Charity – Martha Rosler

https://holliwomble2.home.blog/

Brief:

Martha Rosler believed that the social conscience of well-meaning photographers such as Lewis Hine was not helping the social situation because it reinforced the gap between rich and poor. She argued that the need for the poor to rely on the rich for sustenance and social change is not beneficial in the long term and that it’s simply a way of reinforcing hierarchical structures imposed by capitalism.

“…which political battles have been fought and won by someone for someone else?” (Rosler (1981) in Bolton, 1992, p.307)

 Research:

Two of the documentary photographers referred to by Rosler who both photographed the poor in the late 1800s and early 1900s were; Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis. Each had a very different approach to their subject matter and offered different perspectives to their viewers.

Jacob Riis (1849 1914) “His (Riis’) work highlighted a world which was unseen by many of his readership “Riis was determined to show his readers that the vast majority of the poor were normal, hardworking people facing enormously adverse circumstances. As he visited the slums of New York, Riis made an effort to learn more about the various issues the poor faced, from the spread of disease to crime to overcrowding.” (eNotes.com.2019)

Jacob Riis’ book “How the Other Half Lives” combined his expose style of photography with moral and radical text. Martha Rosler’s opinion of such documentary photographers may well apply to Jacob Riis’ work. Riis produced images that were of a sensationalist nature (Bate.2009) and his work alone did not achieve any improvement in the lives of the people he photographed despite that being one of his aims. However, his work is recognised as the start of documentary photography. (Clarke 1997) And later documentary photography achieved far more.

Lewis Hine (1874-1940) reportedly declared himself as a “sociological photographer” (Clarke. 1997) Hine also photographed the poor, including; children working in factories, sweatshops, immigrants, etc. but he published his work in order to campaign for change. In describing Hine’s work Clarke wrote: “The figures remain ascendant, free of the propagandist or polemic intentions on the part of the photographer.” I see Hine’s work as “straight” photography rather than being artificially nuanced or created for effect. I would describe Hine’s approach as “outsider” photography although he still retains the trust of those that he photographed. Lewis Hine’s work is cited as helping to change child labour laws. (The Guardian. 2018)

My thoughts on Martha Rosler’s essay are complex. Rosler’s essay was written in 1981, almost 100 years after Riis’ infamous book was published. I think that the context in which we view these images is very different now to what it would have been at the time. Yes, there are essays written closer to the time but even these would only be the opinion of the writer. So, who is the most valid? The opinions of the writer or the opinions of the original photographer, or perhaps the editor of any publication that the images were seen in?

Rosler’s perspective appears to be entirely photography-centric, but I believe that it is the social structures and the perspective of different social classes that provide contextual “reality” and this would have been an experienced reality, clearly understood by most with or without photography. Any gap between the wealthy and the poor was there already and photographing it would have been unlikely to reinforce it.

Rosler’s argument is that the images are voyeuristic for upper-class consumption, but such voyeurism is only possible if a social class and wealth divide existed. Surely the wealthy classes were somewhat aware of the deprivation and suffering of the poor, even if the detail was not. Photography worked by bringing such issues to the forefront of societies consciousness in all of its gritty and uncomfortable details. Nevertheless, nothing seen would have come as a complete surprise to many, for daily life would bring the classes together, albeit on neutral ground with neither really venturing into the other’s territory.

A modern-day facsimile to this style of documentary photography are images taken from inside slaughterhouses or meat processing plants. Vegetarian/vegan interest groups will publish images in a sensationalist style, the meat industry, on the other hand, will publish very different ones. As a society, there are many people who will use one set of images or the other to justify and reinforce their beliefs. But the majority will recognise that there is truth in both positions and probably just try and distance the images from their thoughts. I doubt that the human condition has changed so much in 100 years, or that our thought process has evolved to such a high plane that we respond much differently now as to how we did then.

I would suggest that Riis and Hine’s photography exposed, highlighted, or brought clarity to the issues created by poverty. The term reinforcement suggests a shoring up or strengthening of the barriers between social classes rather than help break them down. Here, history demonstrates quite clearly that the severe differences between living standards of the social classes of the late 1800s and early 1900s no longer exist. Documentary photography has been recognised by many as helping with that change.

