Coles’ Ideas in The Tradition: Fact and Fiction
“The documentary tradition as a continually developing “record” that is made in so many ways, with different voices and vision, intents and concerns, and with each contributor, finally, needing to meet a personal text” (Coles 218). Coles writes “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” and describes the process of documenting, and what it is to be a documentarian. He clearly explains through many examples and across disciplines that there is no “fact or fiction” but it is intertwined, all in the eye of the maker. The documentarian shows human actuality; they each design their own work to their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and whom they want the art to appeal to. Coles uses famous, well-known photographers such as Dorthea Lange and Walker Evans, who show the political angle in their documentations and the method of cropping in the process of making the photo capture exactly what the photographer wants the audience to view. In this paper I will use outside sources that support and expand on Coles ideas with focus on human actuality, the interiority of a photograph, and the emotional impact of cropping.
According to Coles and an outside source I found, Lange is a documentarian who vividly portrays human actuality in her writing. Lange is depicted through Robert Coles as a caring individual, whose innermost thoughts, concerns and beliefs are transferred onto her photographs, especially in her photograph of the “Migrant Mother,” which is from her most well-known photograph during the dustbowl era. Jack Hurley’s book, Portrait of a Decade, describes more about Lange’s motives and background, thus making me able to better understand Coles’ ideas and the other parts of the essay regarding Lange:
When economic disaster struck the country… Dorothea Lang knew that somehow she had to be a part of the fight to win better conditions for the poor…Lange had very strong feelings about social injustice and her feelings came through clearly in her photographs. Because she did not come to Washington until the next spring, Lange did not take part in those early, highly important discussions and critiques. Her work was done separately in the early days and primarily on the West Coast. Even so, Lange’s pictures spoke for her and had a tremendous influence on the formative period of historical section. ...
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... more about them by studying the photograph.
In this paper I used outside sources such as Hurley’s book, Gawthrop’s, Jacobson and Moakley articles to clarify and develop deeper thinking about Coles’ ideas in “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction,” with focal points being: human actuality, the interiority of a photograph, and the emotional impact of cropping. Throughout Coles’ essay he portrays a documentarian as one who creates their work to meet their own standards based on personal opinion, values, interest and their audience. He also shows, in correlation to the title, that there is no line between fact or fiction in documentary work; they are loosely mingled, overlapping and only seen separately from a biased standpoint.
Work Cited
Coles, Robert. “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction.” Ways of Reading (2002) 175-218.
Gawthrop, Louis. “Dorothea Lange and visionary change.” Society 30 (1993): 64.
Hurley, Jack. Portrait of a Decade. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1972.
Jacobson, Colin. “A different way of seeing.” Lancet 357 (2001): 1454.
Moakley, Paul. “End fame: A room of one’s own: Todd Eberle on Walker Evans.” Photo District News 23(2003): 128.
For the rest of her life she walked with a limp. As a preteen, her father abandoned the family. This affected her deeply and it made her feel empathetic to those less unfortunate. The photograph, the “Alabama Plow Girl” was taken during the Great Depression of a young girl working in the cotton fields. Lange’s photographs often reflected people of the less fortunate. Jacob Lawrence grew up in poverty, experienced racism and his father abandoned the family at a very young age. Jacob Lawrence paintings often reflected on Harlem social life as well as poverty, brothels and pool halls in Harlem where he grew up. The “Blind Beggars” reflected on the social issues of poverty of this elderly blind couple. (Grant)
Through out the Great Depression there were many photographers, but one of the best was Dorothea Lange. Lange was born on the 25th of May in 1895 in Hoboken, New Jersey as the first child of Joan and Henry Nutzhorn. She decided to become a photographer at the age of 18. She studied photography at Columbia University in New York. At the age of 20 she began to travel the world. Later in life she settled down in San Francisco, California, where she met her first husband, artist Maynard Dixon. She had had to children Daniel (1925) and John (1928). She died on the 11th of October in 1916. Even Though some people believe Dorothea Lange was not a great photographer, Dorothea was because she caused great inspiration of those going through the hard times of the Great Depression, she also showed us that some of are problems may not as bad as other peoples.
Despite the similarities in the two texts presented by the authors and photographers, their work is presented in two various ways. Agee and Evans project was done after living with three tenant families and Evans photographs are completely separate from Agees text. There are not any captions or names and they do not tell us where the photos are taken or who the people in the pictures are. Lange and Taylor’s project on the other hand is written in a way that helps us read the photographs and it is easier to see the connections between the text and pictures. The captions underneath the photos are based on words formulated by the people in the picture. However, the photos that do not have any people in them still have captions, but in this case we can assume that someone has told the photographer or author what to write for each photo. By this method the true meaning of how the turmoil during this period affected the people in question is more precisely illustrated because it includes the words uttered by the people thems...
