This is the first I've heard that the woman in Dorothea Lange's Migrant Mother was a hired actress. I thought her name was Florence Owens Thompson and she was a migrant worker. There is a write up about her in Wikipedia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Owens_Thompson
I guess you can't believe everything you read on the internet.
Meanwhile I found this comment on the page you attach:
"While the image was being prepared for exhibit in 1938,[13] the negative of the photo was retouched to remove Florence's thumb from the lower-right corner of the image"
Yes, we talked about that example a couple of years back. The same people were having the same conversation as we are now.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/art-photos-are-manipulations.177791/page-12
Yes, we talked about that example a couple of years back. The same people were having the same conversation as we are now.
https://www.photrio.com/forum/threads/art-photos-are-manipulations.177791/page-12
That was a good thread. Here is my view on the "thumb" issue, and applies also to the Ansel Adam's deletion.
Thanks, I checked until the last post and it seems that the topic does not close. In fact, it is as if the subject returns from time to time with new vigor that surpasses this thread.
I didn't hear it was a rule, I probably didn't catch the thread because it was filled with name calling and people with too much conviction on both sides.I think what you are referring to is the Three Slider Rule. There was a huge debate about it a while back. The ideologues said you could only use the exposure, contrast, and sharpen sliders. Anything more and the image was fake. More liberal minded advocates of the rule said you could use any three sliders, but not more than three. So, for example, the Fauves went with hue, saturation and tint. I'm not sure how it all turned out.
I didn't hear it was a rule, I probably didn't catch the thread because it was filled with name calling and people with too much conviction on both sides.
let them have their rules, they have nothing better to do than make rules I guess.
LOL I've been duped !Actually, my post was tongue in cheek, although given a few of the posts in this thread, it is easy to think it might be true.
...to add fuel to the fire: this work by Sherry Levine (After Walker Evans, 1981). The photograph of a photo from a Walker Evans book.
As a background, in order to present the New Deal Roosevelt, he commissioned Roy Stryker to hire renowned photographers to produce a documentary record of the America deep. There are works of this commission that cast doubt on the reality of the events, since in some cases, actors were hired, as in the case of the photograph "Migrant mother" by Dorothea Lange. What is reality ?
View attachment 277993
Same ones who staged the moon landing and JFK's assassination and Elvis' death.actors were hired, as in the case of the photograph "Migrant mother" by Dorothea Lange.
Mr Adams was fantastic at working light and contrasts into a picture to add drama. I'm not a fanboy but can appreciate his talent, especially to do it in a darkroom takes a lot of skill.I've made a couple references to this one, but here, I'll call it out explicitly:
What's the opinion on one of the most famous doctored landscape photos of all time?
https://www.slrlounge.com/wp-conten...-adams-winter-sunrise-sierra-nevada-holly.png
https://focusonphotography.blogspot.com/2008/07/ansel-adams-and-lone-pine-photograph.html
the people who were photographed for the FSA WPA images were staged, they were directed, so in that way they were actors, and if they were paid, sure you could go out on a limb and say they were hired (compensated). there was a photographic script they were given certain views to be taken ( I think this link has info on them: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/fsawr/fsawr.html. ) most of the photographers stayed on script, some did not, like walker evens. non-candid, non-street ( more formal ) portrait photography is a 3 way dance between the person behind the camera, the camera and the subject, is it reality? maybe, IDK though, its directed, its acting, its mediated by the camera.since in some cases, actors were hired
not sure what reality is. maybe its when we are awake, but when are we really awake?What is reality ?
( I think this link has info on them: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/fsawr/fsawr.html. )
Just not true. There are many interviews with the Migrant Mother in which she complained that she never earned nor was given compensation for the photographs. Please verify your statements before posting.
most of the photographers stayed on script, some did not, like walker evens. non-candid, non-street ( more formal ) portrait photography is a 3 way dance between the person behind the camera, the camera and the subject, is it reality? maybe, IDK though, its directed, its acting, its mediated by the camera.
Most magazine photo editors (at least at the time) gave the photographer a list of desired possible images or situations when they assigned a story. And they published what they wanted, not necessarily what the photographer wanted. Some photographers (when they could) withdrew their images when they did not get the layouts they hoped for. So the "truth" of the stories and images is not always objective, then or today....this is fantastic. Here it might be added: who determines what reality is? Suddenly another figure emerges that is not necessarily the artist: the publisher. In this case, that was Stryker's task. What a difficult task to have to choose and discard the most "real" photos. Maybe it was easy for him, who knows. In any case, he already knew that reality is also can be a construction.
https://www.vintag.es/2017/05/many-photographs-from-great-depression.html
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...this is fantastic. Here it might be added: who determines what reality is? Suddenly another figure emerges that is not necessarily the artist: the publisher. In this case, that was Stryker's task. What a difficult task to have to choose and discard the most "real" photos. Maybe it was easy for him, who knows. In any case, he already knew that reality is also can be a construction.
Stryker just picked out the images he thought were best. I doubt that the concept of reality as a construction was really forefront in his thoughts.
I would venture to state that a photographic image, no matter how it is made, through modern methods or age old methods that are similar,There is also edition of the "reality". Then there are instagram filters, etc.
Most magazine photo editors (at least at the time) gave the photographer a list of desired possible images or situations when they assigned a story.
The reality is, most magazines don't accept stories that they haven't assigned, they have an editorial agenda for each issue and assign or pull stories from their archives to make the magazine. Breaking news is usually covered by newspapers, and they also have editorial meetings to determine the content.I like a lot this phrase: "when they assigned a story" . Is this objective? a construction? here there is already a cut of reality framed by the camera.
I would venture to state that a photographic image, no matter how it is made, through modern methods or age old methods that are similar,
creates its own reality, and people shouldn't be so hung up on whether it looks like it was "made" because no matter what its made.
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