Starting Photography

Today we started Unit 3 - Artefact in Media. We are studying photography and will be taking photos for the winter festival.

In the first lesson, we began by looking at photos from two famous female photographers, both taken in 1936. Dorothea Lange took photos from during the depression in America (1929-1941). Her photos were very unusual at the time as photography was mainly used to capture posed pictures of the more wealthy in society. She wanted to draw attention to the struggles faced by ordinary people.

The second photo we looked at was by Leni Riefenstahl. It was a big contrast from the poor and needy in America as it was of atheletes competing in the Olympics in Berlin, Germany. Riefenstahl was also later criticised for making propoganda films for Hitler, however she claims she was manipulated by him into doing it.

Both these photographs are significant as at that time, women were not taken seriously in the workplace, so both women had to face criticism.