Photography: A Critical Introduction - Surveyors & Surveyed

In the early days of photography, it was deemed that an image shown through the camera was the truth. It was used in places such as Egypt, USA, Paris, the Himalayas, Syria and other places around the world to portray many different events. Events such as life on the streets, war, scientific observation, pornographic images, charity images of the poor and homeless and recording of monuments. This meant that images that had already been manipulated such as the montages of fairies, ghosts and elves appeared to confirm the supernatural ideas that were around at the time.

The 1930s was the decade where most of the ideas about documentary as social and political objectives were formed, both documentary and photojournalism were said to offer authentic and accurate images of the world as it was, however, many images that were taken during times of war and other events were tampered with, set-up and altered. This was mainly associated with documentary as it became problematic idea and a number of conventions and practises had to evolve to ensure that the images were authentic.  Such practises were those of printing a full image with a black border around it to ensure that the viewer saw the entire reality, and deeming any image that had been taken using flash as ‘illegitimate’.  This made way for codes of conduct that began to emerge on the way photographs were to be taken.

Jacob Riis directly connected photography to journalism by giving the media images to go along with the stories of poverty and overcrowding, and as these images were seen to be true, they gave the evidence needed to provide an insight into the real lives of that time.

As technology advanced, it became easier to manipulate photographs as the digital age was arriving, this meant that no image could be truly real without a witness being there from start to finish, however it can be an offense to show an untrue image in a national and global publication. Many claim that being able to create, manipulate and edit images has destroyed the claim photography once had to show the truth. We all have a subconscious within us that says that untrue images are wrong, yet at the same time we want to believe that the photographs are evidential and more ‘real’ than any other image.