Photo Journalism 4(1+3)

Lesson 4 : Basics of Photojournalism

Documentary photography

Documentary photography usually refers to a type of professional photojournalism. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. Usually such photographs are meant for publication, but are sometimes only for exhibition in an art gallery or other public forum. Sometimes an organization or company will commission documentary photography of its activities, but the pictures will only be for its private archives.

Sometimes amateurs unintentionally make documentary pictures that are later found to be of great historical value, since they are good images of subjects that have since disappeared forever and which no-one else bothered to record.