The Communicative Roles of Street and Social

Landscape Photography
Timothy R. Gleason
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Abstract
Street and social landscape photography are two genres usually existing outside of communication
research. This research essay positions them within James Careys concept of ritual communication.
Problems with contemporary attempts to theorize photography from fine art and literary perspectives
are identified. Overviews of each genre are provided and followed by photographs to exemplify the
genres and document specific cultural rituals to demonstrate the genres value to communication
researchers.
Photography can be used to communicate a persons understanding of the world to a larger audience,
but some genres of photography have fallen outside the scope of communication research. Street and
social landscape photography lend themselves to understanding the social world through the photogra-
phers choice of subject and style. In brief, street and the social landscape photography are responsive
styles with overlapping subjects.
The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the two genres with examples of each, and to offer
them as practices of ritual communication. This study rst examines photography as communication
within the broader concept of James Careys communication as culture that is ritual. Second, this
study will describe street photography and social landscape photography. Third, photographs made
by the author are discussed as ways to engage and encourage further consideration. Fourth, the con-
clusion suggests ways to continue this discussion.
In brief, the objective of this study is to place street and social landscape photography within the context
of communication, which itself is viewed broadly to include media and information. This essay does not
try to provide a meta-analysis of photography as communication but, instead, uses a general argument of
photography as communication in order to include more genres of photography within the sphere of
communication research. The ritual approach is used to show how street and social landscape photogra-
phy can be used to record ritualshuman action and the constructs of humansas an example of how
these genres can be used to provide evidence for communication researchers. The practice of these
genreshow the images are madeare themselves rituals but also function within the transmission
model of communication. This research is useful because it offers a subject matter and applicable
research approach that has not received signicant attention, so they are ripe for further attention.
Photography as Communication
Like other forms of communication, photography is an interaction among people, whether the people
are face-to-face or distant. Photographs may be shared in a variety of means such as the dreaded pro-
jected family slide show, traditional publishing, posting on Web sites like Flickr or MySpace, or transmit-
ting by cell phone. This section addresses photography as communication by discussing the work of
David Nye (1986) as a starting point. The discussion contextualizes the disciplinary debates of photogra-
phy to demonstrate how photography has been treated, or not treated, as communication. Although they
will be briey mentioned, this discussion is not focused on journalism scholars of photography because
one aim of the following sub-section is to show examples of how non-journalism scholars are trying to
dene photography. This leads to an examination of Careys (1992) view of communication as cultural
ritual in the second sub-section, and how street and social landscape photography have ritualistic
qualities.
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Positioning Photography Within the Scope of Communication
Because it is not frequently cited in communication journals, Nyes (1986) decades-old analysis of pho-
tography as communication might seem an odd place to start a discussion on this topic. It does,
however, represent some of the problems with making the argument of expanding photographys pre-
sence in communication research. Nye identied three outmoded forms of analysis that still predomi-
nate in photographic circles ( p. 29). One form of analysis is the examination of photographs as art
objects in the tradition of painting. A second form is the auteur theory of photography, following
literary theory. A third form is the historical and social science practice of treating photographs as evi-
dence, giving direct access to the past ( p. 29). Nye also discussed efforts to treat photography as
language.
While Nyes attempts to distance photography from incomplete forms is benecial in engaging debate,
his perspective as a teacher of English led him to over-generalize photography. He argued,
Paradoxically, however, most people discriminate between kinds of photography ( p. 32). That
people categorize photography should not be any more surprising than people categorizing forms of
writing, music or any other creative activity. Nye, himself, spent time discussing photographys different
forms. The reality is that professional and amateur photographers use photographs in a variety of differ-
ent ways. Distancing photography from its actual uses will only obfuscate the importance of
photography.
Where Nye benets this study the most is in his differentiation between documentary photography and
ne art:
The documentary photographer differs sharply from the artist at precisely this point,
because in documentary work the subject is always the reason for the photographs
being. For the same reason, the documentary image is precisely rooted in time,
choosing social history as its primary context. And because the subject remains
central, the photographer must express a personal relationship to that subject in
the image and this relationship must be visible to the receiver. The whole thrust
of the photograph must be to communicate some value in the subject to the
viewer ( p. 34).
