| The origins of so-called documentary photography (a term originating for the first time in the USA towards the middle of the 1930s to describe the activities of the Farm Security Administration photographers) can be traced back to England in 1877 with the publication of a book called Street Life in London, jointly written by John Thomson and Adolph Smith and illustrated with 37 photographs taken by Thomson in the poor areas of the capital. The images included, developed using Woodbury's refined technique, guarantied that the book had a considerable impact on the general public because of the charge of authenticity and immediacy that the photographs carried.
When one mentions social or documentary photography in the United States one immediately thinks of names like Jacob A.Riis, Lewis W.Hine and the photographers of Farm Security Administration (Fsa), a structure born in the time of the Great Depression at the behest of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. It was organised and directed by the economist Roy E.Stryker.
Among the most important authors in terms of quality and quantity we would do well to recall Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn (perhaps better known as a painter), Arthur Rothstein, Jack Delano, Gordon Parks, John Vachon, Marion Post Wolcott, Carl Mydans, Russel Lee, Palmer, Paul Carter and John Collier.
(© 1997 M.Berlincioni)
Bibliography | |
