A study of the nature of documentary work. Utilizing the documentaries of writers, photographers and others, the book aims to show how their prose and pictures are influenced by the observers frame of reference - their social and educational background, personal morals and political beliefs.
In this thought-provoking volume, renowned child psychiatrist Robert Coles, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Children of Crisis series, offers a penetrating look into the nature of documentary work. Exploring the documentaries of writers, photographers, and filmmakers, Coles shows how their prose and pictures are influenced by the observer's frame of reference: their social and educational background, personal values, and political beliefs. He discusses the literary documentaries of James Agee and George Orwell and documentary photographs by Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans; and also illuminates his points through personal portraits of William Carlos Williams, Robert Moses, Erik H. Erikson, and others. Documentary work, Coles concludes, is more a narrative constructed by the observer, meant not only to represent "reality" but inevitably to interpret it.
