Documentary Photography

Documentary photograph is telling a story through the use of photographs, it is a device that have been used for hundreds of years. For example biblical stories being told through Stained Glass windows, tapestries, illustrated manuscripts ext. Documentary photography’s main aim is to show the everyday lives of ordinary people, an example of this would be Martin Parr’s collection of work, ‘The Last Resort’. This is about  a seafront in New Brighton. The images taken for this collection do not show a stereo typical sea side with images advertising the holiday resort. But images that show a run down but still very much alive resort.

Street Photography

Street photography is an unbroken tradition stretching back into photography itself. Most street photographs like to take their photographs in populated and prouder urban areas; markets, high streets, subways ext.The father of street photography is considered as Eugene Atget, he was famous for his photographs of the streets of Paris.

Here is some of Eugene’s photographs;

However a more modern street photographer is Eddie Wexler. He wins several competitions with his work.

Social Documentary Photography

Social documentary photography is the recording of humans in their natural condition with a camera, it is a form of documentary photography. Often it also refers to a socially critical genre of photography dedicated to showing the life of underprivileged or disadvantaged people. It has been created to document social problems such as rural poverty. This genre is rooted in the 19th century by people such as Henry Mayhew and Jacob Riis. However a more modern social documentary photographer would be Leslie Alsheimer.

With images, she creates metaphors that honor the richness of life that accompany the enduring human spirit; celebrating life, play, family, culture and community through the joy, pain and love of everyday living.

Here are some of Leslie’s images;

I particularly like Leslie’s images because of the attention she pays to detail. For example all of her photographs are very rich with different textures. There is  heavy feel given to the photograph in the bottom by the stormy skies which is very contrasting to the flat, bare floor. This photo has also been constructed with lots of leading lines, leading the eyes to the brick cottage in the centre left of the photograph. I also like that all of Leslies photo’s are in black and white, which magnifies the detail even more.

Photographer and painter Richard Billingham (born 1970) grew up in a cramped, high-rise tenement apartment with his mother and father in Birmingham, England. His father, Ray, was an unemployed, chronic alcoholic, often sleeping the whole day through, while Liz, Billingham’s overweight and heavily tattooed mother, filled her home with porcelain dolls and jigsaw puzzles, housing ten cats and three dogs. These are Billingham’s subjects. In stark comparison to conventional family photos around the dinner table or in front of the Christmas tree, Billingham’s images are raw, intimate and often uncomfortably humorous. First published in 2000, Ray’s a Laugh is now considered one of the most important British photo books of the recent past. This publication reproduces this renowned book spread by spread, including a contemporary essay by Charlotte Cotton.

Here are some of Richards words;

“My father Raymond is a chronic alcoholic.
He doesn’t like going outside, my mother Elizabeth hardly drinks,
but she does smoke a lot.
She likes pets and things that are decorative.
They married in 1970 and I was born soon after.
My younger brother Jason was taken into care when he was 11,
but now he is back with Ray and Liz again.
Recently he became a father.
Dad was some kind of mechanic, but he’s always been an
alcoholic. It has just got worse over the years.
He gets drunk on cheap cider at the off license.
He drinks a lot at nights now and gets up late.
Originally, our family lived in a terraced house,
but they blew all the redundancy money and, in desperation,
sold the house. Then we moved to the council tower block,
where Ray just sits in and drinks.
That’s the thing about my dad, there’s no subject he’s interested
in, except drink.”

Some photographs from ‘Ray’s a Laugh’ collection:

I really like this collection of photographs because I think that it shows a true representation of his family, and his home life. Its really interesting to read about Richards family, and how he focuses on the point of his father being an alcoholic, and his mother being an over weight animal lover. I also like the way that he has taken the photo’s, they don’t look overly staged and they aren’t perfect in that some of the photographs are over exposed due to flash lighting. Each of the photographs tell’s the audience something about his parents. For example the photograph on the top left, showing his parents sitting on the coach eating their dinner whilst watching the television. This looks like something they do everyday, as a family ritual.

Within photojournalism there is a code which consists of ethics and standards that the journalists are expected to respect and follow. This code had been broken by a photojournalist who had entered a piece of work into the ‘World Press Photo Contest’. Giovanni Troilo had entered a photograph and had misrepresented the location of the photo this caused an uproar with the photojournalist community as he categorised his photo as ‘reportage’. This then lead to another issue as he used a flash lighting with a remote control flash.

Who sets the boundaries of what defines photojournalism?

After this issue had occurred, it lead to a big panel meeting where they decided to re write the code of ethics in photojournalism. The festival director, Jean-François Leroy said he defined photojournalism as “witnessing the world.” Photograph’s today are easily manipulated and staged with the use of technology. However once a photograph has been manipulated it becomes art photography, not photojournalism.

Can photography change the world?

The debate of ‘Can photography change the world‘ is often discussed between different photographers. As some people believe that a photograph is able to change someones feelings and views on a subject. It is also thought that a visual image stays with someone for longer, rather than reading a paragraph about the subject. An example of this is the photograph of a pair of damaged lungs on a cigarette box. However some people believe that photography is unable to change the world, as a photograph is only there to provide information and to give the audience an insight into a subject.

This photograph could be seen, and make people understand the poverty in different countries and inspire them to participate in some charity events or donate money. Or it could be seen as an informative photograph, that is educating the viewer about the poverty and the amount of people in the world without access to clean water.

When technology makes it so easy to manipulate images, how much manipulation is acceptable?

In the NPPA code of ethics  it is said that photojournalists should resist being manipulated by staged photographers as it is not reporting the exact truth. Therefore the photograph becomes art photography rather than photojournalism. There have been various occasions when a photojournalist is reporting about a subject and supplies a photograph about the subject, yet the photograph has been staged.

With viewers more sophisticated and skeptical than ever before, how can photojournalists preserve their integrity and maintain trust?

The public rely on photojournalists to report the honest truth to them about global issues and topic’s. It is expected for the journalists to tell the truth about what they are reporting. Because of previous innocents where the journalist has manipulated their stories by using staged photographs. A code of Ethics has been created, which contains rules such as ‘Be accurate and comprehensive in the representation of subject’ to help prevent inaccurate reporting.

Documentary photography follows a single topic or story in-depth over a long period of time. This is different to photojournalism which documents real-time coverage of breaking news and events. Documentary photography hold the main purpose of educating the public about a subject.Documentary photography allows the viewers knowledge of the subject to expand and be more in depth. By deepening our understanding and emotional connection to stories of injustice, documentary photography can capture and sustain public attention, allowing the public to be more educated about issues such as human rights.

Mary Ellen Mark

A example of a documentary photography is Mary Ellen Mark. she was an American photographer that photographed people who were away from the normal main stream of life. For example people who were more troubled. Mark had 18 publishes of work, however her most famous ones were ward 81 and streetwise.

Streetwise

Mary Ellen Mark traveled to the city of Seattle with Cheryl McCall in 1983 to do an article for LIFE Magazine on runaway children. Mark and McCall spent a lot of time with the children who lived around Seattle and photographed them in their every day lives. Here are some of the photos from the Streetwise project.

Mary Ellen Mark was inspired by lots of photographs before starting this project such as, Robert Frank , Cartier-Bresson, Kertesz and plenty more. Mark appreciated these photographers because they took powerful images that sent a message to the viewers. I really like the  ‘streetwise’ collection of work because it gives a true representation of life in Seattle in the 80’s. I also really like that she has put all of the photographs into a black and white filter as it foreshadows that she is photographing the truth and isn’t editing the photographs in anyway to make them more aesthetically pleasing.