The Documentary Impulse

by Stuart Franklin

Award-winning photographer Stuart Franklin's exploration of how we, as humans, are driven to visually document our experiences and the world around us. Stuart Franklin took one of the most powerful photographs of the twentieth century - the 'tank man' in Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 1989. From his insightful position as a photographer, Franklin explores why we are driven to visually document our experiences and the world around us. He focuses on photography but traces this universal need through art, literature and science. Looking at photojournalism, war photography and work recording our culture, Franklin identifies some of its driving curiosity, outrage, reform and ritual; the search for evidence, for beauty, for therapy; and the immortalization of memory. As our understanding of 'documentary' continues to expand, Franklin considers photographic staging - where, perhaps, the future of the genre may in search of truth over fact. "This book traces what I shall call the documentary impulse. Here I mean the passion to record, with fidelity, the moments we experience and wish to preserve, the things we witness and might want to reform; or simply the people, places or things we find remarkable... Photography (and journalism) practised respectfully has the power to educate us all towards a greater understanding and empathy towards others." ― Stuart Franklin

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

216 pages, Hardcover

First published April 11, 2016

About the author

Stuart Franklin studied photography and film at West Surrey College of Art and Design and geography at the University of Oxford. During the 1980s Franklin worked as a correspondent for Sygma Agence Presse in Paris before joining Magnum Photos in 1985, where he is currently Vice President.
Franklin's best-known photograph is from Tiananmen Square, China, 1989 - a man defying a tank, for which he won a World Press award. Franklin was awarded the Tom Hopkinson Award for published photojournalism and the Christian Aid prize for humanitarian photography whilst covering the Sahel famine in 1984-5. He is a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society.

Since 1990, Franklin has completed around twenty assignments for National Geographic Magazine. This has been work of a social documentary nature that has taken him many times to Central and South America, to China and South-East Asia, and Europe, where he recently (2002) completed a story on European unification. His other publications include The Time of Trees (Leonardo Arte: Milan, 1999) and La Citta Dinamica (Mondadori: Milan, 2003). His recent project Hotel Afrique will be exhibited from 6th October 2005 at the Pitzhanger Gallery, London.

Reviews

[Donal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully printed book interspersed with powerful images, from Stuart's own 'Tank Man' to work by Cartier Bresson, Sergio Larrain and Josef Sudek. The text is wide ranging, tracing through different aspects of the human urge to document, generally mostly realised nowadays through cameras. A recurring idea is that of documentary being an effort to 'undeceive' (taken from Seamus Heaney). It has a relationship with the truth of a world being sought, even if its veracity and intelligibility can always be questioned and never be complete.

The book does refer to a lot of photos that it doesn't include, so best read slowly alongside an internet connection, though for me this can perturb the flow of reading. It was a great help for me to try and give some structure to thinking about photography, and introduced lots of new names and ideas. I imagine it would work better when you have some familiarity already with the more well known photographers.

[Cihan çiçek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Bir katalog kitabı gibiydi. Modernite dönemine yetersiz felsefi göndermeler, edebiyat yoksunu anlatım tarzı, arka arkaya sıkıştırılmış onlarca isim ve betimlemesiz geçiştirilen fotoğrafçılar. Yani yarı Humanist yazarımız cümlelerinin bağrında humanizmin tüm sığlığını taşıtmış. Tek tek isimleri google'layıp peşlerine düşmesem hiç bir şey kazanamayacaktım diyebilirim. Ayrıca içeriğine yedirilen fotoğraflar o kadar sıkıcı ki estetik nerde be adam! dedirtiyor.
Bilmediğim onlarca şey öğrendim bu konularda oldukça cahil olduğumu düşünürsek bu da normaldi. İlk yol haritası için güzel bir başlangıç say-ıl-maz. Ancak bir mülteci kampında yaşarken çok fazla şey beklememek lazım.
2 yıldızımı bana kazandırdığı isimlerden dolayı verdim, yoksa 5 para etmez.
sevgiler.
Not: Stuart Franklin "Tank Man" fotoğrafını çeken arkadaşımızmış. O nedenle raflarda yerini almış bu kitap.

[Adriana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very in-depth look at the sometimes confusing field of documentary photography. Stuart Franklin is a photographer himself, not an academic – therefore he sometimes lacks a bit of precision when dealing with concepts that go hand in hand with documentary, such as truth or evidence. However, this is more than compensated by the wealth of his knowledge on the history of documentary photography and the technical aspects of the medium that come into play in documentary work and photojournalism. The examples provided are very well organised and thorough – ranging from war photography and the FSA to more recent iterations of documentary through the works of such contemporary photographers as Martin Parr and Sebastião Salgado, or even Franklin’s own experience in the field. Overall a solid and modern introduction to the topic.

[BillReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book shows how visual images without text can show situations. The book will make me look closer at paintings and photographs to determine what the artist is showing. We can all interpret visual documentation differently and must determine if the vision is accurate. Ie joyed the book but some references to photographs should have also had the photo printed, example page 146 talking about headlessness we aretold to consider2 other photos, they are not in the book and are difficult to find on the Internet. Maybe I expect too much

[Tara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great look back at the history of documentary photography and the various political struggles that the practice is engaged with. Very interesting to learn about the photographers that captured some of history's most iconic events, and shone a light on parts of the world that were/are largely inaccessible by other media.

[Pennyeach Collective · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Our copy is all marked up. Stuart Franklin has a lot to say about documentary photography - and he says it very well.

[Brian Page · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is much to ponder in The Documentary Impulse. Noted Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin gives us a sophisticated and nuanced critique of photography’s relationship reality and “truth.” Franklin covers several themes; but a major discussion has to do with the staging of documentary photographs. A completely staged setting may, in fact, come closer to truth than an image created in the actuality, especially considering how the presence of the camera unavoidably alters what we think of as the actual. Truth may be a continuum. And, as every photojournalist knows, the editing & presentation of a visual story can construct its own narrative which may sharply differ from that observed or intended by the photographer. Which view is the truth? Franklin also notes how certain iconic images, such as his own Tank Man in Tiananmen Square, defines a narrative that may not at all come close to an accurate portrayal of an event. Tiananmen Square was a horrendous slaughter of innocents, a narrative hardly suggested by the Tank Man photograph. The Documentary Impulse is very worthwhile reading for anyone involved in visual storytelling.