btech thesis 2009

The role of photography as social commentary in visual

communication and its role in South Africa.

Ryan Moss Ndip (Photography)

20312357

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Baccalaureus

Technologiae in Photography Degree,

School of creative arts, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Swanepoel, M. Meyer G.

Oct 2008

The role of photography as social commentary in visual communication and its role in South Africa

Table of contents

1. Proposal ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Background to research ....................................................................... 1

1.2 Statement of problem ........................................................................... 1

1.3 Statement of the sub problems ............................................................ 1

1.4 Rationale of the proposal study ............................................................ 2

1.5 Delimitations of research ...................................................................... 2

1.6 Limitations of research ......................................................................... 2

1.7 Methodology ........................................................................................ 2

1.7.1 Theoretical component .................................................................. 2

1.7.2 Practical component ...................................................................... 3

1.8 Review of related literature .................................................................. 3

1.9 Terminology ......................................................................................... 4

2. Essay ................................................................................................... 6

2.1 Introduction .......................................................................................... 6

2.2 Documentary: Laying the foundations .................................................. 8

2.3 Social commentary vs. Documentary .................................................. 11

2.4 The role of photography as social commentary .................................... 13

2.5 Drum .................................................................................................... 18

2.6 Social Commentary: The New Norm ................................................... 21

2.7 Social Commentary Today ................................................................... 24

2.7.1 International Photographer Chris Jordan ............................. 24

2.7.2 South African Photographer Obie Oberholzer ..................... 24

3. Conclusion .......................................................................................... 29 4. Source List.......................................................................................... 31

Ryan Arthur Moss 2008


1. Proposal 1.1 Background to research Most social commentary photography is found to represent the current cultural

influences from society as a whole, and demonstrates an artist’s point of view on current

and global issues regarding the way our culture is evolving. Photography as social

commentary focuses on the integration of documentary photography, new ideas, new

technologies, and social change. Historical events and people provide great insight into

human behavior that, in turn, provides us with the opportunity to observe and capture

the impact of social change on citizens.

There have been few photographers till recently, who through their work expressed

social commentary in the new medium which is to combine artistic influences such as

photography and design. This kind of social commentary through photography or “visual

communication” is increasingly made available through book stores, advertising, the

internet and more importantly through current anti advertising agencies such as

adbusters.org or the local Laugh it off annual.

1.2 Statement of the problem What is the role of photography as social commentary in visual communication, and

what is its role in South Africa?

1.3 Statement of the sub problems The statement of sub-problems includes a series of critical questions which are derived

from the initial research problem statement.

• What is the historical significance of documentary photography?

• What is the role of photography as social commentary in South Africa?

• How does documentary photography tie in with social commentary?

• How does current social commentary photography compare to that of the

international market?

1 Ryan Arthur Moss 2008


1.4 Rationale of the proposal study The rationale for the research is to critically review photography as social commentary

in visual communications and its role in South Africa. This is to establish the role

photography plays, as a vehicle, to express social commentary and the influence it has

on a contemporary media driven society. This paper will explore only a portion of the

greater visual discourse - still photography and design in visual communication. The

author wish’s to give students, colleagues and photographers both professional and

amateur the insight and reasoning behind social commentary. The author hope’s to

create a greater sense of awareness to social commentary through photography. A

greater understanding both critically and practically must be known in order to liberate

ourselves against current social conditions through visual communications.

1.5 Delimitations of research 1.5.1 In terms of visual communications, I will not be looking at Fine Art, and the news

media

1.5.2 In terms of photography and visual communication, current being a time frame of

the last 30 years from 1978 to 2008.

1.6 Limitations of research It was found that the limitations of this research report were evident in the lack of

resource material available to the researcher. Time constraints and financial constraints

placed a strain on the researcher as well as limited literature of photography as social

commentary in South Africa.

1.7 Methodology 1.7.1 Theoretical component The theoretical component of the document will introduce through means of literature

studies, a brief history of Photography as documentary and then as social commentary.

The current role of photography as social commentary as well as the role of

photography in visual communication, and the current role social commentary adopts in

visual communications. The literature will further explain the role of photography and its



influence in South Africa, and will place South Africa in context to foreign social

commentary in visual communication.

1.7.2 Practical component The practical component will consist of a production of a series of Social commentary

images including design and text. Digital photography will serve as the main media in

which the body of work will be expressed.

Images obtained during various meticulously planned shoots will undergo intensive post

production and will be edited in a montage manner. Some will be combined with design

and text to portray social comments on current culture. The foundations of the images

will be based on the idea of the seven vices and virtues, where each image will be

based on a creative extension of one of the vices or virtues. The work will encompass

current South African issues or debates or cultural habits, but is not limited to this.

