• English
    • Welsh
  • English 
    • English
    • Welsh
  • Login
Search DSpace:
  • Home
  • Research at Cardiff Met
  • Library Services
  • Contact Us
View item 
  • DSpace home
  • Cardiff School of Art and Design
  • WIRAD: RAE 2008 Submission
  • View item
  • DSpace home
  • Cardiff School of Art and Design
  • WIRAD: RAE 2008 Submission
  • View item
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

A Matter of Fact: The Rhetoric of Documentary 'Style'

Thumbnail
Date
2008-10-17
Publisher
National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
This book accompanies 'Fabula', an exhibition of contemporary photography and video art at the NMPFT. In 'Fabula', a new generation of international artists explored the conventions and ideas associated with the familiar world of the documentary image. The exhibition introduced a host of rogue elements to question the limitations of the document and how alternative conceptions of documentary within the visual arts can contribute to expanding documentary modes. 'Fabula', meaning 'story' or 'fable' in Latin, suggests that the fabulous qualities of storytelling are always at work, even in the supposedly factual realm of the documentary. The essay 'A Matter of Fact…' looked at the development of a rhetoric documentary 'style' in photography that was historical and linked to modernism through the photographs of Eugene Atget, Walker Evans and Mass-Observation, and not solely part of postmodern turn in photography. It looked at how re-construction, subjectivity, reflexivity and irony were knowingly present in the formative decades of documentary. Questions were raised about how contemporary exploration of documentary 'style' needed to be mindful of its playfulness if considered in relation to what were already expanded ideas of documentary in the 1930s in particular. Contemporary contrast was made with the work of Susan Meiselas with 'Kurdistan: In the Shadow of History' (1997) as an example of meaningful intervention that expanded documentary field through exhibition, the book and the Web. Artists included in FABULA: Todd Hido, Jenny Gage, Sharon Yaari, Matt Hulse, Jeanne Faust, Laure Provost and Christopher Stewart.
Citation
Fabula, pp.15-28
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10369/126
Collections
  • WIRAD: RAE 2008 Submission [126]

Related items

Showing items related by title, author, subject and abstract.

  • Thumbnail

    Sisters in Law: Stories from a Cameroon Court 

    ; Longinotto, K (2005-03-09)
    My documentary film practice is situated within the broader context and conceptual framework of counter cinematic narratives and ideas about Africa, in particular, the representation of women. My agenda and thematic concerns ...
  • Thumbnail

    In Camera: Stories from the City 

    Unknown author (Liverpool University Press & Tate Liverpool, 2008-10-17)
    'Centre of the Creative Universe' was a major exhibition that offered a unique account of Liverpool’s art scene over the past fifty years. Moving from the immediate post-war period to the present, the exhibition explored ...
  • Thumbnail

    Does Prayer Work? 

    Unknown author (2003-11-12)
    Commissioned to research and direct this film by BBC Manchester and Discovery Health in the USA for the EVERYMAN series. The film follows a world wide experiment run by a leading American heart surgeon to test the ...

Browse

DSpace at Cardiff MetCommunities & CollectionsBy issue dateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis collectionBy issue dateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

My Account

Login

Statistics

Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

DSpace software copyright © 2002-2015  DuraSpace
Contact us | Send feedback | Administrator