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7/25/2019 Newhall Beaumont Documentary Approach to Photography Parnassus Vol. 10 No. 3 Mar. 1938 Pp.2-6
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Documentary Approach to PhotographyAuthor(s): Beaumont NewhallSource: Parnassus, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Mar., 1938), pp. 2-6Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/771747
Accessed: 07/11/2008 00:13
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7/25/2019 Newhall Beaumont Documentary Approach to Photography Parnassus Vol. 10 No. 3 Mar. 1938 Pp.2-6
2/6
H.
Le
Secq:
Porch
of Chartres
Cathed-
ral,
1852.
From an
original
paper negative
in
the collection
of
Victor
Barthelemy
Paris.
Courtesy
Museum
of
Modern
Art,
New
York.
TWO
-
7/25/2019 Newhall Beaumont Documentary Approach to Photography Parnassus Vol. 10 No. 3 Mar. 1938 Pp.2-6
3/6
DOCUMENTARY APPROACH
TO
PHOTOGRAPHY
by
BEAUMONT
NEWHALL
JOURNALISM
has discovered that the camera is
one
of its most
powerful
tools. A
picture
can often
tell
more than
thousands
of
words,
and
a
picture
made
by
photography implies
by
its
method
of
production
a
basis
of
fact.
All know
that such
an
implication
is
untrue,
but everyone accepts the photographas the pictorialevi-
dence of
an
eye-witness-the
cameraman.
There
is,
of
course,
nothing
new in the
appreciation
of the
photograph
as
a
document.
At
its
very
birth
in
1839
photography's
importance
in
providing,
with a
minimum of
effort,
accurate visual
records
was
advanced
as
one of its
chief values. On
this
one
point
all were
agreed,
while
the
place
of
the
photograph
as a work
of
art was
immediately
questioned.
But
even
those
who
have denied most
vehemently
that
photography
is
an art
do not hesitate to
study
the
history
of more
accepted
forms of
art
by
means of
photographic
documents. Henri
Delaborde,
in
a review of a
photographic
exhibition
in
1856 had no good to say for the photographsproduced
in the name of
Art,
but
he
was enthusiastic over
the
photographic
documents
of
Chartres cathedral
produced
by
Le
Secq.
I
mention this
particular
criticism,
because it is
a
qual-
itative
one. Delaborde
singled
out
the
work of
one
man.
We
agree
in
his
choice;
Le
Secq's
series
has
seldom
been
surpassed by
all
the hundreds
of
cameramen who
have
visited Chartres
since
1852.
Yet
they
were
not
unique.
They
were not
unique
in factual
content.
Their
technique-that
of
the
calotype-did
not
permit
a
high
resolution
of
detail;
what
is
told about
the
physical
struc-
ture of Chartres was not revealed for the first time, be-
cause
lithographed
documents,
by
the most
meticulous
draftsmen,
had
appeared previously.
Le
Secq's photo-
graphs
are
a
sympathetic
interpretation
of
Chartres.
They
are a direct
record,
not
only
of the
carved
stones,
but
of the
photographer's
motion
in
viewing
them.
And
they
represent
only
what
actually
stood in
front
of his
camera
on the
day
in 1852
when he
exposed
his
nega-
tives.
In
making
this
series
of
photographs,
Le
Secq
had in
mind
nothing
more than a record of
Chartres cathedral.
Yet in
producing
them
he
himself
created
works
of
art,
of a far
more
genuine
character
than
such an
elaborately
self-conscious
photograph
as
Rejlander's
Two Paths
of
Life,
reproduced
in
Parnassus in
October,
1934,
which
was
practically
contemporary.
Through
the
program
of
documenting medieval architecture and sculpture, Le
Secq
achieved
an
artistic
result.
This,
I
believe,
is
the
chief
esthetic
function
of
documentary
photography,
and
possibly
even
a
basis for
the
most
genuinely
crea-
tive
aspect
of
photography.
The
use
of
the
word
"documentary"
in
connection
with
photography
is
comparatively
new. Paul
Gruyer
in
his
Victor
Hugo
Photographe (Paris,
Mendel,
1905)
calls the
camera
record of
Hugo's
exile
in
Jersey
which
he
reproduces
"le
premier
document
photographique que
nous
possedons
sur
une
epoque"
In
the
N.
Y.
