AD5803 - Truth vs Fiction inspirations

I have always been extremely interested and inspired by the projects that challenge the border between truth and fiction in documentary photography. The first project I came into concerning this discussion is Afronauts by Cristiana De Middel, who became one of my biggest inspirations.

In her projects, she doesn't hesitate to use any means in order to tell a story. If she cannot have the "real" subjects or material, she simply stages it. She uses what there is available, and if fictional elements may help in telling a true story, why should we limit ourselves?

I absolutely agree with this statement and I strongly believe that by giving food for thought, you can really bring more attention to your story and have a greater impact than following the straight documentary tradition.

Documentary photography has always been controversial for its very assumption of "telling the truth", but, as we know, photography cannot be objective. Photography is a continuous craft from the moment someone picks up a camera. There are endless decisions behind even the simplest shot, and that's just half of the process. The pictures are made to be consumed by an audience who interpret and read them according to its own experience. How can we claim to draw a border between truth and fiction?

Fictional elements can actually reinforce an actual story. I take "Infra" by Richard Mosse, for example.

He used an infrared film to document the war zone and humanitarian disaster that took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The aesthetic of infrared film gives shape to bright candyfloss pink images, which are very different from our idea of war reportage. But this very contrast between the fairytale look and the actual content, puts the viewer in an uncomfortable position in which his naturally driven to question the horrors of war.

In an interview, he has been asked if he finds necessary to provoke in order to create strong reactions to situations that we often inured to. This is his answer:

"I go to great lengths to keep my work as open as possible in terms of signification, trying especially hard to avoid didacticism. So the viewer can bring whatever they like to the work [...] So, for me, it’s a deeply personal response, rather than a deliberately didactic provocation. If people are moved by the work to take a longer look at the humanitarian disaster in eastern Congo, that is superb."

A photographer cannot have the total control of how his work will be interpreted. By making a project deliberately controversial you are actually making a more powerful statement since you transparently admit that a single interpretation is no possible.

Another project that profoundly inspired me in my photography practice and reinforced my opinion about the importance of fiction in the documentary process is Blue Sky Days by Thomas Van Hautryve.

He attached his camera to a drone and he took pictures across America photographing the very sorts of gatherings that have become habitual US military targets in foreign air strikes, such as weddings, funerals, groups of people praying or exercising. Military drones are the ultimate representation of delivering a policy without conscience and empathy, the life or death of a person can be determined by a soldier seated in a safe room on the other side of the planet. By taking those images he wanted to show the conditions of war countries from a different perspective and “bring the drone war home".

There is nothing inherently fictional in this project; however, he creates a scenario which makes the viewer reflect on a hypothetic condition and therefore emphatize with who really live that situation.

More and more photographers nowadays are expanding their practice in "post-truth" directions and the possibilities are endless. I believe that this inclination is due to the mainstream access to the photography medium and the fast speed we consume information. It is always more and more difficult to stand out, and the reason is this very saturation of images and information that characterizes contemporary society. Therefore, photographers need to go beyond what everybody does and expand their practice to other fields. We cannot only rely on straight documentary images to tell a story, we have to make people to slow-down and reflect.

Last but not least, I have recently came into this project exploring the theme of the deep web.

Like an iceberg, the visible part of internet only represent the 10% of the actual surface. The submerged side represents the so called Deep Web, a digital territory that can be accessed just through specific software, where everything is potentially permitted, where anything is traceable.

Under the known, accessible surface of internet, this non-place can generate, a complex online business, especially about illegal products and criminal activities. Stock images or original photographs illustrate the thousands of posted advertisements, catching more or less the customers attention and making recognizable the vendors style. In the book, photographs taken by the deep web are represented as invisible objects: they are printed through a special ink which appears and reveals the images on the surface only under an UV light. Exactly the same light actually used to look for drugs traces, in this case it is necessary to reveal the representation of drug itself, otherwise not accessible. https://www.giorgiodinoto.com/4222149-the-iceberg#0