Definition: Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life.
Henri Cartier-Bresson was born in 1908 in Chanteloup, France. Throughout his childhood, Cartier-Bresson was interested in the arts. He was influenced by his father, a respected and wealthy textile merchant and his uncle, an accomplished painter. As a young boy Cartier-Bresson read the literature of the day by authors such as Dostoyevsky, Rimbaud, Proust, and Joyce. In addition to literature, he intensely studied painting.In 1928 Cartier-Bresson attended Cambridge University, England, where he studied literature and painting. It was here that he was introduced to film and photography.
By 1929 he began to take photography seriously. In 1931, Cartier-Bresson discovered the hand-held Leica camera and was practically consumed by the new art form. He made the conscious decision to pursue photography as a career. I kept walking the streets, high-strung, and eager to snap scenes of convincing reality, but mainly I wanted to capture the quintessence of the phenomenon in a single image. Photographing, for me, is instant drawing, and the secret is to forget you are carrying a camera.Manufactured’ or staged photography does not concern me. And if I make a judgement it can only be on a psychological or sociological level. There are those who take photographs arranged beforehand and those who go out and discover the image and seize it. For me the camera is a sketchbook, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity, the master of the instant, which in visual terms, questions and decides simultaneously. Thus evolved a theory, not entirely his, but definitely practiced by Cartier-Bresson and forever associated with his name, the decisive moment. The original phrase came from Cardinal de Retz who stated everything in the world has its decisive moment. Roaming the streets, Cartier-Bresson would photograph moments most eyes would surpass for everyday life, but to him these were the true moments of human existence.
The Decisive Moment: In 1952 Henri Cartier Bresson, a founder of modern photojournalism, proposed one of the most fascinating and highly debated concepts in the history of photography: “the decisive moment.” This moment occurs when the visual and psychological elements of people in a real life scene spontaneously and briefly come together in perfect resonance to express the essence of that situation. Some people believe that the unique purpose of photography, as compared to other visual arts, is to capture this fleeting, quintessential, and holistic instant in the flow of life. For this reason, many photographers often mention the decisive moment, or similar ideas about capturing the essence of a transitory moment, when they describe their work.
When Henri Cartier-Bresson would talk about “The Decisive Moment” he said sometimes it would be spontaneous but others times he had to be patient and wait for it. Regardless he was very methodological when he would go out and shoot, and would only keep his images if every element of his image (people, background, framing, and composition) were perfect. When you are out shooting and you see fascinating scenes, wait for the right person to walk by to complete your image. Although you don’t want to camp out for hours on end to wait for the right moment to occur, practice a bit of patience. You don’t always need to go out and hunt for photo-opportunities. Allow them to come to you.
If you look at the work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, he applied geometry to his images poetically. If you look at the composition of his images he integrated vertical, horizontal, and diagonal lines, curves, shadows, triangles, circles, and squares to his advantage. He also paid particular attention to frames as well. Don’t only see the world as it is, look for shapes and geometry that occur naturally as well. Open up your mind and break your environment into different formal elements. Look for lines that may lead to your subjects or squares that may frame your image. Become poetic with your images and integrate interesting actors and stages when you are out shooting.
The dramatic focus of Gestapo Informer is the relationship between the three central people – the collaborator, and official, and a furious accuser. The official is dispassionate, the accused bows her head, and the accuser grimaces. This dynamic triangle of characters gives the image structure and focus. The background is formed of three more triangles, made up of faces from the crowd. Within this crowd of onlookers is a man wearing the striped uniform of a concentration camp prisoner. This figure draws viewers’ attention to the far left edge of the frame and provides contextual information.
A photographer I would like to look at is Richard Billingham. Hw was born 25 September 1970 and is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere. Billingham has published the monographs Ray's a Laugh (1996), Black Country (2003), Zoo (2007), and Landscapes, 2001-2003 (2008). He made the full-length video film Fishtank (1998) as well as various shorts, and wrote and directed Ray (2016), part 1 of a 3-part feature film. He is best known for Ray's A Laugh which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily tattooed mother, Liz.
Throughout these images, the relationship between his mother and father is constantly documented. It seems there is often tension between the two, perhaps because of his fathers drinking problem. It is clear who the leader in the relationship is. Richard Billingham captures an imperfect and unprivileged lifestyle, revealing some of his family's biggest secrets. I'd like to use this approach within my own work focusing on relationships within my own family.
The ides of "The decisive moment" is shown well in this image. I also plan to use this technique for my documentary project to capture my subjects in the rawest form possible, with out any set up.
"The pictures shown here are of my father Raymond (born 1931): my mother Elisabeth (born 1950) and my brother Jason (born 1977). Ray is a chronic alcoholic and has drunk for as long as I can remember. He has not worked since he was mode redundant from his job as a machinist around 1980. Liz very rarely drinks but she does smoke a lot of cigarettes. My younger brother still does not seem to know what he wants: he gets a job for or week or two and then leaves it. I think he is very lazy." Ray stopped in his room almost constantly drinking and sleeping. If he went outside he become ill. He drank to get to sleep. He had a friend from a neighbouring towerblock -himself an alcoholic - who came around to make strong home-brew for him. This was much cheaper than 'buying' alcohol and meant that Ray didn't have to venture outside to the off-licence. He kept the home-brew bucket by the side of his bed for convenience and drank from a plastic jug that he would dip into the brew. It tasted as bad as it looked but it must hove nourished him somehow because he otherwise never ate. Liz wasn't living with us then: she had left due to Roy's incessant drinking and moaning. She seldom visited."
AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.
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