As with my pregnancy photos, I looked again at David Bates’ book ‘The key concepts - photography’, this time at what he had to say about documentary photos.
The story-telling in photographs became popular in the early 20th century (1920-1930s). These photos, says Bates, ‘aimed to show in an informal way, the everyday lives of ordinary people to other ordinary people’. This was about life itself. In the mid 1930s magazines about people’s lives bacame pooular - such as ‘Life’ in the US and ‘Picture Post ‘ in Britain. Documentary photos were accompanied by stories of people’s lives. They also showed a lot more expression on people’s faces such as smiling, laughing and anger. The aim quite often was to educate and enlighten in a creative photographic way. Photojournalism came into being and social documentaries along with it. When the camera is clicked a microsecond of a scene is recorded. It is not exactly what is occuring but hopefully it sums ip historically the essence of the situation.
What the photojournalist decides to include (or exclude) in their photo can be said to stage reality. It is an interpretation which can be profound. Then the question arises as to whether the interpretation is true or false. Bate goes on to say that the photographer should be telling the truth as an eyewittness. But then eyewittness can can tell different stories about the same scene.
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