Social Documentary Photography
Photography
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Social Documentary Photography
Social documentary photography documents the living and working conditions of certain social groups. It has a specific purpose: to raise awareness.
Social documentary photography is a form of denouncing injustice and human misery by showing the reality in front of us, which many prefer not to see.
Social documentary photography portrays reality, but in order to change it.
It is photography with social commitment; it is the defense of the most unprotected classes.
Although since the beginning of photography, there have been photographers who documented the living conditions of certain groups of people (in a rather anthropological sense, to study society), it is considered that the great promoter of the genre was Jacob Riis, as he gave it a tone of denouncement. He belonged to the nineteenth century.
At the beginning of the 20th century, there was another protagonist of the genre, Lewis Hine. He is considered one of the most important ones, as he really achieved the task of changing reality through the awareness generated by his photographs. In this sense, his denunciation of child labor is famous: although at that time, child exploitation was legal, Hine’s photographs were a slap in the face to society, which, moved by the situation, promoted laws to change the situation and protect children.
Representative Photographers: Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, Dorothea Lange.
Image: Merilda Carrying Cranberries (1911). Lewis Hine
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