Documentary photography captures life or an event as it occurs in its natural state, without alteration and without interference. Documented events can be relevant to the history of the world right across the spectrum to being relevant to just a solitary individual.
This commercial genre of photography refers to the documentation of events, places and people using photography. It has been occurring since the invention of the camera and continues today at an unprecedented frequency now that almost everyone has a phone with camera in their pocket.
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Remain unbiased
A documentary photographer must be unbiased and not alter the documented event in any way by either leaving out elements of the documentation or by falsely adding in or implying an invalid story through their lens. Social media is full of false imagery and video that it can be hard to discern the truth from fact, but a great documentary photographer will give an unbiased account through their photographs.
Events
Documentary photography differs slightly from photojournalism in that photojournalism mostly deals with breaking news and events whereas a documentary photographer records longer-term events such as the documentation of the lifestyle of residents in a poor neighbourhood or of a local national or international ongoing event.
A narrated text will also usually accompany the photography to form a true written and photographic account of the event or person.
A National Geographic documentary photographer may document the life of a person or of a natural environment or event.
Getting started in documentary photography
A way in which to get started with documentary photography is to seek out long term events in your area. For example, if there is an environmental or other long-term event nearby you could seek out those places and document them through photography.
Then seek out people that have been affected by those events and document the influence on their lives through photography too. There should be a true story accompanying the photographs. The documentation could then be shared with local media organisations, on your own social media or with senior members of your community.
People skills
People skills are very important as the documentary photographer may need the trust of people or communities along the path of the project. Time is another element that the documentary photographer will need as some projects may take a number of days, weeks or more to complete or may involve travel.
People skills are very important as the documentary photographer may need the trust of people or communities along the path of the project.
Expect scrutiny
A documentary photographer is likely to have their work well scrutinised, especially if the event is controversial in any way. For this reason, it is vitally important to ensure the work and photography is unbiased.
Documentary photography portfolio
Build and maintain an online presence of your documentary images through a website portfolio and social media accounts at TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.
Documentary photography describes a story!
A documentary photographer will likely travel to exotic locations.
