Surveyors and Surveyed

In the Victorian days, photographs were respected and accepted as a method of showing the truth and showing that which you may not have seen before. A lot of photographers documented the poor and needy, which were then seen by the rich, and this was a method of spreading awareness of their conditions. It was accepted because photographs at the time were extremely factual. It was used to cover a wide range of topics and document changes throughout the environment.

    ''It established itself as part of a tradition of enquiry about health, housing, education,
     economic condition and moral state of the poor.''
     (Wells, 2001:75)

She also mentions that the only reason photographs were regarded as factual and trustworthy was they reinforced stories and reports from the news so that people could see them for themselves. It was stated in Liz Wells book that these enquiries were from a range of different sources, meaning photography was used fairly regularly.

    ''The camera reinforced journalistic and literary accounts of aspects of social life that
     had rarely been seen or experienced by middle-class people. Enquiries emanated from
     government departments, newspapers, independent scholars, medical practitioners,
     religious leaders and philanthropic bodies.''
     (Wells, 2001:75)