What Are The Different Types Of Documentary Photography

In this article documentary and commercial photographer Giora Dan shares his tips for shooting human subjects in a documentary style.

What are the different types of documentary photography. During this period the tradition of documentary photography was reinvented. Ansel Adams vast collection of landscape works are often cited as a conservation documentary. Theres often a certain degree of ambiguity when it comes to defining different genres of photography - including Documentary and Street photography.

To see a more complete list of types of photography please refer to this article. Although styles such as fashion photography wildlife photography and architecture photography all pretty much do what they say on the tin there are other genres that are much more open to interpretation. Dr Thomas John Barnardo famous British founder of homes for destitute boys started using photography as early as 1870.

In 1991 American film critic and theoretician Bill Nichols proposed that there were six different modes of documentarypoetic expository reflexive observational performative and participatoryeach containing its own specific characteristics. One approach was borne out of theory while the other manifested from the photographers personal feelings and emotions. My job is to do the best I can with what I have and beyond that to let it go.

Legions of photographers have helped document decaying ruins of past civilizations and various locations histories. Speaking at a Magnum Photos Now event at the Barbican in London Bieke Depoorter and Magnum nominee Max Pinckers discussed how they had both developed their different documentary styles. Just as Brady pictures helped to show what war was really like documentary photography was gradually put to use revealing the lives of the poor and underprivileged.

What is a photograph but a document of a moment. Preserving a person place or thing in its context. Also sometimes called concerned photography this type of photography highlights social issues including capturing the lives of impoverished or vulnerable communities.

Artists began to see the camera as a tool for social change using it to shed light on injustice inequality and the sidelined aspects of society. In documentary photography it is up to the photographer to do their best with the scene on hand. Lifestyle photography is a kind of photography that mainly aims to capture a portrait of people in situations real-life events milestones and the art of daily living in an artistic manner.