Exercise: In and around afterthoughts
Read the article ‘In, Around and Afterthoughts (on Documentary Photography)’ by Martha Rosler in Bolton, R. (ed.) (1992) The Contest of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (p.303). This is available as a core resource on the student website at: http://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/course-specific-resources/contest-meaning-pg-303. Make notes in your learning log or blog. (Open College of the Arts, 2014:27)
Notes:
Rosler asks “how can we deal with documentary photography as a photographic practice and what remains of it now?” (Rosler,1992:333).
Documentary came to represent the social conscience of liberal sensibility presented in visual imagery and had its place in a war on poverty as journalist attention was brought to working class lives and slums; although it was often perceived as muckraking and obtained by unethical means.
Documentary photography may have appeared moralistic and yet the notion of charity that it inspired actually preserved wealth was not at odds with reformist documentary which argued for giving a little to subdue the dangerous lower classes, but was essentially victim photography.
Rosler cites Szarkowski who said that a generation ago documentary photographers were serving a social cause to persuade others to make things better but were then superseded by those who used the approach and manipulated for their personal ends; liberal documentary looking for change was in the past Rosler agrees. She calls for a “radical documentary that exposes.
Rosler states that a documentary image has 2 moments, the immediate and then the conventional aesthetic-historical moment, as your response to an image is rooted in social knowledge.
Susan Meiselas (a photographer who worked for magnum and covered the war in Nicaragua) as a response to Rosler’s comments suggests documentary practise was contaminated by underlying assumptions of imperialism and colonialism and couldn’t ever be radical (Strauss, p15). Meiselas also suggests that Rosler relies on assumptions of how documentary work is actually received (Strauss p 17).
The liberal pseudo reformist documentary that exposed poverty and slums has now gone and has been replaced by documenting other issues. However reading her essay has made me think harder about my intentions when I photograph and the responsibility that a photographer has.
References:
Open College of the Arts (2014) Photography 2: Documentary-Fact and Fiction (Course Manual). Barnsley: Open College of the Arts.
Rosler in Bolton, R. (ed.) (1992) The Contest of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press (p.303).
Strauss, D., 2014. Words Not Spent Today Buy Smaller Images Tomorrow. new york: aperture.
Photography 2: Documentary 