This fully revised and updated second edition of Photography as Activism is both a study of activist photography, and a call to action. It offers students and documentary photographers insights into the theory, history, philosophy and practice of photography as activism.
The book is lavishly illustrated with 85 key historical and contemporary images. Chapters have been revised to include contemporary ideas about representation, gaze, agency and decolonizing the camera, as well as an expanded history that includes work from the global South and the civil rights movements in the US. A new fourth chapter focuses on activist practices that go beyond traditional reportage. It features 19 new interviews and updates on the original interviews. Photographers talk about their practices, the challenges they face in the 21st century, advice on working with NGOs and non-profits, and how to form partnerships to expand the dissemination of their work.
Photography as Activism is an essential text for courses on documentary and photojournalism, and those that explore art as social change more broadly, but also a call to action for young photographers to pick up their cameras and advocate for change.
Contents
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
Introduction
1. Activism: Philosophy and Psychology
Equality and Justice
Conversation with Omar Imam
Focus on Solutions
Persistence and Passion
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 (FSA)
Controversy: Dorothea Lange and the Migrant Mother photograph
Mid to Late 20th 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 Poulimi 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, the Tim Hetherington Trust
