“I try with my pictures to raise a question, to provoke a debate, so that we can discuss problems together and come up with solutions.” In this essay I aim to address the question how does Sebastiao Salgardo’s activist photography reflect against media journalism? I will be looking into a brief history of the movement of activist photography and will also looking into Sebastian’s background. I believe that Salgardo paints a true picture of what is going on in the country’s around the world, he visits these places and then becomes at one with the people in these situations, he wants to provoke debates and discussions into these problems in order to inform people of the true problems. Its true that in the 1980’s Salgardo’s work was deemed too upsetting, too distressing for the generally public in America to view and the fact that in the medias eye the general public would not be interested in seeing these images, this leaves us with ‘celebrity journalism’ and if anything a dishonest picture of what is really happening.
From the beginning of photography some photographers have confronted life around them and shared the world they saw. Their photographs continue to remind us of our common humanity. Through their activism and witness they have hoped to change the world by their exposure of truth. Some of the first activist photography started in 1866 with the photographer Thomas Annan, as he was commissioned by the Glasgow City Improvement Trust to photograph slum areas; his images were the first thorough photographic representation made of dwelling places and inhabitants of an urban slum, these images where taken on the streets of Glasgow and represent a changing view in photography. This area was one of the worst urban slums in Brit...
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Ted.com. 2014. Sebastião Salgado: The silent drama of photography | Video on TED.com. [online] Available at: http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastiao_salgado_the_silent_drama_of_photography.html [Accessed: 2 Jan 2014].
Wells, L. 2003. The photography reader. London: Routledge.
Wells, L. 1997. Photography. London: Routledge.
From the film, “Documenting the Face of America: Roy Stryker and the FSA/OWI Photographers”, we, the viewer, are able to gain an understanding about all that the photographers witnessed and how they handled each of the situations they saw. Arthur Rothstein, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Carl Mydans, Edwin and Louise Rosskam, Gordon Parks, Jack Delano, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Esther Bubly, Russell Lee, John Collier Jr., Edwin Locke, and Walker Evans are the famous photographers that are discussed in this particular documentary. Almost all of the things that photographers witnessed while working on this project were things that people who lived in the city would never have seen unless they have visited or were originally from the country.
“The documentary tradition as a continually developing “record” that is made in so many ways, with different voices and vision, intents and concerns, and with each contributor, finally, needing to meet a personal text” (Coles 218). Coles writes “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” and describes the process of documenting, and what it is to be a documentarian. He clearly explains through many examples and across disciplines that there is no “fact or fiction” but it is intertwined, all in the eye of the maker. The documentarian shows human actuality; they each design their own work to their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and whom they want the art to appeal to. Coles uses famous, well-known photographers such as Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans, who show the political angle in their documentations and the method of cropping in the process of making the photo capture exactly what the photographer wants the audience to view. In this paper I will use outside sources that support and expand on Coles ideas with focus on human actuality, the interiority of a photograph, and the emotional impact of cropping.
“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.” (Albert Einstein). “Flavio’s Home,” written by Gordon Parks, can be considered one of Parks’ most memorable photography works. Parks’, enduring much hardship of his own as a teenager, turned his struggles around and used it as inspiration for others. His article tells of a twelve-year old boy and his family, stricken by poverty. Through an acutely informative and subtly persuasive article, Parks adequately uses pathos, diction, syntax, and imagery to tell his readers about why and how poverty “is the most savage of all human afflictions.” Speaking to his Life Magazine readers, Parks’ purpose for writing this article is to first
Thesis: Lewis Hine took social responsibility by using his skill in photography to expose dangerous working conditions and the lack of rights of children and women. His photographs led to greater awareness and new laws. Hine once said
It’s his compassion for his subjects and his commitment to them that surpasses the act of making a pretty picture. Spending days with his subjects in the slums of Harlem or the hardly developed mountains of West Virginia, he immerses himself into the frequently bitter life of his next award-winning photo. Often including word for word text of testimonials recorded by junkies and destitute farmers, Richards is able to provide an unbiased portrayal. All he has done is to select and make us look at the faces of the ignored, opinions and reactions left to be made by the viewer. Have you ever been at the beach safely shielded by a dark pair of sunglasses and just watched?
With assertive shouts and short tempers, the prominent character, Ricardo, is characterized as a feisty townsman, doing nothing except trying to protect his town and its members from the judgments of the western world. For example, the characterization of the “‘…quaint’” man is exemplified through the simplicity of his life and the fact that he is “‘…employed’” and is full of knowledge, not a “‘cow in the forest’” (55, 29, 32). Ricardo desperately wants to establish the notion that he is not a heartless, feebleminded man, only an indigent, simple man striving to protect his friends and family from the criticisms of callous cultures. Incessantly Ricardo attempts to make it clear to the photographer the irritation elicited by his prese...
5 Light, Ken. Tremain, Kerry. Witness in our Time: Working Lives of Documentary Photographers. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000.
The mass media carries with it unparalleled opportunities to impart information, but also opportunities to deceive the public, by misrepresenting an event. While usually thought of as falsifying or stretching facts and figures, manipulation can just as easily be done in the use of photography and images. These manipulations may be even more serious – and subtle – than written manipulations, since they may not be discovered for years, if ever, and can have an indelible and lasting impact on the viewer, as it is often said, “a picture is worth a thousand words”. One of the most significant images of Twentieth Century America was the photograph of a migrant mother holding her child. The photograph was taken during the Great Depression by photographer Dorothea Lange, and has remained an enduring symbol of the hardship and struggle faced by many families during the Depression Era. This image was also an example of the manipulation of photography, however, for it used two major forms of manipulation that remain a problem in journalistic photography.
Williams, Bruce. "The Reflection of a Blind Gaze: Maria Luisa Bemberg, Filmmaker." A Woman's Gaze: Latin American Women Artists. Ed. Marjorie Agosin. New York; White Pine Press, 1998. 171-90.
The author states that he was fortunate enough to have found the perfect job as a reporter which started his success as an advocate by documenting against the tenement conditions and way of life of the discriminated population. The author said that in his personal opinion “The words he wrote never matched the power of the photos he took beginning in 1888” there were contradictions in words and pictures. .the pictures incorporated in his many articles and books illuminated the context and “helped fuel investigative journalism and the Progressive movement in the early 1900s.” Burgan states that Riis work has an everlasting power worldwide and he admires him as a reporter, reformer and photographer.
"Salgado and Fine Art photojournalism." What Is to Be Done. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Oct. 2013.
London: Herbert Press, 2009. Print. The. Rennold Milbank, Caroline. Couture, The Great Designers.
Barnett, Peter. “The French Revolution in Art”. ArtId, January 7th 2009. Web. 5th May 2013.
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.
Encapsulated in a democratic homeland since the advent of time, media systems are habitually acclaimed as the “fourth power,” with its journalists often hailed as the “watch-dogs” of such a society. Lending itself to act as ‘gatekeeper’ for the wider society and performing the traditional role of journalism, the media (overall) exist as powerful “instruments of knowledge” that perform the function of providing information to the masses in a public sphere, where issues may be discussed, justified and contested (Scannell, 1995, p. 17). Evidently, media workers play a pivotal role in our society; however, their status in the realm of professions is not definite. Although the above emphasize the predicament at the heart of ...