Nyes key comments are the documentary photographers focus on the subject and the importance of
effectively communicating to an audience. While Nye made the argument for photography as communi-
cation two decades ago, the relevance for making this argument is as important now because photogra-
phys disciplinary status is still debated. The tussle over dening photographys boundaries continues as
different sides often claim territory. Photojournalisms history and images are commonly interpreted
within a journalistic scope of practice because journalism historians claimed photojournalists, and
ne art historians claimed those photographers who exhibited. Commercial photography generally
falls within journalisms scope because of its professional orientation, except for those commercial
photographers with artistic pretensions who pursued individual projects such as Richard Avedon and
then became adopted by art critics.
This recognition of boundaries was discussed in James Elkins (2006) photography seminars with
experts debating photography theory. At one point, the experts recognized that no practicing photogra-
phers were participating in the debate, and that much of the theory discussed came from people with
literary and art history backgrounds. The experts acknowledged that scholars and their references, which
were external to photography, were shaping photography theory. The literary theorist reads for the
textual qualities of the photograph and the art historian seeks the kind of photography that resembles
art movements. The utilization of a photographer as theorist was noticeably absent, and this could lead
to a limited view of photography. This condition is not historically determined because many signicant
photographers were responsible for philosophies of photography. For example, William Henry Fox
Talbot examined the science and realism of photography, Minor White saw the relationship between
Eastern philosophy and photography, and Robert Adams wrote about photographys beauty and
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photographers motivations to photograph. Photographers should not be the sole, or maybe even domi-
nant voice of photography theory, but their absence is glaringly problematic in the context of the pho-
tography theorys evolution.
Clive Scott (2007), a professor of European Language and an expert in French philosophy, wrestled with
the boundaries of street photography in his necessarily selective and somewhat capricious history
( p. 15). He tried to create a distinction between street photography and documentary photography,
which is in contrast to a number of perspectives including his mention of Gilles Moras view. Scott
was especially opposed to the denitions and remarks of Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz, the
latter a prominent photographer in the history of the genre. For example, I would [not] wish to
adopt Westerbeck and Meyerowitzs rather airy denition of street photography as candid pictures of
everyday life in the street ( p. 5). Rather than being airy, their denition is rather direct, simple
and accurate. The problem with Scotts approach is that he really isnt concerned with photographers
and photographs because he relies too much on the post-modern literary scholarship of audience
meaning. While audience reception has its place, Scotts use undoes his purpose for telling street photo-
graphys history: But my concern is more to do with the ways in which, as viewers, we each negotiate
our individual perceptual relationship with the street photograph [. . .] ( p. 198). The problem is not that
Nye and Scott come from other disciples because the eld of communication has beneted from inter-
disciplinary scholarship, but that they represent a tendency for post-modern literary scholars to not fam-
iliarize themselves with either the work of the philosopher-photographer and/or the structurism of
Anthony Giddens, of photography.
A.D. Coleman (1998) provided a more helpful view when he argued it has been difcult to dene docu-
mentary, photojournalism, and press photography because of a state of ux ( p. 35). Coleman does not
imagine the reception of photography; he looks at the body of images and the gate-keeping practices to
describe genres. He wrote that forms cannot be dened by their subject matter or techniques. He viewed
documentary as an extended form where photographers control how their images are presented.
Photojournalism also utilizes an extended form, but typically in the picture essay format that
places limitations on the size and nature of publications in which they appear. Additionally, the
length of coverage is typically shorter than documentary projects. Press photography is making pictures
to ll specic editorial needs and is usually accompanied by text. The pictures are made in a hurried
manner ( pp. 3539). Coleman provides an unusual perspective on photographer Susan Meiselas by
arguing that the American medias use of her extended photography projects relegated her work to
press photography. The media used isolated single images, recontextualized by editors and caption
writers who lived and worked thousands of miles distant from the situations she was trying so hard
to bring to our attention ( pp. 3940).
For some, the history of photography is not how images are made with what techniques, but how photo-
graphs become accepted as evidence because of institutional practices dependent on a social, semio-
tic practice (Tagg, 1988, p. 4). This is a view that has partial credence from the cultural ritual view to be
discussed in the next section.
This review of photography is not a suggestion that communication scholars havent studied photogra-
phy. There are numerous studies of photojournalism by journalism scholars such as historians Michael
Carlebach (e.g., 1992, 1997) and Claude Cookman (e.g., 2007), ethicist Paul Martin Lester (e.g., 1996),
and valuable mainstream researchers such as James Kelly (e.g., with Nace, 1994; with Kim, 2008).
