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Genres in practice3 min read

LESSON 47

Documentary and photojournalism

Telling true stories with pictures.

IN THIS LESSON

  1. Two close relatives
  2. Milestones
  3. Ethics
  4. In practice: building a story

Two close relatives

Documentary photography records events and places that matter to history and to everyday life. It may be professional reportage, or an amateur, artistic or academic project; social documentary aims to draw attention to social problems and to people living in hardship. Photojournalism is journalism that uses images to tell a news story. What sets it apart, the source says, is a strict ethical frame that demands an honest and impartial approach in journalistic terms. A photojournalist is a reporter who often decides in an instant while carrying gear through danger, bad weather, crowds and limited access.

Milestones

The first photograph used to illustrate a newspaper story showed barricades in Paris on 25 June 1848, and was printed as an engraving in L'Illustration. Roger Fenton was the first official war photographer, in the Crimean War. Halftone printing, around 1890, made cheap reproduction of photographs in print possible. Jacob Riis's book How the Other Half Lives appeared in 1890, and Lewis Hine's surveys of child labour are credited with strongly influencing child-labour laws in the United States. In the 1930s the Farm Security Administration, led by Roy Stryker, funded Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange and others. Magnum Photos was founded in 1947.

Ethics

Photojournalism applies the same rules of objectivity as other journalism. What to photograph, what to include, and how to edit are constant decisions. The source names several recurring problems: printing pictures of people without their knowledge or consent, manipulation of the image, staged scenes, and false or misleading captions. The US National Press Photographers Association, founded in 1946, asks its members to accept a code of ethics that begins with reporting truthfully, honestly and objectively. The source also raises the open question of how much editing is acceptable, from simple colour enhancement to adding or removing people.

In practice: building a story

This section is working practice. A single picture rarely tells a full story; a sequence does. Plan for an establishing frame that shows the place, a few medium frames of people doing things, close details, and one picture that sums it up. Spend time before you shoot, so people get used to you. Write captions while you still remember: who, what, where, when, and why. Keep your original files untouched, and edit copies only. When a subject is vulnerable, ask whether the picture serves them or only you.

Try it today

  1. 01Choose a small story near you: a market, a repair shop, a club, a morning routine.
  2. 02Spend the first visit talking, not shooting.
  3. 03On the second visit, make an establishing shot, three action frames, three details and one summing picture.
  4. 04Write a full caption for each frame the same day.
  5. 05Lay out eight frames in order and see whether they tell the story without words.