Jo Spence - Cultural Snipping

Jo Spence's Cultural Snipping has been a valuable source of theory throughout this assignment, in which was introduced to myself by my lecture at the beginning of the year. Her work forms a collection of her written thoughts as well as her photographs that brings together and challenges idea of class, representation and identity. 

The politics of photography

Throughout Part one: Class, realism and beyond - The politics of photography Spence talks briefly about photography as a whole. Day-in-day-out masses of photographs are produced by the masses however the majority of them are never seen by the rest of society. Those which are seen play a crucial part in our lives, both "explicit and hidden", the help us to shape our idea of what real and not. Spence (1995 p.31) We use photography as a tool, it offers information to the roles we play in society, the expectations and fantasies that echoes throughout, media seems to play a similar role. 

Later on Spence goes on to talk about this never ending need to be more socially realist with picture making, this constant battle between "commercial" and "artistic" photographers. Commercial photographers have this tendency of taking a voyeuristic approach, simply there to document what's going on in which the company edit so much that the image is taken out of context. What makes things worse is the majority of society lacks the opportunity to bear witness with their own eyes and as a result we assume that what the government tells us is true. Compared the few journalists who take the risk, they embody themselves into the heart of the particular culture they're documenting. They focus on conveying subliminal messages, emotions that steals the attention of the audience and promotes a sense of empathy. 

At first I was very narrow minded to the work of Jo Spence, I didnt understand the concept of theory in relation to photography needless to say throughout this assignment I've become to learn that this is a crucial segment of photography and cannot live without the other.

Bibliography

Spence, J,. 1995. Cultural Snipping. London.