Documentary

Documentary

Definition and theory

Documentary: using pictures with people involved in real life events to provide a factual report on a particular subject.

Decisive moment: Henri Cartier Bresson "the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as the precise organisation of forms which gives that event its proper expression". There was a single instant in which the meaning of an event was most clearly represented graphically. It was the responsibility of the photographer to capture that representation.

This picture portrays decisive moment. Bresson would have positioned himself at the top of the stairwell and waited for something to happen so he could capture it with his camera. When the person rode past on his bike, Bresson captured the scene with the bike appearing as motion blur. He didn't stage the photograph, he took the picture in the moment of time, making it a decisive moment picture. 

This picture shows a woman walking up the steps as a mass of birds fly in various directions. The likely reason for this capture is that Bresson saw all of the birds on steps and a woman walking towards the steps, so he knew the birds would react and fly away, therefore he decided in the moment to capture the scene. 

This photograph shows a woman running across the road, so Bresson's idea for this might have been that he saw the woman and decided to capture the movement she made. 

Ideas for documentary photography over Christmas period:

•Everyday life

•Shopping

•Transport

•Culture

•Tradition

•Food

•Family and friends

•Snow play

•Parties

•Exchanging Christmas presents

•New year countdown

•Church

Image bank

I have selected some images from Google Images that show photographs of 'documentary' with the idea of beautification:

Research of artist

Lauren Greenfield was born in 1966 in Boston, US. She did Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University and graduated in in 1987. Whilst still an undergraduate at Harvard (from September 1985 to May 1986), Greenfield took upon a nine-month-long program created by the International Honors Program, entitled "Film Study and Anthropology", to travel the world. This experience introduced Greenfield to anthropological and documentary filmmaking in France, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria, India, Australia and Japan.

Greenfield is an American artist, documentary photographer and documentary filmmaker. She has published four photographic monographs, directed four documentary films, exhibited in museums, and published in magazines and other publications. She married Frank Evers, an American businessman, to whom she has two sons. They reside in Venice, California.

Greenfield's undergraduate thesis was the beginning of her career and helped her to proceed with photography as an intern for National Geographic Magazine. A subsequent grant from National Geographic provided financial support towards her debut monograph, "Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood" in 1997 through Knopf, a publishing company. Five years after this release, Greenfield produced a second major body of work about the self-esteem crisis amongst American women, entitle "Girl Culture". Greenfield's photography has been regularly displayed in international publications, such as New York Times, The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, etc.

The following images are examples of Greenfield's photography work based on "Girl Culture":

Selected images

Contact sheets

Best images 

I have selected 18 images from my contact sheet that I think represent 'girl culture-' documentary photography best:

Images that need improvement

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress
With reference to my best images:

The first image shows a girl having her makeup applied by another girl. I captured this image as I thought it resembles the idea of 'girl culture' well. Neither of the girls are smiling, but they are pulling neutral faces wight the girl applying the makeup looking as though she is focussing on what she is doing and the girl having the makeup applied is trying to stay still for the other girl to do the makeup. It isn't too clear to see, but the girl who is applying the makeup has multiple cuts along her arm. This is important to show within 'girl culture' because it shows that there is another story to a girl behind all the makeup and the way that they look. I had intended to capture the girls off-guard, without telling them to pose or do anything else but to let themselves get on with it.

The fourth image is similar to the first but using a different model to the one having the makeup applied. The other difference is that you see this girl but only the hands of the other girl, shifting the focus from two girls to just one. I also had the same intentions as I had for the first image. This image was taken at the same shoot as the first image so the two images share the same location.

The ninth image shows similarity to the previous two images that I have described, such as the application of makeup, but the image differs in a way that makes the image unique in comparison to the first and fourth. The model in this image is applying the makeup herself, looking into a mirror that she holds in her hand. The intention that I had for this image was to show a girl of a young age fantasising makeup and beatification. She shows to already be wearing lipstick and looks as though she is applying blusher to her cheeks. She looks rather unhappy which adds to the idea that girls feel as though it is a necessity to create this 'perfect' look but it isn't all what it seems.

AO2 Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops
I used a Nikon D3300 to take these images. I used the zoom lens in almost all of the images, but I also got up rather close to the model's faces so that I could capture their facial expressions along with the activity of beatifying themselves. I didn't use a tripod because I wanted to capture the models using different angles, so the best way to do this was to move around the model while they continued with making themselves up. I took my photographs in different locations for each shoot, but all inside a home. I tried to capture parts of the background to give the interpretation that it isn't staged and this is what girls do at their own homes, but I was focusing more on capturing the activity as this is higher priority. I set my camera to auto, so the aperture varied between 4 and 5.6 for all images.

Below are screen captures of how I edited one of my best images in Photoshop:

I opened the image in Photoshop and started by sharpening the image. To do this, I selected 'Filter', then 'Sharpen' and then 'Unsharp Mask...' 

I increased the amount for sharpening to 110% because this is what I thought looked best for the image. I didn't make any more edits for sharpening the image. 

The next thing I did was decrease the saturation from 0 to -28. I did this based on how Greenfield's images look. It also makes the image look less modern, as though it could have been taken many years ago. 

I decided to decrease the brightness to -23 and increase the contrast to 49 because again, it made the image look more like in the style of Greenfield's images. 

I adjusted the curve levels slightly, as shown in the image above, as this is the level that I thought looked best for the image. 

The final thing I did was increase the amount of yellow in the neutral colours within the picture. I increased it to 18 as this looked the most appropriate to look in the style of the photographer's work. 

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytic and critical understanding
I researched photographer Lauren Greenfield so that I could have an inspiration for my work for 'documentary'. After researching the photographer, I approached the photography task by capturing 'girl culture' with young girls seeming as though they are fantasising beauty. I found that the images by Greenfield were very helpful towards my work as I could create an idea of what I would be looking to capture. The information that I found about her life, however, was not so helpful for myself as it wasn't relevant for capturing girl culture, but I was able to get an understanding of Greenfield's personal life which was interesting to find out. I gather that Greenfield captured a variety of ages of girls within her photography, therefore I took the same approach by ranging the ages of the models as far as I could.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections on work and progress
My initial intention for documenting 'girl-culture' was to capture female models of a young age applying making, doing their hair, etc (beautifying themselves), all while showing blank facial expressions. I asked the models to look not focus on what their face shows so that they can get on with doing this without faking their expressions as this is what they would look like if they were doing this on a daily basis. bit also helps create the idea that girls feel as though making themselves up is a necessity so that they can become what they believe is 'perfect'. I used a range of models throughout a few shoots. One shoot includes teenage girls aged 16 and 17, having their makeup applied. The second shoot includes younger girls aged 3, 6 and 9 doing the same thing as the people in the first shoot. The third shoot includes only one model aged 3 (same model as shoot 2) doing a variety of things to beautify herself. The fourth shoot includes a teenage girl aged 17, different to those used in the first shoot.

Below are the final edits :