Can photography change the world?

“A photograph is, at best, a silent voice, but sometimes one photograph or a group of photographs can lure our sense of consciousness.”

(W. Eugene Smith, Paris: Photopoche)

Portraying injustice is nothing recent. From the starting of the twentieth century to the present day, many photographers have been afraid of leaving their mark. But can we attempt to change the world – and even make it a greater place – through photography?

You’d be surprised what number of photographers have tried to make use of their photos to persuade us of the need for change. In such cases, photography is meant to make amends, condemn certain situations and provoke a response.

From the world to utopia

The term “documentary photography” refers to pictures created to reflect the world, respect facts and seek truth. Documentary photography is due to this fact a picture that confirms and certifies an event and relies on the ability to bring reality closer. This doesn’t mean that documentary photography shows the whole truth and will not be the only photographic possibility. What’s more, these photos have to be shared and want an audience that may challenge them.

The utopian document is a facet of documentary photography, nevertheless it goes further. Photographs aren’t taken just to point something, to indicate reality, but are based on the potential ability of the image to persuade, on its power of persuasion to enhance the world.

How can photography have such an impact on us? On the one hand, the mechanical element of photography (the camera) makes the perceived facts more reliable. On the other hand, photography is socially considered more accurate than other types of art. The photographer focuses on reality, obtaining a picture that, by analogy to the person being portrayed, can be synonymous with truth. Moreover, there’s one other concept that with a view to capture this image, the photographer needed to be an eyewitness – he needed to be there.

The beginnings of documentary photography

The first photos taken with a camera were obtained almost two centuries ago. From the very starting, photography oscillated between documentation, bringing reality closer and presenting facts, and artistic, expressing feelings and constructing scenes. In other words, truth or beauty.

However, the documentary intention in photography appeared only at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It all began in New York, from Jakub August Riis (1849 – 1914) i Lewis Hine (1874-1940). They each photographed social issues with the ultimate goal of highlighting certain inequalities and changing them. It is significant to grasp that in those years the transition to an industrialized society resulted in huge inequalities.

In 1890, Jacob A. Riis, a Danish immigrant who realized the limitations of the written word in describing facts, began taking photographs to indicate the vulnerability and living conditions of urban immigrants.

A number of years later he published it in New York How the other half lives. There was a book especially necessary and led to urban reform in less privileged areas of the cityfor instance, when creating playgrounds or gardens.

In the early twentieth century, Lewis Hine, the first sociologist to make himself “heard” with a camera, took photographs immigrants arriving at Ellis Islandshowing how they adapted to their recent life. However, his most vital works continued child labor in mines and textile factories. Thanks these images was in a position to promote the Child Labor Protection Act.

This intention to reform can be maintained in the Thirties, also in the USA, by: Farm Safety Administration – a set of reforms and subsidies approved during the Roosevelt administration intended to alleviate the suffering attributable to the 1929 disaster. This program employed many photographers to make use of photos to lift public awareness of the need for such aid. Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans AND Margaret Bourke-Whiteit’s value being attentive to, amongst others:

From documentary photography to photojournalism

After World War II, documentary photography lost a few of its vigor. However, photojournalism took over its principles and illustrated magazines, which were extremely successful, published topics that interested people.

Sebastian Salgado (Brazil, 1944) was one in all the most eminent photographers of the end of the century. His principal work focused on showing the suffering of people that experienced situations of exile, emigration, difficult working conditions or poverty in specific communities. It shows the Western world what life is like in places where the eyes cannot go. Spaniard Gervasio Sánchez along with his long-term project Lives extractedAND James Nachtweythrough their work in Afghanistan, they’re making significant contributions to this field.

Today there are photographers with the same views who attempt to persuade their contemporaries to change the world and mobilize consciences. Moreover, it has already been fully accepted that documentary photography can offer many possibilities and will not be governed by one specific formula.

Since the end of the twentieth century, the meaning of the word “document” in photography has been evolving, although each definition reflects the same belief in the communicative potential of photography.

It will be said that documentaries that aim to enhance and stimulate response are still relevant and relevant today. There are still photographers excited about reforming and convincing their contemporaries of the have to make the world a greater place, and still believing that documentary photography have to be committed to this goal. In short, they didn’t abandon utopia.

However, wherever there’s a photographer, there must even be an audience that recognizes these images as documents and might read them, give them meaning and act accordingly.

Of course, this may depend upon everyone and the life moment they’re experiencing at the time. Not all of us can be affected by this example in the same way. Nevertheless, as individuals, if we finally feel that these photos challenge us and move us even a little bit, we are able to do great good.