COP- the photograph as a document

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.

William Edward Kilburn- The Great Chartist Meeting at the Common 1848

William Kilburn took this photograph (The Great Chartist Meeting at the Common) in 1848. The position of the photography is he is looking onto the event, not disrupting, using a plate camera. He is using the camera as a protest,  whilst people are participating in a strike. Documentary photography, is a genre,  and is used as evidence of what happened, so as to visualise history. 

Jacob Riis, 1890 'How the Other Half Live' 

How the Other Half Lives (1890) was an early publication of photojournalism by Jacob Riis, documenting squalid living conditions in New York City slums in the 1880s. It served as a basis for future "muckraking" journalism by exposing the slums to New York City’s upper and middle classes.

Bandit's Roost, 59 1/2 Mulberry Street, 1888

The photographers presence is known as peoples faces are looking towards us, it is exposing the activities of working class. The people in the photograph look worried and somewhat threatened, perhaps because they had never seen such technology like a camera up close, it might've been very alien. Jacob used these photographs to educate, however it is bias as it's staged as the people are looking towards us. 

Lewis Hine

Russian Steel Workers, Homestead, PA 1908

Lewis Wickes Hine (September 26, 1874 – November 3, 1940) was an American sociologist and photographer. Hine used his camera as a tool for social reform. Similarly to Jacob Riis, Hine is exposing the working class, with a bit more dialogue and depth. Here we see Russian Steel Workers as hard workers, not just another immigrant. It was a good case for American citizens. 

FSA (Farm Security Administration) 

Initially created as the Resettlement Administration (RA) in 1935 as part of the New Deal in the United States, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) was an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.Photographers and writers were hired to report and document the plight of poor farmers. They were sent out with an image in mind of what to capture and would often move objects around in their houses to get the 'right' image- it creates a somewhat visual irony. 

Migrant Mother (1936) Dorothea Lange

The Migrant Mother (1936) taken by Dorothea Lange rises above the poverty, despite the conditions embodies human emotion. The image gives us context. It is perhaps the most iconic photograph of the Great Depression. 

Magnum Group 

Magnum Photos is an international photographic cooperative owned by its photographer-members, with offices located in New York, Paris,London and Tokyo. According to co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson, "Magnum is a community of thought, a shared human quality, a curiosity about what is going on in the world, a respect for what is going on and a desire to transcribe it visually."