Exercise: Elizabeth McCausland essay.

Exercise One: Elizabeth McCausland 1939 article.

• Documentary photography has a long history separate from other photographic movements.
• Photographers are at their freshest when taking in the new.
• Documentary photography is the application of photography direct and realistic, dedicated to the profound and sober chronicling of the external world.
• Documentary photography is hard edged.
• Documentary photography is different from the picturesque in that it includes the whole sordid picture not just the pretty bits.
• The camera is a liar.  It is the role of the photographer to reveal the true image.
• Even  when taking documentary photographs there is nothing to prevent the photographer making a pleasing image.
• In 1939, when this article was written, the opportunities for publishing documentary images in the USA was limited by a system of self imposed censorship.  Surprisingly the main users of documentary photographers were the Farm Security Administration and the Federal Arts Project.
• The first use of photography was merely to record, only later did it confuse itself with art.  Photographers lost interest in this fairly quickly and realised that there was a whole new world which could be photographed.
• Photography is related to reality but is free from the literal truth.
• As times change so do art movements.  At the time of writing emotional art was out and literal art was in.  Both were seen in photographs in all their gory detail.
• Some artists and photographers are incapable of documentary images while others revel in it and must tell the truth as they see it and communicate that truth.
• Nothing is better than the camera at capturing the truth.  Everything in the frame is recorded.
• The subjects for photographer are limitless and is up to the photographer’s skill and imagination to make a successful image.
• The documentary photographer must seek to reveal the truth without adding his voice to the image.

It would be easy to say that documentary photography is photography with the art taken out but that just isn’t true.  Images that reveal the truth can still display a pleasing aesthetic quality.  Truth need not be artless.  This as true today as it was in 1939.