Contents
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction
1. Activism: Philosophy and Psychology
Equality and Justice
Conversation with Omar Imam
Focus on Solutions
Pursuing Long-Term Projects
Conversation with Donna Ferrato
Conversation with Sim Chi Yin
What Is Documentary?
Truth, Representation, and Postmodern Criticism
Controversy: Jonas Bendiksen and the Book of Veles
Insider/Outsider: Who Should Photograph Whom?
Conversation with Nicky Woo
Visual Coloniality
Conversation with Mark Sealy
Representation, Agency, and Authorship
Conversation with Bayeté Ross Smith
Beyond Awareness: Images with Impact
Conversation with Mathieu Asselin
2. History and Social Reform
History: Early Activism, Social Reform, and the Progressive Era
Hill and Adamson
Activism Expanded: United Kingdom
America: Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and Frances B. Johnston
Farm Security Administration
Controversy: Dorothea Lange and the Migrant Mother Photograph
Mid- to Late Twentieth Century
Conversation with Paz Errázuriz
Civil Rights and New Narratives
Martin Luther King to Black Lives Matter
Defining the Photo Essay
W. Eugene Smith
Mary Ellen Mark
Stephan Shames
Susan Meiselas
Sebastião Salgado
Conversation with Tom Stoddart
Chinese Activist Photography
Environmental Activism
Conversation with Michael O. Snyder
Participatory Photography
Conversation with Robin Hammond
Conversation with Anthony Luvera
3. Awareness to Impact
Conflict and Its Aftermath
Conversation with Jonathan Torgovnik
Conversation with Marcus Bleasdale
Conversation with Stephen Dupont
Conversation with Eugene Richards
Visualizing the Invisible
Conversation with Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Conversation with Kiana Hayeri
Conversation with Frédéric Noy
Conversation with Brent Stirton
Conversation with Ed Kashi
Conversation with Greg Constantine
4. New Directions
Fazal Sheikh
Pushing the Edges of Documentary
Conversation with Laura El-Tantawy
Conversation with Poulomi Basu
America, Power Structures, and the Deep State
Conversation with Debi Cornwall
Conversation with Edmund Clark
Conversation with Lewis Bush
Conversation with Jan Banning
Appendix: Resources
Spaces, Publications, Educational Organizations, and Websites
Non-profits, Organizations, and NGOs
Miscellaneous Projects
Foundations, Grants, and Awards
Festivals and Events
Agencies and Collectives
Archives
Photographers
Bibliography
Index
Biography
Michelle Bogre is Professor Emerita at Parsons School of Design and The New School, after a 25-year career that included being chair of the Photography Department at Parsons and teaching almost every type of photography class. She also is a documentary photographer, writer, and intellectual property lawyer. She co-founded the CRUX Photography Research Network (at Arts University Bournemouth), an international research network of photographic artists, researchers, educators, and theorists. She has written hundreds of articles and book chapters about photography and law, as well as three books: Photography 4.0: A Teaching Guide for the 21st Century (Routledge 2014), Documentary Photography Reconsidered (2019), and The Routledge Companion to Copyright and Creativity in the 21st Century (2021).
Photography as Activism is a vital read for students, issue-based photographers, picture editors, educators, and curators. It critically examines photography as a tool for activism. It delves deeply into the aims and motivations of the practitioners, their desire to effect meaningful change, and the ethical quandaries they face.
Paul Wenham-Clarke, Professor of Photography and Course Leader, MA Photography, Arts University Bournemouth
Photography as Activism moved me to create a class based on its inspiring contents! Before reading it, I felt my impulse to make change through images was a futile effort. The in-depth interviews along with Bogre's articulate delivery of the history and philosophy guiding the work plot our path forward.
Judy Walgren, Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist and faculty at Foothill College, San Francisco
Informative! Enriching! Engrossing! In Photography as Activism, Bogre draws on her 30 years of cross-practice experience to produce this Must-Read guide for documentary practitioners, and a Really-Should-Read for everyone studying the processes of social reform in North America, mid-19th century to now, with insights and inspirations for the future.
Stephen Mayes, Executive Director, Tim Hetherington Trust