1.8 Reviews of related literature The primary photographic influences for my study come from various books across the

range of visual communications. From photography to design, these books contain

literary and photographic influence from various photographers and designers. Basic

critical theory for photographers (La Grange: 2007) spawns discussion thought and

practical assignments around key debates in photography. The book contains

shortened literature by Sontag, Berger, Scott, Soloman-Godeau and many more. The

major influence in the South African context, is a classic book The Bang Bang Club

(Marinovich & Silva:2000) tells a haunting tale about several young men growing up in a

rapidly changing and often hostile South Africa, at the peak of the political transition

period of the country. The book entails photography and documentary photo-journalism.

The majority of available resources for the theoretical component will be taken from

books as well as websites form a database of information and imagery to be analysed in

this research. An essential guide to the anti advertising or culture jamming, Culture Jam

(Lasn; 2000) is a collective of media activists, engaging in the most significant social



movement of all time. It is in essence social commentary on our everyday culture is

accompanied by Designing Pornotopia (Poynor: 2006). A compilation of design essays

of visual culture, looking critically at design in brands, magazines, architecture and even

tattoos. He reviews the media and even finds substitutes to our commercial culture.

1.9 Terminology Culture Jamming

A loose global network of media activists, engaging in the most significant social

movement of all time, aiming to topple existing power structures and forge major

adjustments to the way we live in the twenty first century. Kalle Lasn describes it as,

“Above all, it will change the way we interact with mass media and the way in which

meaning is produced in our society” (Lasn, 2000).

Consumerism

Consumerism is the protection of the rights and interests of consumers, especially with

regard to price, quality, and safety. It represents an attitude that values the acquisition

of material goods and the belief that the buying and selling of large quantities of

consumer goods is beneficial to an economy or a sign of economic strength (Encarta,

1999).

Dissent

Dissent is used in this essay in three forms. The first is to disagree with a widely held

opinion or majority opinion. The second is to withhold assent or approval of a matter.

Thirdly it is used in politics. The refusal to accept political rules such as opposition to

the laws, norms and structures of a political regime, especially on moral grounds

(Encarta: 2008).

Everyday Every day in terms of what is happening now and specifically leading to the use of

photography to investigate rural and urban working and living conditions.




Social Change

Social change referring to everything that surrounds the production of our culture and

everyday life has become our culture.

Social Commentary

Social commentary is art created through means of rhetorical propaganda. This is most

often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing the general

public about social problems. This will be highlighted and proved in the essay to follow.


2 Essay 2.1 Introduction The purpose of this essay is to explore the role of photography as social commentary in

visual communication through exploring the history of documentary photography and its

progression to the current social commentary photography that is now influenced not

only by pure photography but by the integration of various mediums to create a new

social commentary photographic art.

Photography as social commentary focuses on the integration of documentary

photography, new ideas, new technologies and social change. Historical events and

people provide great insight into human behavior that, in turn, provides us with the

opportunity to observe and capture the impact of social change on citizens. An abstract

from the preface in Beyond the barricades which is simply signed “the photographers”

reads:

“The camera has played a special role in these times. It has been there to record

inhumanity, injustice and exploitation. It searches for peace and hope. It is beckoned by

history to take sides” (Badsha:1989).

Social commentary shocks the viewer into a series of disturbing realizations by letting

one witness all the contradictory provocative evidence that the photographer saw or

visualizes himself. Therefore social commentary exists to consider critically the standard

of social well being and to promote individual and collective human values. In the case

of social commentary the artist visualizes the true message that he wants the audience

to experience. He transforms a true life story into an art form with explicit viewer image

interaction.

Hughes (1980: 324) explains, “Capitalism plus electronics have given us a new habitat,

our forest of media.” It’s this media we now need to grasp and make use of to be

socially more responsible and get the message across of our self destruction regarding

capitalism, consumerism and globalization. All artists are influential in shaping our



culture, some rage out publicly and others subconsciously in the shadows. Many

photographic artists not only use their medium as social commentary, but as social

protest. Peter McKenzie, Roger Ballen, Omar Badsha, David Goldblatt and most

popular David Lachapelle are a few amongst the ever growing genre of photography.

Photographs have an intimate relationship with history. Walter Benjamin wrote,

“Photographs become standard evidence for historical occurrences, and acquire a

hidden political significance” (Sontag, 1973:184).

“To find a way out of cynicism is to find a way out of the postmodern malaise. On

the far side of cynicism lies freedom. And the pursuit of freedom is what

revolutions are all about.”

