Documentary now! Documentary, document, testimony... Jean-Francois Chevri ‘Thenotion of documentary photography covers a variety of practices almost as wide as the idea of photography itself. ‘Any photographie picture may be defined as documentary’ tothe extent that itis the result ofthe process of recording, fixing and actualising a virtual image. Inthe nineteenth century, this process was referred to as ‘reproduetion’."This term implies a first production: the optical production of the virtual image. In everyday language, this particularly ambiguous word first designated a mechanical way of imi- tating or copying appearances (when it did not also mean ‘multiplying the pieture from a matrix). This confusion botwean imitating appearances and reproducing a picture is significant. shows how the documentary relationship ‘between the picture and its model was conceived of aceord- ing to the way the picture was technically produced. Tn this relationship between the reproduction of the picture and its model already conceived of asa picture, documentary’ denotes a value of actuality, which first refers tothe simple fact that the virtual image has been actualised (put down, printed, fixed), then to the fact that it renders visual data which is contemporary with the shooting ofthe picture. Here the word ‘actual’ is used in the same sense as Emile Zola used ‘aetualiam' to refer tothe pictorial representation of contemporary subjects taken from modern life different from the subjects of History Painting inspired by religious fable, ancient mythology or more o less legendary events ofthe past. Any photograph could therefore be defined as documentary tothe extent thatit isa shot. ‘This very broad definition has at least the virtue of reminding us that the photographic pieture, resulting from 1 recording process, isnot in essence a product of imagina- tion. We are perhaps less aware of this distinction nows- ‘days than people were in the nineteenth century, Born in a clture marked by the romantic promotion of imagination, photography was considered to be an essentially realist ‘technique (or‘art,in the sense of mechanical’ arts). Realist” referred to the exact or truthful rendering of current visual facts. The importance of fact must be pointed out in a aDocumentary, document, testimony. Jean-Francois Cher definition of realism that was conditioned by the positivist ideology that supported the development of natural and social science in the nineteenth century. We have necessarily gone back from the documentary to the document. ‘Documentary’ photography is a category of picture production if nota specie genre, but it implies prior definition of the document, And document and fact are closely related and complementary notions: the document provides facts and is a fact in itself, The idea of document- ary photography appeared and developed in a culture that valued facts and documents by relating art to knowledge, and by considering art itself as a subject of study. For the first critics who took an interest in this new ‘process’, such as Francis Wey.a friend of Courbet’s, photo- ‘graphy introduced a criterion of truth’ in the visual arts; ‘truth and objectivity were synonymous. Matisse summed up its effects by observing that it had ‘disturbed imagination’. Inhis Journai,on 21 May 1853, Delacroix was already explaining this phenomenon by comparing Eugene Durieu's photographic studies of mudes to Marcantonio Raimondi’s ‘engravings after Raphael, which atthe time represented the classical ideal of academic art (taught in schools of fine art). Delacroix observes that the photographs have ‘a poor nature and exaggerated parts and not a very pleasant effect but, {in comparison, the anatomic inaceuraey and the conven tional styisation of Raimondi’s engravings are unbearable, Delacroix notes‘a feeling of repulsion and almost disgust, forthe impropriety, the affectation, the lack of natarainess, in spite ofthe quality of style, the only quality that ean be admired.."jand he concludes by saying, “To tell the truth let ‘aman of genius use the daguerreotype as it should be used, and he will ise to a height that we still ignore. (..) So fan, this arton a machine has only done us a dreadful service: it spoils masterpieces, without satisfying us completely’ In the ease of Duriew’s studies reviewed by Delacroix, photo- raphy was a new tool for producing documents for artists ‘that was going tooin drawings and engravings in docu mentation boxes. In the context of fine arts, document and. ‘documentation are therefore the parameters of the doeu- ‘mentary function of photography. Eugene Atget, who is considered to be one ofthe great masters in documentary photographs; had specialised in documents for artists! ‘Today, we are 0 used to placing photography ina history ‘of mass media that favours information and entertainment, ‘that we tond to forgot that its first documentary function ‘emerged in different knowledge