Photography as Evidence

Documentary Photography

Throughout the history of photography it has been used to capture not only people portraits and beautiful landscapes but it has also been used to capture the truth.

"Photography, a medium of observation by its nature, became a major element of the recording apparatus and enlarged jurisdiction that hospitals, guardian agencies, and bureaucracies acquired as the nineteenth century progresses. In effect, photography became another instrument of arsenal of authority, an instrument of surveillance and control. The nineteenth century laid the foundations for an information era, in which knowledge is power and photography a crucial form of knowledge",

(Vicki Goldberg, „The Power of Photography‟, Abbeville Press, 1991, p. 61).

Death of a Loyalist Soldier, [1936]
"If your pictures aren't good enough you are not close enough"

- Robert capa

Robert Capa travelled into battlefields to capture his astounding photographs of soldiers falling to the ground as they died. This is Documentary photography at it's finest and most extreme. It can be seen as evidence of the effects of war aswell. 

Girl worker in Carolina cotton mill, [1908]

"I had to show what it was really like…The photograph has an added realism of its own…the average person believes that the camera cannot falsify."

- Lewis Hine

Lewis Hine used his photography to capture evidence of the conditions children were working in at the mills. From 1908 - 1912, Hine travelled around America photographing children from as young as three working long hours, in horrible and dangerous conditions at factories, mills and mines.

Semiotic's - Reading The Signs

This is a continuation of the semiotic idea's used when analysising photography.
In this post i'm going to cover the following new terms that we have been introduced to:

• Signs and Significations: Signifier and Signified
• Iconic and Arbitrary (or Symbolic)
• Paradign and Syntagm



Signs and Significations

Signification = The process of signs being made, noticed and understood.

Signs = Signifier (physical form) and Signified (Mental concept)

The example given to us in the lecture was Cat.

The Sign is 'cat'. The Signifier is 'c-a-t' (spoken, written, tpyed) or an image of a cat (drawn, photographed, filmed). The Signified is the concept of a furry, four- legged, mouse killing animal.

Iconic and Arbitrary

Iconic and Arbitrary are used to idenitfy how close to the real thing an image is.

Iconic: how close a sign is to 'the real thing', how constrained it is by the thing it represents.

For example, these two images both represent Winston Churchill, however the photographed image is typically iconic as it is closer to the 'real thing' than the caricatured doodled version.

Arbitrary: how far away a sign is from 'the real thing', how unconstrained it is by the thing it represents.

For example, a person's name has no physical resemlance to their face but is less arbitrary than a employee number.

Paradigm and Syntagm

Paradigm: A set of signs available to be used in a context (e.g. the paradigm of landscape, clothing, or food)

Syntagm: The particular selection of signs (from the paradigm(s) which are available (e.g. a costal landscape, late afternoon, in the rain, from a low angle, red shoes, fish-net stockings, grey jumper, furry hat; cheese, pickle and a wedge of granary bread)

Paradigm signs are sets that are open and generally unspecific. The paradigm of landscape leaves the sign open to be any type of landscape, however the syntagm is very particular and specific and can change the whole feeling and story behind an image. What was originally just a landscape is now a costal landscape in the rain, late afternoon. Syntagm gives an image/ sign whole new depth.

Analysis - The Photographers Eye

In 'Introduction to the Photographer Eye', John Szarkowski simplified analysising a photograph into 5 topics (for use of a better word).

• The Thing Itself
• The Detail
• The Frame
• The Time
• The Vantage Point

The Thing Itself



When analysising a picture we look at the photograph and what it is capturing in it's frame. We look at what the object(s) infront of the camera are, for example this picture above (Lunch Atop a Skyscaper [1932], Charles C. Ebbets) is literally capturing 11 men eating lunch, seated on a girder with their feet dangling hundreds of feet above the New York streets.  There are no hidden messages in the image, and you don't need any background history about the image to understand what it is portraying.

The Detail

When analysising a photograph we look at the details of the image to understand and feel the full effect of what is being captured. One part of the image represents the whole, but without that 'part' the whole has a completely different effect and meaning. For example this photograph (My Fathers Coat, New York City, [2001], Robert Frank) was purposely shot in 3 different images, without the final image these photographs appear to be just photographs of the photographer's father's coat, but the close up 'detail' of the 3rd photograph gives the three images a whole new meaning to the viewer.

The Frame

When looking at the image inside the frame of some photographs you will only understand what has been captured by the photographer as a preservation of a moment in the outside of the frame. For example, inside the frame of this photograph (The plight of Kosovo refugees [1999], Carol Guzy) a child being passed over a barbed wire fence, but without the knowledge that outside the frame this is a Kosovar refugee being passed through a barbed wire fence into the hands of grandparents at a camp run by United Arab Emirates in Kukes, Albania, we wouldn't understand or be effected by the image as was the photographers intention.

The Time

'subject was there but is here now' - Roland Barthes

When looking at a photograph we look at the time the photograph was taken and sometimes analysise how the image relates from then to now. For example, this photograph (Afghan Girl [1984], Steve McCurry) was taken in a rare moment because the faces of Afghan girls were mainly well-covered around men, this was and still is a tradition for women in Afghan.

The Vantage Point

The vantage point is essential in making the viewer feel like they are really at the scene of the image. The position of the camera, is like positioning your audience. For example, this photograph (Omaha Beach, Normandy, France [1944], Robert Capa) was taken on the beach on the morning of D-Day, The position of the photographyer and therefore the camera successfully positions the viewer on Omaha beach with the soldiers as they fought their way forward.

Semiotics - What are they?

We've started learning about Semiotics in Media Histories and Cultures, as part of Photography theories. But what are Semiotics?

"Semiotics, also called semiotic studies or semiology, is the study of cultural sign processes (semiosis), analogy, metaphor, signification and communication, signs and symbols." - Wikipedia

Lets take this photo taken by photographer Nick Ut for example. The Denotations of this image are; Vietemiese children, scared, running, naked, soldiers. The Connotation is that these children are running away scared from something in the distance and these soldiers are escorting them down the road. However what they are running from cannot be seen, but The Myth of this photo is known that this photo was taken during the Vietnam war after a naplam attack in South Vietnam.

This is just one example and just one set of semiotic Idea's. There are more sets to learn and use to analyse images.