Annotation
History of Social Documentary Photography
Instructor: Fedora Parkmann
Although the word “documentary” did not come into wide usage until filmmaker John Grierson’s definition in 1926, and the practice of a socially concerned documentary photography did not gain prominence until the 1930s, social documentary does find its roots in nineteenth-century philanthropic photography and naturalism in art. Taking as its point of departure the use of photography as visual evidence of the social world in the nineteenth century, this course examines the aesthetic and technical means that photographers devised in order to criticize, improve or change society, from the inception of photography to the end of the twentieth century.
While social documentary has so far been mostly associated with American photography, recent scholarship suggests that such authors as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange or Walker Evans should be put in perspective with worker photography in Central Europe and photographic developments in the Soviet Union. Analyzing the discourses that have defined social documentary approaches, this course questions the role of photography in promoting class interests, its use as a tool of propaganda and its relationship to power.
Each session will include a lecture, a short discussion on a recommended reading, and an oral presentation by a student.