documentary within photography

documentary photography can be portrayed in many different ways it can start from photos of family to documentary a world event however the main way it is portrayed is by documenting things going off in the world from happiness to horror this is mostly shown within the news and media.The world is ruled by media we use it as a way to communicate and find out information.Documentary photography is a massive things as it acts as evidence to back the words up it also creates artifacts so we have physical memories of what has happened  using light and time to reproduce that moment.However this has become risky as now we can manipulate images easier than ever before


Before digital cameras were invented images were a lot more raw and realistic."Looking back, documentary photography has made waves of impact as a method of truth-telling in difficult times, a way of exposing disturbing scenes to raise awareness of things like poverty and famine, to ultimately reshape the public’s opinion on government policies that were often the direct cause." (learnmyshot.com) this point can be strongly agreed within the era of pre - digital as it was used massively as a way of impact producing these shocking and raw images to educate and raise awareness on taboo subjects or subjects that had not been addressed and spoke about as much,it was a really good way to shape the public's opinion as these images were 100% real and could not be manipulated in any way possible it also focused more on getting on a raw and real image than looking at ways to create a pretty image that was appealing to the eye." If i could say anything with words i wouldn't of picked up a camera"(David Du Chemin) This point is very interesting as it is stating that you can say more with pictures than you can words this has a massive impact when it comes to documentary photography as it needs to speak words it needs to get a message across, it needs to speak words.


Post- digital is very different within documentary photography as now we do not know what is real and what isn't. Images can be manipulated so easily these days and it also a lot easier to manipulate other peoples opinions and shape the way we think threw media because most of the time if it's in the media people will believe it.It has definitely made people more careful when viewing media and on what to believe,"Despite being widespread, digital manipulation provokes anxiety and unease, especially when news photographs are involved. "(David Campbell 2016) This point states that sometimes it is used as a way to enhance fear and make things worse and they seem its a good way to get reactions out of people by exaggerating the situation with photographic manipulation and big debates about guidelines on how far images should be able to be manipulated in media. This can be strongly agreed with as guidelines should be put in place so people can feel more safe when viewing the media.

Should media and documentary photography be trusted is a massive question within today's society where it is really easy to make facts into fiction by this process as it is so easy to manipulate images today and also it is easy to take old images and manipulate them to.


"Iconic: Historians say the couple captured in a passionate embrace on V-J Day in 1945 didn't know each other before the kiss; and in fact, the sailor's future wife, Rita Mendonsa, can be seen peering over his right shoulder" (mailonline) this picture is very iconic as it was done to celebrate the end of the seconds world war  this kiss was shared by 2 complete strangers which i think it make it really iconic the fact people where so happy and the war had ended this image created evidence for this period of time, a artifact of a iconic moment in history.This image was before digital camera so it is certain that this is a legitimate and has not been manipulated.This image is still composed really well even though it was a spur of the moment you can tell the photographer still thought about the image.




  This image was taken Rohan Gosh this image speaks about a woman who is a widow."Every morning, at dawn, come rain or shine, Durga Devi walks the short distance from her ashram to the bathing ghats on the banks of the river Ganges (Hoogly) in Kolkata." (Rohangosh.co.uk) This image could give feelings of sympathy as this woman does look in pain and does have some kind of body deformity.|This image could have been manipulated or tweaked with to make the image appear worse than it actually is,This image appears to be cropped this again maybe so you focus more on the lady and not the surrounding areas however if this image is not manipulated it does show some beauty within the image as it shows true beauty of a lady and her motivations to not give up no matter what her situation is.



There a few questions when it comes to documentary photography should we trust it with modern day technology or should there be guidelines when it comes to documentary photography within the media and is documentary photography dead? guidelines should be put in place when it comes to documentary photography to a certain extent as it should not be used to changed the opinions of the people viewing the images and to changed public opinion .This does not mean documentary photography is dead however it may mean we are loosing the authenticity of it and even the beauty of it.Film photography was a lot more trust worthy when it comes to using it as evidence and artifacts for historical value but then it is a lot easier to access images since the process became digital both sides have pros and cons.It seems a lot more pros are related to the practical side when it comes to the digital process. 







Bibliography

http://www.rohanghosh.co.uk/the-ritual#0
http://learnmyshot.com/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187071/Times-Square-Sailor-nurse-kissing-iconic-WWII-photograph-reunited.html