Kalle Lasn

As Lasn writes, this revolution he talks about was seen coming for a long time by the

situationists. Guy Debord, leader of the situationists, said “Revolution is not showing life

to people, but making them live”. A new awakening amongst activists all have had a

moment of truth about how the world works. These truths have changed lives and

brought on a need amongst artists, designers and activists to be more socially aware or

responsible. The creations of anti-advertising agencies or organizations such as

Adbusters.org or home based Laugh it off have provided significant commentary

regarding society’s downward spiral of consumerism. This new anti advertising or sub-

vertising trend has amplified the need for social marketing campaigns with regards to

the way we are culturally and socially on an unconscious consumer rampage while in

ignorance of capitalism. Lasn (2000) metaphorically compares visual communicators

today for the information age as engineers were to the age of steam, “they set the mood

of the mental environment… ...They create the envy and desire that fuels the economy

and the cynicism that underlies our postmodern condition” (2007:3).



2.2 DOCUMENTARY: LAYING THE FOUNDATIONS “Documentary photographers often see things that do not officially exist. Indignities.

Cruelties” (Tremain, 2000:4). Documentary photography has power to due to the

images are being disturbing, and have the potential to generate arguments more radical

than commonly considered (Bolton in La Grange, 2007:9). According to La Grange

(2007:239) “documentary photography covers a wide range of activities from the

objective recording of things to potentially controversial activities such as recording

people’s lives”. The ultimate intention of documentary photography is to inform,

however, it can also be used to persuade and be used as propaganda which therefore

weakens its documentary value. This style of photography is used to tell a story and

reveal things through a series of related images.

Photography not only developed in the Victorian era but was also implicitly caught up in

19th century interests and attitudes. The Victorians invested considerable faith in the

power of the camera to record, classify and witness. This meant that the camera was

also entrusted with delineating social appearance, classifying the face of criminality and

lunacy, offering racial and social stereotypes (Wells 2001: 55).

Documentary photography, a genre that shrives toward “realistic” images, had

crystallized in the United States during the depression era with photographers of the

Farm Security Administration (FSA). During the 1940’s and 1950’s documentary

photography in America expanded to popular culture because of the popularity of highly

photographic magazines like Life and Look (Margaret Sartor in Fattal:1). The success

of documentary photography in the United States and the rise of the Holocaust saw the

demand and supply of images for which resistance photography, a form of documentary

photography, can be considered an indirect result. At the dawn of apartheid

documentary photography became increasingly popular with influences from abroad.

Since documentary has been described as a form, a genre, a tradition, a style, a

movement and a practice it is not possible to source a single definition for the word.

Stott (1973:14) defines documentary as “defying comment, imposing its meaning”.



Emphasis is all on evidence and the facts speak for themselves, thus it can be

transmitted in any medium. He deliberates that the heart of documentary is not form,

style or medium but always content.

After the apartheid, documentary photography moved in a different direction with the

major focus being on the surrounding society and the attempt to make good on all

manner of missed experiences. The artist attempts to capture the hostility afflicted by a

dread epidemic, or the exposure to endangerment such as violent criminality. This can

endanger photographers fatally and “their attempts to visualise what is out of frame can

be seen as a form of self-defence and passionate search in a bid to come to terms with

trouble” (Weisner, 2007:7).

Post-apartheid documentary photographers can be seen as working through missed

experience and take up missed opportunities as they are denied to them by others

(restrictions in the apartheid system or those imposed externally), or those denied by

themselves, or those not widely available in the past.

In the essay written by Weisner (2007), the author constantly refers to the brilliance of

David Southwood, a photographer whose main ambition was to bring the differences

between the past and the new into relief. In his career history he demonstrates many of

the ways in which post-apartheid photographers are working through missed

experience. Southwood’s work demonstrates the passion and drive needed to be

successful in documentary photography, he states

“I want to make pictures that describe a built environment or a

psychological state, that become more useful over time, so that, after I

die people can reflect on a time that is past… …as you get older, you

must want to make yourself visible forever” (Southwood in Weisner,

2007:14).




Born in 1971, he earns a living as a photographer in an internationalised, multimedia

environment. Southwood has taught township street photographers, taken a job at a

newspaper, and made images for magazines, websites, and galleries (Weisner, 2001).

He demonstrates throughout his career and it can be seen in his images many ways

Fig 3 Fig 4

Fig 1-4 Source: Weisner (2001)

which post apartheid photographers are

Fig 1

working through missed experience.

Fig 2


In the photo’s above, Southwood has depicted South Africa as crime-free and normal.

However there is so much corruption and upset in the country. The photo’s title

“nothing in particular” indicate how photographers can portray something as it isn’t.

This often occurs in South Africa as aspects are covered up and portrayed as all is in

tact when we know it is not.

In order to be effective, documentary photographers must constantly search for

unfolding events, including the hazards of social unrest, revolution, or war.

“Consequently, they oft en risk their lives and sometimes pay the ultimate price in their

pursuit of the perfect picture (Weisner, 2001)” It can metaphorically be explained that

documentary photographers are, “looking under South Africa’s skin and exploring

subjects other than these in the headlines which before had been the dominant motifs of

an earlier generation (Weisner, 2001).

