truthful documentary photography?

Jeff Wall The Arrest

“The Arrest” looks at ethnic discrimination in the artist’s home of Vancouver. The photograph shows a Hispanic man being handcuffed by two police officers. The photograph is staged outside of the studio, which shows that Wall is bringing this photograph to life, if the photograph was shot in the studio it would give off a total different impression to the viewer. In a sense, the photograph looks realistic; the stern facial expressions on the police officer’s faces look real. But then when you strip down the components of the photograph, the people in this photograph are actors and were told by Wall exactly where to stand and how to look. The use of cinematic lighting on set enhances this image and makes it more dramatic. The photograph is displayed on a lightbox, which shows the image bigger than life, which also shows to a certain degree how the photograph is un-realistic: larger than life. The use of props and costume is pretty much spot on, to the un-educated eye, this photograph could look real. Roland Barthes has commented about the use of pose in photographs. “I inevitably include in my scrutiny the thought of that instant, however brief, in which a real thing happened to be motionless in front of the eye.” “in the Photograph, something has posed in front of the tiny hole and his remained there forever (that is my feeling) ; but in cinema something has passed in front of this same tiny hole: the pose is swept away and denied by the continuous series of images.”(Barthes, 1980) These two quotes by Barthes helps understand documentary photography compared to staged documentary shots. The immobilization of the figures in the former image is an element of the work itself: these figures, it seems, will pose this way for entirety” (King, 2003). This again reiterates the fact that this is a posed photograph, can it be a realistic view of an arrest? This image has been staged, Wall has decided upon a lot of factors in this photograph. Unlike a documentary photograph when something does pass by the camera, it is the decisive moment that is spoken about a lot in photography. Wall had time to create his ideal image, whereas documentary photographers wait until that moment happens in front of their lens.

This photograph by Magnum photographer Leonard Freed, shows a black man being arrested by policeman in the USA, 1963. Looking at this image, the viewer can draw many comparisons to this piece of work and Wall’s “The Arrest”. As a piece of documentary work, Freed was there at the time this happened. As a documentary photograph, Freed wouldn’t stage the photographs; he would wait for the image to come in front of his viewfinder. This is a single moment from a single time. Touching on that quote by Barthes again, this is a passing by the camera. The photograph was shot on film, like Wall’s. This means that this image like Wall’s was thought about, but within a very shorter time scale. Freed had to react to what was going on in front of him, whereas Wall had months to plan a shoot. With film as well, because of the integrity and carefulness when shooting, Freed had to get the shot right. There is some motion blur and the composition in the photograph is unorthodox. This shows that the action was happening in front of him, unlike Wall, Freed’s image wouldn’t have been taken on a tripod, he shot on a 35mm camera rather than a large format like Wall. The composition is more inviting and realistic, it draws the viewer in and represents the struggle of the moment. The motion blur makes this photo realistic, would you believe it to be true if the man was calmly posed while arrested, of course not, you would imagine there to be a struggle involved. Natural light is used whereas Wall used external light sources, Freed wouldn’t have had time in the moment, to use lighting to his advantage in this image. Freed would have shot a number of photographs in this situation, to try and get the best photograph. Wall most probably only took one, as he was in control of the moment, whereas Freed wouldn’t know what was going to happen next. He would have had to go through an image selection after determining which was the best shot, to show how he wanted the arrest to be displayed. The outputs of both images are very different too. The Wall image, was of course, displayed on a large lightbox, whereas the Freed photograph would have been seen in a newspaper. This is a major factor in the comparison of the two works. As a documentary photographer, Freed would be payed to document what happened at the time, and then displayed in a newspaper to show the world what happened at that single time of the arrest. These two different outputs show the difference between the two works.

I Chose to explore Jeff Wall in this task as many people do not see him as a documentary photographer, but he does push the boundaries of documentary photography. Paving a new way for future photographers to interpret documentary photographs they see, and to question the reality of these photos.