What is it like to be a photographer who records history

Documentary photography is a photography method that records the reality of life as the main appeal, and the material is the best in life and reality, and truthfully reflects what we see, therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and preserving history, and has the unique qualification of being a social witness.

Documentary photography is a photography method that mainly aims to record the truth of life.

Documentary photography truthfully reflects what we see, is to record the reality of life as the main appeal of photography, the material is the best in life and reality, therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and preserving history, with the unique qualification as a social witness.

Documentary photography is a creative method that faithfully records real life and then comments on life phenomena. It is mainly popular in Western Europe and the United States, with a realist element. In the early days, most of them were based on daily life; Since entering the twentieth century, it has mainly focused on various social issues, and has had a wide impact on society, and famous photographers such as Reis, Hine, Smith, and Bresson have appeared.

The social landscape of documentary photography

Human society is a part of the entire natural environment, and human survival activities must have their background environment, including natural environment and artificial architecture. This kind of scenery is different from simple self-regret and is closely related to human activities, and it is also an important part of documentary photography. The photographer's record of it is not only to show the wonder and magnificence of nature like landscape photography, but also to have a symbolic or revealing process, expressing life in multiple aspects.

For the evaluation criteria of the three categories of "major events", "people's lives" and "social landscapes", they are mainly from the content to have a better grasp, or to draw a thousand points, or to be meticulous, or sincere and moving.

Add a fun point to your photos

There should also be something that catches the eye in each photo, it can be the subject, or an object that is not an obvious subject but can enhance the effect of the photo, these can also be called interesting points, interesting points can be used with the previously mentioned rule of thirds, but sometimes they can also be placed in the middle of the photo or in areas that deviate from the rule of thirds, depending on whether the interesting character is the main character!

Adding an interesting point to the photo can enhance the visibility of the photo.

Add a fun twist to the mundane scene.

There are many composition methods in photography, and it takes experience and practice to use them all, and it is also the most easily ignored skill for novices, so it is recommended that you do not rush and clearly understand and use the basic composition first, and then further apply the advanced composition!

Documentary photography is the first nature.

It is very difficult to come up with a complete and scientific definition of documentary photography. So we might as well interpret it from different angles. I understand it from this point of view:

Documentary photography is to record the real world as seen by the photographer through the lens, rather than to express any subjective thoughts of the photographer. Documentary photography can have characters, but these characters don't deliberately want to show anything to the camera (expressions, movements, etc.), but they should be normal in real life here and now.