Sun for
February
8,
1926,
John
Grierson
spoke
of
Flaherty's
film
Moana
as
documentary.
It
has since
been
gener-
ally
accepted
among
movie
makers as
defining
a
particu-
lar
type
of
film
which
is
based
upon
natural
factual
ma-
terial
(as
opposed
to
artificialstudio
sets)
presented
in
an
imaginative
and
dramatic
form. The
greatest and
most
organized
activity
has
been in
Great
Britain,
under
the
leadership
of
John
Grierson
and Paul
Rotha. The
latter's
Documentary
Film,
published
by
Faber &
Faber
in
1936
is
a
brilliant
statement
of
the
history
and
aims
of
the
movement.
The
definition of
documentary
which
Rotha
offers
differs
markedly
from
the
dictionary
mean-
ing;
it
includes
qualitative
and
technical
implications-a
dramatic
presentation
of
fact.
It is thus
more
closely
al-
lied to
the
French
documentaire
as
developed
by
Zola.
Like the Frenchwriter'sdocument-novels,these filmsare
produced
for definite
sociological
purposes.
The
doctrine
is
conscious. There
exist,
of
course,
films
quite
inde-
pendent
of the
movement
which,
probably
unconscious-
ly,
follow
the
same
theories:
for
example many
news-
reels and
travelogues.
But
by
no
means
all,
for while
they
are
based
on
fact,
they
are
not
necessarily
presented
either
in a dramatic
fashion or
with
regard
to
the
socio-
logical
significance
of
their
material.
The
same is
true
of
still
photography.
I
have
dis-
cussed
the
meaning
of
documentary
as
used
in
film-mak-
THREE
-
7/25/2019 Newhall Beaumont Documentary Approach to Photography Parnassus Vol. 10 No. 3 Mar. 1938 Pp.2-6
4/6
DUST
STORM
(1936)
CIMAROON
COUNTY
OKLAHOMA
ARTHUR
ROTHSTEIN
Reproduced
through
the
courtesy
of
the
Farm
Secur-
ity
Administration.
ing,
because
in this
field
the
definition
has
been
made
articulate,
and
because
I
believe
that
the
present
popu-
larity
of the
word
to describe
a class
of
still
pictures
has
been
inspired by
the
example
of
the
cinema.
But
there
is a profound differencebetween still and motion-picture
photography.
The
former
is
primarily
a
spatial
art;
the
latter
a
temporal
one.
The
film
is
always
seen
as
a
unit;
the
sequence
of
images
is
prescribed,
and
remains
uni-
form
except
for wilful
cutting
by
exhibitors
for
moral
or
economic
reasons.
The
still
photograph,
however,
is
seldom
seen twice
in the
similar
manner.
It
may
be
re-
produced
together
with
any
other
photograph,
and
with
any
caption.
Therefore,
while
there
is
a
unity
of
spirit
between
still
and
cinematic
documentary,
their
ap-
proaches
to the
same
problem
must
be
through separate
channels.
It
is undeniable
that
the
documentary
method,
as
op-
posed to the abstractdesire to produce Fine Art, has re-
sulted
in
significant
photographic
art.
The work
of
photographers
who
have
attempted
to
interpret
subject-
matter
has
usually
been
superior
to
the work
of
pho-
tographers
who
have
deliberately
set
out
to rival
or
equal
the
painter.
There
are,
of
course,
brilliant
exceptions
to
this
observation.
But
let
us
examine
other cases
than
Le
Secq's.
In his
catalog
of
Civil
War
photographs,
Matthew
B.
Brady
states
that the
photographs
"represent
'grim-vis-
aged
war'
exactly
as
it
appeared,"
and makes
no
further
claim.
Yet these
pictures
of the wrack
and
ruin
of
human
bodies
and
nature
and
man's
creations,
these
pen-
etrating portraits
of the
men who
planned
and
foug
and died
for the Union
and
for
the
Confederacy
ha
more
esthetic content
than
the
compositions,
lighted
la
Rembrandt,
which are
signed
"Adam
Salom
sculpteur,"
or the
anecdotal
composite
prints
of H.
Robinson,
often
called the
father
of
pictorialism.
Filed
away
as records of
explorations
in the archiv
of the
U.
S.
Geological
Survey
are
photographs
of t
canyons
that
have
seldom
been
equalled.
