The tendency and perspective of “social documentary photographers” with different European nationality(Russia, England, Netherlands, Germany / Austria and …) in a period from half of the 19 century to half of 20 century with a subjectivity approach in order to study and analyzing the mentioned photographer’s attitude that traveled to Persia (current Iran) and subsequently have photographed from it, has been investigated and studied in this paper. What is that can be defined and included following the title of “social documentary photography” is not anything except the created work by photographers that with relative commitment to Human phenomena that is around you, either as a fascination for humanity or as a protest against the current situation and reformist look.The “Social documentary photography” mainly corresponds to the personal concerns of the photographer and, of course, the being of outside subject. The main purpose of this research was to attain the “attitude” of each of the mentioned photographers in the desired time period and also specifying the differences and similarities of these photographers in retrieved attitudes. Some of the photographers in nineteenth century saw their work as a “document”, but many other did not anything about themselves and they did not know that the photographer is a documentary. Other genres close to social documentary photography include ethnographic photography which is essentially the same as recording people in shaky or risky situations, but they are oblivious to the recording of traditions, clothing and living or biological conditions. Documentary photography dominated in many ways to the history of twentieth century photography and many great photographers in mentioned century have been linked to this genre. Talking more about the documentary photography, whether in absolute or relative terms, means going to a marsh with contradictions, turmoil and uncertainties. In this paper we were raised the photographers that in addition to their performance in the social documentary genre were important in another aspect that is the name and works of some of them arises for the first time in a scientific – research paper in Iran.
In selecting and electing the photographers that are the case study of this paper, regardless of two mentioned property (that all of them should be active in social documentary genre and theirs works did not seen or be less prominent in Iran) the personal interest of the author of this article has also been among. The necessity of having a time frame and specific social condition and almost identical about the intended photographers of this article that were traveled to Persia / Iran in a desired time period and have photographed, is another key and important element that should be taking into account it. In the case of contextualize this explanation is required that in this paper according to the nature of “social documentary photography” and expectation from it, we have considered a “subjectivity” approach against “aesthetics” approach. The desired photographers have been selected from different European geography (Russia, England, Netherlands, Germany /Austria). Meanwhile because England is the main and major source of the social documentary approach, paid more attention to the more photographers of this geography. For any photographer, at first his/her biography has been published and then his/her attitude has been analyzed. The findings of this research shows that the approach of the selected photographers that is the result of theirs works, has not consistency in production and consumption. The studied photographers have power and dominance on their human subjects.