Out of the readings by Hine, Stieglitz, and Strand the reading that I most enjoyed was “Social Photography” by Lewis W. Hine. Before reading this essay, I hadn’t really thought about photography having “social” purposes. So far, we have only discussed photography for enjoyment as an art form that was mainly for people of a higher class.
His method of which he started the essay I believe is very effective. He creates a scenario of harsh working conditions in which he makes a situational aspect more personal. This helped greatly as the reader, to be able to think about a different perspective on life and be able to relate a bit more closely to the topic of this essay. He quickly delves into the idea that a photograph “carries its own lesson”. I feel that is a powerful statement that holds much truth, especially in the social area of photography, there is much to be learned from a photo of child labor or a grown man tirelessly working at a mill.
With social photography, Hine argues, that “the photography has an added realism of its own; it has an inherent attraction not found in other forms of illustration.” This is an interesting aspect to think about because with social cases the camera is capturing real life scenarios, not just people posing for a photo or an abstract view of a city. Social photography is captured in the real, within the moment of which the event is created, and it holds so much expression and emotion that is not possible to capture in a normal photo. Social photography in a sense tells a story and acts as a “record of the past”. The point and purpose of social photography is for one to get a camera, see new things, learn of new things, and expand your knowledge and mind altogether.
1 comment:
"Social Photography" was a very interesting piece to read.It seems we have become so caught up in the argument over photography as an art that Hine seems to come out of nowhere sugesting that photographers actually use photography to "show or document conditions of life amond American's working classes". I was caught off guard that someone was actually trying to do something more productive with photography than merely work to imitate art. He speaks of raching to the public and how they are just now starting to find ways to reach the public. This works well with his argument that now photographers can raech the public with their pictures of oppresion. But Hine does seem to doubt photography a little, however. Hine writes that though photographs do not lie "liars may photograph" and this was really interesting to me. I hadn't thought about this. I look in the newspaper and i just take a picture as being true because there is not much that you can do to arrange the world around you. But Hine makes the observation that many photographs have been faked. Overall I thought this article intersting and different from others that he have read recently. I also thought that it differed a lot from the other article that we read as well by Stieglitz who only spoke of photography as an art and the fact that the masses can participate. Whereas Hine was speaking of photographing the masses.
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