and learning contexts: ‘the establishment of fine arts and scientific investigation (particularly archaeological or geological investigation). ‘The major commissions ofthe nineteenth century all more cr less eame under these two fields, In France in the 1850s, the Mission héliographique had the purpose of producing. aan artistic survey ofa national, archacological and monu- rental heritage. The photographers who were commis sioned were considered to be artists who had already had. exhibitions as such, and their eraft or oceupation could be likened to a tradition of topography (which had benefited from the recent development of lithography). Nineteenth, century photographers who were also artists and docu ‘mentary makers knew the difference between scientific relevance and picturesque effects, and they combined these ‘two veins in their pictures. In the United States, a culture of photographie landseape emerged in the 1870s with the ‘reat geological exploration missions in which authors such az Watkins and O'Sullivan took part. ‘Today, the French Mission heliographique, with its archaeological purpose,and American geological missions ‘re looked on as legendary developments in the canonical history of documentary and artistic photography. But it should be remembered that until the 1970s, this historical data had sunk into oblivion, A modernist standard that was hostile to any propaganda ‘contents’ blinded art historians to the contribution afinstitational commissions. No docu ‘mentary undertaking, even ifit was carried outin a personal ‘capacity, could seriously be considered as an artistic and Ihitorieal project. The investigation conducted by Bernd and Hilla Becher on the monuments of industrial architecture in the Ruhr was at best related to formal research on mini- mal art:ite past role in the history of documentary photo- raphy was ignored, The first great exhibition on geological missions, The Era of Exploration’, ook place at the New ‘York Metropolitan Museum in 1975.'The same year, George Bastman House in Rochester put on an exhibition entitled “The New Topographics’that gathered, among others, works by Robert Adams, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Stephen Shore,50 Documentary, document, testimony. Jean-Frangois Chesvrier ‘These two exhibitions mark the beginning ofthe reconstruc- tion, ifnot the renewal, ofa tradition ‘Until then, documentary photography had heen over- shadowed by the prestige of photojournalism and reportage. In France, at the end ofthe 1970s I know it from experi- lence ~ there was almost no room at all for the artiste docu- mentary in photographic culture. Authorial reportage in the way of Cartier-Bresson held prominence. Documentary tradition was identified with the area of illustration, to which ‘eroative’ photography was also moro or less related, the latter being essentially defined as traditional poetics, Surrealism had put forward the great idea ofthe poetical document, but to the detriment of the positive (or positivist) ‘mode of investigation and deseriptive knowledge implied by documentary tradition. Surrealists were interested in the photographic document when it contained the unustal fantastic element thatthey called the mervelleus, or when it served asa literal illustration, devoid of any artistic ‘quality, fora poetical aecount. In France as everywhere else, it was not until the 1970s that the authority of authorial reportage was called into question, owing to a general crisis of photojournalism threatened by television, and that documentary photography was able to recover some credit, in the context ofthe authorities’ rethinking their terri- torial policies. When itwas set up in 1983, the DATAR (delegation for territorial planning and regional develop- ‘ment) photographie mission found references in the Mission ‘héliographique, the American geological missions and the commission given in the context ofthe Farm Security ‘Administration and the major programmes launched by’ the Roosevelt administration in the early 1980s to fight the ‘The DATAR photographic mission's stakes and refer- ences reveal the importance of the idea of territory in dacu- ‘mentary tradition, This notion, which pertains to geography and political seience, is not strictly artistic; tia related to the idea of landscape, but, unlike landseape, it first refers to ‘material reality, an activity area and an object of political tnd socioeconomic confict oF competition. Nevertheless, the cultural and imaginary dimensions ofthis phenomenon cannot be ignored. territory cannot be conceived of with- ‘out taking into account what makes it landscape, more or “Jess inhabited, developed and ‘imagined (in every sense of ‘ean hearse ben thie eee ec nes ee ee ec ee ee ae Solemn eee ere Sees aes Bese cas see cn saan eee ate re Ee ee pic: crebeaicemmaur otra ee sickening Meeesavoe pee rte Berta oe Met mera Pe ae see eee eee pre ee ee pea cae le ee cee Eee eee oe