Rosler wrote her essay in 1981. She published a set of images in 2011 entitled “Greenpoint Project”. Her images are not sensational like Riis and not propaganda like Hine, but there is a similarity. Rosler shows us images of people from a poorer part of New York City. The images are personal, an insider’s perspective. They say to me “this is how it is” But isn’t the lack of shock or discomfort simply because the gap between wealthy and poor has diminished and most of society now sits in the comparatively comfortable middle ground. I am compelled to consider what if Rosler was born in the 1800’s? What would the context of her photographs have been then? Finally, I suggest that there are people in this world of sufficient wealth that for them Rosler’s images would be consumed in a voyeuristic way.

The bigger discussion rather than the debate over Riis and Hine’s work should be about society and the human condition in general with its inherent complexity and social intransigence. These problems far outweigh the impact of a small number of photographic images. That being said, you have to start a journey from somewhere. Riis and Hine were there at the beginning of a movement whose momentum grew over time to a point where society was changed for the better.

References:

Bate,D. (2009). Photography the Key Concepts. 1stEdition. Oxford: Berg

Clarke, G. (1997). The Photograph. 1stEdition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

eNotes Editorial. (2019) How the Other Half Lives – Overview. [Online] eNotes PublishingEd. eNotes.com, Inc. eNotes.com. Available from: http://www.enotes.com/topics/how-other-half-lives#overview-overview-1. Last Accessed 30/05/2019.

The Guardian. (2018). The photos that changed America: celebrating the work of Lewis Hine [Online] The Guardian Newspaper. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2018/feb/15/lewis-hine-photographs-child-labor-ellis-island. Last Accessed 30/05/2019

Rosler, M. (1981)  In, around and afterthoughts (on documentary photography) [Online]. available from: http://web.pdx.edu/~vcc/Seminar/Rosler_photo.pdf. Last Accessed 30/05/2019.

Rosler, M. Photos and Photomontages. [Online] Martharosler.net. Available from: http://www.martharosler.net/photo/index.html. Last accessed 30/05/2019.

 

 

 

 

 

1.1 Eyewitnesses?​

https://holliwomble2.home.blog/

Brief:

Find some examples of news stories where ‘citizen journalism’ has exposed or highlighted abuses of power. How do these pictures affect the story, if at all? Are these pictures objective? Can pictures ever be objective? Write a list of the arguments for and against. For example, you might argue that these pictures do have a degree of objectivity because the photographer (presumably) didn’t have time to ‘pose’ the subjects, or perhaps even to think about which viewpoint to adopt. On the other hand, the images we see in newspapers may be selected from a series of images and how can we know the factors that determined the choice of final image?

Think about objectivity in documentary photography and make some notes in your learning log before reading further.

Research:

  1. The Shooting of Walter Scott.
sc-police-shooting
CBS News (2015)

This terrible incident received global media coverage, it captures the moment just prior to a police officer shooting dead a black man as he is running away from him. The fact that this was a black man is important to the context of this image as it captured “violence inflicted on Black communities by the state” Black Lives Matter (2013)

I researched this image using several sources. I found that the context subtly changed depending upon the publisher. In general, the context of a “terrible crime being committed” (my words) ran throughout. The published image is a still taken from a video filmed by a bystander Feidin Santana a Dominican immigrant who was walking to work and observed the incident as it unfolded. Is the image Objective? I believe that the image is objective because the photographer captured it surreptitiously without the knowledge of the participants and could not have influenced the scene in any way. However, the image, and indeed the video from which it is taken is technically not entirely objective in that it didn’t show the lead up to the event. It is not clear whether this was through photographer choice or just being absent at the start. These considerations take nothing away from the fact that this image depicts a terrible event, which has since been recognised as murder, which shows the last few minutes of this young man’s life.

The image and video were later accepted by a court as incontrovertible proof that the accused’s account of events was highly inaccurate. So, in this case, the camera did not lie but the perpetrator did! The photographer cited for the video was Feidin Santana a Dominican immigrant who was walking to work. Without his evidence in the form of this video, it is highly likely that a grave miscarriage of justice would have ensued.

