‘The Creation of Narrative within Documentary Photography’

Benjamin Taylor
BA (Hons) Photography Year 3 UCA Rochester

Introduction

Documentary photography has been a highly influential genre of the artform since photography’s inception, the use of a camera to showcase all aspects of contemporary life is a style that provides incredible scope. With the nature of documentary providing less artistic direction in the immediate delivery of a single image; the broader themes, narratives, and motivations are expressed more vividly through more extensive bodies of work. The photographic process of documenting lends the photographer to invest themselves into a subject matter that they feel warrants the extensive commitment required.

The narratives that arise from documentary projects can be analysed through many lenses. The work that seeks to document society and the inner workings of subcultures can provide the most vivid forms of such narrative, whether these be political messages, personal stories amongst many other forms. A narrative can be portrayed through a number of devices utilised in photography – an example being visual cues repeated throughout such as the use of the American flag to juxtapose the social conflicts Robert Frank documented. The photographic narrative in the simplest form is the repeating feelings evoked through the images that the photographer intended to draw attention to; and to study this visual language and mode of delivery gives great insight into the practitioners’ process.

Narrative with the photographic image can be explored with or without context, work individually or as part of a larger body and the nature of the image plays a large role in how we interact with the medium. Stephen Shore states on ‘A Small Voice – Conversations with Photographers’ (Shore, 2022: 27:00) about the physical nature of the image – taking a 4- dimensional reality and taking this and directing this into a 2-dimensional space with 4 edges. His thoughts on the photographic image can provide a critical framework for how we can approach finding the narrative in the documentary image.

By challenging the saying ‘a picture is worth 1000 words’ Shore provides a point that can create a foundation for what we can understand as a photographic narrative. Shore elaborates that simultaneity is the key to differentiating the image from text and thus can be shown in the display of narrative, he explains that the image is transferred to the audience far more effectively due to its instantaneous nature. The creation of narrative can thus be put into a framework of the message and feelings that the photographer intends to express through the instantaneous connection to the audience.

Contrasts and comparisons can also be made when looking at the differing nature of the still documentary photography and moving documentary film; as the devices of narrative expression offer interesting similarities and differences when studying alongside one another. With the temporal nature of the still image being central to photography’s impact with an audience whereas the moving image has more avenues to explore in terms of broadcasting an idea to a viewer through the more dynamic medium.

To understand the definition of the documentary project, distinctions must be made from the genre of photojournalism as the differences between the tone can become increasingly blurred. Whilst the documentary format can co-exist alongside accompanying text, photojournalism however, exists to serve the written story it is illustrating; therefore, the mode of narrative delivery seems far more overt and apparent. For example, a line of descriptive text will far more often be found underneath an image within an article than a traditional photo-book.

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benjamintaylorcreative@gmail.com