The birth of socially engaged photography | The art of photography | lecture

Join us for another lecture by Stanisław Jasiński from the Art of Photography series and see for yourself that photography has the power to change the world. We invite you on Wednesday, November 5, at 5:00 p.m.

In today’s world, socially engaged photography is an important trend in photojournalism and documentary photography. But did you know that the origins of socially engaged photography can be traced back to the early years of the last century? It was born just a few decades after the invention of the medium of photography.

“American photographer Lewis Hine is considered the pioneer of socially engaged photography,” says Stanisław Jasiński. “In 1904, he began photographing immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in New York. Later, he photographed, among others, the poorest workers (including children) at work in factories,” he adds.

Because the industrial era developed at a different pace in the United States and Europe, the trend of socially engaged photography was initiated on the Old Continent by photographers working in France in the 1930s: Brassaï, Henri Cartier-Bresson, and Robert Doisneau. During the lecture, you will see their iconic shots, which gave rise to a style known as humanistic and socially engaged photography.