No matter what race, religion, or where one comes from, one thing connects us all. The Human condition. The human condition encompasses the sum of the experience of being human and living the human life. Artists worldwide working in every medium strive to capture the human condition. Photography is the one medium that captures it like no other.
Early Photography and the Human Condition
In its early history, photography was not considered art because of its reliance on a form of technology that a camera is. When it was realized that photography was not just an automatic process but the ability of the photographer to bring creativity to an image through his eyes, photography became recognized as the most important invention since the printing press. As photography evolved and more advances were made, it became recognized as a form of artistic expression.
The rise of photographic societies around the world were the first sign that photography was being seen as an art. In 1853 the Photographic Society was formed in London. Shortly after, the Société Française de Photographie was founded in Paris, France. By the end of the 19th century photographic societies were popping up across the world in countries like India and in Eastern Europe. While they were formed to promote photography in general, some were dedicated strictly to artistic expression. It was the creation of these societies that paved the way for the early photography journals, the first of which was the Journal of the Photographic Society.
After viewing the first photographic journal, miniature painter sir William Newton argued that photographs could only be useful if they were taken in accordance with the principles of Fine Art. It was Newton who suggested a photographer throw their subject slightly off focus to make it more of work of art. In response to Newton’s criticisms, photographers began to combine several negatives to create one print, pushing photography beyond its capabilities. It paved the way for the print The Two Ways of Life being shown in the Manchester Art Treasures Exhibition and subsequently purchased by Queen Victoria for Prince Albert.
It was O.G. Rejlander, a Swedish photographer practicing in London, that can be credited for changing how people viewed photography with the sale of Two Ways of Life, a print that made him famous. Fading Away, a five-negative print, was the title of the photograph taken of a dying girl. Critics spoke out about the subject being too painful to be represented by photography. It was believed the purity of the camera created a stir despite paintings capturing far more painful subjects over the years. Even still, those who have studied the history of photography claim the photograph of the dying girl was the beginning of photography as an art that could capture the human condition.
Painters, Sculptors, and the Human Condition
The sculptor Rodin began his commission The Gates of Hell in 1880, a laboratory of the human condition, in which he captured various states and emotions in bronze and clay. The famous piece The Kiss was part of that commission as was The Thinker and Eternal Spring.
On stone walls or canvases, paintings are the medium many artists choose to capture the human condition as they interpret it. Leonardo DaVinci is credited with showing humanity at its most vulnerable in his rendering The Foetus in the Womb. No matter the condition or experience, it is one all of mankind can connect to. Like many experiences that connect us as humans, we all have the same beginning in the womb. No painting in the world embodies the human condition that is cruelty and violence as does the famous painting of Caravaggio, The Beheading of St. John the Baptist.
While the painting captures a most horrific moment, photography’s ability to capture the human condition can stir people to act. No medium in the art world can capture the pureness of a moment or its subject like photography can.
Photography That Has Captured the Human Condition
Over time, we have seen through the lenses of photojournalists and street photographers how photography has become the serious art of our time. Photography captures more than just a moment. Philosophers and artists alike have been seeking the answer to a question that an answer still falls short of – what does it mean to be human? The English Naturalist and Biologist Charles Darwin was said to have had the greatest of insights into the human condition. His contributions to the science of evolution changed years of thinking. Yet Darwin had no words on the subject of how to experience the experiences that make up the human condition.
Photography captures people in the mess and beauty of the experiences of being human. Photography is the swiftest and most specific mechanism of any tool ever created to record living and dying. Street photographers offer a gift in the way they capture the human condition, often strangers caught up in an emotional moment. The legendary photojournalist Don McCullin was quoted as saying “I don’t just take photographs, I think.” It’s this ability of the photographer to see the poignancy or sheer joy in a moment that comes across in a photograph.
The 1963 Pulitzer prize winning photograph of a Vietnamese monk sitting lotus style as flames lapped viciously all around him became iconic not only for its gut-wrenching image but as the catalyst that pulled the American government in. The image that generated worldwide interest was responsible for the United States deciding not to interfere with the government coup in Saigon the following November.
In 1990 a young photojournalist student named Therese Frare was trying to cover AIDS for a school project. While at the Pater Noster House in Columbus, Ohio she met David Kirby, an activist on his death bed. Frare asked to take David’s photo. The 1990 publication of David Kirby’s photo graced the cover of Life with its message of how misunderstood the devastating disease was. It showed the human condition of pain and suffering in all its stark reality. The cover photograph was the springboard to discussions across the country and around the world. The company Bennetton took it a step further. Using Kirby’s image in a series of ads, they raised critical awareness of the devastation on humanity that AIDS was.
Capturing the human condition through photography helps us connect to one another but to other living creatures that we share this planet with. Photography is a medium that can educate people on conflicts within an environment that impact the human condition. While in the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, photographer Brent Stirton captured one of the most moving images of emotions between man and wildlife. After the violent murder of a Silverback Mountain Gorilla, Stirton took a picture of more than a dozen men carrying the animal’s carcass as it was strapped to a makeshift stretcher. Named Senkwekwe, the gorilla was killed as conflict had erupted in the park, a park where half of the world’s critically endangered gorillas inhabit. Stirton’s ability to capture the gorilla in an almost human light was a reminder to mankind everywhere that conflict affects more than the humans caught in it. The publication of Stirton’s stirring photograph led to nine African countries signing a binding treaty to protect the mountain gorillas.
Photography enables us to walk in one another’s shoes. In some cases, it prompts mankind to be a voice for those who can not speak. Photography prompts us to ask who, what, why, and how. A medium that allows us a glimpse into a multitude of experiences and emotions, photography makes us more thoughtful and empathetic observers. Real life creates true art and photography is the one medium that captures it as it’s being lived.
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