Carlebach has brought a Developmental history approach to photojournalism, while Cookman has
helped to internationalize photojournalism history by his publications of French photojournalists in
American journals. Lester has been an advocate for examining the ethics of photojournalism by balan-
cing the photojournalists job with ethical expectations. Kellys social science approach to the research of
photojournalism has also brought attention to the eld. These examples are especially noteworthy
because all of these scholars have been photojournalists who bring understanding and relevance to
the study of photojournalism.
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Additionally, photojournalism research and art history/criticism of photography should not be seen as a
simple binary relationship. Both contain depth, although they are not all-inclusive. Art history/criticism
has examined street and social landscape photography, but not from a communicative perspective.
The elds depth includes research by scholars such as Geoffrey Batchen (1997), who looked at the
conception of photography from a perspective inspired by Michel Foulcault and Jacques Derrida
( p. viii). David Levi Strauss (2003) has engaged photography and politics with essays on highly aesthetic
images of the poor and the reality of photographs. Peter C. Brunells (2006) insightful essays, written in a
familiar criticism format, represent some of the best of photography criticism and history. The journals
Aperture and Afterimage: The journal of media arts and cultural criticism have regularly published
valuable criticism of photography, even though an archive search of the latter resulted in only one
feature article on street photography and none on the social landscape.
Careys Communication as Cultural Ritual
Careys now-classic work Communication as Culture (1989, reprinted 1992) was written both as a
response to the dominant perspective of communication as transmission and as a direction for an
alternative but complementary approach. Carey criticized the dominant position of the transmission
model, which was, and is, the idea that a sender transmits a message to a receiver. Various theorists
have modied this model to include various feedback routes for the receiver to communicate to the
sender, as well as moments or conditions existing within this larger process. Several underlying principles
are tied to the transmission model. One principle is an historic undercurrent of a religious faith that
sees transportation as an opportunity for religious freedom, e.g., Puritans creating a New Jerusalem in
Massachusetts ( pp. 1418). Another is the belief Americans have in using technology and machines for
moral improvement ( p. 18). Carey saw both communication models explaining society, but in different
ways:
If the archetypal case of communication under a transmission view is the extension of
messages across geography for the purpose of control, the archetypal case under a
ritual view is the sacred ceremony that draws persons together in fellowship and com-
monality ( p. 18).
Careys alternative is a ritual model of communication that emphasizes the role of communication within
a culture. The direction of communication is less important than how communication is shaped and
used by the members of a culture. Communication is not separate from other cultural activities, but
it is connected in a non-deterministic and constantly changing manner. In keeping with his references
to religion, Carey used the sermon as an example of transmission, and the prayer, the chant, and the
ceremony as examples of ritual ( p. 18). Quentin J. Schultze offers a good description of Careys
approach:
[. . .] Human beings use symbols, especially language, to create maps of reality that
thereby become maps for reality; the cultures (ways of life) and societies that we
invent through symbolic action necessarily become the ones we inhabit, although
we can alter them over time. In and of itself, his view of human communication
was a relatively soft subjectivism predicated on the existence of a reality beyond
humans cultural mapsmore in tune with the work of Kenneth Burke or Ernst
Cassier than hard-core postmodernists for whom any intersubjectivity is problematic
( p. 3).
Careys argument for the study of culture was more rebellious when it was originally published because
many more scholars are now studying culture with greater institutional acceptance. Yet, many of his
points remain relevant to the problem of accepting some modes of photography as communication
ritual. The study of news and advertising photography as transmission is not contested because both
forms produce media messages sent out for a mass public to consume. For example, he argued,
[. . .] one sees the [newspaper] as an instrument for disseminating news and knowledge. In contrast,
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the ritual view sees reading a newspaper less as sending or gaining information and more as attending a
mass, a situation in which nothing new is learned but in which a particular view of the world is portrayed
and conrmed ( p. 20).
Journalism historians criticized Carey for not specifying how to operationalize his approach. Prominent
historian David Paul Nord (2006) has written of the confusion he, as a graduate student, and his pro-
fessors had with Careys The Problem with Journalism History, which led to a conference on how to
operationalize his ideas and the publication of some of the papers ( p. 122). While Carey ignited a debate
in journalism history, he also inspired other cultural researchers to look at their subjects differently.