To
find
t
finest
rendering
of
the
infinite
perspectives
of
the
gr
plains
of
the Middle
West,
one must
turn
to the stere
graphs
by
Alexander
Gardner
documenting
the co
struction
of
the
Union
Pacific
Railroad.
Hundreds
of thousands
of
photographs
of
Paris m
have
been taken
in
the
last hundred
years,
but to
perience
esthetically
the
face of that
great
city,
fairly
breathe
at
will its
atmosphere,
we consult
the
work
two
photographers
who would
be called
"documentar
today:
Charles
Marville,
who
recorded
for
the
state c
tain
condemned
quarters
before their destruction
at N
poleon
III's
command;
and
Eugene
Atget,
who at
t
turn
of the
century
trained
his
camera
on
every
conce
able
detail
of his beloved
city.
More
recently,
the
photographs
of
child
labor con
tions
in this
country,
taken
shortly
before
the war
Mr. Lewis
Hine
for
sociological
propaganda,
must
considered
portraits,
poignant
in their
stark
and
dir
seizure
of
the
emotions
of
both
photographer
and
su
jects.
Within
the
last decade
a
number of
younger photo
raphers, sensing the artistic strength of such photograp
ic documents
as
these,
have seen
in
this
materialistic
proach
the
basis for an
esthetic
of
photography.
Berenice
Abbott,
now
engaged
in
a
courageous
a
sweeping
documentation
of
New York
City,
we owe
o
knowledge
of
Atget
and
his
work;
she
acquired
alm
his
entire collection
of
negatives
after his death
in
19
Walker
Evans,
Ralph
Steiner,
Margaret
Bourke-Whi
in
the
East-Ansel
Adams,
Willard
Van
Dyke
in t
West-together
with
others
have
produced
simp
straightforward photographs
of
great
technical
exc
lence
interpreting
not
only
the world nearest to
the
but also
its
social
significance.
Up
to
a
few
years
a
this
work
has
lacked
organization;
although
widely
im
tated, no school was formed. With the formation
the
photographic
section
of the Farm
Security
Admin
tration
(then
known as the
Resettlement Administr
tion)
in
1935
an
important
center was
established.
R
E.
Stryker,
Chief of
the
Historical
Division
of t
F.S.A.,
conceived
the idea of
a
photographic
survey
agricultural
America;
Walker
Evans was
among
the
fi
photographers
commissioned
to
undertake this
wo
Largely
through
his
example
and
through
the
extraor
narily
fine miniature
camera shots of
Ben
Shahn,
a
rection
was
given
to
the
project;
a
technical
and
esthetic
standard
was
raised which the
other
photo
raphers
in
the
project
have
maintained.
Never
los
sight
of
the
primary
sociological
purpose
of
their
surv
FOUR
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7/25/2019 Newhall Beaumont Documentary Approach to Photography Parnassus Vol. 10 No. 3 Mar. 1938 Pp.2-6
5/6
Arthur
Rothstein,
Russell
Lee,
John
Vachon,
Carl
My-
dans,
Dorothea
Lange
and Theodor
Jung
have
produced
photographs
which deserve
the
consideration
of all
who
appreciate
art
in its
richest
and
fullest
meaning.
Thanks
to
the
growth
of the
documentary
method,
the
future
of
photography
in
the
U. S. A.
seems
very promising.
It
is
important
to
bear
in
mind that
"documentary"
s
an
approach
rather than
an end. Slavish imitation
of
the
style
of other
workers is
meaningless.
Photography
has
suffered from
imitation almost more than the other
arts;
various
movements
have been so
blindly
followed that
the
force
of the
Driginalimpetus
has been lost.
"Pictorialism"
had a definite
esthetic
place
so
long
as it
was not
practised
as an
end;
the Photo-Secessionists at the turn of the
cen-
tury
were
genuinely
creative. Yet
compare
the
plates
of
Camera
Work
with
the
prize-winners
in
pictorial
salons
today
The
followers have
imitated the form and
the
technique,
but
they
have omitted the
spirit
of
the
original.
Just
within the
last
few
years
we
have
seen
the
growth
of the
"candid"
school
from the
truly
amazing
unposed
portraits
of Dr. Erich Salomon in the
late
twenties
to
the most
casual
snapshot
by anyone
whose
pocketbook
can
afford
a
miniature
camera
with an
F/2
lens.
Dr.
