Documentary Photo Essay

381 Words2 Pages
In todays society most of the world have come accustomed to visualize. We see images every day whether they are in newspapers, television or education, making it a common means of communication – almost replacing text itself. Storytelling through pictures have gone way back, for example stained-glass windows of churches and artwork in old books, but it wasn’t until World War 1 that documentary started to become an everyday practice throughout various types of media and this continued to progress throughout the twentieth century. Documentary photography was never considered as an art, nor has it been associated with advertising, however it has provided show provided real-life information to show Documentary peaked when mass press became widespread in the 1920s and 1930’s. Within the commercial magazine industry, photo magazines provided consumers of what was going on in the news and also included documentary stories of peoples’ lives. History Documentary photography can be dated back since the 1850’s (in America). It has allowed us to record and view accurate records of historic events such as wars, terrorism and also ordinary events within peoples’ lives. Initially, documentary photography mainly concentrated within industry and urban environments. Many documentary photos were designed to be kept in files and not to be displayed on walls. It was used in areas such as the police, in hospitals and mental institutions and also in passports. The need for proof. They could also be put into libraries, slide talks. It raises the question; who was privilidged to look at them? Who were they addressed to? Documentary as a genre emerged in 1926. The economic collapse of the likes of the Wall Street crash created a boom in the documentary photography world. What is Documentary? Documentary photography is a practice that focuses on
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