Documentary

Documentary

Definition

Documentary photography usually 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 is a concept made popular by the street photographer, photojournalist, and Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.







Henri Cartier Bresson 


French photographer whose humane, spontaneous photographs helped establish photojournalism as an art form. He was the first to use the term decisive moment. He often wrapped black tape around the camera's chrome body to make it less conspicuous.







All these pictures were taken using the decisive moment, the perfect moment to capture your desired image. 

Martain Parr

Martian Parr looks at aspects of modern life as well as documenting the social classes of England. The colours are bright which is unlike british weather. The people who's faces you see are usually blank and reserved.







All these photos show british culture in an exaggerated way.  The top image shows how much the British love football and how patriotic they are. The seagulls eating the left over chips perfectly some up the sea side on a sunny day. Wearing socks with sandals are a well known fashion faux pa which shows the british males attitude to fashion, by that they don't care.

Slinkachu

Slinkachu uses miniatures to create small scenes where ever he chooses instead of the conventional photography of catering a moment in action







The first makes a piece of chicken and few chips from KFC look like a KFC restaurant. The next has the yellow lines on the road look like a beach with the black part of the road as the sea. The bottom one is symbolic of the Donald Trump campaign crushing America.

Image bank







I hope to get images similar to the ones above capturing life.

(AO:1.  You must ensure that several of the visual ideas/inspirations within the image bank are pursued. )

Contact sheet(s)

Shoot 1

Best images

Requires improvement

Shoot 2

Best images

Requires improvement

Shoot 3

Best images

Requires improvement

Images that require improvement

Shoot 1

Both of these images are of my first step into the snow. I don't like them as I think they are not as interesting as I first through they would be when I took them as you can see any emotion from it.

Shoot 2

The frist image is to far away from the houses Christmas lights. As well as being to blurred. To prevent this from happening again I would use a tripod and also get closer to the houses.

The other image has a house with lights outside but I think the car outside is distracting from the lights. I also didn't move the camera enough to capture movement.

Shoot 3

These two images with the elf which are inspired by Slinkachu have the right idea but the lighting is wrong, the first especially as its too dark. The last is also wonky, this would of been prevented if I used a tripod and had better lighting.

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

My idea for documentary was to photography my Christmas holiday. I was inspired both Martin Parr and Slinkachu styles the most. My photos were a good first try but not my best work.

With reference to the Best selected images

Shoot 1 

This image of a bush in my garden is a good measure of how much it has snowed. It's darker then I want it to be so I will make it brighter using photoshop later.

The second image is also in my garden and of my fence. It represents the first time your about to go out and see how the snow changes the environment.

I like this next image of my neighbours fence as you can see greenery in the background which is odd for winter as most plants loses they leaves in the winter. I will use photoshop to make this image brighter to celebrate the plant thriving.

Shoot 2 

For this shoot I tried to capture the movement of the light which you can see in my choosen best images.

The frist image is of a house with Christmas lights although you wouldn't know this as the movement has made the light look like multiple lighting spikes. Out of all the shoots this is my favourite ,even thought its not the most Christmas inspired, image as its so different. I will make the image better yet by cropping it and changing the colour.

The second are Christmas lights on a metal fence. I moved the camera making it more interesting. I'll also make the image brighter and crop later using photoshop. 

The last of the same fence which I also moved just more then the over. It ended up making a backwards tick which looks fun.

Shoot 3

With this image of the Christmas tree I tried using movement again. I'm pleased with the result as the lights have made the a shape like a candy cane making it extra Christmasy. 

The next picture of the same Christmas tree looks like the trees is move at high speeds away. This shows how quickly Christmas is over and reminds you to enjoy it. This effect was also achieved moving the camera to capture the movement.

My last image is of a friends Christmas tree. All the decorations mean some thing to the family especially the mother who is trying to hold the family together as her children get older and want to leave the home. Both the parents and the children remember the happy times around the same plastic tree they have had for years. I always thought Christmas trees were odd and Im surprised they have lasted so long especially in a world where trends come and go in days. This photo reminds me someone who doesn't like Christmas why Christmas is so good for families.

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

My cannon camera was used to take all of these photos as well as a tripod for all but the elf and all of shoot two photos. I didn't use a tripod as I wanted to capture the movement this was also why I used a pretty low shutter speed of 1/4.

To improve my images I decided to use photoshop to make the image more vibrant to make the colour stand out. Some images were also cropped to emphasise the movement. How this was done is shown below in a sample image.





The screen shoots selected show how Photoshop was used to create a the final iamge.  To do use this, I used the cropping tool and then another tool to adjust the brightness and contrast using the  sliders to get the desired effect.






For this image I cropped the bottom out as the bottom left corner has a bit of my sofa in it.



In the screen shoot above I then used levels to make the background white but kept the shadow.

To make the image brighter I made the Hue low and the saturation of cyan high so you can see the detail of the tree.

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

My research of Martain Parr and Slinkachu was the most useful. I was inspired by Martian Parts subject matter and was going to use it by taking picture of my parents opening gifts on Christmas Day, but they didn't want to be in the photos. It also wouldn't be as good as children opening presents on Christmas Day as the present aspect of Christmas is more for Children. I then thought I could show either the religious side of Christmas but both my parents aren't the most religious. My final idea was to show the family side of Christmas or even what Christmas is like for those who don't like it ,like myself, but was stopped once again by my parents not wanting to be in the pictures and not wanting to ruin Christmas, so I went the more obvious way of showing the happy side of Christmas.

After seeing Slinkachu's work I divided to do something similar I was just unsure about how I could do something similar with a Christmas theme. When looking on social media later that day I saw that parents had bought elf toys and had put them around the house doing naughty things ,like making a mess and cleaning it up. I thorough this would be the perfect thing to use. I don't think that they turned out right as the lighting ruined it. My Slinkachu inspired work would of been better if done in the studio.

Henri Cartier Bresson's use of the decisive moment widened my view of documentary but his work itself didn't inspire me.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements. 

I don't think my images are not the strongest as they don't show any political views and I haven't linked them the best. Although I have documented my Christmas holiday. The images below are my best images after editing.