Black + White = Grey.

This months gallery ties up to Eugene's article about

Masters of Photography

The worker photographer.

Parisian style.

Photography has always been under rapid continual development. Its orientation and transitory bias has been predominately concerned with one single grand subject, that of man. Photography as a medium became dissatisfied by the mere rendition of the human facial structure. It wanted and was eager to capture much more than just a face or a scene, it wanted to communicate a message, to offer reports, accounts, interpretations, analysis and a critique. Photography wanted to penetrate into the darkest depths of our life’s, surface the exterior and catalogue a retrospective view of how we live our life’s each and every day. It was only until the end of the 19th century that photography became the conscience of society. Its psychological advantage produced a strong conviction based on the principal of faith in photography as a true and accurate reflection of reality. Whereas literature or a painting could be fabricated and produced to alter the truth. The photographic image bound by the constraints of the physical nature of the camera and the reality in which it found itself must convey the truth.

The first attempts to use the camera for social commentary took place in England. This occurred in and around the 1850's, at about the same time when Karl Marx was formulating his political ideas and studying the increasing open hostility of capitalism in the United Kingdom. Richard Beard illustrated a sociological study, an article of London under the title London Labour and London poor with woodcuts using daguerreotypes. Towards the end of the 1850's various books were being published in London, one in particular was a pictorial publication titled Street Life in London, its photographer and author was John Thomson. It portrayed the life and works of the poorest urban class. In and around this period in time, photography tried to serve as a social analysis - a social commentary, it was developing into what would later be called photodocumentarism. Photography's new found ability was being utilized at the end of the last century by those countries which were experiencing the worst social disorder predominately Russia and America. The primary motivation for the use of photography was not only used for social issues but for political concerns. Photography came to play a major role in the ideological struggles of countries shaken by the revolutions that had occurred after World War I. It either aided to reinforce an existing social system of rage or any opposition of power to overthrow its existence. But in same cases it assisted in creating as in the case of the Soviet State, the establishment of a new order. It had a purpose to either influence public opinion through propaganda or serve as an agitator. Der Arbeiter-Fotograf (The worker Photographer) magazine published the statement "We, worker photographers, are the armed troops of the class struggle" in 1931, to commemorate the national German conference of worker photographers.

A worker photographer did not take pictures for fun, they placed their private hobby in the service of practical politics. Photography was a means, a powerful tool by which the working class could use it in their political struggle. In the late 1920's and particularly during the 1930's during the Great Depression the worker photographers' movement became a great phenomenon. Emerging in countries such as France, Germany, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, America and the UK. Photography for the first time in history allowed the workers to document their own social structures, independently of members of other social classes. The workers used the camera to gather information and evidence for closer social critique.

The birth of the worker photographer had occurred during the dramatic developments of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Its main task was to inform, educate and agitate the masses. As there was no other educational, instructive or illustrative means by which they could inform the people of the recent developments in such a vaste country and since the majority of the people were illiterate. The Soviets decided that photography should be used to affect the consciousness, sentiment and thought of the masses. The Soviet Russia was the first to use photography as a means for centrally controlled and carefully planned didactically oriented agitation and propaganda. But a problem soon developed as the Soviets needed more photographers than they had at their disposal. A campaign was started to educate and teach new photographers. In the 1917, immediately after the Soviets had taken over in Russia, a department of cinematography and photography was established under the auspices of the state Commission for Popular Enlightenment in St. Petersburg, This was to became the first Institute of Higher learning in Europe to offer a full curriculum in Photography.

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©Glamour Photo OnLine 2009

 

 

 

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