Literature Review On Participatory Photography

For this essay the works of Robert Draper, author of “Why Photos Matter,” and Fred Ritchen, author of “Photography Changes the Way News is Reported,” will be analyzed. Though both deal with the topic of photography, their take on the matter is very different. While Ritchen is a photographer who writes on “what professional photographers will be doing in the future,” Draper is a writer for the National Geographic writing on how the photographers of the magazine share “a hunger for the unknown.” Both writers, however, write on the topic of photographers having a deeper understanding of their subjects, Ritchen due to research and practice, and Draper because the photographers “sit [with] their subjects, just listening to them.” In both essays the need for a deeper understanding of the

The first thing I will write about is a person, Jacob Riis. A esteemed author of the book “How the other half Lives”, published in the 1890s. Riis was a pioneer in the time when photography was first starting to catch on. In Riis’s photos he took pictures of people who lived in the slums of the major cities and how they lived. He was termed a Muckraker by our late president Theodore Roosevelt, because journalists like him would, as he would say, rake through all the good things and bad on the ground and only report the bad of the world. But Riis was one of the men of his era

A participatory research methodology was implemented to address the research goal. This method was appropriate for this investigation, given that the

Before starting this project, I knew very little about photography, photographers, or exactly how much impact photographical images have had on our society. I have never taken a photography class, or researched too in depth about specific pictures or photographers. This project has allowed me to delve deeper into the world of photography in order to understand just how much influence pictures can have over society’s beliefs, emotions, and understandings’. I have have chosen two highly influential photographers, Diane Arbus and Dorothea Lange, who I have found to both resonate with me and perfectly capture human emotions in way that moves others.

Ever since photojournalism emerged in the early 20th century as a genre of photography, there has been criticism surrounding the ethics and morals of photographing the suffering of others. So-called “documentary photography” has sparked questioning of the responsibility of a witness of suffering in creating positive change. Critics continue to label certain works of photojournalists as exploitation of impoverished people, while the photojournalists themselves argue that the purpose of their photography is to spark attention, awareness, and change. The ethics of displaying photographs of suffering in the media or in exhibition lies in what these images are being used for. A very direct investigation into this idea is through the photography of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado.

As photography was being used more and more as a method of documentation, they were among the first to use it to push social reform efforts. They closely documented the devastating effects of industrialization and urbanization on the working-class American. Through their work they brought attention to the need for housing and (child) labor laws. They used their medium to bring real proof to the public and legislators, where it needed to be seen. Actually, instead of documentary photography, it may best be called social reform photography, as they both worked tirelessly and used the medium to force attention and to effect social change.

Practiced by thousands who shared no common tradition or training from the earliest days of taking photos, the first photographers were disciplined and united by no academy or guild, who considered their medium variously as a trade, a science, an art, or an entertainment, and who often were unaware of each other’s work. Exactly as it sounds photography means photo-graphing. The word photography comes from two Greek words, photo, or “light”, and graphos, or drawing and from the start of photography; the history of the aforementioned has been debated. The idea of taking pictures started some thirty-one thousand years ago when strikingly sophisticated images of bears, rhinoceroses, bison, horses and many other types of creators were

Photographers have the ability to capture a certain moment in their lifetime. Some of them take advantage of the image in front of them and some do not fully understand the purpose of the moment. Is it worth recording the moment? Everyday people take images on their cell phones because they want to share them with friends and family. In 1993, Kevin Carter went on a trip to Sudan and took a picture of a starving Sudanese girl being stalked by a vulture. However, what photographers, like Kevin Carter, fail to realize is that every time a picture is taken, a part of the individual photographed is taken away. Kevin Carter’s presentation of the starving child serves not only as a claim of the ignorance of American people, but also as the measures

Through the development of multiple inventions such as the digital camera and the smartphone camera, photography has been able to become more available to general public. No longer does one have to be extremely wealthy to have a picture taken. The majority of people now carry a smartphone

I chose this article for the sole reason that I am a photographer so when I read that we could choose the topic of our paper I wanted to find out how photography and sociology can relate more to each other and what types of articles there are on the library website that I can read to get more of and understanding for how sociology and photography go hand in hand with each other. Therefore, obviously, the main topic is Sociology in Photography and how to build solidarity with subjects and the audience. I also found this to be an interesting topic because just last night I went to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History where I got to hear 6 of 11 women photographers from National Geographic speak about their work and they talked a lot about like understanding their subjects and how to build solidarity with their subjects before they photographed them and how to find a way to show the subject to the audience. It was a really wonderful experience to not only look at their works but to also hear them speak and I think that this journal I choose really relates to that which is another good reason I choose it. The research questions being answered within this article are ‘how to build solidarity with your subject’, ‘how to build solidarity with your audience’, ‘how to connect local and global issues with audience’ and ‘how to build an audience network.’

A qualitative methodological approach was the obvious choice in that it allows for the collection and interpretation of stories, narratives, interviews and other forms of non-quantifiable data. A qualitative approach also does not demand or strive for detached objectivity of the researcher but instead encourages the disclosure of researcher bias and the engagement of the researcher with the research and subjects, often in the role of participant-observer (Dade, Tartakov, Hargrave, & Leigh,

The photo can stir something within us; make us look within our being. The photo should not frighten or stigmatize, rather it should be reflective to cause a revolution (Barthes, Camera Lucida, 38). For the contemplation component of examining photography begins only after it executes a feeling within us (Brown, 29). There are photos that we view that make us say “this one is saying something for me” or “this exists for me”. Diana Markosian, photographer of the project 1915 did exactly this in her work. Markosian is a photojournalist who captures photos by immersing herself into the community in which she is photographing. Her photos are very intimate and bring in a mystery of past times, the place between the dimensions of memory and place

In this essay I am going to focus on how Alison Wright has photographed women affected by war and conflict and how she has approached, created the story and how she has achieved this. Wright is known internationally, from California, based in New York, a documentary photographer, author and public speaker who works for National Geographic and travels the world for the purpose of documenting endangered cultures, exile countries, people in poverty, and issues that concern the human condition. After she survived an accident in 2002 in a Jungle remote road in Laos where a bus she was on at the time was hit by a truck, Wright featured in ‘Outside magazine’, Yoga Journal’ and ‘National Geographic Adventure’ which showed her story of survival. Alison set up ‘Faces of Hope’ Fund what helps provide medical care and education for children in the world who are in crisis or poverty.

As human beings we all go through hard times each and every day no matter what has occurred. But think of it this way, there is always someone else out there suffering worse than you are. Living in the United States of America we are very fortunate for the resources, health care and stable life styles most of us survive in. On the other hand, over in second and third world countries, life is to be perceived as a struggle for day to day life. Without the precious and emotional photographs taken in the hardest moments, Americans may never get to realize how well their life is compared to others. A contemporary photographer, named Steve McCurry, has set out to deliver a message of how well Americans truly have it in life. His work and dedication is an art that

The purpose of this study was to more clearly outline the conceptual frameworks and theoretical underpinnings of the photo novella concept and program as it relates specifically to feminist schools of thought and the drive to empower the world's un-empowered. The study also shows the impact of photo novella activities on a specific population of women in rural China, adding concrete elements to an otherwise abstract and theory-based study, however this element of the study seems to be almost an afterthought to the presentation of its theoretical justification (Wang & Burris, 1994, p. 172-7). Overall, the purpose of this published research would have to be deemed an explanation of and rationale for the activities utilized in the primary research phase itself.