Analyzing historical photographs: Genres, functions, and methodologies

Abstract

This article employs the concepts of genre and function as a contribution toward developing methodologies for analyzing photographs from a historian’s perspective. The genre of photojournalism is examined in terms of the different functions carried out by what are defined as press photography, photojournalism, photoessays, and documentalism. It indicates that the misunderstandings generated by practitioners of the genre are a product of thinking that the rules of one function apply to the entire genre. It is hypothesized that historical analysis may be facilitated by establishing photographic genres, and distinguishing between the different functions therein.