Documentary Photography in Context. Task 2.

Freed had himself embedded with the New York Police. He felt that they'd been receiving a 'bad press'. They were, at the time, being blamed for all of society ills, held as scapegoats for everything from the Vietnam War to race relations and poverty (in New York). Freed took a sympathetic view, acknowledging that the Police were working class people too, just trying to do their job.

Freed's images were published in The Observer, The Sunday Times, Stern and the New York Times. His aim was to raise awareness of the difficulties/risks of the average New York Police Officer, together with the sort of dreadful sights they would encounter during their working day.

Leonard Freed, New York, 1972.

There can be no doubt that Freed considered his photography to be indexical, his images were taken almost as police forensic shots directly recording the evidence of the crime scene. It's possible that this image of a murder could be used in different context than Freed intended: not only could there be a betrayal of the victim within this image, but of Freed's original intentions. Freed had sympathies towards the civil rights movement so it could interpreted that the black victim within this image is a victim of racially motivated crime. The alternative view: that black people were responsible for most of the violent crime within New York at that time...

Ron Haviv, Panama, 1989.

Haviv is a co-founder of the Paris based VII photo agency. His aim, via photojournalism, is to make the people accountable for their crimes within his imagery. They can be condemned. He says  ''yes, the work does become a body of evidence". As evidence, it does need to remain in its original state, unaltered, real.  

The Worlds Top Photographers, Photojournalism, Andy Steel, Rotovision, P 54.

Haviv seems intent on creating a body of evidence that could be used in a prosecution to bring the persecutor to justice and, of course, justice to the victim. 

Haviv used the same publishing vehicle as Freed: the large multi national publishing houses. His audience is the same as Freed, though it should be noted that the modern 'audience' is likely to be much better informed and possibly more cynical: the digital age has added the ability to alter and doctor images for political or social purposes. It could therefore be said that to keep documentary photography indexical to maintain the integrity of an image, a photographer is pushed further into greater risk. Haviv has been close to losing his life several times.