Social Documentary. An Introduction
If a picture is worth a thousand words then why not use pictures to tell stories? Or to express your feelings or to simply replace words? This is in essence what social documentary photography is, it is much deeper than the obvious (documenting the things and people around us) it is a way in which the photographer can make a comment on society, a form of expression just as art is, but as true and accurate as any news story or piece of non-fiction.
I shall explore the idea of social documentary photography from how it can be used at its most basic, as a tool just as the pen or the paintbrush is, to create a story to its most complex conveying a ‘deeper meaning’ expressed by the photographer.
In this unit I shall research the history of social documentary photography showing how it has evolved and whom the major players were in its creation and its growth to where it is today. I shall also research numerous social documentary photographers that are active now and those that have previously shot in a social documentary style.
I will take influence from these areas of research and use them in the development of my own work throughout this unit. I will do a number of studies through this unit of work that will show the progression of my social documentary photography. As is often the case with social documentary photography my work will not be single pictures of interest each painting a different scenario, but will be presented in mini ‘photo essays’ which will consist of a small number photos following a similar story or theme that when viewed together paint a picture as a whole.
I will create a small amount of ‘photo essays’ through this unit and will work toward one final photo essay that will act as my final piece or work. An important thing to note is that my work through this unit despite taking influence from the research that I will undertake, is intended to be completely original in the ideas and meanings that the work will convey. I believe that this is an important thing for me to do, as social documentary is all about your feelings and emotions and capturing unique and important moments, the photographs are just a medium that is there to convey them and imitating or copying others ideas would not be true to the idea of social documentary. Aside from this I believe that this is another step that I am able to take that not only helps me grow as a photographer but also pushes me to do the best possible work I am capable of.