Understanding Social Photography: Styles and Approaches

1. Social Issue Investigation Racism Brooke Pearse

2. What is Social Photography? Social photography is the recording of humans in their natural condition using a camera. It is a socially critical genre of photography dedicated to showing the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people.

3. Styles of Social Photography Artistic: An artistic approach to social photography is when the photo is intentionally put together by the photographer to give the viewers more than one interpretation of the meaning of the image. The photographer edits the image and makes sure that the image is a certain style. Documentary: A documentary approach to social photography is when the photo has had minimal editing and there are no models in the image. These types of photos are mostly taken while they are occurring in their natural environment and are known for their authenticity. These images reveal a lot more emotion in the viewer because of the fact that they are taken in their natural environment and that these social issues are happening around the world at this very moment.

4. Issues in Social Photography A few examples of social photography: Homelessness Equality Poverty Disease Racism

5. Dick Loek This image was taken for a PhotoSensitive project called Them = Us. This image in particular was photographed by Dick Loek, and was taken of Dr Michael Young of Happy Valley in Canada. Dr Michael Young came to Canada from Malaysia and has been living in Happy Valley for the past 15 years. "I'm an immigrant from Holland and I can understand how hard it is to come to a new country. Even as a white person it was difficult, but for people of colour, coming to this country is even harder. Dr Michael Young We went together to a couple of villages and Inuit settlements. It gave me hope that harmony is possible, these things are possible in Canada. He's completely integrated in the community. He's not the Chinese doctor. He's the doctor." - Dick Loek

6. Dick Loek The photographers intended message for this image is that we can live a life without racism, and this town in Canada has managed to do that with this doctor that has moved to their town. The style of the photography used is black and white documentary. The image has been taken in their natural environment and is authentic: it was taken as the doctor did his job. Loek has incorporated humanisation into this image by trying to show the viewer that these migrants are just like every other person, and that they have the same characteristic of being human that the viewer has.

7. Reena Bose This image was taken for a PhotoSensitive project called Them=Us. This image in particular was photographed by Reena Bose, and was taken in Vancouver, Canada of two native people. "A lot of people in Vancouver don't think twice if someone is a different colour. Here you can't go an hour without seeing a native person. It's so different in Ottawa, where I was brought up. As a young kid you start to notice when other people don't want to sit next to you. These days I want others to see there are different people out there. They are not going away. You can't close your eyes." -Reena Bose

8. Reena Bose The style of photography used in this image is black and white documentary. The intended message of this image is to show how happy native people are in their countries despite the racism. Bose has incorporated the thematic elements of happiness and the setting of poverty into the image to emphasise the fact that these people can still manage to be happy even though they dont have much.

9. Vincenzo Pietropaolo Establishing cultural recognition for working-class life may be as basic as developing a vocabulary for these kinds of images. I am hoping to establish an archive in order to record, document, and perhaps most of all, incorporate a way of life in a broader sense into Canadian cultural life. I want people to be aware of these migrant workers who are invisible to the rest of society, especially to people living in cities. They come to help us grow our food and definitely deserve some kind of recognition. I want my camera to be the witness." -Vincenzo Pietropaolo

10. Vincenzo Pietropaolo In this image, Pietropaolo has intended for the viewer to receive the message that there is a life outside of their own and that there are migrant workers out there doing the jobs that no one else wants to do which is helping to keep the country afloat. The style of photography used in this image was black and white documentary. Pietropaolo has incorporated the use of thematic elements such as humanisation to display to the viewer how migrants are people too, they have feelings, jobs, families, etc. just like everyone else.

11. References PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. 2014. PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.photosensitive.com/project-gallery- n.php?i=3&id=4&p=1. [Accessed 07 August 2014]. PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. 2014. PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.photosensitive.com/project-gallery- n.php?i=21&id=4&p=1. [Accessed 08 August 2014]. PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. 2014. PhotoSensitive: Them = Us Gallery. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.photosensitive.com/project-gallery- n.php?i=28&id=4&p=1. [Accessed 08 August 2014].