Politics in Photography

Politics and Photography

Politics and photography are two things which go together hand in hand, all throughout the photography from when it started to the modern day it has been used for politics, a major time when this was happening was during the DaDa movement which came about from 1916 to around 1924, the artists involved in this movement used photography and other art forms to retaliate against the first world war and show the evil of things which led to the war, things like nationalism. It was a movement which didn't necessarily focus on the aesthetics of the image but focus more on the story behind the photo and a certain meaning which they wanted to get across, which is very similar to old and modern types of photography which is used for political use. A big genre of photography which is very common in the political field is documentary photography because it is a type of photography which is built for politics and is there to inform and portray a message across to the audience. 

Photography can be used in many different type of political ways for example it can be used for political views in war, social, propaganda and many other things. a good example of political use in war is the famous photographer Don McCullin who is a photographer who believed that there had to be a message behind a photography and that the audience had to feel something while looking at an image or photograph we no this when he said "Photography for me is not looking, it's feeling. If you can't feel what you're looking at, then you're never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures."(1), he is most well-known for his photographs of the Vietnam and Falkland’s war, these photographs where taken to inform and show people what was happening in the war although he wasn’t give permission by the British press to show his work, this is because it could be used and could cause a political imbalance while Margret Thatcher was prime minister. 

"Our once great newspapers, which told us what went on in the world even when we couldn't affect it, have become instruments of a promotional culture, little more than catalogues advising us what to consume. This is not a great age in which to be a photojournalist."(2)- Don McCullin 

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A good example of a photographer who has done a project which focuses on social politics and social issues is a photographer called Steve Huff, he did a project called My Homeless Project where he went round focusing on homeless people, he also sat with them and got information and stories from them, this is a good example of political photography because its teaching the audience something and informing them about something which is happening I there everyday life. Unlike Don McCullins work where the media didn't give him permission because it is a modern project there are many more outlets where a photographer can show there work, even though Steve Huff's [project isn't like don McCullins and would have gotten media access even if the media said he would have been able to show it there would be man different outlets for example social media and websites.

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Even though photography which is usually used hand in hand with politics is there to inform and teach the audience they can also be used for a negative effect for example it can be a photography about a certain thing and a newspaper or the media use it to say a point or get a point across which they want to fool the audience into believing, this is a big factor in modern day photography, especially documentary photography which is turning audiences away, it is more common now to change images a certain way though the perspective of the media and through photo editing software.

Bibliography 

(1)Don McCullin, Sleeping With Ghosts : A Life's Work in Photography by Don McCullin (Photographer), Mark Haworth-Booth (Introduction), Donald McCullin , ISBN: 0893816590 , Page: 96

(2)Don McCullin - 10 September 1997, British Journal of Photography

(3)http://cloud.hauserwirth.com/documents/tFRpB4Sd549G8nVV4icCi8qOpu8dG4lqIC8pv24Px6KK3SEu2Y/large/mcc6800-tet01-dnRu2O.jpg

(4)http://i0.wp.com/www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/rodney1.jpg?w=680

(5)http://i0.wp.com/www.stevehuffphoto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/gary8.jpg?w=680