DOCUMENTARY STYLE

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Every photograph is a document in the  sense that a camera records through a lens what it sees  at a particular time and place. Whether a car accident record, or a moon landing, the photograph is a document . A record by photographic means. What then is documentary style ?  For me it is adding artists intent.  It  is about giving that document a life of its own, no longer associated with external reality, it now being an illusion of reality. I photograph in  a straight forward manner, the object of my seeing being the most important part of the photograph, but using time, composition, color, and light, to  give the reality a new life, one that can exist on its own...This represents a break in purpose from the original definition of photograph as document.IOt also means that I restrict the use of any filters, or excessive photoshop manipulation to enhance or, change skies, backgrounds etc,,,I  want the viewer to  see the subject as it appress in reality , not as a misrepresentation, Photography has its own strengths. It is not painting , cinema, or a narrative craft...it is photography and I strive to use its unique straights to best unify my work..

A great example of this can be seen in the work of Timothy H O'Sullivan.., 1840-1882, a  Mathew Brady 's Civil War photography team member who was the chief photographer  for the Geological Exploration of the Fortieth Parallel  under Clarence King..Sullivan had earlier expressed desires to use photography beyond merely recording.  The untamed nature that he photographed was a new concept for photography, not tried to the conventions of landscape painting. O=Sullivan combine science and art to make photographs of extraordinary beauty on large glass plates...This was a documentary work with artistic intent --Documentary Style.  He would go on to photograph ancient Pueblo ruins in the southwest, preceding some of Ansel Adam's most famous works and giving those photographs a life of their own. 

The photographer must show great respect for the reality before him, and his audience should expect  veracity in the photograph, otherwise why bother with photography, just paint..!!