Exercise - Brett Rogers - Documentary Dilemmas

BRETT ROGERS - DOCUMENTARY DILEMMAS

The images can be seen here here...


The exhibition traced the development of Documentary Practice over a decade to 1993.  There was 80 works and 13 artists, and they were all selected by Brett Rogers.

In Bretts essay she tells that the term documentary was not coined until the 1920's and then it was used by a british film maker referring to moving pictures.  Defined as ' the systematic recording of visual reality for the purpose of providing information and encouraging understanding of the world.
There was a belief that a photograph represents a 'slice of reality', easily understood by the viewer.

Photographers as far back as 1876, John Thomson - Street Life - were using documentary, up to the present day.  This new aesthetic found its most persuasive outlet through mass produced magazines.
In time however pressure from advertisers curtailed the independence of creative photographers.

Mass Observation was designed to emulate the radical achievements of the worker- photography movement.
The side gallery Newcastle  philosophy is that an authentic document can only be generated by those familiar with the local community.

Across the atlantic the more enduring legacy of ethics and status was found in the work of the photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration, to document the plight of the American rural poor during the depression.
Others used sign and symbols - they chose to portray people, situations and artefacts in a casual and objective way that allowed the viewer to interpret the work freely. This strategy became known as the 'snapshot aesthetic' ..




http://collection.britishcouncil.org/whats_on/exhibition/11/14136


http://www.oca-student.com/resource-type/changingbritain


http://www.foto8.com/live/anna-fox-photographs-1983-2007-2/


TONY RAY JONES - A DAY OFF 


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=tony+ray+jones+a+day+off&client=safari&rls=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=dSf5Uv-7H6ev7Qb68oHoBQ&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=1178&bih=609