Salomon's
pictures
were
correctly
described
by
the
edi-
tor of a
London
illustrated
paper
as
"candid,"
but
the
majority of similar photographs deserve no such adjec-
tive.
And
so
it is
with
"documentary."
Because
the
majority
of
best
work
has
been
concerned with
the
homes
and lives
of
the
under-privileged, many pictures
of the
down-and-
out have
been made
as
"documentaries."
The
decay
of
man
and of his
buildings
is
picturesque;
the
texture
of
weathered
boards
and
broken
window-panes
has
always
been
particularly delightful
to
photograph.
Eighty
years
ago
a critic in the
Cosmopolitan
Art
Journal
wrote: "If
asked to
say
what
photography
has best
succeeded in
ren-
dering,
we should
point
to
everything
near
and
rough."
These
things,
taken for their
picturesqueness,
may
and
often do form
photographs
of
great
beauty.
But
unless
they
are
taken with a
seriously
socioligical
purpose,
they
are not
documentary.
The
documentary
photographer
is not
a
mere
techni-
cian.
Nor
is he an artist
for art's sake.
His
results
are
often
brilliant
technically
and
highly
artistic,
but
pri-
they
are
pictorial
reports.
First
and
foremost
he
is
visualizer. He
puts
into
pictures
what
he
knows
about,
what he
thinks
of,
the
subject
before his
camera.
going
on
an
assignment
he
carefully
studies
the
which he is
to
visualize.
He
reads
history
and
subjects.
He
examines
existing
pictorial
material
negative and positive value-to determine what
be
re-visualized
in terms
of
his
approach
to
the as-
and
what
has not been
visualized.
But
he will
not
photograph
dispassionately;
he
will
simply
illustrate
his
library
notes.
He will
put
into
most
effective
way
to
teach the
public
he is
addressing.
After
all,
is not
this the
root-meaning
of
the word "docu-
ment"
(docere,
"to
teach")?
For this
reason
his
pictures
will
have a
different,
and
more
vital,
quality
than
those
of a
mere
technician.
They
will even be
better than
those
of
a cameraman
working
under the
direction
of
a
sociolo-
gist,
because
he understands
his medium
thoroughly,
and
is able to
take
advantage
of its
potentialities
while
respect-
ing
its
limitations.
Furthermore
he is able
to react to
a
given
situation
with
amazing spontaneity.
Edward
Weston,
in his
admirable
little
booklet Pho-
tography
in
the
"Enjoy
Your
Museum"
series has
said:
"In the
application
of camera
principles,
thought
and ac-
tion
so
nearly
coincide
that the
conception
of
an
idea
and
its
execution can be
almost
simultaneous.
The
previsioned
image,
as seen
through
the
camera,
is
perpetuated
at the
moment of
clearest
understanding,
of
most
intense emo-
tional
response."
This is
precisely
the
method of
work-
ing
which
has
produced
the
most
penetrating
photo-docu-
ments. We
see this
theory
in
practice
in
Margaret
Bourke-White's
Tou Have
Seen
Their Faces in
the
tech-
nical
section
of
which
she
describes the
way
she made
these
excellent
pictures:
"Flash
bulbs
provide
the
best
means I
know,
under
poor light
conditions,
of
letting
your
subject
talk
away
until
just
that
expression
which
you
wish to
capture crosses his face. Sometimes I would set
up
the
camera
in a
corner of
the
room,
sit
some
distance
away
from
it
with
a
remote
control
in
my
hand,
and
watch
our
people
while Mr.
Caldwell
talked
with
them.
It
might
be an
hour
before their
faces or
gestures
gave
us
what
we
were
trying
to
express,
but
the
instant it oc-
curred
the
scene
was
imprisoned
on
a
sheet
of
film
before
they
knew what
had
happened."
Technically,
the
documentary
photographer
is
a
purist,
but he
does
not
limit himself to
any
one
procedure.
Cameras
of
all
sizes
and
types
have
been
used
to
make
photo-documents.
Ideally
the
most
suitable camera
for
the
particular
job
is
chosen,
be
it a
miniature
with
film
hardly bigger than a postage stamp, or a bulky view
camera
taking eight
by
ten
inch
cut
film. If
there
is
any
camera which
may
be
called
universal
for
normal
docu-
mentary
work,
it
would
be
a
hand-camera for
cut
film
HOUSEWORK
ON
ARTIFICIAL
FLOWERS,
NEW
YORK
8
P.M.
