Thinking about the Difference Between Documentary and Photojournalism

[Damaso]

This topic came up over at Lightstalkers then I found this very interesting article by Antonin Kratochvil with Michael Persson.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/report...aspx?id=101591

Well worth a read.

"Photojournalism—in its instant shot and transmission—doesn’t show “life.” It neither has the time to understand it nor the space to display its complexity. The pictures we see in our newspapers show frozen instants taken out of context and put on a stage of the media’s making, then sold as truth. But if the Molotov cocktail-throwing Palestinian is shot in the next instant, how is that told? And what does that make him—a nationalist or terrorist? From the photojournalist, we’ll never know since time is of the essence, and a deadline always looms. Viewers can be left with a biased view, abandoned to make up their minds based on incomplete evidence.

"Through documentary work, the photographer has a chance to show the interwoven layers of life, the facets of daily existence, and the unfettered emotions of the people who come under the camera’s gaze. When finally presented, viewers are encouraged to use their intelligence and personal experiences, even their skepticism, to judge. By eliciting associations and metaphors in the viewer, an image has the potential to stimulate all senses. But photographs that do not fulfill this potential remain visual data whose meaning is limited to the boundaries of the frame; the viewer is left to look, comprehend the information presented, and move on."

[buzzardkid]

Interesting subject indeed.

As a teacher in Information Technology and Social Studies I am currently 'cross-breeding' my subjects to a new subject 'media awareness', to be taught in high schools.

People get so many images and other messages to take in these days that it becomes more and more necessary to help them determine those messages and images: what does the sender of this piece of information want? Why was the message coded like this? What do I feel when taking notion of it? Was this feeling/awareness what the sender aimed for?

There is a great necessity to educate teenagers with respect to this, often they are too unaware or even gullible to distinguish between news, advertising, social media or even propaganda.

Articles like this one are usefull to help people determine and consider, not just take anything that gets thrown at them for granted.

Damaso, thanks for sharing. I bookmarked it!

[Damaso]

Glad you enjoyed it. I think every high school student should have to take a class in media studies to understand how the sausage is made. As a photographer and writer I really wish the average media consumer had more awareness regarding how information is produced and transmitted. At the same time I think the media itself could do a better job to explaining the process...

[Vilk]

Originally Posted by buzzardkid

...often they are too unaware or even gullible to distinguish between news, advertising, social media or even propaganda.

unless you need better numbers in your class, i'd say leave it as is. evolution, a place for everyone and everyone in his place, survival of the fittest, etc etc. (i was never taught the difference, yet somehow i don't remember ever not knowing the difference)

there is no "division"--a rich continuum of photographic representation lives between the "photojournalist" and "documentary photographer" bookends. and the interpretation of any individual photograph depends not only on the cataloguing effort of its maker (or those who may have commissioned his work-for-hire) but also on a host of external factors--habent sua fata...

the veiled subject of the discussion is not photographs, but photographers--and the disdain of the gray-haired VII "academic" (pietà, munch...) for the young hot-shot chasing meaningless snaps for a local rag is perceptible. alas, the snaps continue to sell, because millions of people could never understand, or care, what this hair-splitting is all about--they just want to see what storm the genderless baby looks like

all in all, it may be good marketing for VII (nothing like some healthy product differentiation) but it may backfire, too--when it falls on a more "aware," less "gullible" ground

[LKeithR]

I'm not sure if I buy all the complex arguments about the differences between the two because in reality a single image is, well, just a single image. Sometimes one picture can tell a very complete story while other times it will leave you scratching your head. There are no absolutes in this game and in the end it often comes down to one individual's subjective appraisal of an image. If all you see is the picture itself--with no caption or identification--who took it or why it was taken are completely immaterial; the picture either speaks to you or it doesn't...

[Bob Michaels]

It is interesting that the referenced article is 10 years old and just as relevant today. The same can be said for the many other excellent pieces there.

[emraphoto]

Originally Posted by LKeithR

I'm not sure if I buy all the complex arguments about the differences between the two because in reality a single image is, well, just a single image. Sometimes one picture can tell a very complete story while other times it will leave you scratching your head. There are no absolutes in this game and in the end it often comes down to one individual's subjective appraisal of an image. If all you see is the picture itself--with no caption or identification--who took it or why it was taken are completely immaterial; the picture either speaks to you or it doesn't...

i do understand what you are saying however i find that the role i am serving certainly influences what that single image will look like. for instance; if i am called out to shoot as a 'photojournalist' i am basically paid for a 3 hour block of time. sadly this usually includes drive time. the amount of time i get to spend shooting is limited. caption and tags take up a surprising amount of time and when you toss in dumping into the FTP in the van etc. the shoot time is sometimes less than an hour. i also know, from experience, what sort of stuff will run. there are inadvertent parameters placed on the images.

when i shoot prospectively, with 'documentary' being the most apt term to describe the approach, i have as much time as i please. the images usually fall into place with others (images) and text as context. this allows a freedom to explore that is often not possible as a 'photojournalist'. often i can sit back and allow deeper truths to reveal themselves. the past year spent on a story has produced a deeper understanding and visualization of a story i never would have had the time to see on an assignment for the wire or a media outlet.

all the background creates very tangible differences in ones images. i believe a distinction between the two approaches is valid.

[ironhorse]

Damaso, thanks for posting an excellent article. It really helps to deepen my understanding of documentary photography. It comes across as being somewhat cynical of photojournalism, but I must accept that it's written by someone who, unlike me, has been there.

[emraphoto]

Originally Posted by ironhorse

Damaso, thanks for posting an excellent article. It really helps to deepen my understanding of documentary photography. It comes across as being somewhat cynical of photojournalism, but I must accept that it's written by someone who, unlike me, has been there.

i would admit to a whole lot of cynicism myself. the struggle between the two, for me, is which one pays enough to make a stable living.

[ironhorse]

Hey John, I just looked at your fine website. I think I can see where your heart lies.

[emraphoto]

indeed, my heart is 110% in said direction. knee deep in sorting out the 'new model of funding'. perhaps a link to a crowdfunding page will be in order (insert cheeky wink character here).

[ironhorse]

I believe that crowdfunding is a viable way to go in the future. I helped fund an album by one of the most talented and under appreciated singer/songwriters, Greg Trooper, through Kick-Starter. Turned out to be a tremendous success.

[Damaso]

These days I think most photojournalists are cynical about photojournalism, at least if I think about myself and some of the people I know. I turned to documentary specifically because I became increasingly frustrated with the limits newspaper photojournalism was increasingly placing on me to tell stories through complex images.

Not to say there isn't a lot of very good photojournalism being done out there, I just feel the space to do that is shrinking, at least in the print world...

Originally Posted by ironhorse

Damaso, thanks for posting an excellent article. It really helps to deepen my understanding of documentary photography. It comes across as being somewhat cynical of photojournalism, but I must accept that it's written by someone who, unlike me, has been there.

[emraphoto]

i share that belief. crowdfunding has been a godsend for long term documentary work. between it (crowdfunding), the grant/award circuit and the odd commission i have been able to keep going. so far 2011 looks promising and i am working on a proposal for emphasis as we speak/type.

i hope that documentary work will find it's own voice, separate of photojournalism. i know there are many talented photojournalists out there however the industry really seems to have lost it's integrity for me. from the inside out.