Doing Documentary Work

Download or read book Doing Documentary Work written by Robert Coles and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He discusses literary documentaries: James Agee's searching portrait of Depression-era tenant farmers, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, and George Orwell's passionate description of England's coal miners, The Road to Wigan Pier. Like many documentarians, Coles argues, Agee and Orwell did not try to be objective, but instead showered praise on the "noble" poor and contempt on the more privileged classes (including themselves) for "exploiting" these workers. Documentary photographs can be equally revealing about the observer. Coles demonstrates how famous photographers such as Walker Evans and Dorthea Lange edited and cropped their pictures to produce a desired effect.