Documentary

Definition

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.

Image Bank

Research

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Born in August 1908, Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. A founder of modern photojournalism, proposed one of the most fascinating and highly debated concepts in the history of photography: “the decisive moment.” This decisive moment occurs when the visual and psychological elements of people in a real life scene spontaneously and briefly come together in perfect resonance to express the essence of that situation (the perfect moment to capture in an individual's photography). He won many awards for his photography and later died in August 2004, a few weeks short of his 96th birthday. "Photography is not like painting," Cartier-Bresson told the Washington Post in 1957. "There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative," he said. "Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever." 

This image by Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken at 'the decisive moment' as you are able to see in the image the children playing by the wall and one of them deciding to attempt to climb the wall. This is the perfect moment as the photograph could have been taken too soon or too late, and would not have captured the decisive moment. The connotations of the image could be that the children in this city or town do not have anywhere safe and stable to play, so they play on the streets where there is potential danger, which is displayed by the girl climbing the wall.

This image by Henri Cartier-Bresson was taken at the perfect moment as you are able to see in the image, the photographer was able to capture the moment the couple had their arms around each other looking into the distance of the landscape. If they were to take this of a fraction of a second earlier or later, they may not have captured the perfect, or decisive, moment. The connotations of this could be romance between the couple, as the way that they are holding each other and their body language suggests that they are a couple and are in love. They are also looking down at society but not a direct part of it, possibly symbolising that their love makes them feel like they are the only people in the world.

This image taken by Henri-Cartier Bresson was taken at the perfect moment as you are able to see that the photographer was able to capture the exact moment the individual in the photo jumps in the air, and they were able to capture a freeze frame image. This is the perfect moment, or the decisive moment in the photograph because if it was taken any earlier or any later, they would not have captured the image in the best way. The connotations of this could be romance, due to the fact that there is a silhouette of a couple in the background. It could also symbolise excitement, due to the man jumping in the air in front of the Eiffel Tower. Because of this, we know that this was photographed in Paris, the capital of France.

Nick Waplington

Nick Waplington is a British artist and photographer based in London and New York City. Many books of Waplington's work have been published, both self-published and through Aperture, Cornerhouse, Mack, Phaidon, and Trolley. From 1984, Waplington would regularly visit his grandfather on the Broxtowe Estate in Aspley, Nottingham, where he began to photograph his immediate surroundings.[citation needed] Friends and neighbours of his family became his subject matter of choice. He continued with this work on and off for the next 15 years and from it came two books (Living Room and Weddings, Parties, Anything) and numerous exhibitions.

This image by Nick Waplington captured the decisive moment as it was taken at the exact time that the child in the image began to cry. If this image was taken a moment earlier or a moment later, the photographer would not have captured this decisive moment, making the photograph less interesting.

Contact Sheets

Shoot 1 

Shoot 2 (Inspired by Nick Waplington)

Shoot 3 (Inspired by Lauren Greenfield)

Best Images

Images that need improvement

There were two images that I selected that needed improvement for a variety of reasons. The first image that I selected I decided needed improvement because looking back on this image, the ISO I set this image at, which was 3200, was too high due to the fact that the picture did not have good lighting. By pushing the ISO too high, the quality of the image is lowered and the lighting is slightly yellow in colour. If I was to improve on this image, I would change the ISO setting and make sure that there was good lighting to make the image the best that it can be.

The second image I selected that needed improvement because the lighting in the room that this was taken is too dark, and I did not have my camera set on the correct ISO, meaning that the image came out too dark and was not able to show the full image composition, therefore I am not able to show the story of the image. If I was to improve on this image, I would set the correct ISO to the image, the image would have the correct lighting but would also be sharper and more in focus, creating a better final image overall.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

The main idea that I had and the main reason for creating a documentary project focused around my family and christmas was that I had the opportunity to capture images of my family over the christmas period and I felt that this would suit the style of some of the photographers I have included in my research. Within my images, I tried to create images in the style of Nick Waplington, but also tried to get other shots that reflect the theme of 'documentary' well.