Lance Strate (2007) helped to illuminate Careys view of media research by writing, Careys media
ecology was an ecology of the particular. He also insisted on viewing scholars as the product of a par-
ticular time, and place ( p. 179).
One body of work that comes from Careys inuence is Thinking with James Carey: Essays on
Communications, Transportation, History (Packer & Robertson, 2006), a product of a 2001
National Communication Association panel. The authors in this edited collection reected upon
Careys work and where it could go. The essays remind other researchers that Careys approach is a
jumping-off point rather than a nished product. This is demonstrated below in recent works.
The recent results of Carey-inspired work range greatly in their subjects. For example, Robert
C. Trumpbour (2007), looked at the rituals, traditions and power in communications about stadium con-
struction. The construction of a stadium is tied to feelings about the residents community and the per-
ceived role that stadium will have on the national stage, such as earning the right to host the Super Bowl.
Communications about stadiums involves the participation of citizens in the decision, as well as news
reports. David M. Ryfe (2006) argued news form, such as the reliance on eyewitness accounts, of the
19
th
century was similar across different newspapers because news expresses a form of social life
( p. 60).
Frank Durham (2007) interpreted the social meanings of news that linked civil rights with commun-
ism. He found The Knoxville Journal continued linking these even after other Tennessee dailies had
stopped, and he looked at the newspaper and The Knoxville News-Sentinel between 1965 and 1968
on microlm.
On a different track, Zohar Kadmon Sella (2007) suggested:
[. . .] the cultural approach to communication should not shy away from the trans-
mission view of communication, but instead embrace it as a means to concretely
assess the ritualistic dimensions of the form, aesthetics and experience of media
( p. 103).
This argument possibly provides a practical route to greater acceptance of the ritual approach. Graduate
students and junior scholars could view choosing the ritual approach as less risky when the approach is
paired with the transmission view.
The inuence of Carey has extended to television, evident in Richard Giggs (2007) study of The Man
from U.N.C.L.E. He noted several inuences from Carey. One, looking at the world within the text
rather than the world as external is a way to understand their relationship. Two, U.N.C.L.E. wielded a
powerful array of world-making technologies ( pp. 325326).
Carey returned to the discussion of ritual and transmission perspectives in an interview by former
student Lawrence Grossberg appearing in Packer and Robertsons (2006) edited book. He explained
how his essay, A Cultural Approach to Communication, led to a strong binary relationship interpret-
ation by readers, which Grossberg described as has been almost fetishized by some reader. Carey
responded to Grossberg, In the essay I was trying to nd a way of saying what was neglected or
left out. But I realize that it often becomes interpreted as one is altogether different than the other
one, that you to make a choice in all of this ( p. 200).
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Communication scholars accepted news and advertising photography because of their function within a
transmission communication model, but street and social landscape photography are not as easily adop-
table because the photographs do not regularly appear in the mainstream media. Ritual communication
offers a different view of photography such as how photographs are sent and received, and how photo-
graphs are used in regular social practice. The audiences of street and social landscape photography are
smaller than those for the mainstream media, but they are no less real and are likely to invest more time
and effort in using these photographs. Audiences interact with street and social landscape photography
in photography journals, magazines, and books, as well as at exhibitions.
An acceptance of photography as ritual communication is an acknowledgement to not simply treat the
photograph as just a symbolic text to interpret. Semiotic and similar treatments of the photograph as text
tend to de-contextualize the images. While semioticians speak of the social symbols related to the text,
there are no thorough discussions of the history, production, distribution and ritual use of photography.
A ritual perspective looks at the people involved in making and viewing the images, and the role of the
photographs in their lives.
Scholars have recognized that rituals do exist for professionals as well. Barbara Rosenblum (1978) and
Howard Becker (1982) argued photographers work within a production system that affects how and
what they photograph. Becker wrote of business relations that impact the making of art. Fine art photo-
graphers rely on the manufacturers of photographic equipment and supplies, galleries and curators to
select their work, and an audience, typically afuent, to support the photographers by acquiring photo-
graphs. For Rosenblum, the rituals differ by the requirements of the genre. The photojournalist must put
a smile on the face of an editor, and the ne art photographer must help the gallery owner please poten-
tial buyers.