2.3 SOCIAL COMMENTARY VS DOCUMENTARY The line between social commentary and social documentary is a fine one. In some

cases the same photograph can be viewed as either, depending on its presentation.

Exhibits and books tend to coincide with documentary photography while newspapers,

magazines and political pamphlets tend to correlate with social commentary.

“Documentary photography seeks to more subtly expose the inhumanity of apartheid

and allude to the injustice of apartheid with people’s stories, while photojournalism’s

(social commentary) oppositional statements tend to be more direct” (Fattal: 40).

In the 1980’s documentary photography went in two directions parallel to each other. It

grew subtler and more sophisticated in its critique and it documented in full throttle.

Documentary photography is largely concerned with details, which make each

photograph unique, whereas, social commentary is usually mass produced commenting

on the state of affairs to provoke a change.




A pioneer in South African documentary photography, David Goldblatt and his work was

an important element thereof, because of the sizeable audience they reached by virtue

of his publication. Another photographer Alex Harris wrote “Goldblatt is joined by a

growing number of South African documentary photographers in understanding that a

positive social change can come to their country if South Africans have a better sense

of one another” (Alex Harris in Fattal).

Goldblatt’s fine choices of subject matter during a decade of severe oppression, and his

ability to avoid stereo typing have made his veracity as a photographer extraordinary.

ising and anger with a

calming peace (Antjie Kr

Source: Goldblatt (2007:79)

Documentary photographs span the universal concepts upon which the social

documentary genre exists. Themes like sadness, dignity, strength, privilege and power

are one’s that prevail. These South African photographers project a vision of the

realities which they confront. (Staff rider, 1983:2) The photograph afternoon tea (Fig 5)

During this time he attentively filled the images of the political upr

og, in Goldblatt: 2007).

Fig 5


depicts a street scene of two white men waiting to be served upon, while there

expressions are revealed, the labouring African woman who is bent over in an

extremely subservient manner has her face concealed. Goldblatt subtly portrays in this

image a moving example of racial exploitation during the time of oppression

2.4 THE ROLE OF PHOTOGRAPHY AS SOCIAL COMMENTARY This is most often done with the idea of implementing or promoting change by informing

the general public about social problems. During the apartheid, activist and commercial

photographers were confronted by and captured violent, traumatic events. The

exposure of these events to the wider world played a key role in the downfall of the

state.

One way of viewing the struggle for liberation in South Africa is from behind the

viewfinder. Many violent phrases are thrown at photographers such as “hitting back

with the camera” or “using our cameras continuously as guns”. Resistance photography

was a very important element of the struggle for liberation in South Africa. Resistance

photography is used to “signify photography that in any way challenged the beliefs,

policies, or actions of the South African government” (Fattal: 1).

Photography is a powerful resistance tool for many reasons. In the apartheid, much of

its power lay in the ability to expose the humanity of non-white racial groups that

apartheid concealed at all cost. This allows whites to see the kind of conditions the

government policies and procedures forced Africans into and therefore reveal the

inhumanity of apartheid.

Omar Badsha, a famous resistance photographer once said “The Whites are more

oppressed than the blacks in this country. Because they can’t feel. They have lost their

humanity”. One might say that South Africa was once two countries in one. Almost as

though people were living in different time frames that never crossed and each time

frame perceived a different reality. Photography made it possible to expose what the

South African government tried to hide, the injustice and inhumanity of being African.



Photography moved the horrors of apartheid into full view of the dominant (white) class

to show the suffering and injustice of the government. This class would usually be

oblivious to these occurrences and have an outright denial of abuse of human rights. A

famous photographer Ben MacLennan once wrote “I am taking photographs because

one day when something happens and there are changes in South Africa, I want to

ensure that people won’t be able to say ‘we didn’t know’. We weren’t told these things

were happening”.

Fig 6

Source: (Nicol, 1998: 50)

Probably known as Oesterbroeks best known image, (Fig 6) the photograph portrays

two children in Tokoza fleeing from a crowd of armed men moving down Khumalo

Street. This was one scene of many battles between the A.N.C and the Inkatha

Freedom Party. On this notorious Khumalo Street, (Fig 7) Joao Silva photographed a

man whom can be seen laughing as he passes a group of female Inkatha supporters

beating an unidentified woman.




Fig 7 Fig 8

Source: Marinovich & Silva (2000) Source: Marinovich & Silva (2000)

Ultimately, photographs became standard evidence for historical events and acquired a

political significance as can be seen in one of Marinovich’s photograph’s (Fig 8) which

portrays an A.N.C supporter hacking at a burning Lindsaye Tshabalala. However, the

government legislation targeted photographers through placing laws on print media and

political literature. The Entertainments Act of 1931 targeted films, photographs and

public performances. It stated that the following were considered objectionable:

“(g) scenes containing reference to controversial or international politics

(l) scenes representing antagonistic relations of capital and labour

(i) scenes tending to disparage public characters

(q) pugilistic encounters between Europeans and Non-Europeans

(r) scenes of intermingling of Europeans and Non-Europeans” (Fattal:10).

