Let's energize the Photrio "Journalism and Documentary" sub-forum

[RezaLoghme]

It seems that unlike "street", this topic is not very interesting to many forum users. But why? I find the photojournalism aspect of our passion the most interesting one, isn't it how photography started?

As mentioned in another thread, I recently discovered Ara Güler and am fascinated by his work. What about creating, crowd-sourcing a journalism and documentary "vademecum", based on the wisdom of the famous photographers, and us?

 

[John Bragg]

Fhotojournalism and also environmental portraiture are my main interests and there is a lot of crossover here. I like a photo to tell a story and maybe give us a glimpse of an interesting personality. The heyday of the Magnum photographer may be past but there is no reason why we can't learn from some of the greats like Dennis Stock or Mark Riboud.

 

[millenial]

I believe the lines are blurred these days between street/photojournalism/documentary work. I wish "street" was initially called something else from the beginning; something along the lines of "social documentary".

I love street photography, but I do not like today's "trending" street photography, which blends architecture/non-candid portraiture/telephoto candid portraiture and images of anything with bokeh. But I am not one to call anyone out on it and say "this isn't street photography" because it's an opinion.

The street photography of the past blended the documenting of everyday life wrapped within lines, light, and shadows. Creative composition in my eyes is the key to street photography.

To the average Joe, when "documentary" is mentioned, the initial thought is "history book pictures" or "magazine pictures". When "street photography" is mentioned the initial thought is "bokeh", "fashion", "pockets of light" and "a telephoto shot of someone looking at my camera wondering 'wtf is this guy doing' but captioning the photo as 'we all have our struggles' relying on the ambiguity of an image to give the photo a deep meaning".

A clearer definition of the three genres needs to be defined and spread out to the masses in order for each to gain their respective audience.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Yes today there are many memes and stereotypes, which I am not very fond of.

 

[Lee Rust]

I consider myself to be a documentary photographer... mostly of my own life. If a few of my pictures turn out to have some artistic merit, so much the better!

 

[Philippe-Georges]

“Everything of value is defenceless,” wrote the Dutch poet Lucebert in the poem 'The Very Old Sings'.

Democracy, and by extension journalism/reportage, is so valuable, brittle, fragile and so sensitive to abuse, it must be approached with care.

First define the terminology, then context in which it is (will be-) used, and then consider "why".

And question yourself if you would really go into this field without a decent and strong moral guide (which one?) and in-depth knowledge...

 

[RezaLoghme]

For breakfast, I am reading an article about the early years of Foucault and Bourdieu (esp. about their adventures in Africa), and there is another author referencing F.'s "Discipline and Punish" in a photographic context, arguing that social media platforms have re-empowered the subjects in a photograph, as opposed to Susan Sonntag's view.

 

[MARTIE]

It doesn't need to be revived because it still exists, just in a different form. It's become democratised. The world has moved on.

 

[RezaLoghme]

I meant the section in this forum, not the genre per se.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

It doesn't need to be revived because it still exists, just in a different form. It's become democratised. The world has moved on.

Here in Europe we look with amazement and fear to what's happening in Slovakia and Hungary, and, personally I think this is somewhat the beginning...
I am afraid that Lucebert is, once again, right, and it will be up to 'us' to defend it with all we have.

 

[snusmumriken]

I support keeping documentary separate from ‘street’. A lot of street photography seems to be literally photos of people in a street, without other distinguishing qualities. (Although in a way, I suppose you could claim that it’s documentary!) I am really interested in the more serious documentary role of photography, especially when it has a self-consciously political aim, and how artistry makes that more powerful.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

As far as outside ressources go, Polka is one of the few magazines still devoted to photojournalism and photo documentary. Their long-form "Enquête" section is particularly good

Enquête - Polka Magazine

www.polkamagazine.com

There is also Blind Magazine which devotes a lot of room to contemporary photo docs

https://www.blind-magazine.com/en/

The New York Times is one of the last newspapers that still publishes long-form photo documentary. They still regularly hire independent photojournalists for in-depth articles in the New York Times Magazine, all over the world.

They also used to have a photo-doc blog called "Lens".

New York Times Photojournalism - Photography, Video and Visual Journalism Archives - Lens Blog - The New York Times

Lens is the photojournalism blog of The New York Times, presenting the finest and most interesting visual and multimedia reporting — photographs, videos and slide shows. A showcase for Times photographers and the pictures of the day, the Times photo blog also seeks to highlight the best work of...

archive.nytimes.com

 

[RezaLoghme]

Great links, thanks

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Alex, is the BILD you are referring to part of the German Bild Zeitung?

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Alex, is the BILD you are referring to part of the German Bild Zeitung?

I think you misread me. I mentioned Blind, not Bild. You can find their team and list of contributors here:

About Us — Blind Magazine

Blind is a bilingual, French and English online magazine that publishes daily photography news from around the world.

www.blind-magazine.com

Both Polka and Blind are essentially Paris-based. Polka also has a gallery in Paris where they show exhibitions:

Accueil - Polka Galerie

Polka Galerie

www.polkagalerie.com

 

[RezaLoghme]

Philippe-Georges, connaissiez-vous le magazine Polka ? Je le vois pour la première fois. C'est super!!

 

[RezaLoghme]

I think you misread me. I mentioned Blind, not Bild.

People in the know might believe that reading BILD makes you blind...
But with respect - the founder's son became a famous photographer in his own right, until his tragic end.

 

[Philippe-Georges]

Thank you Alex, again is shown how easy one can misread and then misunderstand and then misact, and then...

 

[MattKing]

I meant the section in this forum, not the genre per se.

I'll change the thread title accordingly.

 

[Alex Benjamin]

Philippe-Georges, connaissiez-vous le magazine Polka ? Je le vois pour la première fois. C'est super!!

The printed edition is even better than the website. I'm happy there still are a few places I can buy it in Montreal. As I said, I'm not sure if there is another printed magazine out there devoted to photojournalism and photo story-telling like this one. I wish Aperture would move a little closer to this, and a bit away from the more conceptual nature of photography.

 

[Pieter12]

I don't know if access to Instagram is a problem, but Rob Haggart recently posted about photojournalism:

 

[Alex Benjamin]

I don't know if access to Instagram is a problem, but Rob Haggard recently posted about photojournalism:

Amazing, and sad post. Not the first time I've heard this, but it's great to put it out in the open. Some of the best, most original, most pertinent photographic work today is done by photojournalists. Terrible to see them exploited and undervalued.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[MattKing]

As sad as that article is, the reality it reflects isn't particular to photojournalists.
It is a reality for every journalist or other human source of content for any publication.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Thank you for sharing.