A Medium Seen Otherwise: Photography in Documentary Film

A Medium Seen Otherwise explores how political, historical, and art documentaries engage with photographic images, objects, and archives, arguing that film allows us to better understand how people use analog and digital photographs as material objects that enable social and political relations through multisensory experience. It combines new critical perspectives on well-known documentary filmmakers and photographers with analyses of lesser-known documentaries, demonstrating how the intermediality between documentary film and photography can posit far more expansive conceptions of both media.

Format: Hardback
Length: 280 pages
Publication date: 21 November 2023
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc

Through a fresh perspective on how political, historical, and art documentaries engage with photographic images, objects, and archives, A Medium Seen Otherwise argues that film enables us to gain a deeper understanding of how people utilize analog and digital photographs as tangible material objects that facilitate social and political connections through multisensory experiences. Moreover, as a time-based medium with sound, film can provide a more comprehensive view of the event of photography, showcasing how no single participant in it (photographer, subject, camera, photograph, or viewer) possesses sole sovereignty over its affect, meaning, or value. The book thus delves into the various ways in which incorporating photography into documentary film allows us to perceive these media differently. Photographs, whether professional or vernacular, are commonly perceived to serve as indexical evidence and visual representations of history in documentaries. However, the spatial and temporal dimensions of film enable documentaries to reveal photography's broader capabilities beyond mere representation. By combining new critical perspectives on renowned documentary filmmakers and photographers (such as Agnès Varda, Rithy Panh, Edward Burtynsky, Malick Sidibé, Vivian Maier, JR, Ken Burns, Errol Morris, and Akram Zaatari) with analyses of lesser-known but significant documentaries, author Roger Hallas explores a diverse range of documentary and vernacular photographic contexts, spanning Lebanon, Palestine, Mali, Congo, Cambodia, Ireland, Spain, Mexico, Chile, Canada, and the United States. While authorship and representation remain prevalent rhetorical frameworks for documentaries about photography, A Medium Seen Otherwise presents a compelling account of how the intermediality between documentary film and photography can foster far more expansive conceptions of beauty.

Weight: 546g
Dimension: 244 x 160 x 20 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780190057763