ABSTRACT
Chapter 2, ‘Representation, Aesthetics, and Documentary’, identifies the conflicts inherent in social documentary photography. It introduces 1930s debates concerning the tensions between aesthetics and politics, and establishes Walter Benjamin's cultural appraisal of photography and Allan Sekula's ‘dismantling of modernism’ as key influences that introduce central themes relating to photography's political potential. It outlines historical assumptions about photography's capacity to present ‘reality’, the ideological aspects that are implicit in documentary traditions, and the post-structural critiques that adjust them. Attitudes are identified in examples by Jacob Riis, America's Farm Security Administration project, and Humphrey Spender working for the Mass Observation project in the UK. Comparisons are made with subjective or autobiographical approaches to counter conventional reportage, by Trinh T. Minh-ha for example, and those that advocate ‘democratic documentary’. The chapter features two projects by Jean Mohr – one in collaboration with John Berger and the other with Edward Said – that each attempt to account for difference and identity.