Street and social landscape photography serve as ritual communication in a variety ways. Typically of
little interest to communication scholars are the photographs of genres that are exhibited. However,
their publication as photobooks and the increasingly popular practice of advanced amateurs posting
their work online makes these images publicly available on a much larger scale and in formats
already recognized as worthy of research. A contemporary ritual approach can range from looking at
street and social landscape photography via the content of images (e.g., rituals exhibited in photographs)
to the format of presentation and usage (e.g., the rituals of posting photographs and the responses
viewers give the creator).
The method by which street and social landscape photography are analyzed in this study is atypical but
appropriate for both the subject matter and for Careys cultural approach. Historical overviews are pro-
vided for each genre, and then the intersection of street and social landscape photography is demon-
strated through the authors photographs and written descriptions. As a cultural historian, Carey was
a practitioner of description as interpretationwhat and how an author chooses to write is an act of
interpretation. The evidence for this study is referential (the brief histories and boundaries of the two
genres) and textual (the authors photographs). The use of these photographs serves two functions:
intellectual and practical. The intellectual function is the author is able to provide images that are
most relevant to the intersection. The practical function of their usage is access to these images for
publication.
Street and Social Landscape Photography
This section aims to provide an overview of street photography and social landscape. The goal is not to
provide a complete history, but instead, to supply an outline that identies signicant photographers, the
style and subject matter.
Street Photography
Street photography is the recording and representation of subject matter usually found around
and about streets, sidewalks and other public places. Street photographers typically capture
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natural, unmanipulated scenes. Different cities have different paces, moods and patterns, which
interest photographers who appreciate their respective rhythms. In their history of street photography,
Colin Westerbeck and Joel Meyerowitz (1994) describe the practitioners and their relationship to their
subjects:
[street photographers] have taken pictures of people who are going about their
business unaware of the photographers presence. They have made candid pictures
of everyday life in the street. That, at its core, is what street photography is ( p. 34).
Each street photographer possesses his or her own technique. Traditionalists shoot black-and-white lm
and make lusciously rich prints. Color, especially digital color, is gaining popularity as evidenced in the
Art Institute of Chicagos The Sidewalk Never Ends: Street Photography Since the 1970s exhibition
in 20012002. In addition, some of these photographers eschew the formal and socially stratied art
galleries in preference to, or as promotion for, online exhibition, such as iN-PUBLiC.com. The
Internet allows for greater accessibility and exposure than physical galleries, and it mirrors the quick
and unpredictable action of much street photography. Those photographers who forgo gazing
through the cameras viewnder, and instead, pre-focus their lenses or use auto focus enhance this
instant responsiveness. They compose by experience without looking through the viewnder. This
style is sometimes literally, shooting from the hip.
Eugene Atget, who was not the rst to photograph street scenes but is the most famous of his era, is
sometimes credited as the father of street photography because of his twentieth century popularity.
Working in Paris from the 1890s to 1920s (Westerbeck & Meyerowitz, 1994, p. 109), Atget chronicled
the windows, stairs, gardeners, and workers by the streets. People were not an important element in his
photographs and many of his more notable images lack their presence. Atgets signicance, in part, is his
elevation of the street as worthy subject matter.
Atget has a larger reputation than John Thomson, a Scotsman whose work preceded Atgets. Thomsons
work often has distinctly more subject-awareness to ithis subjects often looked at the camera. Both
Atget and Thompson are noteworthy because they brought the camera out onto the street to photo-
graph everyday scenes, rather than simply photographing contrived portraits of the middle and upper
classes or created scenes indoors.
The street photography of Henri Cartier-Bresson differs from these predecessors in that Cartier-Bresson
was strictly a 20
th
century photographer and his street scenes relied on the operose actions of people.
Responsible for photographers understanding of the decisive moment (1952), Cartier-Bresson
depended on people to illustrate this concept of taking the photograph at the ideal moment. A surrealist
with traditional art aspirations who famously desired to be a painter, Cartier-Bresson represents
the formalist perfection of street photography. Form and timing meet in an internally coherent
message because it is real to Cartier-Bresson, but not rationally art (Westerbeck & Meyerowitz, 1994,
pp. 157159).
