Photo Documentary - Work Diary

For my Photo Documentary project, I used "my life" as a theme when taking photos. I decided I was going to take photos over the christmas holidays, with no schedule, but just when I felt it would be a good time. They were taken on my phone, therefore I was using auto shooting mode, which I feel may have limited me a bit.

Here is my favourite image from my Photo Documentary project.

I like this because of the very large contrast in tones. The only light tones are the headlights and rear lights of the cars, and they take up very little of the image. The dark tones create a sense of negative space, with the lights being the only things visible in the image. I feel that the mood created in this picture is very dark, scary and creates a sense of ambiguousness; the meaning of the photo and what you view it as is open to discussion. I feel that the editing of this photo helped add to the mood. I took the image in colour, and it was already very dark, with very little light tones. I opened it in photoshop and converted it to black and white, using the maximum white setting, so that the headlights of the cars would light up the road slightly, rather than just glowing in the background. I then changed the curves, levels and brightness of the photo, so that the black became so dark it was negative space, and the headlights were light enough to create a very strong contrast to this.

This is my least favourite image from my Photo Documentary project.

I feel like this is a good photo on its own, as it is well composed, well lit and is framed quite well, but I feel it doesn't hold nearly as much meaning, mood or ambiguousness as most of the other images from my project. I feel like if I had taken a photo of the carousel with some people on it, it would have fit more into my project and carried more meaning. I also feel that if I had taken it from different angle, possible a worm's eye view or an extreme close-up it could have been much more dramatic, and could have possibly had a narrow depth of field, which would have focussed the person viewing the image onto the horse. For editing, I only used the burn tool briefly and did nothing else to it. Maybe converting this to black and white or changing levels, curves and colour balance would have made the image more effective.

If I were to do a photo documentary project again, I would try and plan it out a little bit more before taking photos, and narrow down my theme so I know exactly what to focus on. I would also want to take my photos on my camera, so that I can control the Shutter speed, Aperture and ISO settings.

Photo Documentary - Straight Images

F2.2, 1/17

F2.4

F2.2, 1/50

F2.2, 1/17

F2.2, 1/33

Photo Documentary - Image Bank

I like this photo because it shows lots of contrast in different ideas. There are two very young children, who act as a symbol of innocence, which is contrasted by the barbed wire which they are behind, which is a symbol of violence and oppression. The children's distressed expressions show that they have lost some of the innocence of childhood due to the situation they are in.

This also shows childhood, however, this child living in much better situations, means their childhood innocence is maintained. They are seen falling over, and trying to regain their balance, which is a sign they are able to live a normal childhood and worry about small things like this rather than big things like war or famine.

The image above shows people from a different walk of life altogether; the people in the picture are adult labourers. From the picture you can deduce they are working class, as they are working as labourers. Each person sitting on the beam has a different facial expression, all of which reflect how they feel about sitting there to eat lunch and working there.

This pictures somebody from a similar job to what is shown on the previous image. This man has a very blank expression on his face, and is focussed on the rivet he is tightening, which shows he is concentrating on the job at hand. Therefore, this shows a man from a similar job as in the previous image, but at a time of day when he is very busy, rather than relaxing at his lunch break.

The photo shown above is far less candid than the others; the photographer has stopped and asked the girl if he could take her photo and told her to look into the camera when he did. I feel like the girl used in the photo can help you get a better understanding of where she is from and where this was taken based on her face and the clothes she is wearing.

Photo documentary - Definition

Photo Documentary is a type of photography that documents life, usually taken at import events that will go down in history e.g. photos of people during a war. Photo Documentary generally is pictures of people, although it can be pictures of animals, or places that have been affected by people.
Some of the most famous Photo Documentary photographers include Henri Cartier Bresson, Bill Brandt and Berenice Abbot.

My Life Photo Documentary - contact sheet