Photography After the birth of , people quickly discovered the unique exquisite and powerful "recording" function that photography has. Therefore, in the field of visual "documentary", photography quickly replaced painting, and early "documentary" photography emerged.
1. Early "documentary"
1851, the French government organized a "Cultural Site Documentary Project" and recruited five photographers to record archival images of famous French historical buildings and cultural sites. This is the first large-scale "documentary" photography in the history of well-documented photography.
1855, at the height of Crimean War , the British government hired Roger Fenton to the battlefield to shoot. The camera equipment at that time was quite clumsy and the exposure time was relatively long, so it was impossible to take dynamic images, so Roger Fenton's photos were basically still shot. But no matter what, it left behind the earliest precious battlefield images in the history of photography. Roger Fenton is therefore called the "original originator of battlefield photography."
Roger Fenton's assistant and his "photographic car".
"Valley of Shadows of Death", Roger Fenton, 1855.
In April 1861, the Civil War broke out in the United States. , Matthew Brady, who opened a photo studio, believes that shooting war can bring great commercial benefits to himself. He borrowed $100,000 to form a "field photography team" with him as the commander-in-chief and 19 photographers, and went to the battlefield to conduct war documentary shooting. "Battlefield Photography Team" took four years, and Matthew Brady's team won more than 7,000 negative films. Because Matthew Brady himself was phobic about corpses and never set foot on the battlefield, all the photos on the battlefield were from his subordinates (Timothy O'Sullivan mentioned in the previous lecture was the main one), but in the end, the copyright of all the photos belonged to Brady alone. Therefore, after the shooting, all his subordinates broke with him due to copyright disputes in the photo. Brady, who wanted to make a lot of money, not only did not make a penny in this battlefield shooting, but also went bankrupt.
"The Harvest of Death, Gettysburg", Team of Matthew Brady, 1863.
Early "documentary" photography mainly records the two fields of cultural heritage and human war. At that time, due to the huge size and complex handling of the camera, it was impossible to directly capture the camera. Therefore, in the photos taken by Roger Fenton and Matthew Brady's team, everyone in the picture was posing. Although this kind of shooting also has the characteristics of "documentary", it is actually more accurate to call it "documentary photography".
2. The origin of the word "documentary"
"documentary" photography appeared in the mid-19th century, but the term "documentary" was not first used by the famous French photographer Eugene Ajett until the beginning of the 20th century.
Eugene Ajte (1857-1927) was a seaman in , an actor, and studied painting when he was young, but his early work did not develop very well. When the painter's dream was shattered at the age of 40, he changed to providing auxiliary services to artists and other artists to make a living, which was to sell photos as material for artistic creation to painters, designers, etc. through photography. As a result, Ajet embarked on the road of photography.
Ajet first pointed the camera at the ancient buildings and streets that were about to disappear in "Old Paris", and accidentally left Paris with precious image archives of a large number of ancient buildings before urbanization. Then he took his old large format camera to the street to capture the shooting. For us today, it is technically hard to imagine using large format cameras with larger sizes and complex operations to capture the shooting on the street. He hung a handwritten billboard on the gate of his residence: "Documents pour Artists", which means "providing material for artists."
Search for the word "Documents", and the explanations include: ① As a noun: the meaning of document, official documents, documents, documents, evidence, and evidence, ② As a verb: the meaning of having (detailed) records, supporting (or proof) with documents, providing documents (or evidence) for...Since then, "Documents" has become the title of " documentary photography " and has been widely used, and Ajet has become "father of documentary photographers".
"The Scavenger" Eugene Ajett.
From the 1930s, some people proposed to define "Documents" (documents), but so far there is no publicly recognized definition. Only the famous American female photographer Dorosia Lange gave the definition of "Documents" (documents) the highest recognition definition. Her definition is "documentary photography reflects the present and provides image evidence for the future; it reflects the relationship between people and people, and between nature; it mainly records human activities; depicts systems and customs in human social life; reveals lifestyles that affect human behavior; it not only requires professional workers to participate, but also requires a wide range of amateur photography enthusiasts to participate." Her definition points out the purpose of documentary photography, subject matter, subject matter, focus of attention and participants in photography.
"The Wandering Mother" Dorothea Lange, 1936.
"Documents" did not reach China until 1984. Wang Huimin, the editor of the magazine International Photography at that time, translated the word "Documents" into "document photography", inspired by the new literary genre of "document literature" that had just appeared in China and became popular at that time. Soon, due to the conceptual contradiction between the "reality" of "documentary" and the "creative" characteristics of "literature", "documentary literature" as the newly emerging literary genre was quickly stopped, but "documentary photography" has never found a suitable alternative term and has been used to this day.
