Documentary
Definition & Theory
Documentary: 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.
The Decisive Moment: When the photographer's eye, heart and mind are in alignment and are all present in one photograph. "The world slows down so that you can make a photograph"
Henri Cartier Bresson
Born on August 22, 1908 and died on August 3, 2004, he was a French photographer who focused on street photography and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. He was inspired by a 1930 photograph by Hungarian photojournalist Martin Munkacsi showing three naked young African boys, caught in near-silhouette, running into the surf ofLake Tanganyika - This inspired him to take photography seriously. "I suddenly understood that a photograph could fix eternity in an instant." He was the co-owner of Magum photos, which represents some of the world's most renowned photographers.
The decisive moment: "If a photograph is to communicate its subject in all its intensity, the relationship of forms must be rigorously established. Photography implies the recognition of a rhythm in the world of real things. What the eye does is to find and focus on the particular subject within the mass of reality; what the camera does is simply to register upon film the decision made by the eye." - Henri Cartier Bresson
Research of artist
Richard Billingham was born on the 25th September 1970 and is an English photographer, artist, film maker and art teacher. His work mostly concerned his family and the place he grew up. He became noticeable due to his candid photography of his family in Cradley Heath, he published a book called Ray's A Laugh in 1996 which is a portrayal of the poverty he grew up in. He used the cheapest film and development he could find to emphasise his surroundings, his alcoholic dad and his obese chain smoker mum.
(A01: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding)
Richard Billingham's work is very poor quality which is what he wanted. He focuses on his family and his surroundings which I am able to achieve. I like how his work has a story behind it and you can see it clearly. The images I have above are a variety of images he takes, animals and family. I believe I can take photos of my family other the christmas break to show a story of what our christmases are like. His work shows what very urban and poor areas can look like and how people can act. The first is of a cat and a dog, most people see their pets as family and I think Richard Billingham had this same idea. He captured the cat on his hind legs as if it was about to return back on all fours. The second image is of his father and cat. The cat appears to be in the air as if it was jumping to get somewhere, his dad was either frightened or startled by the cat or he was about to cover his eyes if Richard used the flash. This image is quite a comedic photograph as the cat is mid-air and is looking at the camera as if it knew he was gonna take a photo. This could be seen as a decisive moment as Richard could have waited in this same spot/position waiting for something to happen and then this happened. The last image is of two children. These two children could be related to him (brothers) or they could be the children of a family friend, he doesn't specify this. These boys look particularly interested in something that the shirtless boy is looking at, it amuses them and keeps them distracted from Richard taking a photo of them.
Henri Cartier Bresson and Richard Billingham have very different work. Henri Cartier Bresson produces black and white images and mostly concentrates on using 'the decisive moment', his work looks as if he takes his time with the images and waits until he knows he's going to capture the perfect image. Whereas Richard Billingham uses a cheap, poor quality film and development to add an effect to his images. Richard's images, I think, represent more of a story and are interesting as to what that story behind these images are. But Henri's images are a more professional and make you want to look at more of his images as they are so interesting and precise. Richard Billingham's work is very personal and make you feel connected to him on a more private level which can make viewers like him more as they know what his life is like and can inspire others. Henri Cartier Bresson's work is not of his private life but of what he sees around him, he takes his camera everywhere and so takes a picture of what is in front of him, this allows the image to capture real reactions and real events.
Image bank
The following images were added as part of my visual research...
These are all of families and animals, which is what I am aiming to concentrate my documentary series on (my family and pets). These all have different scenarios and themes. My theme of my documentary piece will be my family over the christmas break and what happens. These images all represent different types of families: the first image is of a family together for dinner that look well kept because of their appearance and their standard of living, the second image is of a mum and a daughter (and a dog) - the mum looks as if she's either working from home or she's sorting out bills or letters and the child is trying to get her to play or show her something. The last image is of a lady and 4 dogs which shows she is wealthy her dogs can count as family.
Some ideas
These are a view ideas of what I could capture for my documentary piece. The word Christmas is in red as this is idea I am going to concentrate on. Christmas is very festive and colourful, and lots of shops and houses are decorated. I will also be capturing what my Christmas is like, in my area that I live in and my family, this will give a more personal tone to it as it is an insight to my life and you can visually see what I do during the Christmas period.
(A01: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding)
Selected images - CONTACT SHEETS
Shoot documentary
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My best images
This image was taken on Christmas Day whilst my mum and Grandad were making breakfast. This image shows how the dogs stay in the kitchen during this period and are always waiting for bits of food to be dropped. This was inspired by both my researched artist and my image bank, the inspiration from Richard Billingham is the everyday life of his family and pets. And the inspiration from my image bank is the use of pets and how they change the whole image. The composition of this image is good as you can see the basis of what is happening in this image, you can see a dog (2 dogs) in a kitchen which is where my family is making food - this image sets a scene.
This was taken after we had breakfast and the dog was sitting at the table with us. This is a kind of comedic photography as the dog is waiting to get food of the plates. This image was inspired by Richard Billingham as it shows my everyday life and what ususally happens at Christmas. This image represents how my dogs are always desperate for food and will do anyhting to get it. However, this image is quite dark because of the natural lighting so I will edit this so it is brighter but to a point where the photo is not yellow or intense.
This is another image of my dog waiting for food as that is what he mostly did during Christmas. The photograph is festive and relatable as the dog has a Christmas jumper on and is waiting for bits of turkey to fall on the floor for him to eat. This is a persistant thing that he does and it is very funny to me as he just stares until you push him away or give him food. This is a relatable scenario as many people who own dog have experienced this in their lives of having a dog.