(1911)
BY LEWIS
W. HINE.
COURTESY
OF
THE
PHOTOGRAPHER
camera studies
something
of
the
emotion
which
he
toward the
problem,
for he
realizes
that
this
is the
-
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three-and-a-quarter
by
four-and-a-quarter
nches,
fitted
with a
coupled
range-finder
for
quick,
accurate focus-
sing,
and
with
a
synchronized
speed
flash
and
shutter
control,
making exposures
possible
under
any
light
con-
ditions. Needless to
say
retouching
of
any
kind
is
strictly
prohibited.
Since the value
of
a
photo-document
lies in
the
directness of
its
technique,
any
intervention
of
hand-work
is
bound
to
L.
injurious.
For
the
same
reason
the
negatives
are
printed directly
onto
a
smooth
surface
paper to allow
full detail to be
rendered.
But the
documentary
approach
does not
stop
with
the
print.
In
discussing
the use
of
the
word
documentary
to
describe
a
certain
class of
moving
pictures,
we
noted
the
importance
which
presentation
played
in the
theory.
Presentation is also a vital
part
of
documentary
still
photography.
The
photograph
is
not valid
as
a
docu-
ment
until
it
is
placed
in
relationship
to the
beholder's
experience.
It
is
paradoxical
that,
although
a
photo-
graph
may
be
better
than
a
thousand
words,
the
addition
of one or two words
makes it even more concrete and
forceful. Thus when
Le
Secq
signed
his
negative
"Chartres 1852" he
immediately gave
the
photograph
an
increased value as a document.
Such a
simple
case
has
no
bearing
on
esthetic
quality.
But more
extended
captions
enable
the
beholder
to orientate
himself,
thus
leaving
the
photographer
free to
interpret
the
subject
more
imaginatively.
A better
way
to
give
this
orienta-
tion
is
by
a series
of
photographs,
which when
properly
presented
approach
the cinema.
This is
the
richest
manner
of
giving photographs
significance,
for each
pic-
ture
reinforces the other. It
is,
I
believe,
the
logical
method
of
presentation.
It
is
more-it is the
logical
ap-
proach
to the
medium. One of the
striking
character-
istics
of
photography
is its
ease,
compared
with
every
RUINS
OF
RICHMOND,
VIRGINIA
(1865)
SIX
other
way
of
making
pictures.
Almost
universally
pho-
tographers
take
many
exposures
of a
given
scene,
if
only
to
make assurance
doubly
sure.
The series
is
usually
produced
with
no idea of
the method
of its
ultimate
presentation.
The
prints
for
publication
are
chosen
by
a
second
person,
are
captioned by
a
third,
are laid out
by
a
fourth.
If,
as
this
article
has
attempted
to
show,
creative
pho,
tography
can be
produced by
following
a
program
of
factual reporting, then the more clearly this programis
conceived,
the
greater
the
results. A
shooting
script
is
as
important
for
this
type
of
still
photography
as
for
movie-making,
and should
be
planned by
the editor
and
by
the
photographer working together.
This does not
mean
that
every
shot need
be
envisaged
on
paper,
but
it
does
mean
that the
photographer
should be considered
the
creator,
not
simply
of
individual
pictures,
but of
a re-
lated series.
Trimming, quality
of
reproduction,
its
relation to
text and
other
reproductions
n
size
and
spac-
ing-these
are all
as
important
as
the
photographer's
work
on
the field
and
in the
darkroom.
The
complete
documentary
approach
includes
these
functions.
And
I
believe
that
through
this
approach
there
can
be
achieved
publications
which,
in
every
sense of the
word,
exploit
the
special
medium
of
photography,
and
which
will
be
significant
contributions to
book-making.
In
the
German
illustrated
newspapers
between
the
War
and
the
Nazi
revolution,
in the
Parisian
Vu
while
edited
by
Lucien
Vogel,
in
Photo-History,
to
a certain
degree
in
Life
and its
imitators,
occasionally
in the
tabloids,
the
possibilities
are
being
shown.
The
text-books
of
the
future will
be
largely pictorial;
already
children's
books
are
assuming
that
character.
Back
of
them
all
is the
documentary
approach
to
photography.
Courtesy
Signal
Corps,
U. S.
Army
MATlTHEW
B. BRADY