RESEARCH POINT 1: HISTORICAL DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHERS

We were asked to research some of the historical developments in documentary photography outlined above.

I have begun my documentary research with an overview using the book The Documentary Impulse (Franklin, 2017)

Franklin talks of the documentary impulse being evident 10,000 to 50,000 years ago as self- representation, evidenced by cave drawings and inscriptions in pyramids and other tombs. As captured by Sebastiao Salgado in 1986 when he took photographs of the documentary accounts of gold mining in Brazil’s Serra Pelada dating back to 700 BCE. So before photography this “documentary impulse was sutained by representations in painting, mosaic, ceramics and sculpture (Franklin, 2017, p14).

However it was photography that became the preferred way to capture scientific discovery and exploration in the 1900s. It evolved from the photographic keepsakes of the Victorian times (miniature portraits, postcards) and franklin points out that even work by some of the 20^th century documentary photographers such as Sally Mann, Eugene Smith and Elliott Erwitt were in fact f their families (Franklin, 2017, p26).

Photography made the documentation of scientific exploration more objective than the romanticised representation of paintings, these were some of the early documentary photographs:

• Tromholt’s photographs of both the Northern Lights and the peoples of northern Norway.
• Francis Frith’s photographs of the Suez Canal at Ismailia (c.1860)
• Timothy O’Sullivan (1867-9) images of Clarence King’s geological expeditions.
• Carleton Watkin’s daguerreotype stereoviews for the US Geological surveys in the Yosemite Valley.
• Herbert Ponting’s photo essays of China, Japan, Korea and Burma and magic lantern slides of Captain Scott’s first expedition to the Antarctic

Franklin suggests that the term documentary was first used by Grierson in 1926 referring to a film, but had been used in France to describe films about travel and exploration as far back as 1911.

Reference:

Franklin, S., 2017. The Documentary Impulse. London: Phaidon Press.

SELECTED EARLY DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHERS

I’ve chosen at this point to research two photographers mentioned in the OCA handbook that to this point that I’ve not researched before:

Felice Beato (1832–1909)

Was among the first photographers to provide images of newly opened countries such as India, China, Japan, Korea, and Burma. As a war photographer he captured several conflicts: the Crimean War in 1855–56, where he took photographs in difficult conditions.

He photographed the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny in 1858–59, and set up studio in Calcutta and travelled behind The Army throughout India. Typical of his work is this photograph of devasted buildings in Lucknow after the Indian rebellion of 1858; in some images like the one below, adding corpses and arranged bones to heighten the dramatic effect of the massive  slaughter that occurred at Lucknow.

He also documented the Second Opium War in 1860, entering Hong Kong with British forces en-route to invading china, carrying for the 8 months the heavy equipment needed for the albumen process (chemicals and large, fragile glass plates). Once again many of his images post battle scenes were very graphic. This one of the  Fort Taku captures senseless slaughter.

The Fort was stormed following an explosion, captured as part of a long struggle by Western nations to open China to trade. Beato’s photographs, from inside the fort, shows the bloodbath carnage with a brutal directness (The Met, 2020).

Beato worked in a variety of ways including topographical and architectural views, including panoramas, as well as portraits and costume studies of the countries he visited or in which he resided. In China he photographed both Chinese and British notables and also made architectural views of the cities of Peking and Canton like the on ebelow of the shops of Treasury Street.

Beato took probably the only photographs ever made of the interior of the summer palace north of Peking, before it was destroyed by fire, by order of Lord Elgin.

Beato then spent more than 20 years in Japan (1863–84), where he opened a gallery. Here he used the wet-collodion method, reducing the length of exposure to seconds and made the first hand-coloured photographs and albums:

Beato accompanied the American expedition to Korea in 1871 to negotiate after an international incident; the country had been “closed”. The negotiations resulted in violence, killings and captures; Beato documented the successes of the American in the campaign like this image captures American military officers posing in front of a captured Korean flag they captured at Fort McKee.

Beato worked in Burma (1887–1905)which was a province of British India and a tourist destination for Westerners. He established himself by finding then capturing the interesting landscapes and architectural views, and combined this with portrait studies.

His brother Antonio Beato also a partner of james Robertson photographed Constantinople, Athens, The Crimera, Malta, and the Holy Land (1851-57). Antonia had a studio in Luxor was best known for his photographs of the Middle East whilst working with archaeologists on excavations and making views for tourists.

My reflections: I am particularly struck with the variety of his portfolio. His photographs were very varied, battle fields, architecture, portraits and records of overseas life at the end of the 19th century. Felice Beato was one of the first professional photographers to extensively document Japan and China. His style of photography of battlefields, were shockingly innovative, not only because he was the first to show images of the dead, where he pioneered a new style of war photography in a graphic way.

References:

Felice Beato: A Photographer on the Eastern Road (Getty Center Exhibitions) (2020) At: https://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/beato/ (Accessed 23/04/2020).

Felice Beato [After the Capture of the Taku Forts] The Met (s.d.) At: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/283169 (Accessed 24/04/2020).

Albert Khan (1860-1940)

He was a French Banker and Philanthropist who from 1909 started documenting every culture of the global human family. He financed and sent a team of photographers and cinematographers to take pictures of everyday life and it’s peoples from 50 countries around the world, until 1931 an ambitious project. He used the autochrome process, the first industrial technique for coloured photographs developed by the Lumière brothers in 1907, to record 72, 000 images of cultures around the world. He kept very organised records in files at his home, now called “The Archives of the Planet” containing both films and pictures. Unfortunately, his work ended when he became bankrupt in the Great Depression.

My reflections: Again I am most surprised at the variety of work that he commissioned and collected, although his images were more controlled and pictorial than Beato’s.

References:

Albert Kahn photography collection: The dawn of the colour photograph – Kahn – Albert Kahn (2016) At: http://albertkahn.co.uk/albert-kahn-photography-collection-dawn-colour-photograph/ (Accessed 26/04/2020).

Interesting, A. T. (2015) 44 Stunning Color Photos Of The World’s Cultures 100 Years Ago. At: https://allthatsinteresting.com/albert-kahn-archives-of-the-planet (Accessed 26/04/2020).

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