This image is of the table before we ate our Christmas dinner. The table is festive as they have Christmas crackers on the plates and Christmas themed napkins. In this image has a low aperture as the glass and knife and fork closest to the camera is in focus and the background is out of focus. I like this image as it sets a scene of a big dinner that mosts families at Christmas would experience, it shows what my family traditions are and how we have our table at Christmas.
This was during the Christmas period when it snowed heavily. My dogs reacted in a very happy way as if they didn't exactly know what was happening. This dog was eating the snow so I decided to take a photo of this. This was inspired by my image bank as it is just and everyday thing of my dog in the garden but because it snowed it makes the environment different and makes the image seem happier. The natural lighting in this image is very good as outside it was a clear sky of clouds so the sun was not seen and did not have a huge effect on this image.
This is the afternoon of Christmas day, we went round my cousins house and all the family was there. This is an image of my cousin from London who I don't usually see so it was a nice moment to see this side of the family. I like this image because the Christmas tree is in the corner and makes the photo look more festive and has a sense of enjoyment. This shows another family tradition, as we normally do this at Christmas - after we have separate Christmas dinners we go round each others houses to talk and eat more, this was different as my cousins from London came so it made this event much more better. This image has a very yellow tone so I will edit this image to make the tone neutral and not as bright.
Images that need improvement
This was taken outside of my window, overlooking my garden and it was snowing. This image needs improving because the composition is off and it is slightly out of focus. Also there is no link or similarity between this image and my image bank, so this is not useful towards my documentary piece. If I were to reshoot this I would concentrate more on the composition and how the camera is positioned. I would also use a tripod because clearly it was not focused well and was rushed, so I need to take more time in this photo and maybe take more than one so I have a wider choice of images.
This was taken in the same period of the first image that needs improvement. This is of the neighbours gardens. I attempted to show my neighbour hood and what my area is like, and I thought that the snow would add a more urban effect. Even though you can see what I was attempting to photograph, the camera was not positioned right and the focus was not concentrated on. If I were to reshoot this image I would use a tripod so the camera is more stable and the photo looks more focused.
(A03: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress)
My idea of recording a documentary piece was too concentrate on one idea or plan and stick with it. I don't believe I have done the best documentary piece as I do not have a variety of images, I know I could have done much better with this project because I was with my family a lot and I could have captured loads more moments. The reason I did not capture as many images is because I was getting distracted and I didn't exactly want to take photos of my family and I just wanted to spend time with them. I attempted to take images of what happens on Christmas at my house, but I got distracted a lot and I eventually stopped taking photos with my family around.
I believe I have done a few good images that can go towards my final documentary piece and I am pleased with some of them. I feel I have a few similar images which makes it more difficult to choose as I do not have many that are different from one another.
(AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops)
I used my usual camera which is a Samsung NX20 20.3 MP SLR and I tried my best too work with the natural lighting. The natural lighting was difficult for to work with because the photograph came out too dark and I could not edit it to make it look reasonable, however some turned out better. I concentrated on taking photos based on my family, as this is what Richard Billingham did. I feel I could have accessed more emotions and could have taken photos of more people. I could of explored more than just Christmas, I could have taken photos of Christmas shopping and other people shopping because then I would still have a variety of photos and it would tell a story/set a scene for my documentary piece.
Below is how I edited one of my images...
Too make this edit I decided to sharpen my image to make it clearer and smoother. And I also changed the hue/saturation filter to make the colours a bit brighter. The first image I sharpened my picture to make some bits more focused and to make the picture, as a whole, more clearer. Next I used the curves tool and hue/saturation tool to just change some colours (so some are more vivid than others) and so some parts of the photo are brighter than other parts.
(AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding)
Documentary can be easy and fun if you concentrate on what your doing and you know what you want to photograph. For me it was fun to take some photos of my dogs and family but they just didn't turn out right and I did not take enough, I found it difficult to concentrate on what I was taking a photograph of and some of my images were rushed so they're blurry and do not have a good composition. I found looking at Richard Billingham and other photographers (and their documentary pieces) was very inspiring and did put ideas into my mind, but I didn't put these ideas into my work and I just took photos of what was happening around me.
(AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements)
I wanted my documentary piece to show my Christmas and what I witnessed during that period but I feel i did not fully obtain that. Documentary is involved in most formal elements as most/many photos tell a story even if you don't immediately notice, you just need to look at your work and describe it in detail. I know what I wanted to do with my documentary piece and I have achieved that in theses images, in my opinion I just didn't take enough photos.
These edited images shows our Christmas day, which involves cooking, dogs and family. These images were edited using photoshop and I used similar settings and tools to achieve these final images.
This was my first year doing photography and component one shows my progress and journey of gaining knowledge about image taking, During this time I have looked at many photographers and their different intakes on photography and how they capture this uniqueness, by researching these artists they have very much influenced most of my work because they gave me different ideas and just gave me a starter point and then I used that to expand that idea. For example; when starting portraiture I was not interested and did not have any ideas as to what I should do and what should I get people to do - so in my work you can see I chose Thomas Ruff. Thomas Ruff inspired my portraiture work because his idea was very basic and easily achievable so I thought "I can do something similar to this", in my final edits you can clearly see where the inspo came from and I have shown his work in my work. 