When the economy crashed in 1929, the majority of all Americans lost their jobs, money, and hope. With this great turn in economic stability Americans faced the harsh reality of bankruptcy or homelessness. As a result, citizens in need filled every street corner. Dorothea Lange, a young photographer at the time, found inspiration in the sad eyes of the needy. Through photos such as “Migrant Mother”, Lange captured the desperate sentiment of the decade that no words could demonstrate so clearly. Born on May 26, 1895, Dorothea Lange grew up in Hoboken, New Jersey. As a child of education advocates, Lange attended school, but never with much interest. After completing her academic education, Lange studied art form at Columbia University in 1917. Years later, she apprenticed with numerous well known photographers and eventually opened her first photography studio in California. Before photographing depression-era pieces, Lange focused on Native American culture. Howev...
The saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words,” cannot be demonstrated more thoroughly than during The Great Depression, a time when there were not a lot of words to be said. The photograph of the “Migrant Mother,” taken in this time period, The Great Depression, has inspired me want to dig deeper into Dorothea Lange’s experience during that time period. When I first saw the photograph of the “Migrant Mother,” I could not get the image out of my head because it tugged at my heart and it is something I have wanted to learn more about since we discussed Dorothea Lange in class.
Tryon, Chuck. "Letters from an Unknown Filmmaker: Chris Marker's Sans Soleil and the Politics of Memory." Rhizomes: Cultural Studies in Emerging Knowledge 8 (2004). Web. 6 May 2014.
In 1936, Dorothea Lange took a series of photographs, one of which is “Migrant Mother” and this photograph is undeniably one of the most powerful and impactful symbols of the Great Depression. There is so much captured into one moment that its significance is doubled, talking about unity as well as a chaotic lifestyle during one of the hardest moments in history. Within the image, the woman is used as the subject and is appropriated within a symbolic framework of significance. It seems to be a simple photograph of a woman and her children, yet it tells the story and the struggle of a generation. The image, “Migrant Mother,” evokes uncertainty and desolation resulting from continual poverty during the Great Depression.
This essay will seek to outline my findings on movie and theatre by looking at still image and moving image. I will discuss the relationship between cinema and film, and also compare some works of artists in order to answer the question which how might photography be contextualized as image on the threshold of still and moving – as an object incorporating the temporal and the narrative, the writing of history, or the presentation of documentation as record.
Social realist art, which dominated in the US during the Depression, communicates the concerns of the masses: artists question the treatment of the poor and praise American values embodied in ordinary people. In painting, Thomas Hart Benton’s murals depict an extravagance juxtaposed alongside honest, hardworking people, calling into question the actions and greed leading up to the Great Depression. Benton’s murals in both subject and medium penetrate the American political landscape, purporting such ideal values as hardworking and honesty. In photography, Dorothea Lange captures in the flesh the realities of the working poor. In her photograph Migrant Mother (1936) Lange portrays simultaneously the oppression and resilience of the working
Newton, Julianne H. The Burden of Visual Truth: The Role of Photojournalism in Mediating Reality. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Print.
Evans, Robert C., Anne C. Little, and Barbara Wiedemann. Short Fiction: A Critical Companion. West Cornwall, CT: Locust Hill, 1997. 265-270.
Photojournalism plays a critical role in the way we capture and understand the reality of a particular moment in time. As a way of documenting history, the ability to create meaning through images contributes to a transparent media through exacting the truth of a moment. By capturing the surreal world and presenting it in a narrative that is relatable to its audience, allows the image to create a fair and accurate representation of reality.
1. Nichols, Bill. ‘Why are Ethical Issues Central to Documentary Filmmaking?’ Introduction to Documentary. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2001, p1-20
...ie Calle’s works in the context of documentaries. It bases its arguments on the nature in which Sophie Calle collects her photographs and uses established sources to buttress theories put foward.
Her achievement in translating the Australian experience into poetry led in her best work to a rich inheritance of lyricism and directness. Through stories told by older workers on the property she learnt of the pioneers' part in both the destruction of the land and the dispossession and murder of the aboriginal people. The sense of fear she felt at invasion enabled her to understand, at some level, how the Aborigines would have felt.