Brief
The glossary you started to build in Project 1 will most likely exist as a list of terms which help you to construct, define and classify. However, these terms can also be considered as the beginning of marking out a territory for any work.Your glossary can help you as you start to build a map, or diagram, which includes the broad theme you are investigating, noting some of the key terms, theories and practitioners whose work may overlap or have strands of practice which sit in different territories.
Response
Following Exercise 2[1], the following terms are added to my glossary.
Reformism – the approach of documentary photographers to drive some form of social change through their work. Covers the revealing of something kept hidden or disregarded by society – bringing to light a subject that is uncomfortable or disturbing to shock people into changing the status quo.
Concerned – the concerned photographer who is personally bought into the issue that they are revealing, e.g. Salgado and his documenting of the fragility of his immediate environment as well as the planet[2].
Compassion Fatigue – the saturation of a message through imagery where the senses are overwhelmed. Example of my own experience at the Don McCullin exhibition [2].
Advocacy – linked to reformism, but more about the photographer trying to act on behalf of the subject. Example – Lewis Hine accessing the textile mills under an assumed identity to photograph the child workers. Hine was giving voice to the children who were an accepted and forgotten element of textile production at the time[2].
Mass Observation – large scale documentary projects aimed at social anthropology. Voyerisitic observation of people, their places in society and the context of their surroundings. Grandiose ideas similar to Sander’s portraits of Germans and their professions, but more emphasis on ‘the camera sees’
Self – the concept of one’s identity as actively portrayed through photography. The pursuit of the perfect representation of how we see ourselves. The ideas that we can portray ourselves in terms of our ambitions or alignment with cultural expectation. Example – ‘Come to Dubai’ and ‘Sober for..’ [3]. Transformational identities where artists become someone else to challenge assumptions about gender, race or sexuality. Examples: Jo Spence and Rosy Martin [3].
Theatre of Self – presenting an aspect of our identity and it affects our lives. Peter Mansell’s series’ about his disability[2] which don’t tell the complete story of his identity, but give an insight to those who are not familiar to the struggles of it.
Voyeurism – Martin Parr admitted to being voyeuristic in his approach to photography and highlighted the way that other photographers tend to avoid the term. His work is a blend of very carefully observed and composed images with the aesthetic of a family snapshot. It’s become a visual code in its own right.
Links to Padlets
[1] richardfletcherphotographyblog (2022) Project 3: Exercise 2: Reviewing your broad themes. At: https://richardfletcherphotography.photo.blog/2022/06/26/project-3-exercise-2-reviewing-your-broad-themes/ (Accessed 09/07/2022).
Richard Fletcher OCA Photography Blog 