R.M

Rachel McClure, Research Blog - Contextual Studies 

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The photographs that moved the world to tears – and to take action | Sean O’Hagan

Pictures of Aylan Kurdi have come to define the refugee crisis. But can certain images desensitise us?

This is a great article to accompany my thoughts and feelings that I have touched on during this research. 

It’s truly incredible the affect that one image can have on the world. I didn’t predict that my research would take me down this path but I am grateful it has. It highlights the importance of photography and the incredible work that photographers have done and continue to do to this day. 

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Aylan Kurdi - 2015 

“Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about, but doubt, seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility, the camera record incriminates…In another version of its utility, the camera record justifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible proof that a given thing happened. The picture may distort; but there is always a presumption that something exists, or did exist, which is like what’s in the picture…While a painting or prose description can never be other than a narrowly selective interpretation, a photograph can be treated as a narrowly selective transparency…Even when photographers are most concerned with mirroring reality, they are still haunted by tacit imperatives of taste and conscience…In deciding how a picture should look, in preferring one exposure to another, photographers are always imposing standards on their subjects. Although there is a sense in which the camera does indeed capture reality, not just interpret it, photographs are as much an interpretation of the work as paintings and drawings are.”

Susan Sontag On Photography

When researching more recent influential images I came across this devastating image taken by Nilüfer Demir in 2015 during the onging Syrian Refugee crisis. I remember seeing this image in newspapers, on tv and all over the internet. It was a moment when the world stopped and looked and then HAD to act. When looking at the reality of the situation at hand the world couldn't continue to turn a blind eye.

“Demir’s image whipped around social media within hours, accumulating potency with every share. News organizations were compelled to publish it—or publicly defend their decision not to. And European governments were suddenly compelled to open closed frontiers. Within a week, trainloads of Syrians were arriving in Germany to cheers, as a war lamented but not felt suddenly brimmed with emotions unlocked by a picture of one small, still form.” 

This is only one of many example of how photography can change the world. This little boy should not have ended up on this coastline, however his death brought about change for so many others, because of him others live. Thanks to Nilufer Demir being brave enough to take the image. “There was nothing left to do for him. There was nothing left to bring him back to life,” she said. So Demir raised her camera. "I thought, This is the only way I can express the scream of his silent body." 

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Nick Ut - Napalm Girl (Uncropped)

Looking at how a picture can make real change put me in mind of Nick Ut’s Napalm Girl. This iconic image taken during the Vietnamese War. 

The fear and anguish of these children fleeing from their homes is an image that stays with you. This young girl screaming in fear or pain (or both), her clothes been burned from her after a plane dropped Napalm on her village. 

This image demonstrates the harsh reality of war and the innocent victims. It was circulated in America on the front cover of many newspapers and reportedly changed the opinions on the war of many people. 

The Vietnamese allowed it to be perceived that America was responsible for this attack when in reality it was an accidental drop by their own. This was used as a catalyst for change. In a few months the war was ended. Ut made it a personal mission to take a photograph that could end the war. 

“Ut reached for his spare camera and took the shot. Then he covered Phuc with a raincoat from a nearby soldier, trundled her into his car and drove her to the hospital, saving her life.

Later, Ut would say that when he pressed the shutter button, he thought of his brother. That he actually heard La's voice whispering, "Stop the war."

"I told him, 'I have the picture you are thinking about,' " Ut recalls now. "And everything came true."

Six months later, the war did stop. In January 1973, the United States, North Vietnam and South Vietnam signed the Paris cease-fire agreement” 

http://www.laweekly.com/news/nick-uts-napalm-girl-helped-end-the-vietnam-war-today-in-la-hes-still-shooting-4861747

This is another incredible example of how one image can hold so much power and can change so much. Some would say it is the photograph that ended a war. What amazing power we have as photographers. 

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“The Auschwitz Album is the only surviving visual evidence of the process leading to the mass murder at Auschwitz-Birkenau. It is a unique document and was donated to Yad Vashem by Lilly Jacob-Zelmanovic Meier.

The photos were taken at the end of May or beginning of June 1944, either by Ernst Hofmann or by Bernhard Walter, two SS men whose task was to take ID photos and fingerprints of the inmates (not of the Jews who were sent directly to the gas chambers). The photos show the arrival of Hungarian Jews from Carpatho-Ruthenia. Many of them came from the Berehovo Ghetto, which itself was a collecting point for Jews from several other small towns.”

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"I made photographs of young women for Dr Mengele. I was aware that they were going to die. They didn't know - to photograph these women and to know that they were going to die was so highly distressing. They were so full of life and so beautiful ..." Wilhelm Brasse 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/20/secondworldwar.warcrimes

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Wilhelm Brasse 1941

The Erkennungsdienst, was a department within Auschwitz to photograph the inmates that were brought in. Brasse was a polish and he refused to bow down to the nazi regime so therefore was taken prisoner. He had been a photographer before the war and spoke decent German, therefore he was assigned the role of camp photographer. In a well equipped studio he and a few other inmates made these mugshots. 