If street photography is a form of music, it is jazz. Both are improvisational, have their own pattern and
reect daily pedestrian life more than most other genres. Street photography as jazz is visible in the work
of the New York School of Photography. Not a formal institution, the New York School is an umbrella
term referring to groups of like-minded photographers in the mid-20
th
century who were based in
New York City. Some of these photographers, like Robert Frank, were part of the beat movement inter-
ested in Black-American and counter cultures. While not the rst or the last of this group, Frank is the
most celebrated street photographer because of his must-read book, The Americans. Grainy and some-
times blurry, his images insulted the proper photography of the time, exemplied by Ansel Adams clear,
pristine landscapes. Franks unapologetic work was so reviled by the mainstream photography commu-
nity, that the book was rst published in France. Yet, the book became a guide for many young photo-
graphers seeking a break from the past. While photojournalists were shattering the articiality of
American prosperity and happiness by shooting news like racial equality marches, street photographers
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combated illusions and self-deceptions by engaging the more mundane events of street life. Street photo-
graphers like Joel Meyerowitz have spoken of their Robert Frank moments, when they rst encountered
The Americans and how it moved them to photograph (Westerbeck, 2001).
Eventually, street photography was accepted into mainstream photography, riding in and out of popu-
larity but always remaining of interest. More recently, for example, Foam_magazine (#8) dedicated an
issue to street photography titled, Sidewalk. In September and October 2004, the Tate Modern Art
Museum held workshops for the public on street photography. Street photography has appealed to
many photojournalists because these photographers prefer natural scenes, and the images lack the
literal news orientation found in newspapers or news magazines.
While this introductory overview is just a beginners guide, this discussion does not suggest that street
photography is limited to the practitioners mentioned above. Curious readers should examine the work
of Westerbeck and Meyerowitz (1994), Brougher and Ferguson (2001), and Jane Livingston (1992), or
view the variety of photography books by Frank, William Klein, Lee Friedlander, and Gary Winogrand.
However, institutional research boundaries become more apparent when looking at the writings on street
and social landscape photographers. For example, Peter Galassis Friedlander (2005) is an amazing col-
lection of images with important biographical information totaling 480 pages, but it hardly treats the
photographs as objects of communication. Brougher and Fergusons book on street photography men-
tions that photographers were aware of the presence of photographs in the print media, but their atten-
tion was more on how street photography was being accepted by the art community. James Guimonds
(1991) American Photography and the American Dream takes a different path by including street pho-
tography in its study of how photography addresses American values. The violent tempers of everyday
Americans is represented in the images chosen for this book. The state of street photographys accep-
tance in the 1950s, at least that of Kleins, is evident in the photographers own words. Klein said,
Everyone I showed them to said, Ech! This isnt New Yorktoo ugly, too seedy, too one-sided.
They said, This isnt photography, this is shit! (Guimond, p. 221). Lastly, street photography has
been connected to Charles Pierre Baudelaires concept of aneur. Susan Sontag (1977) continued this
stream in On Photography; In fact, photography rst comes into its own as an extension of the eye
of the middle-class aneur, whose sensibility was so accurately charted by Baudelaire. The aneur is
a wanderer of the streets, and Sontag saw the street photographer as an armed aneur ( p. 55).
Social landscape
Social landscape in photography refers to the human-made space in a photograph. Nathan Lyons book,
Contemporary Photographers: Toward a Social Landscape, is credited with bringing social landscape to
the consciousness of many photographers. The book accompanied the 1966 exhibition Lyons curated at
the George Eastman House of Photography. The book and exhibition dealt with interrelated topics of
the snapshot and the space constructed by people where subjects are photographed. Among the photo-
graphers represented were street photographers Friedlander and Winogrand, demonstrating the overlap-
ping interest of street photography and the social landscape.
Although a proponent of the social landscape, Lyons had difculty detailing the characteristics of this
emerging genre. By 2000, the idea of social landscape was a little more coherent, as evidenced by the
three and one-half pages Robert Hirsch (2000) dedicated to it in his history of photography.
Crediting Lyons for his lecture series in 1960 and 1961, as well as a 1964 conference, Hirsch identied
three exhibitions that resulted from these discussions: the Toward a Social Landscape exhibition, John
Szarkowskis 1967 New Documents exhibition, and the 12 Photographers of the American Social
Landscape exhibition at Brandeis ( p. 379). Hirsch described their common approach:
These shows introduced a number of imagemakers who were repudiating formal,
modernistic expectations about how photographs should look and helped launch a
movement based on the casual and unconventional characteristics of the snapshot
( p. 379).
