytelling, constructing a narrative & evoking response.
-In Photo essays, images are presented in a chronoligical order allowing their audience to develop a story in their minds with little words telling them what is occurring; some photographers that have done this are Mary Ellen Mark with her series 'Streetwise' and Susan Meiselas with her series 'Carnival Strippers'.
In the early 80's Mary Ellen Mark spent time with a community of street kids in Seattle, resulting in a book of her photographs and a documentary film, both titled Streetwise. Here are a selection of images from the book, with the text that goes with them.
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| Tiny, Halloween, 1983 |
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| Tiny, Seattle, 1983 |
In the early 1970s Susan Meiselas travelled with some small New England and
Southern "Girl Shows", including the Club Flamingo, the Star and Garter
& the Club 17. Her series 'Carnival Strippers' consists of pictures and text from over 100 hours of interviews. The book has been described as somewhat noir and poignant, some photos are said to
shock. It is a journey for the general public to take into the darker, hidden side of American life.
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Sebastiao Salgado
- Salgado is known as being an activist before a photographer- constructively intervening in the subject's lives that he is capturing often aiding them.
- He applies very strong visual aesthetics as an activist to inform and provoke responses from the audience.
'What use is having a great depth of field, if there is no depth of feeling.'
- W. Eugene Smith constructs his images to create a beautiful aesthetic to draw attention to the image and then promote emotion within the audience, which leads to an engagement and positive response.
- Two of Smith's photo essays were brought to our attention in the lecture, the first is Country Doctor, it was first featured in Life magazine containing mainly images but accompanied by paragraphs of text.
- Again it is set in a chronological order mostly all featuring the doctor during practice, informing the audience as to the way he works through seeing his caring touch with patients.
- It is obvious that he was embedded within his community, as trust is highlighted through the intimacy between the doctor and W. Eugene Smith.
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| LIFE magazine 'Country Doctor' double-page spread |
- The second photo essay 'Minamata' 1971-73 tells the sotry of a 'one-company town', it goes through the stages.
- It begins with a positive introduction of what seems a peaceful fishing village, the focus then sifts from picturesque scenes to the ugly shapes & forms of industry, there was a sinister beauty to all of the images.
- Suddenly the focus is back on the villagers but this time they were victims, intimately & dispassionately shot portraits of the effects of industrial poisoning.
- W. Eugene Smith shoots the subjects in a way that the audience cannot objectify the victims due to the direct connection through gaze.
- He moves on to the protest- politics, trials, Smith was part of the campaign, rather than being disconnected he participated therefore his images were very intimate for the audience.
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| Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath, Minamata, 1972 |
Interesting how they all employ similar elements to create a certain response from their audience, most of the photographers stay with their subjects for a period of time to build trust and a close relationship to allow their audience to delve into a world they have never explored before.
The use of a photo essay containing images as well as text allows the subjects to communicate their story through the help of the photographer.
There are often a series of different storylines that run along side each other in an ordered way creating a factual narrative, it is a portrait of for example the town of Minamata as a whole.
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