Politic Photography

'The Body' - William A Ewing

Quote :- ''The body is a highly contested site - it's flesh is both the recipient and source of desire, lust and hatred. As a pawn of technology, it is sacred and sacraficial, bearing the politics of soceity and state. The body is our common bond yet it sepeartes us in it's public display of identity, race and gender.'' Diana Augitis on the work of Helen Chadwick.

An image becomes political when it is used to sway our opinion, this can be relevant to the 1930's when the Nazi's used propaganda posters to try to change what people think.
Where as today, propaganda is still used in protests and demonstrations, such as a demonstration clled 'Pro Life', when photographs were held up of fetus's in the womb, this was to argue against abortion. I see that bringing more controversial subjects and photography together can make people look and listen to the issues raised, such as the abortion demonstration.

Not only do demonstrations and protests use this type of politic photography, but a clothing manufacturer used an image of a man dying of aids for an advertisement, even though this had nothing to do with the product, it still got people to look at the advertisement, as shock photography.

Another book i researched was 'Photography and the body' by John Pultz, a section in the book talks about taboo subjects, such as children and adolescents and also gay men, these are also controversial subjects to talk about, but when shown in a photographic image it has to been seen and spoken about as a subject of politic intrest. Sally Mann photographs of her children seemes more daring than a family photograph, this could be because she had them posed, this removes them from traditional photography and into politic.