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The social landscape thus, refers to a style of photography as well as subject matter. It reects the
growing popularity of the snapshot aesthetic, a movement away from highly formalized images, and
a shift to an appreciation of lay photography aesthetics. Images made by seasoned photographers,
even in the snapshot aesthetic, differ from those made by the general public. The seasoned photogra-
phers images have a greater technical quality and compositional awareness. For example, an amateur
creates a blurry picture by accident, while the seasoned photographer creates a blur effect intentionally
for certain subjects and to create an anticipated mood.
The casualness of the style lends itself to everyday subject matter. While Ansel Adams pursued the
extremities of natureit takes most of us a great effort to locate what he photographed and to
photograph the way he didsocial landscape photographers record the everyday landscape.
Another Adams, Robert Adams (2003), demonstrated how the landscape could be reconsidered by
viewing the intrusion of suburban housing into traditional landscapes. Most of the American popu-
lation is not located in a pristine environment. The landscapes of New York City and Chicago are
radically different than what is found in images of Ansel Adams wildernesses or Robert Adams
Colorado housing developments. New York City and Chicago landscapes reect urban development,
the commercialization of public space, and the regular avoidance of personal interaction among
strangers.
It seems natural that street photography and the social landscape overlap. Both have a spontaneous and
casual style of photography. Both came of age in the 1960s and, at different times, their most famous
photographers are some of the same individuals. In a sense, they are twins with very similar personal-
ities. Their commonalities also include the intent to record more abstract and reective experiences of
particular space, time and human action than can be done in photojournalism and commercial pho-
tography. Photojournalists and commercial photographers have to be more literal in their communi-
cation because they desire their audiences to quickly consume the messages. In contrast, people who
view street and the social landscape photography make an effort to view it, and are more willing to
ponder their communications. A more prominent difference between street and social landscape pho-
tography can be seen in their attention to people. While both are interested in people, street photogra-
phers tend to be more concerned with people in public spaces. Social landscape photographers are less
interested in the actions of people, and more interested in the space they inhabit, whether public or
private.
Intersections
This subsection seeks to intersect the ritual of communication with examples of photographs that
exhibit some common characteristics of street and social landscape photography. The subjects of
these two genres are the rituals of human action ( people as subjects) and the physical constructs of
people (environment as subject). The act of photographing can also be viewed as a ritual, e.g., breathing
out when pressing the shutter button, using certain lm, or shooting during certain times of day. While
the act of viewing these photographs can also be a ritual, this is outside the determined scope of this
article. This last ritual can be associated with the transmission model because, as stated earlier, they are
not in binary opposition, which leads to a longer discussion. Thus, the rituals of the subjects and the
photographer, to a lesser extent, are discussed below.
The rst set of photographs contains Images 1 and 2 (see Appendix), which were taken in a busy
shopping area of Cambridge, England in 2005. Image 1 is of a man cleaning the window display at
NEXT, a popular apparel store. Passers-by hurry without noticing the humorous view, and even
the men standing still at the back left and front right are oblivious to his work. Behind the
worker are images of male and female models. The mannequins in the window are headless
further suggesting a disconnection between people and their space. The word NEXT denotes
moving onto the next subject or place, and thus, suggests that the people are passing onto the
next goal.
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Image 2 shows the absence of passers-by because of the street preacher who warns against sin. Posted
outside a Marks & Spencer apparel store, he is sharing his thoughts with anyone who will listen. Walkers
grant him physical space because his voice invades their own increasingly distant space. Barely noticeable
is a picture of a boy in the window above the man. The boy looks and laughs as if he is aiming his
youthful disrespect at the man. The street preachers casual dress is contrasted by the illustration of
womens underwear in the window behind him. By giving the man and illustration equal space, the
viewer does not preference one over the other. The man must compete for attentionmetaphorically
and physically, by shouting for people to look at him. Image 1 confronts the disorder of street photogra-
phy and this social landscape. Some people stand and others walk. The subjects do not display a single,
coherent purpose. The man working in the window display is separate from the pedestrians. He is
engaged with the symbols of capitalism, and by his position he rejects the presence of the pedestrians.
