ABSTRACT
Similar notions were expressed in the work of Alexander Rodchenko, who believed he could find a new aesthetic through his photography that was appropriate to the new social order of post-revolutionary Russia (see p. 59 of this volume). This Formalist
version of Frith’s approach relied on the photographer’s ability to use the medium to show people what they would not normally be able to see-bringing issues to their attention through challenging their conventional perspectives of life. But we can move to consideration of another strategy: where the photographer is able to place him or herself in a privileged position and/or location to bring social or political issues to the attention of the viewer. The work of photographers Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine are particularly good examples in this context. Riis and Hine are considered to be the pioneers of social documentary photography. More recently, with the greater proliferation of photography, this approach has been developed by marginalised cultural groups (the Australian Aboriginal After 200 Years project, discussed earlier) or social groups (the disabled, David Hevey (1992), for example). They have used the medium either to promote their own causes, or to challenge existing concepts and stereotypes in visual imagery. This said, there was the more unusual case of Amerindian photographer Martin Chambi who, in the 1930s, used his camera to explore his Inca heritage, to reestablish the lost history of his race as part of the Peruvian Indigenista movement. Chambi’s photographs display a sympathy and understanding of those he has portrayed and do not objectify the subject.
