What is Documentary Photography?
September 11, 2008 – 11:36 pm
Documentary photography is a branch of photography field. As it can be understood from the name of it, the branch focuses on “document”. Photographer takes photo of an object, a person or an event. All these are real. Photographer tries to prove something. That is the reason making documentary photography different from ordinary photography. The photograph depicts a concrete situation. In other words, documentary photograph depicts humanity and some certain situation of humanity. These situations can be war scenes, poverty problem, child labor or anything.
What makes photography valuable as a document? Every photograph depicts the moment it was taken. Even a simple photo is important because it depicts many things. However, if a photo depicts the entire situation, society and humanity, it is valuable as a documentary photograph.
Major Aims of Documentary Photography
The major aim of documentary photography is giving information about the reality. It gives information and broadens our horizon. With it, we see a different world. There are not walls around us no more. We are sensitive. When these aims are achieved, humanity becomes closer. We understand the situation of people even living far away from us. That is also called empathy. Understanding the others and thinking about them make us a unified society in this big world.
Documentary photography has a social function. It creates social consciousness. A photo carries a message. After seeing the proof of a social event, nobody can deny that such a situation occurred. Documentary photographs are proofs of our history.
Where is Documentary Photo Used?
Documentary photography is not something made as a hobby. It is generally used for publication. In every page of newspapers, you can see a documentary photo depicting a war scene, situation of poor children etc. These photos are widely used for giving information to people. In addition to that, some photographers take documentary photo with personal aims. They use these photos in an exhibition.
There are also group and organizations using documentary photographs. Their aims are much more specific. For instance, an environment organization takes photo in order to attract attention of people to the nature and environment. This category is also classified as documentary photography.
Famous Documentary Photographers
Documentary photography requires professionalism. Taking photo of a situation, a person does not make the photo a documentary one. However, this does not mean you can not catch such an image. But generally, documentary photos of well known photographers are used in news, newspaper and magazines. This feature brings the debate whether documentary photography and photojournalism are the same things or not. There are not exact rules for these branches. Yet, it is a well known fact that documentary photography is a wide and distinctive branch of photography. Famous documentary photographers include the names Bill Brandt, Roman Vishniac, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Berenice Abbott, William Eggleston, David Hurn, Martin Parr, Mary Ellen Mark, Walker Evans, August Sander, Gertrude Blom, Henri Cartier Breson, Steve McCurry and many other famous and amateur ones.
Read other articles in our photography category.