I found these images completely disturbing. To have a log of the inmates that were to ultimately be lead to their death was so sinister and heartbreaking. Upon further research of the ‘Auschwitz Photographer’ I came across an incredible and somewhat heroic story.

The more I read of Brasse, I was becoming filled with anger at the atrocious and evil acts that he had to document and I became confused at why he would day in and day out do the bidding of these demonic men. Especially documenting the sinister surgeries and medical practice of Dr Josef Mengele, a deranged and truly disturbed doctor that would do heinous acts on the inmates in the name of science and medical research. 

“Mengele said he wanted me to photograph some of those he was experimenting on. They’d bring the women into the room and strip them naked, then inject them with a kind of anesthetic – unless they were Jewish, in which case experiments would be performed without anesthesia,” he stated.

When the war was ending those that had ordered Brasse and the others to have photographed these horrendous deeds throughout their time there then demanded that the negatives and prints had to be burned and all evidence destroyed. Brasse & Jureczek (another prisoner) had been hiding the negatives around the camp all along. They began to take unauthorised images of bodies burning and the mass murders and they sent them beyond Auschwitz asking for help. All of this added to end of the pain and suffering of so many. 

“Jureczek described what happened: "We put wet photographic paper and then photographs and negatives into a tile stove in such large numbers as to block the exhaust outlet. This ensured that when we set fire to the materials in the stove only the photographs and negatives near the stove door would be consumed, and that the fire would die out due to the lack of air. Moreover I had deliberately scattered a number of photographs and negatives in the room of the lab. I knew that with the hurried evacuation of the camp, no one would have time to gather them all and that something would survive." Thanks to the ingenuity of Jureczek and Brasse, around 40,000 of them did survive, and are kept at Auschwitz museum.” 

These negatives and prints were used to convict thousands of Nazi’s after the war. Without these prints and negatives there would have been no hard evidence and so many would have got away with it. I love the justice that those that ordered these images be taken were then convicted using these very same images as evidence. 

https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/nazis-auschwitz-man-named-wilhelm-brasse.html

http://auschwitz.org/en/museum/about-the-available-data/prisoners-photos

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2005/jan/20/secondworldwar.warcrimes

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See the Story Behind The 'Migrant Mother' Photo

The iconic image became the most influential photo of the Great Depression

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Happy birthday to Dorothea Lange! In 1936, Lange took five exposures of Florence Owens Thompson and her children with a Graflex camera. 📷 Dorothea Lange — film negative, California, March 1936.

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Dorothea Lange - Migrant Mother

As previously mentioned one of the eleven photographers commissioned by the FSA was Dorothea Lange.

Her images were highly emotive, especially this image titled ‘Migrant Mother.’ The Migrant Mother became known as the face of the depression. I love this image because it really encapsulates the feelings of not only this mother but of America at that time. The body language of both her and the children, the tired and weary eyes. She looks as if she’s looking beyond her circumstances, waiting in hope of a better future.

Florence Thompson, better known as Lange’s Migrant Mother, was 32 when this photograph was taken. Her husband had died and she was alone with 3 children. She would work as a farm hand, picking whatever was in season. Long, hard hours earning very little to supply for her children. She would go hungry to give to her children. They spent time living under a bridge, she sold her tyres off her car to buy food, this was the harsh reality for so many families living in America at this time. Lange described this photograph as a collaboration with Florence. Together they brought about real change for so many people.

What I found very sad was despite so much change happening for a lot of families, Florence never really received any, she struggled her entire life. However, her kids eventually sought opportunities and became working class one day buying their mother a house, however, Florence chose to remain in a trailer.

It’s a sad truth that this image had huge impact and effected so much in a positive way yet never helped the migrant mother herself.

When speaking of this image Lange commented: “I knew I had recorded the essence of my assignment.” this image was just that to Lange, part of an assignment. This image was a huge contribution to the work the FSA was doing and it also gave Lange massive recognition in her career.  Thompson was never bitter about the lack of help she received, her only reason for allowing Lange to photograph her was to bring about change for others.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/stories/articles/2014/4/14/migrant-mother-dorothea-lange/

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Walker Evans 

I love this Walker Evans image, it shows the dire poverty and tough conditions that these people were living in. The expressions are so real, even as this is a set up image and they were aware of it being taken their true emotions show. You don't get the sense that they're putting it on, they're just being entirely honest. Evans had an eye for detail more than emotion. He was quite mechanical in comparison to Dorothea Lange who looked for the emotion in an image. 

This image was taken during the time of the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA was an effort to tackle rural poverty in America during the Depression. Eleven Photographers where assigned the mission to go out and document the conditions of the farming workers at that time between 1935-1944. Between this period the eleven photographers produced 250,000 images. Nearly half of these images can be found archived in the Library of Congress. 

