Context Two
My Journey and Photo Essay
This site I will help to define 'Documentary Photography', by showing examples of documentary photographers work, historical and contemporary. I will research and analyse their images to help us understand more of this genre, focusing on the style of photo essays within documentary photography. I will then document my own progress throughout by using these pages as a journal. Finally displaying my own documentary photographs of a
'Journey' and 'Photo Essay'
What is Documentary Photography
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Documentary Photography tells a story of truth via the medium of an image, the image shares awareness of the facts that are happening or happened, and in doing so, with an intention to make a difference. Documentary Photography is closely related to journalism and a form of reportage photography. The difference between pure journalism and documentary, is that documentary wants to seek a change for the better of that situation being captured.
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The photograph below of a peasant type woman cradling a baby is called: ‘The Crawlers’, this image represents the birth of the genre ‘Documentary Photography’ in 1876 and 1877. ‘The Crawlers’ was part of a series of images made in 1877 to educate the average middle class 'Victorian' of the state of poverty present in the groups of lower class peasants and how they lived.
'The Crawlers' photograph, was the very first documentary photograph ever made, which led to the birth of the genre. Scottish photographer John Thomson named as the first documentary photographer to pave the way.
Essay
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There will be a copy of my essay 'Can Documentary Photography change the World' available under the heading 'Written Essay Research'. Here you will find further information on types and styles of documentary photography.