3. Social documentary
1. Observation of society
In the 1860s and 1970s, some photographers pointed their lenses at natural scenery or social scenery respectively. The former was as mentioned in the previous lecture and Timothy O'Sullivan who broke with Matthew Brady mentioned earlier in this article. He photographed a large number of scenery in the western United States and became a pioneer in landscape photography. The latter, such as the British photographer John Thomson , uses lenses to record people's lives and society at that time, and is known by later generations as the originator of documentary photography.
From 1868 to 1872, John Thomson took a large number of photos in China in five years. After returning to China, he published the book "Images of China and Chinese", which is the first collection in the history of photography with pictures and texts. The collection of films includes works that express China's natural scenery and urban scenery, as well as scenes of people engaging in production labor and daily life, including the luxurious life of the upper class and the living difficulties of the poor at the bottom of society. His photos are all-round "image attention" to society in the early stages of documentary photography. They are documentary photography of the nature of "observation of society", or "diary-style documentary photography". They have neither personal emotions nor social purpose, and are purely calm and objective observation and recording of society.
"In order not to pollute indoor air, several guests smoke outdoors." Photo by John Thomson in Guangzhou.
2, Influence of society
1890, the American Jacob Rees published the book "Life of the Other Half", which showed the bad status quo of the New York slums in pictures and texts, attracted widespread attention from the society, and promoted the improvement of the lives of the poor by the New York City Government. Reese sets out a precedent for influencing government decision-making and promoting social change through documentary photography. It had a huge impact on the later direction of documentary photography.
"Five Cent One Night's House on Beya Street" by Jacob Rees, circa 1889.
In 1908, American photographer Lewis Hein's series of photos directly promoted the promulgation and implementation of the Federal Child Labor Act in the United States, and began to ban the use of child labor worldwide.
"Textile Girl Child Labor" Lewis Hein, 1908.
Jacob Rees and Lewis Hein both have compassion for the people at the bottom of society, and use images to reveal the true reality of society, so as to attract the attention of government departments, thereby affecting government decision-making and promoting social development and progress. He is an outstanding representative of early documentary photography "influence society".
3. Advocate humanistic care
Throughout the 1930s, the United States encountered the Great Depression and the natural disaster . Farmers in the central United States had to leave their hometowns and migrate west due to severe famine. In order to help these unfortunate victims, the US Agricultural Safety Administration (FSA) hired 30 photographers in 1935 to record the tragic situation of these victims in images and make it public. This is the largest documentary photography campaign in the history of photography - the "FSA Documentary Movement". The most famous photographer among them is Dorothea Lange.
Dorosia Lange was disabled for life due to polio in her childhood. At the age of 12, his father abandoned their family again. The two major "disasters" in her life she experienced since childhood have made her more sympathetic and sympathetic to other people's pain and closer to her subject. She dragged her disabled body through 22 states in the United States and took a large number of photos reflecting the tragic famine: those receiving relief, those who sleep outside homeless. She was the first photographer to devote humanistic care to documentary photography, and was praised by photography giant Stecken as "the highest and greatest documentary photographer from ancient times to the present."
"Refugees from Oklahoma Camping on the Road", Dorothea Lange, 1936.
From John Thomson's "observation of society", to Jacob Rees and Lewis Hein's "influence of society", to Dorothea Lange's "humanistic care", documentary photography continues to expand its scope on the road of "social documentary".
4. Artist's documentary
is almost the same time. Another style of documentary photography developed in parallel with "social documentary" is also constantly exploring. This is the "artist's documentary" that does not aim to change society, but relies on the recording ability of photography to "catalogue" for history and conduct "typed visual analysis" of life and the times. Among the most representative photographers in the early days were Eugene Ajet from France and August Sander from Germany.
About Eugene Ajte (1857-1927), this article has been briefly introduced. After filming the ancient buildings and streets that are about to be renovated in Paris, he classified and systematically recorded the various industries and types of people in Paris. Because his purpose of shooting was to rely on the sale of these photos to make a living, he paid attention to not adding any personal emotional factors when shooting, and systematically and comprehensively photographed all artistic images of Paris with honest and objective attitudes and types of cataloging methods, becoming the "founder of documentary photography" and the pioneer of "artist's documentary".