These images became widespread and were seen as a truthful representation of the depression in America. 

“I was very innocent about government, about Washington,” he says in the video. “I did it so carelessly — I just photographed everything that attracted me at the time… and rather unconsciously was recording that period. I didn’t think of it as such. The work piled up, and some of it is looked at now as a record that I wasn’t even thinking of making.” Walker Evans on his work at this time 

https://petapixel.com/2016/06/21/hear-walker-evans-reflect-great-depression-photos/

In the same way that Eugene Smith’s images brought about change the images taken by Evans and the others during the FSA photography program brought about big change to the conditions and working practices of farm workers. 

Roy Stryker was the head of the FSA, he was a government official and a photographer so he realised the importance and force these images could have. He wanted images to back up the FSA message that rural poverty could be controlled by changing land practices. 

These images were primarily intended to back up the mission of the FSA but as the years have gone on these images have served as a record of a significant time in American history, the subjects of some of these images becoming the face of the Depression. 

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Description of the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information (FSA-OWI) Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress. History of the New Deal photographic unit and its creation of documentary images from 1935 to 1943, which portray ...

Library of Congress. 

Fewer than half of the 250,000 images survived and are housed in the Prints and Photographs Division of the Library of Congress. The Library has placed all 164,000 developed negatives online.

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Whether he is an artist or not… Walker Evans

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Farm Security Administration - Wikipedia

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Reflection

I have found with each image that research can take you in a lot of different directions. Starting with no fixed theme I wanted my research to lead me and to follow what really interests me. I loved the work of Julia Margaret Cameron and so she seemed like the best photographer to start with. I have navigated through child photography, briefly researching the ethics and morals of using children in campaigns. I think in regards to the likes of Robert Capa, Lewis Hine, Eugene Richards and more recently Jonas Bendiksen & Marco Veraschi they work/worked in a way that brought about true change. In an authentic and respectful manner. During my research I came across the Bernardo’s campaign pictures from over the years and I began to wonder just how effective they are. Eugene Smith’s images caught up with me emotionally, but there was something forced about these other images. I have enjoyed looking at how an image can change the world. I am currently looking at how photography is used as an evidence of truth starting with Walker Evans and the FSA. 

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Tomoko Uemura in her bath - Eugene Smith

Just as Marco Veraschi’s work shone a light on a very prominent issue it reminded me of the work of Eugene Smith. Eugene aimed for complete truthful documentary photography during his career. His fathers suicide had been represented untruthfully in the newspapers and this drove Eugene to strive for complete honesty with his work. He felt very strongly about putting himself out there in dangerous situations if it meant that change could come about through his images. 

“...but if it might change man’s mind against war, then I feel that it would be worth my life.” https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/03/w-eugene-smith-i-didnt-write-the-rules-why-should-i-follow-them/

After visiting Minamata in Japan, Eugene & his wife Aileen were both struck by the damage being done through mercury poisoning. A Japanese company called Chisso had been releasing mercury into the ocean causing major water pollution. The image above became one of Eugene’s most famous images. Tomoko was born with severe birth defects after mercury entered her blood stream through the placenta, this left her blind, deaf and with no use in her legs. 

The stunning image of Tomoko and her mother undoubtably leaves a lasting impression. It was such a powerful photograph and it brought world wide attention to the issue in Minamata. What is such a gentle picture had the power to act as a catalyst for change in Japan. The work went on to reveal a huge coverup involving the dumping of raw sewage into water supplies.

http://www.documentingmedicine.com/minamata-the-story-of-the-poisoning-of-a-city/

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Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Georgia.

Looking at Marco Veraschi’s work and reading about the change he made in the lives of many children, especially Aixa, put me in mind of the work of Lewis Hine. 

This is one of my favourite images of Hine’s. I love the contrast of the petite boys climbing on this enormous machinery. You instantly cringe at the sight of a young child working in these dangerous conditions. This one boy isn't even wearing shoes and you can see there’s not much room for his feet to grip on. 

Hine used his camera and his skills as a photographer as a tool for social reform. He wanted desperately for these working conditions to be bettered for these children. 

This picture was taken in Georgia. Hines comments on this image saying: “Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Georgia.’ http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/

‘In 1910 there were approximately two million children under the age of 15 working in the U.S. But by the early 1900s child labor was beginning to be seen by many as child slavery. Hine said, ‘There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work’.’ https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/wisconsin/articles/lewis-hine-how-photography-ended-child-labour-in-the-usa/

Hines’ was a teacher but left that job to work with the National Child labor Committee. The NCLC fought long and hard and eventually laws were put in place around child working age and security. This was a big step in history and the catalyst was the photographs Hine’s produced. By 1920, the number of child workers was almost halved since 1910. 

It goes to show how powerful the right image at the right time can be. It can be life changing to one or to many.