Documentary

Documentary photography is a popular form of photography which captures a story, and everyday life. The photographer usually captures candid photographs and often of people, doing natural things as if they weren't being photographed. Documentary photography follows a story line over time and captures the emotions and feelings of the people in the photograph. Many Documentary photographers use dramatic events, such as war an conflict to create a certain atmosphere to the image. Also, lots of Documentary photographs are done in black and white to make them more dramatic and more powerful to the viewer. Much of Documentary photography is often done in peoples natural habitat so that the photographer gets the real essence of the story behind that person and their surroundings. 

Dorothea Lange...

Dorothea Lange is most well known for her photography work she did in the 1930's. Lange was born in New Jersey in 1895 and before she became a Portrait photographer she studied at Columbia University. In the midst of the great depression Lange decided to take her camera onto the streets to capture some of the most powerful documentary photography to date. Despite her successful career in Portrait photography her ''Migrant Mother'' image is arguably the most well-known documentary photography from the 20th century. Lange didn't just get inspiring and harrowing photographs she also got the individual quotes from the people she took photographs from, some of which were truly inspirational.

Dorothea Lange Image Analysis...

This image ''Migrant Mother'' was taken in 1936 and descriptively represents a women and her two children who were employed to pick peas, it is taken close up of a worried looking mother holding her two children who are looking away from where the mother is fixated. However, interpretively, if you look deeper into the image you can see the clear desperation and loneliness of the mother, trying to protect and care for her two children. Despite Lange having taken multiple photographs of this women with her children, this particular one, which Lange called ''migrant mother'' became the most famous photograph from that time. It shows more than the history of where it came from, it suggests the emotion behind the image. Subjectively, as the mother is in the middle, central of the photograph, and the children looking away on either side of her it suggests that she is the sole carer and the absence of the father creates a distant portrayal of family life in that generation. A lot of documentary photos are in black and white and with this particular one it adds more emotion and creates a more dramatic and powerful look for the viewer.

Andrea Bruce…

Through the form of Documentary photography Andrea Bruce puts the attention of the people living in the aftermath of war and conflict. She did work in Iraq in 2003, and is now based between the United States and Afghanistan, to capture the tragic lives effected by war. She did an exhibition called ''When the war comes home'' which portrays the hope in soldiers who survive and come home but also the devastation of soldiers who they lost along the way. This exhibition also shows the tragic aftermath the surviving soldiers bring home with them. Most of her Documentary photographs are in black and white because she finds it makes them more dramatic, but also more delicate, especially when dealing with such sensitive topics such as war. However, Bruce still manages to put a powerful message across in her images.

Andrea Bruce Image Analysis...

This photograph is from the ''When the War comes home'' exhibition in 2006, which portrays the story of soldiers coming home from war but unfortunately bringing the war with them. The fact that the figure in the foreground of the image is blurred and out of focus, whilst the graves in the background are in focus suggests the absence of the surviving soldier as he reflects on the soldiers that didn't make it home. Descriptively, Bruce has used the rule of thirds to make the composition of the photograph more interesting and also to focus the viewers thoughts onto not only the fogged outline of the person in the foreground but also the sharp, structured graves in the background. The black and white effect creates a more defiant and defined feel to the image. It also makes the image more powerful, as it sets the tone of the photograph, and indicates to the viewer the mood, as being subdued. However, in my opinion this image represents the absence and loneliness of the blurred person in the foreground who is looking on to the graves of his peers. It could also symbolise the people the blurred figure has lost while he survived.

Mary Ellen Mark...

For over four decades Mary Ellen Mark has travelled to many different places to get her pictures to reflect a certain degree of humanism and to get them looking as natural as possible to almost advertise the places in there true form. Today, she is recognised as one of  the most influential and inspiring photographers, as she captures the diverse differences in todays society and also she manages to portray the different cultural backgrounds too. She did a lot of work in India to produced the work portrayals of mother Teresa, Indian circuses, and brothers in Bombay. Mark, also spent a lot of time in New York taking Documentary photographs to get the essence of someone living there. A photo essay she did became the start of the successful film Streetwise in 1985 which was directed and photographed by her husband Martin bell.

Mary Ellen Mark Image Analysis...

This photograph is taken in Brooklyn, New York, in 1978 and she called it 'Jeanette at a carnival'. Mark was inspired by the energy and variety of New York streets and wanted to capture the individuality of the carnival in Brooklyn by taking photos of passers by and photographs that weren't necessarily staged. Descriptively, this image is of a young looking girl who is clearly pregnant surrounded by lights and activity. She seems to be carrying a bag which could be full of her belongings and she looks fixatingly worried,looking away from the camera into the distance.This photograph portrays the almost loneliness of the carnival despite it being known as a fun filled place. The fact that this girl is clearly young and pregnant suggests the kind of generation and society that she lives in. The way she is looking away from the camera in my opinion suggests her fear and naivety. The black and white effect makes the photo more dramatic and makes the viewer have empathy with the individual in it. The fact that the background is fairly empty but also has the carnival in the shot and is also slightly out of focus, whilst the foreground is the focal point suggests the darker side to the carnival.

My documentary photographs…

I took these images during the warm up to demonstrate the narrative throughout the lesson. I zoomed in on particular areas of the shot to make certain positions stand out more, and then had the background slightly out of focus. In these images I wanted to get the atmosphere of the lesson and show the focus of the students during different parts of the warm up.

I then took some individual shots of the students. I didn't get them to pose for these images I just took them when they were doing there natural thing. I like how these turned out and I think it captures the essence of the lesson, especially the shots with just on person.

I took these images from a gymnastics lesson. I wanted to get the narrative behind the lesson by starting with the warm up and then going through to individual shots of the students. I got the photographs in natural surroundings so I didn't ask them to focus on the camera or pose for photos, I just got them doing what they normally would, which ,I think, makes a more authentic documentary photo. However I did get some shots where I focused in on one subject in the foreground and had others in the background out of focus, to capture the atmosphere of the lesson.

Above are some more Documentary photos that I took on a day out with my family. This is something we do a lot as a family and i thought it would be a good opportunity to document it.  The images tell the story of our day when we went to Liverpool, to the beach and for a meal. I mainly focused on documenting my sister and her husband as i thought this would portray more of a narrative for the photographs. In some of the photos people were looking into the camera,however in most they were looking away from the camera and I just got natural shots. I think this creates a more interesting documentary photo as it is naturalistic and not staged. There is a mixture of stills and moving images, for example with the ice-cream and the coffee shop i chose to do still images to give a variation. I got inspiration from Dorethea Lange and also Mary Ellen Mark,as they took a mixture of images and took quite personal images of different families and also different lifestyles. I photoshopped these photos to black and white as i think this makes them more defined and also draws the viewer in as they are more powerful. I also cropped some of the images to make sure there was no distractions and unnecessary objects in the images. In the image with the ice-cream I changed the background to black and white and then added the colour back into the ice-cream into the foreground, this makes the image more bold and vibrant, and I like how the colours contrast with each other.  I like how in some of the images you can see the relationship between the people and I think this adds to the story and the narrative behind them.I took photos throughout the day so I started in the morning and then the last photo was taken in the car on the way back home. I was happy with the photographs I took, however I could improve by making sure that there is a clearer link between all of the photos so that the story throughout is more refined.