These laws were further enhanced by the Customs Act of 1955 that tightly controlled

the importation of undesirable literature that was highlighted in “lithographic and

photographic material” and was considered as scrutiny. Any publications containing

photographs that were considered obscene or indecent were immediately confiscated

and the owner was fined or even imprisoned. These restrictions on photographers

seemed unfair and made the work and life of a photographer a questionable one.



This poster (Fig 9) welcoming Mandela for his visit to the township Laudium and the

following, (Fig 10, 11) were produced in the “old South Africa’ and was therefore illegal

under the terms of the “state of emergency.” Posters of this nature are now virtually

impossible to come by. These Anti-Apartheid posters from the 1980’s demanded

freedom for Nelson Mandela and also wished him a “happy 70th birthday” in prison. The

government ban on nelson Mandela’s physical image contributed to the absence of

compelling current photographs (Glaser & Ilic: 2005).

Fig 9 Fig 10

Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:88)

F.W.De Klerk who eventually broke down the apartheid system ensued P.W. Botha, the

former president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989 who was forced to resign by his own

party and can be seen in (Fig 12) being forcibly changed into Nelson Mandela.

Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:89)



Fig 11 Fig 12 Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:89) Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:89) However, even with all the laws in place the government could not stop the creation and

dissemination of revolutionary images. “As the degree of repression increased so did

photographers’ creativity in avoiding the censors” (Fattal: 12). This led to

photographers constantly devising their own personal strategies in order to outlive an

encounter with the police. Some photographers wore large African shirts in order to

secretly unload film from their cameras when encountering police. The photographer’s

race played an important role, Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, famous white

photographers who covered the violent end to the apartheid wrote,

“Black photographers had the language and cultural skills and contacts in black

communities that allowed them greater insight and access, unlike the whites,

who hardly ever understood even one of the nine major black languages. But

black photo-journalists were much more prone to harassment by the police – no

white photography was ever detained for 18 months in solitary as Magubane had

been.”


Photographers were constantly threatened and intimidated by police through film

confiscation, camera destruction, and dark room raids. This explains the above quote

where Peter Magubane was held in solitary confinement for 586 days, had his nose

broken, and was shot multiple times with rubber bullets.

The photographic repression reached its height in the early 1990s where the

government declared that no person was allowed to, without prior consent of the

Commissioner or a member of security, take photographs or make or produce any

television recordings, film recordings, drawings or other depiction of any unrest or

security action or of any incident occurring during this period. No photographs of

damaging or destruction of property or the injuring or killing of people could be taken.

These restrictions could still not stop the creative and dissemination of revolutionary

images. Resistance photography changes photographic subject and style according to

the degree of photographic censorship.

2.5 DRUM

The target audience was a black audience with publications that assembled and edited

stories from a black perspective. Black publications that had small local distributions

suddenly could improve their production and reach a national, sometimes international

audience. Drum had a circulation of 450,000 copies per issue with an enormous pass-

on readership during the 1960s.




Fig 13

Source: Sampson (2004)

“It appeared to function as a political instrument in spite of its tawdry, irresponsible air; -

that its commercial guise somewhat belied its importance as an articulator of the black

experience and black aspirations” (Fattal: 32). One of the main reasons that Drum was

so successful was due to the high illiteracy rate in the country which made photographs

their major weapon. This lead to the story run by Drum on the mistreatment of

prisoners. They managed to get a photograph of a prisoner doing the humiliating “tausa

dance” (Fig 13). This was a ridiculous dance prisoners were forced to perform naked to

show whether he was concealing drugs. The picture concluded the report on the

miserable conditions in prison and the abuse by wardens.

Photographers of Drum started to make use of photos in order to portray society at that

present time. Jurgen Schaderberg took images that included: a boss-boy on horseback

carrying a long whip with labourers walking in front of him, labourers eating dry porridge

off filthy sacks, concrete beds, high concrete walls topped with barbed wire and people

accepting contracts by touching a pencil. These photo’s caused an outrage by the

greater South African press and prompted a special investigation by the institute of

Race Relations, which confirmed the article’s reports.



Drum’s focus on black urban regions not only illuminated the different class status of the

African community but also exposed symbolic relationships between whites and blacks.

A good example is a photo shot by Ranjith Kally in 1957 of the presence of whites in

shebeens (informal drinking establishments in African areas). These images directly

opposed the fundamental premise of apartheid and racial separation through the

affectionate touches of each of the interracial pairs. He provided a unique record of

African politicians and township life in the fifties, and training young black photographers

including Peter magubane and Robert Gosani.

