problems of the twentieth century—the ravages of
war, the brutality of life in poorly-developed coun-
tries, and the plight of children.
Today, documentary photography’s definition
comprises a multiplicity of directions ranging from
portraiture to landscape, factual to allegorical,
clearly sharp to darkly grainy, social to psychologi-
cal, neutral to authorial, with major implications for
Conceptual Photography and other contemporary
art forms. This is particularly demonstrated by the
acceptance of certain photographers in the realm of
contemporary art that supersedes their reputations
within the world of photography. Examples include
the Germans Bernd and Hilla Becher with their cool
industrial photographs (and who were included in
theNew Topgraphicsexhibition in 1975) or Thomas
Struth’s clinical urban landscapes. What is common
in all trends and a basic tenet of the genre is the
figurative and systematic recording of a subject
through reality-found images that yet are not
reduced as proof or absolute truth.
DaniellaGeoSeealso:Bauhaus; Conceptual Photography; Farm
Security Administration; Life Magazine; Modern-
ism; Photographic ‘‘Truth’’; Portraiture; Represen-
tation; Stryker, Roy; The Photo League; Visual
Anthropology; Worker Photography; Works Pro-
gress Administration
Further Reading
Editors of Time-Life Books,Documentary Photography,
New York: Time-Life Books, 1972.
Davenport, Alma.The History of Photography: An Over-
view. Boston and London: Focal Press, 1991; Albuquer-
que: University of New Mexico Press, 1992, 1999.
Lugon, Olivier.Le style documentaire – D’August Sander a`
Walker Evans 1920–1945. Paris: Macula, 2001.
Marien, Mary Warner.Photography: A Cultural History.
London: Laurence King Publishing, 2002.
Mora, Gilles.Photo Speak – A Guide to the Ideas, Move-
ments, and Techniques, 1839 to the Present. New York:
Abbeville Press, 1990.
Newhall, Beaumont.The History of Photography, from
1839 to the Present Day. New York: Museum of Modern
Art, 1964, 1982; London: Secker & Warburg, 1972.
Rosenblum, Naomi.A World History of Photography. New
York, London and Paris: Abbeville Press, 1984, 1989,
1997.
Rothstein, Arthur.Documentary Photography. Boston and
London: Focal Press, 1986.
Stange, Maren.Symbols of Ideal Life: Social Documentary
Photography in America, 1890–1950. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press, 1989.
Stott, William.Documentary Expression and Thirties Amer-
ica. New York: Oxford University Press, 1973, 1986.
Szarkowski, John.Photography Until Now. New York:
Museum of Modern Art, 1989, 1990, 1999.
Wright, Terence.The Photography Handbook. London and
New York: Routledge, 2000.DODGING
Dodging is a technique employed by photogra-
phers to fine-tune the tone and highlights of prints
in the darkroom. After using a test strip to establish
what the overall exposure of the image should be,
the photographer makes a print with that exposure
time. After the print is developed, however, there
might still be one or more small areas in the image
that the photographer wishes were lighter than the
rest of the print. Dodging is a way of reducing the
amount of light a certain area of the print receives,
in order to make that area lighter.
It is important to remember that dodging occurs
during the overall exposure of the print—the photo-
grapher wants to reduce the amount of light received
by a specific area of the image, and so must be able to
selectively reduce light in one area while still allowing
the rest of the photographic paper to be exposed.
Dodging is usually accomplished with a small tool,
simply called a ‘‘dodging tool.’’ A dodging tool can
be any small piece of opaque board attached to a
thin, stiff wire handle. The photographer uses the
handle to move the tool rapidly back and forth
between the light and the easel, causing a shadow to
fall onto the paper. He should direct this shadow to
fall on the place that needs less light, and should
continue to move the tool back and forth for the
duration of the dodging time to ‘‘feather’’ the light,
or prevent hard-edged lines from appearing on theDOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY