Documentary Photography

Documentary photography

Documentary photography is a popular form of photography used that records both significant and historical events as well as everyday life. It is typically categorized as professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or academic pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.

Jacob Ris

Jacob Riis was born May 3, 1849 and died May 26, 1914. He was a Danish American social reformer, journalist and social documentary photographer. He is known for using his photographic and journalistic talents to help expose poverty in New York City; those impoverished New Yorkers were the subject of most of his prolific writings and photography. He is considered one of the fathers of photography due to his very early adoption of flash in photography . While living in New York, Riis experienced poverty and became a police reporter writing about the quality of life in the slums. He attempted to alleviate the bad living conditions of poor people by exposing their living conditions to the middle and upper classes.

This photo called Street Arabs in their sleeping Quarters was taken by Jacob Riis in the 1880s, three young boys are pictured sleeping on a barrel next to a building. These boys look homeless and living in poor conditions. This photo was taken in black and white and you can see the lighting of the photo has been affected by the flash of the camera and natural daylight. If you look at the photo you can see there is a glare on the skin that is showing and on some of the surroundings like the floor and the stairs. This image is a long shot. The boys are most likely pretending to be asleep and whether they are homeless is not entirely clear. Their clothing indicates that they are poor as their trousers appear to be short and there are some tears in their clothing.

The photograph ”Hebrew Master Ready for Sabbath Eve in a Coal Cellar” is a strong portrayal of the struggle to maintain tradition amidst extreme poverty. This image shows a bearded Jew preparing for the Sabbath eve in a coal cellar on Ludlow Street. It is 1900 and he lives in a coal cellar; but there is still a Sabbath loaf on the grimy table in front of him despite him living in poverty he will fight to be a devoted Jew. Jacob Ris manipulates the focus of the lens and the flash light, he forces the eye to opt its way from object to object, to choose between a challah loaf and a shovel, a dirty coat and a sign in Hebrew. Riis seems not to pay  attention to any element in particular in the photograph, which gives the impression of disengagement and total impartiality. You can tell that flash is used from the glare on the man’s face. Riis often used his framing to emphasize this quality further. In this photograph, the seemingly illogical placement of the right-hand edge, where a figure is cut off leaving only a pair of hands holding a shovel, combines with the overall tilt of the frame to give an unsettled look to the image. In fact, this picture is so carefully composed and purposeful that it demands that ill-formed appearance. The shovel in the right hand side of the picture shows the inappropriateness of the coal cellar as a home. We are seeing a dedicated Jew being interrupted from his devotions by the rude work around him. The loaf of bread is close to the centre of the image and separated from the other objects on the table, this signifies the emphasis to the religious nature of this moment.

The photograph ‘children sleeping in Mulberry Street (1890) is an image of three young boys sleeping on a stairway. This image shows the living conditions of young homeless children in New York City. Jacob Riis wanted to change the living conditions for the people and started to do this through his work. He made people aware of the poverty in New York City through these photos. The country was in depression at the time this photo was taken and the photo shows you the seriousness of the situation as children are in vulnerable positions. Riis was trying to evoke feelings of guilt through this photo and  make people feel somewhat responsible for the situations of others and inspire them to act on it and stop their suffering. The concerning message of the photo is that children were struggling to eat, find shelter and be safe. The setting of the photo shows three young boys sleeping in a small space. Two of the boys are sleeping one on top of the other and the other boy leaning against the brick wall sleeping.  Looking at the mise en scene, their clothing indicates that they are poor as they haven’t got any shoes and their trousers appear to be short.  We can also see this photo has been taken in black and white with the lighting of the photo being affected by the flash of the camera and natural daylight. If you look at the photo you can see there is a glare on the skin that is showing. This image consist of a long shot and it seems that the camera was facing dead on the subjects. The boys are obviously pretending to be asleep and whether they are homeless or not remains a question open to modern. You can also see a gate in the photo which could suggest that the children where forced in to this space or maybe they felt protected by the gate being there. The photo brings up more than one issue and is not a one state problem. The poor where victims of economic slavery and the image says that we need to take action because as a country we are doing something wrong when our children are living on the streets. 

The credibility of Riis’s photographs can be challenged for many reasons. In his autobiography, he tells of the tenement inhabitants’ reaction to his group photographing them. He says that he is aware that his party carried terror. His team of men often invaded houses late at night armed with big pistols which they shot of recklessly which must not be very reassuring for the subjects. So it would seem that the factual basis of some photos taken by him were undermined by the terror introduced by Riis and his staff.

The power gained by the result of this intrusion in the early morning hours by Riis favoured Riis and his team because it provided him with an opportunity to capture the darkness and horrible conditions of tenement life. The flash powder Riis used often shocked his subjects and exaggerated the actual appearances of the tenements because it provided harsh shadows and lighting. All of these factors have led questioning the credibility of his photographs.

Jim Goldberg

Jim Goldberg was born in 1953 in New Haven, Connecticut. His work reflects long-term, in-depth collaborations with neglected, ignored, or otherwise outside-the-mainstream populations. Through his photographs he tackled difficult subject matter. His revolutionary use of image and text has made him one of today’s most influential photographers. Goldberg's documentary storytelling is both formally ambitious and self-questioning. Recently Goldberg has been developing an autobiographical body of work using text and photographs to create a visual and written diary; ‘Another Story’. Goldberg is inspired by his ingoing interest in people and their positions in society as a function of broader cultural policies and practices. 

This photograph is called Syed Saibor Rahaman from Bangladesh. It is a portrait of a young man, he is wearing casual clothes, a white shirt and jeans. He’s standing against a white wall and his figure is outlined in red. This image consists of a long shot and the man is the central image. Goldberg often encourages the subject(s) to write on the Polaroid portrait. This man has simply written “My dream is to go to Europe”. The writing is in the language of the person who is writing it, which adds mystery to the story, yet still seems to engage the viewer. The addition of the text shares with us the man’s inspiration and longing to go to Europe. This portrait has a less devastating message than other portraits by Goldberg.

This is a photo from Goldberg’s Rich and Poor project. The boy has wrote on the image “It’s kind of stinky living in this hotel. I don’t have nothing only $10. I keep waiting for someone to come in the door and give me money but nobody ever will. These few words have a powerful impact on this image. The writing gives the subject a voice. This image shows a boy named Joe, sitting on what we assume is his bed in his hotel. Considering the mise en scene, we can see by his shirt that he is wearing normal clothes but nothing expensive looking. There is lighting on one side of his face, this could suggest that there is a window adding natural daylight to the image. The shadow on the right side of his body add a feeling of mystery to the image. This photo is a long shot but we are drawn in by his solemn expression. The way the framing is cut makes the room appear to be small further showing his underprivileged living conditions. The text gives us a fragmented narrative of this boy’s life and along with image evokes feelings of sadness and longing. The message of this image is that boy is longing for someone to help him and wants to live a better life.

This photograph ‘Famous Dancer Who Was Trafficked’ is a black and white Polaroid photograph, it’s also a documental portrait as it’s about a famous dancer who was trafficked, hence the name. She is from Ukraine and the writing is in her language but it translates to “I was a dancer and sold to a man who was a terrorist- he held a gun to my head. Somehow I was rescued and escaped, but the fear has left scars on my heart. (and I will never be the same)” This text narrates the image and gives us insight in to her story. This image is a close up as the background is out of focus and we are made to focus on her face. Goldberg has Tipp-Exed out her face here, it adds a mood of mystery and could also signify the loss of her personality or identity highlighting the words “I will never be the same”. We are made to feel sympathy for the woman in this image. This photograph along with her words portrays her sadness and suffering as a woman in a sexist society.

These images by Goldberg are all narrative and we would believe them to be factual however there is always doubt that photographers set up the image and the subjects in the images are being posed. This would then make the image unreliable, the image would still be  portraying a message but the seriousness of what the image is portraying may be exaggerated or the opposite, understated. Also the images could be biased as the photograph could be taking them according to his views and class in society.