Fig 14 Fig

Source: Schadeberg (1987:24) Source: Schadeberg (1987:55)

(Fig 14) Tsotsis have been much maligned. Far from being hooligans and ruffians they

are the sophisticated young men of the new age. Its time people tried to understand

these misunderstood members of society. Peter Magubane’s Death in the dark city,

(Fig 15) is a photo of Boy Mangena who is a thug, knifeman, bully and now just an

unbefriended corpse. Boy was shot outside a theatre in Alexandra Johannesburg.

Some say a gang did it, others deny it, and others even say boy was a gangster himself

and the cinema outside which Boy’s body lay stiffening, was showing a film called “The

great sinner.”

15



Fig 16 Source: Schadeberg (1987:73)

(Fig 16) shows two young boys hiding around a corner too scared to face the police in

apartheid era. They were threatened by policemen and were terrified of them. Often

heard saying “Come over to the pass and we will see what you really are”.

2.6 SOCIAL COMMENTARY: THE NEW NORM Social commentary exists to consider critically the standard of social well being and to

promote individual and collective human values. In the case of social commentary the

artist visualizes the true message that he wants the audience to experience. He

transforms a true life story into an art form with explicit viewer image interaction.

Imagery is a medium of communication which receives much exposure across the

globe. “The facts we see depend on where we are placed and the habits of our eyes,”

said Walter Lipmann. How does an individual photographer’s point of view affect the

photographs he or she takes? (Walter Lippmann in Strauss, 2003).

Samina Querashi in Designing Pornotopia (61) “design has a central role,” she noted in

“breaking down the physical and psychological barriers to full participation in society.”

And giving citizens “the means to express their needs and solve their problems.” It’s not

that we mistake photographs for reality: we prefer them to reality. We cannot bear



reality, but we bear images- like stigmata, like children, like fallen comrades. We suffer

them. We idealise them. We believe them because we need what we are inside them.

(Anonymous in Strauss 2003). Photography has thus evolved to the new notion of

social commentary. Taking on other visual cues photography now encompasses the

ideas of design, text and symbols to create art works of dissent. In an interview with

Steve Heller, Milton Glaser explains that dissenters usually have the idea that their

condition and feels

ing power. In c

people generally

lly used with a variety of

ertisements. (Fig 17) portr

ank is no

Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:17) Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:19)

dissent is an attempt to improve an existing

of fairness that is being violated by an exist

Glaser & Ilic (2005:224) explains that

words that contain an appeal to justice.

Photography is now essentia

dissenting images, posters or adv

a Palestinian boy throwing stones, yet the t

with type was given away as a poster by the

Ranallah during the second intifada of 2000.

Fig 17

dissent is about a notion

ontext of social commentary

respond to powerful imagery and

mediums to create these

ays a famous photograph of

t seen. This photograph now used

Palestinian liberation organization office in

Fig 18



The international market for social commentary has become a huge significant factor in

portraying dissent. (Fig 18) shows an image ense forces

spokesman explaining that this six year ol cording to

regulation” offers little comfort, as it rema

here is much too young to stand in the politic

Fig 19 Fig

Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:110) Source: Glaser & Ilic (2005:128)

Photography is used in social commentary from political to health issues across the

globe to create a sense of the need for change. Glaser & Ilic (2005:228) suggests “Part

of the characteristic of dissent when it’s at its best is fueled by the idea that other people

matter, and that if somebody is hurt or victimized, we are all hurt or victimized.” The

designer created this poster in response to the lack of social commentary in New

Orleans. (Fig 19) shows the consequences of the laissez-faire spirit of New Orleans by

an image of legendary stuntman, Evil Knievel moto-vaulting over a long line of degraded

and exploited dark skinned men. While (Fig 20) literally depicts a poster promoting “the

war against aids”. The helmet, used as a visual metaphor, reminds us that war has its

casualties but perhaps this images strength lies in its deliberate provocation to discuss

a subject too often ignored.

with a quote from an Israeli def

d Palestinian boy was “killed ac

ins strikingly apparent that the child pictured

al crosshairs of a political battle.

20


2.7 SOCIAL COMMENTARY TODAY 2.7.1 International Photographer Chris Jordan American photographer Chris Jordan’s photography takes a bold new approach to

social commentary photography. His current project Running the Numbers looks at

contemporary American culture through statistics. These images are pure photographic

genius and he does not incorporate design or other influences in his work. Each image

portrays a specific quantity of something: fifteen million sheets of office paper used in

his photograph is compared to five minutes of paper use in an office; 106,000 aluminum

cans compared to thirty seconds of can consumption and so on. Jordan (2007)states

“my hope is that images representing these quantities might have a different effect than

the raw numbers alone, such as we find daily in articles and books”. Statistics can feel

abstract and anesthetizing, making it difficult to connect with and make meaning of 3.6

million SUV sales in one year, for example, or 2.3 million Americans in prison, or 32,000

breast augmentation surgeries in the United States every month.

