What are the practical significance and essential characteristics of documentary photography?

Documentary photography refers to the types and methods of photography that truly record the reality

What are the practical significance and essential characteristics of documentary photography?

Documentary photography refers to the types and methods of photography that truly record the reality and truthfully reflect what they have seen and heard. They all come from life and have certain social value of recording and storing history. The following is the relevant content I have compiled, hoping to help everyone!

First, the practical significance of documentary photography

Judging from the strength of visual expression, Najib documentary photography, as a witness of society, has been making unremitting efforts for the return of human dignity, existence and humanity from the beginning. For example, in the early 20th century, documentary photography of child labor by American photographer lewis hine reminded the public of the plight of the poor, and urged Americans to believe that it was necessary to make a labor law on child labor. The exposure of American photographers to mercury poisoning in Japan in the 1970s attracted worldwide attention to public hazards. This is a model for human beings to take photography as a sharp weapon, strive for their own interests and win.

Documentary photography is a kind of photography with the main appeal of recording the reality of life. The material comes from life and reality, and truthfully reflects what we see. Therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and storing history and has the unique qualification as a social witness. Documentary photography shows the photographer's concern for the environment, respect for life and pursuit of human nature. Documentary photographers use cold machines to record marginal scenes or facts that have been "ignored" intentionally or unintentionally, but they can often use the power of images to make photography a tool to participate in social transformation. Judging from the social background and historical absence of documentary photography, its criticism and revolution are self-evident. By-product documentary photography history is the history of injustice, darkness, * * * and austerity that photographers record, express and spread in the world. They use images to achieve the purpose of propaganda and agitation, and then promote social change and make the world a better place.

Second, the essential characteristics of documentary photography

The essence of documentary photography is that its subject matter and content have certain social significance, which has attracted the attention of people at that time or later generations and has certain practical significance and historical value. Secondly, the main purpose of documentary photography is to arouse people's attention, arouse social conscience, or criticize the shortcomings of the times, reveal the truth, store culture and record history. Some photographic works will cause strong social reactions and social effects. Finally, documentary photography requires going deep into reality, understanding and respecting the subject, not interfering, not directing, not wearing makeup, not whitewashing or retouching, and taking pictures on the spot. This is a means to accurately fix accurate and fleeting moments. In a word, the core and essence of documentary photography is to pay attention to people, their fate, the social life they live in and contact with, and advocate the direct expression of human nature and the people-oriented spirit.

Photography has the characteristics of documentary since its birth, and its technical feature is to reproduce the images of real things realistically with the help of optical characteristics. Therefore, documentary can be said to be the natural attribute of photography. The creation of documentary photography must start with a true portrayal of life. As a medium to spread information, photography has its own characteristics since then: sociality, historicity, culture and systematicness.

1. Authenticity

Photography has the characteristics of documentary since its birth, and documentary is the natural essential attribute of photography. The so-called authenticity of documentary photography is generally that photographers use cameras as a tool to record an objective existence at that time. Documentary photography is to tell people that at a certain time or a certain period of time, in a certain place, someone or some people did something, and finally what kind of influence it had. Its function is not only to convey information, but also to guide readers to prove the true state of a society.

2. Sociality

Sociality means that documentary photography reflects the social reality and expresses the characteristics of social evaluation by recording the social relations represented by the subject, and shows the characteristics of people and the times from the historical cross-section. Documentary photography can often attract people's attention, arouse social conscience, reveal the truth and record history, which has certain social effects.

3. Contemporary Nature

The era marks the characters and characteristics of the era from the vertical axis of historical development, and it is a social feature that conforms to the law of historical development and is formed by contemporary people constantly sublating national traditions in the process of social reform. Documentary photography is an objective historical record. It was shot at that time or recently, which has a strong realistic timeliness. It embodies the inheritance of national culture and reflects the essence of contemporary life.