BACK TO UNIVERSITY

September is here and so is uni....so that means dissertation is too.

Tutors have been assigned; I'm delighted.

The dissertation has always sounded so scary to me, as I imagine for a lot of other students. Despite the nerves using the summer to really try and get an understanding of what I am interested in and what I want to extensively research about has set me right on track. In the second year, I really thrived when researching into theory of photography especially documentary photography. I have to struggle and stressing about writing as I'm dyslexic. However, it may have taken me a while, but I got there and have really surprised myself with how much information I have actually retained for longer than a few hours.

Photography and exploitation go hand in hand when it comes to documentary. After researching into the famous Dorothea Lange and the 'Migrant Mother' and the controversy behind how Lange photographed Florence Thompson for the Farm Security Administration (FSA). The FSA set several photographers to document the great depression. There are several arguments that some photographers (Lange) exploited the subject they were photographing, and this really interested me to see if there is exploitation within all documentary photography.

I then began to research for my dissertation in further detail into documentary photographers and exploitation. I discovered that some subject matters were exploited for the photographer’s self-gain and other subject exploited and then Gained themselves.

I want to raise the question, is exploitation okay or at least cancelled out when who Is being exploited gets the gain from the photographs? such as the children in Lewis Hines work or is the exploitation still wrong.

Lewis wine if you’re not sure was a photographer who photographed child labour in America. the children weren’t allowed an education as they had to work. Lewis exploited the children who were working and of course the employer by photographing them but after his images surfaced in 1908 and he became the official photographer of the National Child Labour Committee. Due to Hine documenting these children the child labour act was issued and they’re for the children gained their education.