Documentary and social reform
I found (2nd hand) the book "In This Proud Land" By Roy Emerson Stryker and Nancy Wood (1973, Galahad Books, New York City). The subtitle is "America 1935-1943 as seen in the FSA photographs".
For eight years a group of photographers produced around 270.000 pictures. Among them, Carl Mydans, Walker Evans, Ben Shahn and, in a second time, Dorothea Lange and Arthur Rothstein.
Even if, according to Stryker "......Every day was for me an education and a revelation....." (pag 7) and "....If I had to sum it up, I'd say, yes, it was more education than anything else..." (pag 9), the task given to the photograpers was clear: document the Great Depression's impact by photos of people, lands, buildings.
Stryker's intent is confirmed when he declares "...I have not chosen the greatest pictures... although og the greatest ones are included. I have chosen not on the basis of the artistic merit of a picture but on the basis of what each one represents to me in terms of intent..." (pag 21).
There are several photos of aesthetic impact, but the entire set of selected photograps, taken as a whole, reflect the intent of sending a message about what happened "In this proud land" during the Great Depression.
We know that the picture in page 18 (IX. Lange, Migrant mother, Nipomo, California, 1936) was changed in place and context, so I could argue that other pictures had the same processing, in order to reach the objective.
However if we disregard the naked reality (that is supposed to be photojoutnalism) and then focus on the message and the storytelling, most if not all the pictures are functional to the overall context of this book.
This was the goal, I believe, but I remember what I read about Susan Sontag in La Grange, A. (2005) Basic Critical Theory for Photographers. Burlington, MA: Focal Press: ".....She describes the camera as '.....the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood' (p.4)" (p.30). And again: "Photographs are not interpretations like writing and handmade images. Photograps seem to be pieces of reality that one can own...." (p.30).
In "In this proud land", who owns the reality, if the reality sounds to have been manipulated, at least in the text surrounding pictures?
This was the goal, I believe, but I remember what I read about Susan Sontag in La Grange, A. (2005) Basic Critical Theory for Photographers. Burlington, MA: Focal Press: ".....She describes the camera as '.....the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood' (p.4)" (p.30). And again: "Photographs are not interpretations like writing and handmade images. Photograps seem to be pieces of reality that one can own...." (p.30).
In "In this proud land", who owns the reality, if the reality sounds to have been manipulated, at least in the text surrounding pictures?
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page 27, 6, Lee, Wife of a homesteader; Woodbury County, Iowa
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