Surveyors and Surveyed

Photography's original purpose was clearly for documentation beginning with the use of the camera for science and history. But the relationship between the camera and society was rapidly changing. No longer was a photograph an objective viewpoint: photographers had learned to manipulate the angle, lighting, subjects and setting to reveal to the viewers' eyes what the photographer believed to be real. "Despite claims for its accuracy and trustworthiness, however, photography did not so much record the real as signify and construct it" (Ryan 1997: 214).
As the camera became more portable and its work more malleable, the photograph began to lose in authenticity. One of the most compelling photographs of the Spanish Civil War, a photograph which supposedly changed many views on the war, is under speculation as to its reliability.
Surveyors and Surveyed attempts to help the reader understand and classify the differences between documentary photography and other types of photography. Authenticity must not be based on "the medium itself, but [rather] through the personal qualities and professional practices of the photographer." For example, Jacob Riis' work is called into question because he captures the element of shock by bursting into tenants' homes in the middle of the night. Part of the photograph is planned, even staged. Can this be an authentic documentary photograph?
Surveyors and Surveyed gave the reader insight into the world and growth of documentary photography. It introduced ways to classify photographs, judge their authenticity and explored the work of some pioneers in documentary photography.