(Fig 21) depicts 32,000 Barbies in total, equal to the number of elective breast

augmentation surgeries performed monthly in the US in 2006. The canvas size for this

image is an extraordinary sixty by eighty inches.

Fig 21

Source: www.chrisjordan.com (accessed 28 September 2008)



Fig 22


(Fig 22) depicts 200,000 packs of cigarettes, equal to the number of Americans who die

from cigarette smoking every six months.

Fig 23


(Fig 23) depicts 125,000 one-hundred dollar bills ($12.5 million), the amount the

American government spends every hour on the war in Iraq.

2.7.2 South African Photographer Obie Oberholzer Obie Oberholzer, renowned photographer, former fine arts photography lecturer and

vibrant and colourful traveler, has a zest for life incomparable to any other photographer




of his kind. “After a long wait after sm

told me that a life without adventure is no lif

2007:1). He has developed a certain technique, one

is intense in colour, from his systematic

eye for quality and correct exposure. As we

pass us by, Oberholzer knows when he is win

become inquisitive, and have a second look.

Fig 24

Source:www.laughitoff.co.za/calendar/index.hml Source: Oberholzer (2008:18)

Oberholzer has featured in two volumes of South Africa’s own anti-advertising

magazine, Laugh it Off. This magazine humoured South Africans and made us

question Society as well as question the moral integrity of advertising and big business.

(Fig 25) is a tongue in cheek photo depicting George W Bush. The South African take

on America is an example of the power of photography and social commentary. The

product of the advert reads “All-purpose, strong, mean and powerful Mr Sin Cleaner for

all bloodied hands and expansionist stains” (Oberholzer, 2000:18).

oking some cannabis my friend Wally Onetime

e at all, and that’s what I live by” (Fleming

could call it the “Obie picture” that

techniques with the camera system, his keen

are bombarded daily from pictures that just

ning when people stop for just a moment,

Fig 25


In (Fig 24) is attacking the way in which South Africa perceives to make profit on the

Lotto by taking all the money from the poor. It shows a poor South African man

watching the "Lo$$o" results on a portable TV. The wall of his home is pasted with the

Lotto cards on which he has probably spent most of his small income on. The National

Lottery logo is recast as "National Robbery".

Fig 26

Source: Oberholzer (2008:101)

This satirical image produced by Oberholzer is one of Laugh it off’s famous anti-

advertising images. The image depicts a scene in front of a busy shebeen. Black label

being the most popular brand of beer amongst black South Africans, is clearly being

represented as the very cause of poverty in the black culture. There is a rational




annotation in the slogan “You haven’t won until you sink the black”, indicating the

downfall of the black race.


3. CONCLUSION Social commentary photography, while perhaps sensationalist and not necessarily

concerned with the most realistic portrayal, generated an interest in South Africa’s

struggle for freedom that in turn created a market for documentary photography

(Fattal:1).

As Fattal mentions earlier, Documentary photography seeks to more subtly expose the

inhumanity of apartheid and allude to the injustice of apartheid with people’s stories,

while photojournalism’s (social commentary) oppositional statements tend to be more

direct”.

The role these images played in the liberation struggle should not be underestimated.

Paul Weinberg, in conversation with Omar Badsha said “you are looking at times where

a single picture, or a bit of information can actually sway public and world opinion. It is

credible to be aware of the power that one has as a photographer” (Fattal:1).

Kerry Tremain once wrote “Documentary photographers often see things that do not

officially exist. Indignities. Cruelties”. As documentary photographers overcame their

own blind spots, they began the process of deconstructing the deeply rooted

psychology of apartheid. Photography challenged and gradually subverted apartheid.

Social commentary has given people hope. As Omar Badsha once said “It is only when

you have hope that you will fight. You know that you will win… The kids now that are

being shot all over the place. What makes them go? It’s not anger, it is hope.”

It is difficult to define the difference between documentary photography and social

commentary. In essence, social commentary is a product of documentary photography

in that documentary photography produces an image or photo, this image or photo is

than manipulated and produced in society in order to comment on our current culture

and state of affairs.



Therefore, in essence, it is felt that documentary photography is a product of social

commentary because designers and visual communicators project their messages

through social commentary, however, in the near and far future designers and visual

communicators will take the very same social commentary and view it as documentary

of what happened in the past.

Above it all, it will change the way we interact with the mass media and the way in which

meaning is produced in our society (Lasn: xi).



4. Source List Adbusters. http://www.adbusters.org [Online]. Accessed June 2008

Badsha, O., Chikane, F., & Odendaal, A. (1989). Beyond the barricades. New York:

Aperture.

Encarta. (1999). World English Dictionary. Microsoft Corporation: Bloomsbury

Publishing Plc.

