Documentary | Photography

Documentary Project

Definition and Theory:

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 is the practice of making a photograph which is an accurate representation of its subject.
The decisive moment is a concept made popular by the street photographer, photojournalist, and Magnum co-founder Henri Cartier-Bresson.
This refers to capturing an event that is captured in a short amount of time and very spontaneous, where the image represents the essence of the event itself.

Planning:

For my documentary project I plan to research the photographers Henri Cartier Bresson and Lauren Greenfield before proceeding with my shoot. Then for my shoot I will focus on the theme of younger girls being photographed whilst...

Wearing a lot of make up on their young faces
Styling their hair in a certain way
Posing as dramatic and demanding young pageant girls
Wearing well dressed and professional clothing

All as if these young girls have been professionally pampered in preparation for them to stand on a stage being judged by certain people. I chose to focus on this theme because I like to produce shoots to link with my love for make up and fashion. Also, I appreciate the extreme message that these photos will give of young naturally pretty girls being extremely pampered in order to please judges or receive a certain prize.

My Image Bank:

AO1: Develop ideas through sustained and focused investigations informed by contextual and other sources, demonstrating analytical and critical understanding.

Photographer: Henri Cartier Bresson

Henri Cartier-Bresson was a French humanist photographer considered a master of candid photography, and an early user of 35 mm film. He pioneered the genre of street photography, and viewed photography as capturing a decisive moment. Cartier-Bresson was one of the founding members of Magnum Photos in 1947. He was well known for his documentary shoots which plays a strong part in the reason to why I chose to study this photographer in the process of this project. I enjoy the impact and messages that he gives within his images, almost as if there is no hidden element in the image. Its presenting the truth, nothing more and nothing less.

Photographer: Lauren Greenfield

Lauren Greenfield is an American artist, documentary photographer, and documentary filmmaker. She has published four photographic monographs, directed four documentary features, produced four travelling exhibitions, and published in magazines throughout the world. She studied at Harvard and created her first film in 2019, called 'The Kingmaker' debuting at the 76th Venice Film Festival. Greenfield strongly believes that we live in a Beauty Culture and the main reason to why she studies and documents certain topics: the gender- girl culture, eating disorders and women models completely starving themselves and generation wealth- beauty pageants. My documentary project will have a strong link to her idea of Generation Wealth and the focus of younger girls competing in beauty pageants.

My Process...

Before photographing the girls I took photographs of my process of completing a full face of make up on them both. As well as, curling their hair and styling it in a sort of way similar to how the hair of girls in pageants usually.

My Contact Sheets:

Throughout my contact sheets I captured numbers of photographs of two young girls posing wearing a full face of make up and different dresses, whilst having similar styled hair.

My Best Images:

Images that need Improvements:

AO3: Record ideas, observations and insights relevant to intentions, reflecting critically on work and progress.

I believe that these photographs were considered to need improvements and highlighted the aspects that I need to focus on in following shoots. For example, the lighting and shadows within these images. I learned during this shoot to keep my flash on when shooting due to the lighting in the room where I took my photographs. There was also a loss of focus within one of these photographs which I do not think reflects how serious these girls believe pageants to be.

My Editing Process:

AO2: Explore and select appropriate resources, media, materials, techniques and processes, reviewing and refining ideas as work develops.

When editing these photographs I increased the contrast to enhance the colour contrast between the bright colours of their make up and the different colour dresses. This effect was also created as I raised the levels of saturation, but avoided doing this too much, as I wouldn't want to create an over saturated effect. I also enhanced the exposure to highlight their perfectly clear and young skin complexion.

My Edited Images:

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

Overall, I believe that this documentary project was a success and followed through from the inspiration of Lauren Greenfield and the style or chosen topics of her work. I believe that my editing skills have improved also which may be more clearer after this project. There is also an element of success in the messages being portrayed within the image and the overall sense of the different stories about beauty pageants and young girls with heavy make up and gown-like dresses.

AO4: Present a personal and meaningful response that realises intentions and, where appropriate, makes connections between visual and other elements.

Overall, I believe that this project was my most successful by far as I have taken and produced my best set of final edited photographs. I believe that my overall editing skills have improved in the aspect of not over editing the photos by increasing the saturation or contrast too much. The message that I intended to create with the photos links very strongly to one of the photographers that I previously researched; Lauren Greenfield. I personally think that both mine and Lauren Greenfield's style of work link very strongly together and both create similar messages. This being the reason why this documentary project was a success. However, I believe that this project was my most successful due to the overall quality of my final edited photographs.