The context to the image on the CBS News website (CBS News (2015) was unsensational and balanced in its approach to the incident. A similar article on another website “Mother Jones” (mother jones 2017) couched it within a detailed and highly, in my opinion rightly, emotive description of the events and the trial.  The Mother Jones article recounts the event and the subsequent trial from a different but no less valid perspective, I personally see her perspective as more valid.

 

2. Glenn Mills Attacking his Wife.

PAY--Knife-wielding-main
Paul Hooper (2015)

The images shown here are again taken by the publisher from a video of the incident. Rather different to the previous image which depicts an abuse of power by the state, these images depict a man violently assaulting his wife. Are these images objective? Yes, I believe that the images themselves are because they came from a fixed camera which recorded the images automatically without human intervention. The presentation of the images, however, may not be objective. In this case, the images appeared in the Irish Mirror Newspaper, Irish Mirror (2015) and the description of events uses emotive language for sensationalism. Notwithstanding this, it was a serious incident and the images served as evidence in court for the prosecution of the offender.

 

3. Mentally ill man being Restrained.

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Nick McKenzie (2018)

This image appeared on the Australian news media website “The Age” The Age (2015). Again showing abuse of power by agents for the state, that being six police officers violently restraining a mentally ill citizen. Again this image came from a video of the incident. Is the image objective? I have to say yes because, again, they came from a fixed camera which recorded the images automatically without human intervention. The external context for the image, that is the text or reported story, is not objective in that it uses very emotive language and for a newspaper, where you would expect balanced reporting of facts, I found the reporting to be biased. Nevertheless, the video is extremely hard to watch and it is obvious that unnecessary force and incidents of physical abuse took place. Interestingly the still images of the incident are easier to view than the video footage because they do convey in a single frame the violence of the event or the demeanor of the police officers involved.

Reflection

I found it harder than you might think to find still photographs taken by citizen photographers. I thought that with the ubiquity of mobile phones encouraging people to photograph incidents there would be lots of examples. However, these citizens who are both unfortunate enough to witness and brave enough to stay and record the event prefer video to stills capture.

The use of mobile phones to capture abuse of power on the part of the state spawned the use of “body cameras” for many services such as the police, fire service even traffic wardens. Is this big brother in action? or beneficial use of technology? The use of devices to capture images of events on both sides or any dispute or incident feels like digital imaging warfare with footage used for proof of guilt or innocence. It is yet to be seen if the use of such devices or knowledge of their use will reduce abuses of power by those that can. Only time will tell.

Whilst the video footage has a very strong narrative the still images are entirely flexible in their’s and are dependent upon the context of the accompanying text for the viewer to make sense of them. For example here are three fictional headlines that would completely change the narrative of the image:

  1. Violent Offender Brought Down by Brave Wounded Cop!
  2. Psychotic Woman on Rampage Disarmed by Brave bystander!
  3. Violent Robbery Suspect Finally Felled by Victoria Police!

Using these images for such stories would be morally intolerable, but the point is that the photographer is not in control of the image once it is released into the media and it is possible for it to be used in very different contexts to the original intention.

Bibliography

Crimesider Staff. (2015).S.C. police officer charged for shooting caught on tape. [online]. CBS News. Available from: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mayor-south-carolina-police-officer-charged-with-murder-in-shooting-after-traffic-stop/ . Last accessed 16/05/2019.

Black Lives Matter. (2013). Black Lives Matter Website. [online]. Black Lives Matter. Available from: https://blacklivesmatter.com/about/herstory/. Last Accessed 16/05/2019.

Michael Sokolove. (2017). What Does It Take To Convict a Cop?. [online]. Mother Jones. Available from: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/michael-slager-trial-walter-scott-police-shooting-north-charleston-south-carolina-3/.Last Accessed 16/05/2019.

Nick McKenzie. (2018). Beaten, abused, humiliated and filmed by Victoria Police. [online]. The Age. Available from: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/05/michael-slager-trial-walter-scott-police-shooting-north-charleston-south-carolina-3/. Last Accessed 16/05/2019.

Paul Hooper. (2015). Drunken husband caught on camera holding knife to wife’s throat as she fights for her life. [online]. Irish Mirror. Available from: https://www.irishmirror.ie/news/world-news/drunken-husband-caught-camera-holding-5198491. Last Accessed 16/05/2019.