How to classify photography? Such as movies, make-up and so on. ...

Photography can be divided into two categories: documentary photography and artistic photography.

Artistic photography: the photographic works obtained by people through artistic creation are called artistic photography works. People continue to add artistic elements to photography and begin to produce artistic photography. The difference between it and documentary photography lies in the artistic level, but there is no absolute boundary.

For example, let's take a photo as an ID card or leave a souvenir. Generally, the photos taken by the photo studio have at most some information or record value. The difference lies entirely in the artistic level.

Classification of artistic photography:

According to the current general classification, artistic photography can be roughly divided into three categories: humanistic photography, landscape still life photography and exploration photography. Among them, exploratory photography includes some new and temporarily unclassified photography works, such as performance art photography, LOMO, computer-generated photography and so on.

Humanistic photography can be divided into two categories: documentary photography (documentary photography for short) and non-documentary photography (such as pictures of TV and movies, photography, some commercial photography, etc.). Sometimes called humanistic photography, but in a narrow sense).

Humanistic photography, as its name implies, takes people or people's activities as the shooting object. At present, this term is usually used in artistic photography activities. (Pure documentary photography, although some take people or people's activities as the shooting object, has traditionally been classified as documentary photography of documents or materials. )

Documentary photography is also divided into street photography, rural photography, folk photography, exposure photography and so on. Documentary photography is photography and its works that take people or people's activities as the shooting object, the author has clear artistic creation motives and techniques, and strictly follows the principle of authenticity. The only difference between it and documentary photography lies in whether the author has clear artistic creation motives and techniques.

Non-documentary humanistic photography (humanistic photography. Narrow sense) commercial photography related to people's activities.

Interpretation of the significance of photography classification;

1 is to understand the different laws, requirements, characteristics and aesthetic characteristics of different photography categories, which is convenient for exchange and learning, mutual promotion and mutual improvement. Instead of letting photographers get too entangled in the debate about classification.

Let's look at all kinds of photography art more objectively, and don't add some tasks that they can't afford, and then accuse them of not doing it. Don't deprive them of their own artistic and aesthetic values.

For example, because documentary photography is an artistic photography, and Bresson is a master of documentary photography and a pioneer of street photography, his photography activities are completely an artistic creation. The "decisive moment" he said was neither a victory in World War II nor a satellite launch. It is only the specific aesthetic feeling that people and people's activities can reflect at a specific moment. When we look at Bresson's works in twenty or thirty years, we can't expect to see the profound social significance or cognitive value of French society at that time. That's too much to ask, master. Similarly, if we deny the artistic value and aesthetic value of documentary photography, it is also an excessive depreciation of the master.

3. The classification of photography is the need of photography progress and the need of coordination and promotion between different types of photography. Confusing classification or canceling classification will lead to confusion in judgment, which is not conducive to the prosperity of photography and the retrogression of art.

4. Classification is not absolute. Nothing is absolute. Some photos have double meanings and even multiple values. For example, some scientific materials and works of documentary photography have high artistic value and can be used as documentary photography in artistic photography to participate in competitions and win prizes. At the same time, it does not affect its literature value or scientific value. For example, some photos of leaders' activities and major social activities were originally taken by many authors for the purpose of recording history, but many of them have become classics of documentary photography because of their high artistic value.

For another example, some aerial photos were originally used for scientific research purposes, but they have high artistic value and can be regarded as excellent landscape photos.

Finally, talk about news photography. News photography does not belong to a category according to our classification method above. Divided into function and function. So there is some overlap and overlap with the above classification.

In the traditional sense, news photography should be a photographic work shot by media workers and widely spread in the media, which can be called news photography. It is not shot by reporters, but is confirmed by the media to be newsworthy and published, which can also be called news photography.

However, we can't say that all the photographic works that you shoot and think are newsworthy and have not been confirmed and disseminated by the media can be called news works. What many tourists photographed during the tsunami in Southeast Asia, if not published, can only be used as photographic material for the time being, waiting for people to understand and explore. Of course, the timeliness of news photography may have passed.