formal techniques to do so in a way that suggests
metaphorical treatment and that thereby deflects
attention away from that literal, material object
and toward the less-tangible subject matter that is
of ultimate interest. Stieglitz, for example, photo-
graphed trees and clouds in ways he felt enabled
them to stand as ‘‘equivalents’’ for his emotions,
and in later years Minor White used infrared film
and abstract compositions to photograph ordinary
scenes and objects in ways intended to draw the
audience’s attention toward the spiritual.
Freudian theory in general and the Surrealist
movement in particular presented photography
with related problems. Not only did the work of
the Surrealists deal with subject matter of a highly
intangible, depth-psychological sort, but the very
conscious control that Strand saw as necessary for
the incorporation of subjectivity in photography was
anathema to their attempts to liberate the superego-
censored subconscious. The ways in which surrealist
photographers worked around these problems defy
neat categorization, but it can at least be said that
their methods often involved free experimentation
with unusual techniques and materials. Man Ray,
for example, discovered the method for creating his
Rayographs after ‘‘mechanically’’ placing some
darkroom implements on a sheet of photographic
paper lying in a tray of developer and then briefly
exposing the arrangement to light. The fact that the
discovery was the result of a ‘‘mechanical’’ move-
ment—Ray’s term for actions performed without
conscious intention—is crucial since he thought of
such movement as releases of energy from the tem-
porarily uncensored subconscious. Rayograph
images, beingcausedby subconscious energy, can
be regarded asrepresentativeof such energy as well.
Social-Documentary Photography
So far we have focused exclusively on theoretical
debates surrounding photography in relation to the
development of modernism in the fine arts. Develop-
ing in parallel to but in isolation from this, however,
was a movement that was unconcerned with whether
or not photographs could be artworks, a movement
that was instead concerned with using the alleged
objectivity of the photographic process to further
progressive social ends. From a theoretical point of
view the idea behind the social-documentary move-
ment is straightforward. The fundamental assump-
tion is that humans are essentially caring individuals,
and that if an unjust social order is currently being
tolerated this is due to ignorance rather than malice.
The remedy is therefore the alleviation of ignorance,
and this is where photography can help. Straightfor-
ward photographs of individuals living in impover-
ished conditions or laboring under the circumstances
of exploitation could be used to document such con-
ditions objectively (and thus in a manner beyond
dispute) and, if disseminated widely, would awaken
the conscience of the majority and bring about
changes for the better.
Such a theoretical framework is exemplified in the
work of photographers such as Jacob Riis and Lewis
Hine. Riis, working in New York just before the turn
of the century, was shocked by the squalid condi-
tions in which New York immigrants were living,
and published books of photographs taken in Man-
hattan’s Lower East Side, which revealed in full
detail the grim nature of their existence. Hine was
concerned not only about the plight of immigrants
but as well about child-labor practices in factories in
other regions of the United States. Traveling widely,
Hine gained access to factories where such practices
were in effect, documented them photographically,
and then disseminated the images widely.
In a similar spirit in the 1930s photographers
working on behalf of the United States Farm
Security Administration traveled the country
photographing the living conditions of those who
had been the most adversely affected by the
Depression. Later, during the Cold War period in
America, the danger of nuclear annihilation
became of more concern to many than economic
injustice or exploitation, a fact reflected in the shift
to the kind of social-documentary photography
associated with the 1955The Family of Manexhibi-
tion at the Museum of Modern Art.The Family of
Manconsisted of over 500 photographs of people
from a variety of cultures engaged in activities
common to all human beings: work and play,
friendship and love, birth and death. The theory
behind the exhibition had much in common with
traditional social-documentary photography inso-
far as both assumed that photographs were objec-
tive (and therefore convincing) records of what was
before the camera, but added the assumption that
photographs constituted a universal language that
could be understood by people of all races and
cultures. The faith was that people from all over
the world would understand and be convinced by
the exhibition’s message of common humanity, and
thus unite in peaceful ways.Visual Anthropology
The connection Eastlake saw between science
and photography provides the theoretical under-
pinnings for a photographic activity known as
visual anthropology.PHOTOGRAPHIC THEORY