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The Feature Group Aaron Siskind June-July 1940
After the Harlem Document was completed, the Feature group divided into three units, each unit with a task of its own. Sixteenth Street, Catholic Worker (St. Joseph's House), and the Lost Generation (the plight of youth to-day). The long drawn-out work on Harlem left us with a larger and looser organization than is good for production, so a break-down was necessary as well as inevitable. Nevertheless, I hope that the review show of the work of the Feature Group is planning for the summer will be more than an obituary--that from it will emerge some useful ideas. I felt that from the beginning that the first problem and necessity for any group was unity (in an aesthetic sense), that some common ground, some general understanding (agreement--too presumptuous?) must be found for these five persons grouped about a table, looking at each other out of their separate, varied, mysterious selves--brought together here by a vague though single purpose (to make documentary features) and by private (and who knows what?) motives. That that unity could not be had through the logical, blanket acceptance of any general principles or ideas, but rather by the detailed exploration and experience of minute implications, the special case. For instance, instead of beginning with a study of critical statements on documentary photography by eminent moderns (Strand, for instance) and a review of its tradition, (the procedure of Grossman's course in Documentary Photography) we concern ourselves with the problem of how an idea comes to life in a photograph, and the special characteristics of that life. We start with the simplest ideas (related to documentary photography, of course) that we can think of, like: This man is in a hurry, this is a solid brick wall, delicious bread, what a conceited guy, he's completely engrossed in his book, etc.--The simplest idea, because in examining the work we have done we can more easily relate the ideas to the elements of the pictures and its total impact, and perhaps, in that way we can come to an agreement as to how and why it works--or doesn't. The method is experimental and has the virtue of The method is experimental and has the virtue of Since the feature was our special concern our first task was the examination of features that others had made. What makes them work? Feature picture-stories from a wide variety of publications (Fortune, Life, the Sunday Supplement, the daily newspaper) were examined, and written analyses made. These were discussed, revised and filed for back and cross reference. We learned a number of things about the form and continuity of a picture-story; but, mostly, we came to see that the literal representation of a fact (or idea) can signify less than the fact or ideal itself (is altogether dull), that a picture or a series of pictures must be informed with such things as order, rhythm, emphasis, etc, etc.--qualities which result from the perception and feeling of the photographer, and are not necessarily (or apparently) the property of the subject. How dull was the series on Wall Street, in Fortune the pictures all cliches of the men-at-work type, unrelated to each other and to the text only as illustration; and, by contrast, what a rush of movement in the story on the school for firemen rookies taken from one of our daily newspapers. The problems of this and each succeeding feature will be detailed in the notes for the summer show of the work of the Feature Group. Trying always, of course, to do what would be useful in itself, we never forget our chief aim, to develop photographers who could carry through a documentary job from plan to print.
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