The images that I retrieved from my time completing my documentary project I feel came out well and some of my best images are related closely to the work of Nick Waplington, as they are heavily focused on family life at home, and capturing the family when they are not aware. However, I feel as though there are some images that I could improve upon to enhance my work and to ensure that I have captured documentary in the right way, and closely link some of my images to another photographer's work.

With reference to the Best selected images... 

The image that I took of the fence was taken just before christmas when it snowed in Harlow. I spent the day capturing the snow and it's affects throughout the day and I feel that this is a god way of capturing day to day life, which would be closely linked to documentary. As well as trying to capture my documentary through portraying family images, I also feel that a lot of my documentary work is focused on landscape. (add connotations)

The image of my sister on her laptop was taken just before christmas on the same day that the snow had fallen and I decided to aim to capture her and the activities she was doing during the snow day. I decided to take a photo of her on her laptop as this is what she is mostly doing, it is her favourite thing to do and therefore accurately describes her and her day. I feel as though this was a good thing to capture during my documentary project. (add connotations)

The third image is a picture of my mum and dad at the breakfast table, and the reason I wanted to capture this as part of my documentary project is that this is something that occurs in everyday life, but also because this specific day was Christmas day and we were sitting down together to have a family breakfast on Christmas morning. I felt that this was something I wanted to document because it reflects the style of Nick Waplington, a photographer I decided to research for this project. (add connotations)

The two images that I chose as my images that needed improvement were images that I felt that I could take again and work on the composition of the image. I would change the angle of the the camera slightly to improve on the image and I would also change the ISO of the images to create a better quality composition.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

For all of the above images, I used a CANON EOS 1300D. I feel as though I could still learn a lot about the different settings in manual mode (aperture, shutter speed and ISO settings) and that this would improve on my image compositions in a hugely positive way. For most of these images, the flash was on due to the lighting where I was shooting being too dark to capture the full composition.

In order to improve on the images that I took, I decided to import them into Photoshop in order to enhance them and improve on their composition and the way that they have been shot. In order to do this, I decided to change the levels and use both the healing tool and the burn and dodge tool to accentuate my images and improve on them. I also adjusted the contrast and saturation of the images to allow them to fit in with the style of my photos, which reflect the style of Nick Waplington and Henri Cartier-Bresson.

The screen grabs that I have selected show how I used Photoshop to create portraiture images. To do use this, I used the Curves tool and the levels tool, gradually adjusting the colour sliders to get the clear contrast effect. With most of the images, I edited in colour for most of my images, adjusting the contrast and brightness of the image to create the best documentary images. For the images, I edited the pictures with a lower saturation to allow my images to fit the same style.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding. 

The artist research that I did was extremely helpful in the fact that I was able to gain an understanding of the different artists and their different styles. Knowing about when they were born and where they were born helps me to interpret their work and understand what they were thinking when they took a certain image. Researching images that they have created helps me to try and recreate these images and then shooting my own images in their style. For example, my research on Nick Waplington and Henri Cartier-Bresson, and researching the images of these photographers helped me to choose to take some photos in black and white and some in a lower saturated colour, also to increase the contrast within an image. Additionally to this, I was able to get a better understanding of documentary photography and how you can use this type of photography to capture different emotions and feelings, as well as life events within a family. I feel as though I did relate enough to the photographer as my images are heavily influenced by Nick Waplington, with some of my more landscape-based documentary photos being influenced by Henri Cartier-Bresson. However, in order to improve I could have used a tripod for more of my images and applied more theory to creating my documentary images.

AO4:Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

Overall, I think that I have produced a good series of images inspired by my research and image bank for documentary...  The final images produced were changed by developing the contrast, saturation and using the healing tool and the dodge and burn too to create an interesting effect onto documentary photography. I think if I was to improve on this, I would try and take more photographs, as this would help me to have more of a variety of images to choose from when selecting my best images to edit and choose as my final images.

Documentary powerpoint from katynorgate