Question

Explain the affect(s) photography has had on documenting history and the evolution of Social Documentation. Name at least 2 well-known photographers who are famed for their examples of social documentation.

Answer 1

Until around the time of the Civil War, society and history could only be documented using writing and storytelling. Photography has allowed for visual documentation of social situations. Many artists’ works have been created in an attempt to cause some change. Famous photographers of Social Documentation include: Ansel Adams, Walker Evans, Matthew Brady, and Dorothea Lange.

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Answer 2

Photography had a profound impact on history because it was a way to take an authentic visual testimony about vital social issues that history talks about. What history talks about, photography shows. It is one thing to write about wars, for example, and it's a totally different thing to take a photo of the battlefield and allow thousands of people to really see what is happening there. The social documentary photography is always socially engaged. One of the earliest and most notable examples is Jacob Riis' "How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York" (1890). It was a publication that documented the lives of New York's poorest social class - immigrant workers. Another example would be the famous, Pulitzer-winning photo "Napalm Girl" taken by Nick Ut, in the Vietnam war. Hundreds of pages of text wouldn't have been able to capture the destructive force of war in such a compelling way as this photo did.