Fattal, A. Photography and the liberation struggle in South Africa.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/thesis/photography-...1.

[Online]. Accessed June 2008.

Fleming, D., & Chenia. (2007). To the point with Obie Oberholzer.

http://ruactivate.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/to-the-point-with-obie-oberholzer-

photographer/. Accessed June 2008.

Glaser, M., & Ilic, M. (2005). Design of dissent. Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers.

Goldblatt, D. (2007). Some Afrikaaners Revisited. Roggebaai: Published by Umuzi.

Hattingh, M. (2008). Laugh It Off. Annual Volume 2.

http://www.tonight.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=2491190&fSectionId=359&fSetId=25

1[Online]. Accessed June 2008

Hughes, R. (1980). Shock of the new. London: British Broadcasting Commission.

La Grange, A. (2007). Basic critical theory for Photographers. New York: Focal Press.

Lasn, K. (2000). Culture Jam. New York: Harper Collins Publishers Inc.



Lasn, K. 2007. Interview in the mirror. http://alterdesign.com/page2/page5/page10.html

[Online]. Accessed June 2008

Laugh it off. http://www.lio.co.za [Online]. Accessed June 2008

Light, K. (2000). Witness in our time: Working lives of Documentary photographers.

Washington: Smithsonian institute press.

Marinovich, G & Silva, J. (2000). The Bang Bang Club. New York:Basic Books.

Nicol, M. (1998). The life and photography of ken oesterbroek: the invisible line. South

Africa:Kwela books

Oberholzer, O. (2000). Round the Bend: Travels Around Southern Africa. Ajuta:

Cape Town.

Poynor, R. (2006). Designing Pornotopia: Travels in a visual culture. London:Lawrence

King Publishers.

Sampson, A. (2004). Drum: the making of a magazine. Jonathan ball publishers.

Sassen, R. Attention-seeking images: early work by Berni Searle and Paul Emmanuel.

https://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/5613/1/Sassen_Attention(2007).pdf.

[Online]. Accessed June 2008

Schadeberg, J. (1987). The finest photos from the old drum. Penguin Books.

Sontag, S. (1973). On Photography. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Stott, W. (1973). Documentary Expression and Thirties America. London:Oxford

University Press




Strauss, L. (2003). UBetween the eyes. Essays on photography and politicsU. Singapore:

Tien Wah Press.

Weinberg, P. Apartheid – a vigilant witness: a reflection on photography.

http://www.sahistory.org.za/pages/library-resources/online%20books/culture-

anotherSA/Apartheid-vigilant%20witness.htm. [Online]. Accessed June 2008

Weisner, A. (2007). Rediscovering the (extra) ordinary: Missed experience and South

African documentary photography. UJavnost – the public U. Vol 14(3), 7-30.

Wells, L. (2001). UPhotography: A critical introductionU. London & New York. Routledge



IMAGES FIGURE PAGE Fig 1 Nothing in Particular (Weisner, 2007) 10

Fig 2 Nothing in Particular (Weisner, 2007) 10

Fig 3 Other people who other people think look like me

(Weisner, 2007) 10

Fig 4 Nothing in Particular (Weisner, 2007) 10

Fig 5 Afternoon Tea (Goldblatt, 2007) 12

Fig 6 Untitled (Nicol, 1998) 14

Fig 7 Untitled (Marinovich & Silva, 2000) 15

Fig 8 Untitled (Marinovich & Silva, 2000) 15

Fig 9 Laudium Welcomes (Glaser & Ilic, 2005) 16

Fig 10 Happy Birthday Nelson Mandela (Glaser & Ilic, 2005) 16

Fig 11 Release Nelson Mandela (Glaser & Ilic, 2005) 17

Fig 12 Make-up for Beginners (Glaser & Ilic, 2005) 17

Fig 13 Tausa dance (Sampson, 2004) 19

Fig 14 Maligned Tsotis (Shaderberg, 1987) 20

Fig 15 Death in the Dark City (Shaderberg, 1987) 20

Fig 16 Racial Classifications (Shaderberg, 1987) 21

Fig 17 Stoned Throwing Boy (Glaser, 2005) 22

Fig 18 Childhood is not Childsplay (Glaser, 2005) 22

Fig 19 Devil May Care (Glaser, 2005) 23

Fig 20 AIDS! (Glaser, 2005) 23

Fig 21 Barbie Dolls (www.chrisjordan.com) 24

Fig 22 Skull with Cigarette (www.chrisjordan.com) 25

Fig 23 Ben Franklin (www.chrisjordan.com) 25

Fig 24 Lo$$o (www.laughitoff.co.za) 26

Fig 25 Mr Sin (Oberholzer, 2008) 26

Fig 26 Black Labour (Oberholzer, 2008) 27

btech thesis 2009

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