He is not concerned with his own appearance while working in a space devoted to how NEXT wants
people to appear. The street preacher in Image 2 attempts to engage the pedestrians but their lack of
presence suggests he fails. In both cases, all participants go about their ritual and communicate
either physically or verbally.
Images 3 and 4 (see Appendix) were taken during the same visit to a Starbucks cafe in Cambridge in
2005. Image 3 shows a woman in the cafe waiting out the rain while a number of unlucky pedestrians
hide from a heavy rain. One woman, off-center to the right, peers into the Starbucks to see how much
room is available. She is tentative, as if she really does not want to go in, but must enter to nd sanctuary.
Image 3 is of the disorder outside, where people seek shelter from the storm. They deliberate on the
social acceptance of hiding from the rain inside or against the building. Image 4 is of the same cafe
about 20 minutes later. A different woman is seated in the chair and she has either spent enough
time there to consume two drinks, or the previous patron never cleared her table, which is, historically,
an English cultural ritual in itself. She was expecting warmer weather, based on her clothes. She does not
avoid foreign brand names, which is evident from her visit to Starbucks and her Adidas sneakers. She
contemplates because there is now little to look at outside the window. The sole pedestrian, who is cov-
ering her head, is past the seated woman. Image 4 places more emphasis on the woman inside the cafe
even though the outside is now more visible. She is comfortable there even though she is not actively
consuming her purchase. If she were in the United States, she might feel pressured to give up her table.
These two images demonstrate a more relaxed ritual in contrast to the hurried ritual of American life.
Photographically, Image 3 shows more of a street orientation, while Image 4 leans toward social land-
scape photography.
Conclusion
There are different rituals involved in photography. If communication scholars are willing to accept
street and social landscape photography as worthy of study, there will be more subjects available for
study. Advanced amateurs and professionals are increasingly making their street and social landscape
photography available to the market due to limited mass publishing opportunities. Online discussions
are being held about the camera gear used, photobooks that serve as good examples of the genres,
the application of law or misinterpretation of the law by police ofcers affecting photography, and to
provide pep talks to encourage photographers.
The photographs discussed demonstrate the space that street and social landscape photography
overlap. The subject matter in these images is not typically of interest to communication scholars
because the photography was neither journalistic nor commercial in purpose. Yet, the photographs
communicate miniature stories about people doing everyday activities that are part of their individ-
ual rituals. Attention to these genres of photography, as well as the space they overlap, avails new
research possibilities to cultural communication scholars if they are willing to examine unfamiliar
sources of photography such as photobooks and online photography magazines and forums.
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Positioning the act of photographing as a ritual that uses images as its artifacts departs from Careys
original notion of ritual as oral communication. However, it does t with what Carey described as
secondary, mediated forms that includes the printing press (Carey, 1997, p. 315). By pushing
street and social landscape photography past the art world and into communication, these genres
become increasingly part of the broader elds of media and information. This study has attempted
to bring the genres to the attention of more scholars and to initiate greater educational concern for
them. Future studies can deliberate on how the media have used street and social landscape photogra-
phy genres, and how the images are records of information obtained via a style that would likely
record different documentary data than photojournalism. The work of the previously mentioned
book by Guimond (1991) is an example of street photography being considered from an
American Studies perspective. This article has suggested a different and useful direction by seeking
the intersection of these genres.
Note
1. Citation reects republished version of original 1989 book.
COLUMBIA ONLINE CITATION: HUMANITIES STYLE
Gleason, Timothy. The Communicative Roles of Street and Social Landscape Photography. Studies
in Media & Information Literacy Education 8.4 (2008). http://www.utpress.utoronto.ca/journals/
ejournals/simile (November, 2008).
COLUMBIA ONLINE CITATION: SCIENTIFIC STYLE
Gleason, T. R. (2008). The Communicative Roles of Street and Social Landscape Photography, 8(4).
http://www.utpress.utoronto.ca/journals/ejournals/simile (November 2008).
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
The author is an associate professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of
Wisconsin-Oshkosh. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Bowling Green State
University, and he is a former newspaper photojournalist.
AUTHOR CONTACT INFORMATION
Timothy R. Gleason
Associate Professor
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
Department of Journalism
800 Algoma Blvd
Oshkosh, WI 54901
Telephone: 920-424-7298 (w)
920-233-0335 (h)
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Appendix
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