What is documentary photography?

Documentary photography is a kind of photography with the main appeal of recording the reality of life.

Documentary photography truthfully reflects what we see, and it is a photography method with the main appeal of recording the reality of life. The material comes from life and reality. Therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and preserving history and has the unique qualification as a social witness.

Documentary photography is based on faithfully recording real life and then commenting on life phenomena. Mainly popular in western Europe and the United States, there are practical factors. In the early days, daily life was the theme; After entering the 20th century, he mainly paid attention to various social problems, which had a wide impact on society. There are famous photographers, such as Reese, Hein, Smith and Bresson.

Social landscape of documentary photography

Human society is a part of the whole natural environment, and people's life activities must have their background environment, including natural environment and artificial buildings. This kind of scenery is different from pure natural scenery, closely related to human activities, and is also an important part of documentary photography. Photographers' records not only show the wonders and magnificence of nature like landscape photography, but also show many aspects of life in a symbolic or revealing process.

The evaluation criteria of "major events", "people's life" and "social scenery" are mainly based on the grasp of the content, or the intensity, or nuanced, or sincere and touching. If we really want to distinguish between high and low, we should be careful not to be conventional, and of course, we should also meet the aesthetic standards of photography, and bring more thinking space to the audience through sufficient impact in form.