Documentary
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Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to chronicle events or environments both significant and relevant to history and historical events as well as everyday life. it provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events. It is often used in reportage.
​The decisive moment is a concept made popular by the street photographer, photojournalist, and Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson. The decisive moment refers to capturing an event that is ephemeral and spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.
Richard Billingham
Richard Billingham is an English photographer and artist, film maker and art teacher. His work has mostly concerned his family, the place he grew up in the West Midlands, but also landscapes elsewhere. Billingham is best known for the photography book Ray's A Laugh (1996), which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray, and obese, heavily tattooed mother, Liz.
i was naturally drawn to Billingham's work from "Ray's A Laugh" because it seems very natural and all the photos of them are of something the would do everyday. i like the way that he has used a flash in his work so the image is clearer to his viewers. I would like to incorporate this style of photography in my shoot as it is focused on the mum and dad but you can still see most things in the background.
I like the chilled out vibe that this picture gives off. I like the fact that the mum is just living in the here and now and seems to not care about the future or have any worries. I would like to have a similar look to my work but i could use the life of delinquent teenagers instead or a mother or father figure and use friends. I would like to show how friends could have a family status to some people. I would also like to show how relaxed teens can be without pressure from society, education and family.
I like the way how the mother is amusing herself with a puzzle, it gives the viewer a main subject to focus on. I also like the way that the background is rather dirty and slightly cluttered it gives off a neglection feel to the woman's house. I want to do something that shows off how modern teens have fun in today's society. I have noticed that in the majority of these images the woman is smoking, i think that i would be able to have a few teens smoking and/or drinking as most kids in Britain have done these (whilst being underage). this issue has become apart of the "British culture" according to other countries like America.
In this photograph the Father is picking up a tumbler half filled with what i can assume to be alcohol. this is a great example of the decisive moment from Henri Carter-Bresson as a second after the drink may be in this mouth or a second before and he may not be touching the glass. If i were to have something similar it would have to be teens drinking alcohol out of a bottle. I like the way that the Dad is very focused on his drink as well.
Contact Sheet 1
In this photo shoot i was with my family for my grandma's 59th birthday and a little Christmas time as it was on the 21st Dec. there were a few incidents including : my aunt cutting her finger, brother and cousin having a punch up and a few of us were bloated. the night ended in an odd monkey tail game, in which we all got involved in. i wanted to convey how close family can be and come together in the holiday period. i think i could've further improve my work i could've used my camera but it was easier to use my phone so people wouldn't act different as i wanted this to be as natural as possible. i like this photo shoot as i feel i was able to capture odd moments that many families have good or bad. I'm sure i had a few decisive moments in there too.
edits 1
in this edit i cropped out the cluttered empty plates to have a better focus on the children in the image. i then decreased the brightness by 57 and decreased the contrast by 10. i then used the curve tool on adjustments to decrease the exposure ever so slightly to further give off the late night look in this image. after this, i increased the saturation by 10 to liven up the image a bit. in this image i can clearly see the girl reach out for the spoon in the bowl. i would count this as a decisive moment as if i took it a second later she would've already had the piece of cutlery in her hand. to have had this photo look better i would've not had the girls arm as blurry as it is.
in this edit i decided to crop out quite a lot of this image to have the main focus on the hands and the confectionery food in between them. I was glad i had captured this moment as if it were a fraction of a second before or after the item would of either not be passed or already taken. I then decreased the brightness by 19 and the contrast by 5, then decreasing exposure by 0.89. i wanted to see if putting my image into black and white would increase the focus and it did (on the food item). i feel this image would've been better if there wasn't the box in the bottom right corner and the girl eating in the background as this diverts the viewers attention from the hands.
in this image there is a dog licking the food off of the mans finger, i decided to edit this and began by cropping the image to have the focus on the hand and the dog. i decreased the brightness by 15 and the contrast ever so slightly by 7. i then adjusted the exposure by +0.44, the offset by +0.00084 and the gamma correction to 0.80. i then used the curve tool to darken the image evenly, thus was to increase the quality of the image with out having over exposure. i then made the image black and white to get rid of the overly used beige colour in my image.
in this photo there is a bandage being put on a womans finger after she had sliced it open. i again, began the editing by cropping the image to the main focus of the image. i then increased the brightness by 10 and decreased the contrast by 4. increased exposure by 0.44, offset by 0.00042 and the gamma correction to 0.84. i then used the curve tool to make the room look lighter so there wasn't too much going on in my image. after this i still thought the image was very distracting so i converted it to black and white so that the background wouldn't be diverting the viewer.
i liked the use of the green light from the television in this image so i decided not to use a black and white effect. i did however, change the brightness to +6 and the contrast to +43. i then continued this edit by cropping the image to the main focus of the woman reading game instructions and the two children looking at the game board. i then used the curve tool to make the room look darker and have an increase of concentration in the light.
Contact Sheet 2
In this photo shoot my family had gone ice skating and i thought of it as a good opportunity to take photos. there were a few falls towards the ground and against the barrier. through out these documentary photo-shoots i want to show that family can be close even if they only see each other in the holiday period. i would've preferred the ice-rink to have been emptier so i could've gotten better images. i like that the background was bright and mainly white as this produced better lighting. i was able to catch a lot of movement in this photo shoot as nearly everyone was skating. i hope to have caught a few decisive moments as i would've used Henri Cartier-Bresson's technique.
Edits 2
