Can Documentary Photography Ever Be Entirely Value-Free?

For the integrity of the Social Documentary and Photojournalist to be maintained it is essential that images are accepted as an accurate record of a given situation. Of course, we all know that this is not always the case. Many photographs throughout history that have been purported to be 'fact' by photojournalists have shown to be less than the truth, and at times, even outright manipulations.

Robert Capa's 'Falling Soldier' is one instance where it has been said that the shot is staged and that the soldier is posing under Capa's direction. It is claimed that the soldier is not even a Republican but an Anarchist fighting for the other side. The location of the photograph is thirty miles away from where Capa claims it was taken. Later work (by investigative photographers) to match the background in the photograph has shown that this is indeed the case. Instances like these can be found time and time again as great pictures that make the photojournalist look like an intrepid hero in times of crisis have been debunked. The public, to some extent, are complicit in this behaviour and seem constantly eager to make superheroes out of ordinary people. It is easy to see how a massaged ego can make a photojournalist less than ethical in the pursuit of the next picture. 

Death of a Loyalist Soldier. Robert Capa

Social documentary photographers like Lewis Hine and Jacob Riis have shown that they too are willing to stage images to help them convey their message in a photograph. How is this different from the war photographers like Capa? I'm not sure. One seems like it was made with the best of intentions and the other to tell an exciting story for a photo-magazine. So intent plays a part - but, how is the viewer supposed to be able to interpret that from looking at an image and reading the article beside it? It's impossible.

I think that is important to remember that all images are political and that even the photographer with even the most neutral of intentions can display unconscious bias. Just look at all the 'hidden histories' that are now coming to light as historiographers take another look at photographic and documentary archives. Stories of forgotten or silenced people, such as ethnic and homosexual minorities, are being unearthed all the time - They were always there; Just filed away, misplaced, mis-categorised as something other than what they really represented because the culture, at that time, would rather that they didn't exist.