Photography UNIT 57: Assignment 2 - Documentary Photographers and Photography.

Documentary Photography is a photo that is taken in order to certificate an event that has occurred in everyday life, historical events and history itself. In the following blog post, we will be looking at three different documentary photographers and the styles that they choose to document their photographs in, so that this helps me produce ides for my own documentary photo shoot.

Martin Parr

Martin Parr is a British Documentary photographer and photojournalist. He is very well known for taking photo's that rep[resent the real nature of human life rather than anything being staged, Parr uses methods in order to show the satirical and intimate aspects of modern life that people lead. He likes ti take photos that represent the inequality between classes as well as the general behavior of the western Europe which are known to be more sustainable and have are wealthier than the east.

He has worked on many projects, particularly in the late 20th Century, such as The Cost of Living (1987 -89) and Small World (1987 - 94). however, the project that caught my eye was the last resort and personally, I believe there is no doubt that this is his most famous and his most infamous piece of Photography.

The Last Resort (1983 - 86) was as series of 40 photo's documenting a normal day at the beach. Shot in New Brighton, it shows and documents how working class families behaved and what they did that showed off their natural characteristics. It demonstrates as well as how people who were in the proletariat acted in the 80's and how it differs to today, the 21st Century. The see photo's are amazing because they capture human life at it's worst possible moments. Here are some examples of the final 40.

When these photo's were being captured Parr used a classic characteristic colour as well as daylight flash, which is said to be in most of his photographs and was inspired by the same style as William Eccleston.
Again, what I love about these series of photo's is that the facial expression,m the choice of clothing and the actions of the humans in these photos...were all completely genuine and that was all up to the people that appear in this photo. Such a young woman in the firsts image staring disapprovingly at Parr, which her hands on her hips and a deep stare, shows how overwhelmed she must have been continuously serving kids that ere pushing in front of each other.

Another photo represents the greed that the humans have for food and how the are in working class and can afford it, we can see a bundle of kids squashing it get to the front and pump condiments onto their food, like the previous shot, a sense of anxiety and disruption is clear and apparent.

In conclusion when i do my photo-shoot, I aspire to use the methods that Martin Parr used in order to get genuine hum,an reaction rather than someone staging a reaction for the camera. This project has inspired me to document human life and well being of others, so that when I am doing the photos I can capture one of the many real faces of human expression and realism of the human experience.

Steve McCurry

Steve McCurry is a American documentary photographer and photojournalist, he is one of the most famous contemporary photographers in the world. He is most well known for capturing the human experience of human emotion such struggle and joy. He is especially known for his expressive use of colour, which give the photo a more rich and vibrant effect.. Although he is American, he works mainly in South East Asia and India, Since the early 70's he has earned the reputation of knowingly taking photo's of civilians and those on the front line, during disputes and conflicts, in order to get everyone's different perspective on the matter.
By looking at his most recent photo's we can understand that the style he takes them in has not changed at all over the decades. How McCurry only likes to capture the daily life of those in third world countries and the emotion that they feel. Other photo's also can show how although the country isn't well known or is lacking a stable economy, children (such as the one below) are the exact seem and walk and talk the same way like any child would do in a rich and wealthy country.

2004. Shaolin Monastery.



Boy in Mid-flight, Jodhpur, Rajasthan, 2007.” Photo ©

When taking these photo's you can see that these images were taken in Natural daylight. Steve McCurry is also really well known for using Kodachrome film, which is actually discontinued, so it is a bit hard to come by in the 21st Centaury, therefore although I will be taking the same sort of photo's. It won't have such as evocative colour.

When comparing the styles of both McCurry and Parr, they clash with each other, although both photographers capture a the natural, human experience and want to vocalise issues with society in the 20th and 21st Century Parr chooses to capture at it's worst possible aspects in the name of satire, whereas McCurry poises photos at the best possible angle, in order to enlighten troubles in the world in a serious manner.

Overall, like to aspire to take similar photo's as the ones above, that show people caught in the moment of an event rather than photographing an inanimate object that is already existing qand wha I would love to  achieve in this assignment is documenting emotion on  models faces during a certain event, I would love to achieve similar goals as the photo's taken above by both Parr and McCurry and capture people being caught in the moment whether it be happy or sad.