MAKING DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHS

This lesson offers "how-to" instructions for creating a documentary photographic essay. Documentary photographs are taken with the purpose of informing, interpreting, or preserving information about the subject.

Plan in Advance

• Determine what subject (person, place, thing, event, etc.) you would like to document.
• Talk with someone in charge, or to the subjects themselves, and explain that you want to take photographs for a documentary project. You will need their permission and cooperation.
• After your interview, think about the subject you will document and make a list of what kind of photographs you might want to define your subject. List the people, places, events, and details you think are important to help you tell your subject's story.
• Visit the subject. View the space and surroundings, the people involved, and the things that contribute to their identity.
• Choose the type of film you will use, either black-and-white or color. This choice should be based on your subject. For instance, to take photographs of your neighbor's flower garden, you would probably want to use color film to emphasize the beauty and variety of colors. For photographs taken to document the architecture downtown, you might choose black-and-white film to accentuate the form and scale of the buildings or the deep shadows they cast on a sunny day.

Set the Stage

• In order to create a photograph that is interesting to look at and communicates your ideas clearly, you will want to consider its composition (design) and content (meaning). Three important things to think about are the angle from which you aim your camera, framing the boundaries of the image, and the light and shadows within the frame.
• Practice the following activities with the viewfinder provided in this section in preparation for using your camera:

o Consider the angle from which you will take your photograph. Hold the viewfinder in front of your face and look through the opening to see your subject as if you were looking through the viewfinder of a real camera. Viewing the same scene from above, eye level and below will change what you see and reveal about your subject.

o Next, use the viewfinder to frame different views from a variety of distances away from your subject. This will help you determine which details to include and which to exclude from your scene, and it will add variety to your compositions.

o Observe the qualities of light and shadow within the view. For instance, if you are inside, is there enough light to capture your subject, or will you need to add additional light or use a flash? Outside, take note of the time of day and how it affects the light and shadows. Light reveals details and often contributes to the mood or feeling of the work.

Photograph

• Read through your list of what photographs to take to define your subject, and recall your viewfinder exercises.
• Different people approach and interpret subjects in different ways, so always allow your own sense of the subject to guide you as you take your pictures.

Edit

• When your photographs are completed, look through them several times and choose the ones that best describe your subject.
• If you are planning to use your photographs as a narrative (to tell a story) determine their sequence by arranging them to introduce and explain aspects of the story. Practice this step several times and try different sequences.
• If you want to include text, discuss with your teacher the possibility of adding words on your photographs (pen or markers work well) or alongside them, to further explain the subject.

Present

• Consider how you would like to display or present your photo-graphs. Some options include mounting them onto construction paper or tag board for a wall exhibition, combining them on a poster, or creating an album or book. Don't exclude unconventional yet creative solutions such as hanging mobiles, or stacking photographs with instructions for viewers to arrange them in different ways.

• Thank your subjects, parents, teacher, and anyone who helped you with this project. Consider offering a selection from the project photographs as a gift

CHALK development coordinator Ruth Barajas, age 18, talks to her boyfriend during her shift at Youthline. The Youth-line listeners say that many of the support calls are about relationships. Silver dye bleach print © Lauren Greenfield1999

Pre-Interview Preparation

Sam Davis, Columbia City Council member and former president of Eau Claire Community Council Gelatin silver print © Eli Reed1999

 

http://www.creativephotography.org    This page last updated September 24, 2000.   oncenter@ccp.arizona.edu