Documentary Photography

Documentary photography use to be very practical, it would show what was needed as a camera was seen as a mechanical recording device. When documentary photography developed there were two factors that came into it. What the image is denoting (what we can see in front of us people, objects, buildings, colours ect) and then what it is connoting (what it is telling us, what might the people, composition, environment ect might mean).

Photos in the newspaper and magazines do this a lot, as you can tack a quick look at the front-page picture and have a good idea of what the main story might be about. There are a few guidance's known in photography that help achieve making the image more readable.

Trick effects:
This is manipulating the actual image with the likes of Photoshop and other programs that can be used to change the meaning of the photo. This can start to make people question the realism of photography and possibly encourage them to think that documentary photography is dead.

Pose + Objects:
Intentionally adding things to the image to make it easer to read, or introducing things that might add contrast and make the viewer question the photograph.

Syntax:
The relationship between text and a photograph. Where might the words be composed in relation to the image? What effect this might have on the understanding of the image?

Photogenia:
The special qualities that only a photograph can achieve rather than text.


Larry Clark

Sex, drugs and violence.
Clark's work is really hard hitting documentary of the youth culture, he photographs the things people didn't want to look at, as they are not particularly nice situations.

http://artaktivist.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/71645155_larry_clark3.jpg

In 1971 he published a book called Tulsa witch contained pictures of heavy drug taking and sex. At this time he was hanging around the drug circle a lot and manages to take very up close, authentic pictures. This was very new dark outlook on America and Tulsa in particular didn't want people seeing the book. Clark's work was an inspiration to photographers and even film makers. A few people that Clarks work had an impact on was Scotch Munson, Big Lou Tarcetti, Mikey Belknap, James Payne and Scott Mason. These men wanted Tulsa to finally pay attention to the old photographs and got the inside of the book blown up and printed in large format to plaster on the inside of an abandon building. They did this so the work would finally be looked at and recognised that the situations in the pictures happened and you can't just turn a blind eye at something if it's right in front of you.

Clark was then interested in film making, and directed pus helped write the film Kids. When I watch it I was pretty shocked because of how young they were and how they were behaving. Even with the tittle being 'Kids' I still wasn't expecting them to be that young. But then putting yourself back at that age it makes sense
          'I think when you see the movie Kids that most of us - not all of us, but most of us - will say, 'Yeah that's the way kids are." - Larry Clark"