Overview of documentary photography

On Contemporary Documentary Photography

True reproduction is the essential attribute of documentary photography. It requires photographers to get creative materials from the objective scenes of real life and engage in creative work in a non-fictional way. While seeking true reproduction, like all other artistic creations, its works are required to be aesthetic. While the content is shocking, it can also infect the audience in form and vividness. The innovation and change in form is related to the artistic expression of documentary photography. Here, the subjective artistic expression is that the photographer uses the laws or principles of beauty, and then borrows the objective scenery to express his thoughts and feelings. These borrowed people, scenery and things can appear in the form of complete reappearance, which in turn affects society. Emphasize the subjectivity of the photographer and the social effect of communication. Thereby promoting social progress. China's documentary photography has had three academic discussions in less than 30 years, and entered the 2 1 century through practice and debate. His works gradually matured, and the outline gradually became clear, forming three types with different shooting purposes and techniques. The first category reflects the existing social problems, hoping to attract the attention of the world, thus promoting social reform and development, such as Jie Hailong's documentary Project Hope, my film Children in Dryland, etc. , also known as "reporting" documentary photography; The second concern is about cultural relics and traditional folk customs that will soon disappear due to social transformation, and leave them to future generations as historical materials. Hou Dengke's Mike and Ningxia's lost glory-the Eastern Pyramid Xixia Mausoleum is also called documentary photography. The third category depicts secular life and witnesses the social changes from small to large, such as Hu Wugong's Memory Xi 'an and Ningxia Tongxin He Yongze's Moving the Capital, which is called "diary-style" documentary photography. .

Elbert, an American, put forward the theory of four levels of pictures; Information content, image value, emotional factors, intimacy, if Elbert's four-level selection method is slightly improved, we can also consider a picture selection method that combines at least two elements. Pictures that contain a lot of news information and are emotional at the same time are certainly better than pictures with a lot of information. Most readers will also think that pictures with value of the image and emotional factors are better than those with value of the image. Perhaps, in order to reach the highest level mentioned by Elbert, an excellent photojournalist should take into account four factors, namely, having news information, vivid images, rich emotions and intimacy.

Few pictures can reach this level, but the constant pursuit of this level can not only guide photographers to take what kind of photos, but also let picture editors know what kind of photos to choose.

This grading method is also helpful for photographers to choose the right object and take the ideal photos at the right time. At the same time, photographers are also required to abandon the task-based work attitude and even the recently effective photography skills. It is not enough to simply take a photo with news and buy it, or even be satisfied with the pursuit of good light and good angle. It takes patience, observation and a long time to find and take a good photo that can touch people's hearts and capture the moment when the subject's feelings are generated.

From the above summary, we can see that American news reporting photography emphasizes the transmission of content and information, while China's documentary photography pursues artistic expression and objective reproduction. From an aesthetic point of view, it serves for objective reproduction. The aesthetic perception of the subject is very professional. Pay attention to social value and historical value, and take real people and events in real life as shooting objects when choosing "narrative" shooting themes.

Although it is a group of thematic photos in artistic expression, each photo can independently express the image information related to the theme. Use the change of lens form, panorama, middle shot, close shot and close-up. The composition emphasizes the use of head-up position, wide-angle lens and telephoto lens as needed. Composition is mainly composed of large-area composition and "well" composition, emphasizing the sense of scene of the picture. Emphasize the relationship between the subject and the environment, so that the picture information is rich. The association caused by incomplete composition and curiosity caused by deformation and deformity are all used to attract people's attention to the event.

The expression information is unique, the theme is distinct, the moment is typical, the atmosphere is strong, the composition is rigorous, the lighting is unique, the color and tone are exquisite, and the clarity is good. However, when society enters modernization, people begin to reflect on the relationship between man and nature, and the relationship between man and society, from man's conquest of nature and mutual abuse between man and nature to man's respect, protection and opposition to pollution. Face up to the harm that modernization brings to human beings and nature, pay attention to respecting human instinct, pay attention to contradictions and conflicts between people, and pay attention to human citizenship. These documentary photos have had a great influence on art, politics and society. To get Eugene recently? 6? 1 Lu Guang, who won the Smith Humanitarian Photography Award, is listed as a representative documentary photographer. His work Pollution in China mostly reflects people's sufferings and marginalized groups, giving people the impression of "gray lens". Different from the theme of 99% sunshine in newspapers and magazines, it fully embodies a photographer's sense of social responsibility and historical mission.