Engaged Observers: Documentary Photography Since the Sixties

by Brett Abbott

In the decades following World War II, an independently minded, critically engaged form of photojournalism began to flourish. It was not destined for the morning papers or exclusively for newsmagazines, and it did not attempt to be neutral. This kind of photojournalism was self-assigned. It declared its independence from the mainstream media's editorial control, and it was disseminated to the public through books, exhibitions, articles, and, more recently, the Web.
Engaged Observers focuses on nine photographers who have participated in the development of this documentary approach. Surveyed are Leonard Freed (Black in White America), Philip Jones Griffiths (Vietnam Inc.), W. Eugene Smith (Minamata), Susan Meiselas ( June 1978-July 1979), Mary Ellen Mark (Streetwise), Larry Towell (The Mennonites), Sebastiao Salgado (Migrations), Lauren Greenfield (Girl Culture), and James Nachtwey ("The Sacrifice"). Each section opens with an introductory essay that sets the work in its evolving historical context.

Genres: Photography, Art

236 pages, Hardcover

First published February 29, 2000

Reviews

[Grady · Rating 5 out of 5]

'Is there any place darker than in the darkness of our souls?'

Now and again museums gather the courage to present to the public an exhibItion that takes a mighty risk, an exhibition about a subject so difficult to cope with that many museum boards fear the people will stay away in droves. Gratefully the public is more curious and has a hunger to know about those aspects of living that are not a part of their own safe little immediate worlds. They happen to step into exhibitions such as the superbly moving ENGAGED OBSERVERS: INDEPENDENT PHOTOJOURNALISM, 1962 - 2007 now showing at The Getty Museum and their lives are changed. This superb catalog is a condensation of that exhibition, and for those unable to see the breathless museum collection, this book says it all.

Instead of the regular photojournalists paid to document with their cameras a 'happening', these artists represented here have independently sought out realities they felt compelled to share. The result is a wide spectrum of agony made real by the curatorial statement of both the exhibition and this accompanying catalogue by Brett Abbott. Here are the long missing photographs form Philip Jones Griffiths' VIETNAM, INC - a portfolio of images form the Vietnam experience a968 - 1971; James Nachtwey equally brittle diagnosis of the treatment of casualties in Iraq; W. Eugene Smith's photo-documentation (with his wife Aileen's commentary) of the little fishing village, Minamata, in Japan where mercury was corporately dumped in the water, killing and disfiguring the townspeople; Lauren Greenfield's statement in photographs of the at times very cruel variations on 'Girl Culture'; Sebastiao Salgado's images of the masses of the world rushing toward anything better than what they have in 'Migrations'; Susan Meiselas' documentation of the revolution in Nicaragua in 1978 -1979; Leonard Freed's very touching examination of the interaction of races in 'Black in White America'; and Larry Towell's inside look at 'The Mennonites'.

The title of the book and the exhibition states it well, calling these photojournalists 'critically engaged', and the amazing aspect of the selection of artists is the fact that they felt driven to the need to discover and share aspects of life too distant from our media and yet so very necessary to understanding our planet. Highly Recommended.

Grady Harp

[Kate Kaluzny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was already familiar with most of these series, but it was great to see all the photos in depth with the backstory of each. A terrific, exhaustive collection of some of the preeminent documentary photography in the last 50 years.