About August Sander in Germany, I introduced it in the twelfth lecture " New Objectivism Photography ". Shortly after the end of World War I, Sander began his photography project - "The Man of the Twentieth Century". With an honest and objective attitude and a "typology" approach, he left portraits of figures of all classes and industries with "temporality" characteristics for Germany. He pays attention to "typicality" in the selection of subjects to achieve the "speciality" of the image. In 1929, the book "Mirror of Germany, Face of the Times" was published. Unfortunately, his photo studio in the city was bombed in 1944, and in 1946 his photo studio in the suburbs experienced another accidental fire. Two incidents have turned more than 40,000 negatives into ashes, and the masterpiece "People of the Twentieth Century" has completely miscarried.
Compared with Eugene Ajte, August Sander's documentary focuses more on the "specimenization" of images.
《Workers in Ruhr District》 August Sand, 1930.
After the Second World War , due to the development of mass media, reports on historical events, major events, important figures, and hot issues have developed rapidly. These reports and photography basically contain the author's personal emotions and judgment of social things. Therefore, "social documentary" is unique, while the documentary archive-style "artist documentary" has basically been ignored by the public.
5. New documentary
In the 1950s, Robert Frank 's "New York" smashed the traditional rules and aesthetic methods of photography in one fell swoop, opening the prelude to modern photography. It created aesthetic ideological conditions for later photography reforms.
In my previous lecture, I introduced the "Scenery of Society" photography exhibition held by two photographers Lee Fredland and Gary Vinogrand in 1966. They included the relationship between people, and the relationship between people and society into the category of "scenery", redefining the concept of "scenery". Two years later, in 1967, they and American female photographer Diane Arbus participated in the "New Documentary" photography joint exhibition curated by John Sakowski, a "godfather" figure in the American photography industry at , .
At this "New Photography" joint exhibition, the works of Lee Fredland and Gary Vinogrand are relatively similar in terms of subject matter and style. Most of the cityscapes taken are funny, overlapping, ambiguous, strange and broken. The pictures cannot tell what they mean, and there is even no theme. They follow the "personalized" characteristics of Robert Frank and William Klein.
Compared with the two of them, Diane Arbus seems very "alternative" and "rebellious". Most of her works exhibited are "marginal" groups such as poor, deformed people, homeless people, transgender people , homosexuals, nudists, mentally retarded patients and other "sensitivity" themes that others dare not contact. Therefore, Arbus and their works have been greatly criticized and denounced as "immoral". The photography community and the public have demanded the withdrawal of the exhibition.
"Children with toy grenades" Diane Arbus, 1962.
"Twins" Diane Arbus, 1967.
"Twins" Diane Arbus, 1967. l3
As the curator, Sakowsky responded, explaining that this is an unprecedented exploration of "new documentary". Its concept and method are completely different from the traditional documentary photography method of "influencing society", humanistic care, and archival "typed cataloging". Instead, it leads documentary photography to the direction of "personalization", with the purpose of "knowing life"; pictures are no longer evidence to "persuad" people, but rather to "understand" life. This "personal" documentary is actually an extension of "artist's documentary" beyond the scope of "typed cataloging" of archives.
6. The impact of "new documentary" on contemporary photography
"new documentary" photography exhibition is a major turning point in documentary photography, and to later contemporary photography Film has had a huge impact:
1, which clarifies the scope of documentary photography.
documentary photography has gone from the early "observation of society", to the parallel development of "social documentary" and "artist's documentary", and then to "new documentary", the scope of documentary photography is constantly developing and changing. So much so that after the "New Documentary" photography exhibition, two types of documentary photography appeared in a broad and narrow sense. Broadly documentary photography generally refers to news photography, reporting photography that relies on the recording ability of photography, "diary documentary photography" with the purpose of "observing society", "social documentary" with the purpose of influencing society and changing society and humanistic care, documentary archival documentary photography as a means of anthropological and sociological investigation, and characterized by "personalization" The "artist's documentary" in the category of art photography. The narrow sense of documentary photography refers specifically to the "artist's documentary" in the category of art photography characterized by "personalization".
2. Documentary photography has fully moved towards "personalization" in aesthetics and methods. After the "New Documentary" Photography Exhibition, documentary photography gradually abandoned the traditional way of documentary photography, and instead returned to the early methods of setting, director, posing, and post-synthesis to "make photos". The "reality" of documentary no longer seems important, but the important thing is personalized artistic expression. This method breaks through the bottom line of documentary in the traditional sense. All these changes are to make documentary photography works more artistic, and the ultimate goal is to make works enter the art market.
