Will documentary photography be used in the future?
1. Introduction
? Documentary photography is photography that uses photography technology to record and appeal to an ideal society. method, and its photographic materials come from real life. After entering the 21st century, photography must maintain tradition while pioneering and innovating, respecting authority while expressing individuality. As a result, many modern trendy works are distorted due to constraints, and the usability of relative documentary photography has been questioned. In an era when photography technology has advanced by leaps and bounds, everyone can take photos, but the exquisite composition and precise exposure cannot seem to replace the emotions and thoughts conveyed by the photos themselves. This is why documentary photography continues to this day and even continues to develop. This article will analyze seven points: photography has historical and eternal value, real photography is disappearing, exploring the authenticity of documentary photography, whether it can be replaced, the importance of documentary photography, the reasons for advocating documentary photography and why it will be passed down.
2. Text
1. Documentary photography will never go out of style and is the foundation of all photography. Documentary photography has historical and eternal value. (1) Li Ge: Photojournalists may disappear, but thoughtful photographers will never disappear.
(2) Teacher Li Fan once said: I hope that through photography, we can achieve a kind of consciousness, that is, contemporary images should record the times and take pictures for the times, which can fully express a photographer's vision of the times. Today’s photographic images are being understood and improved.
(3) Peter Adams: "A good photo lies in the depth of emotion, not the depth of field."
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2. Real documentary photography is emerging Disappear
? As the boundaries of documentary photography gradually collapse, what will the future of documentary photography look like? Will it be like "direct photography" and be integrated into the entire photography discourse system?
(1) The authenticity of today’s documentary photography
Zhang Jie wrote in the paper "A Brief Analysis of the Internet Communication of Documentary Photography - Taking Tencent's "Alive" Column as an Example" The authenticity of documentary photography must not only pursue the truth of a single picture, but also pursue the truth of the overall social landscape presented. The media plays the role of a social safety valve. Different opinions, opinions, and different positions and attitudes towards facts can be expressed. Being presented and listened to in a media system that includes both traditional media and new media voices proves the inclusiveness and tolerance of social mentality, and the elasticity and flexibility of social structure. ⑥The online dissemination of documentary photography is also a kind of decompression and catharsis. The behavior has irrational characteristics, and the excessive accumulation of negative information decompresses society and magnifies social problems infinitely, misleading the audience into forming a wrong psychological understanding of society. "Tell you a living world, a story of light and shadow. The changes of the times, the ups and downs of the people, all seep out from this tiny pore, and finally paint a picture of China's people's livelihood." The opening line of "Alive" shows that the column aims to record the people's livelihood, not the sufferings of the people, and the negative content is too Many have violated the original intention and painted a false social landscape."
Photographic work "Alive", photographer Li Xiaowei
(2) An alternative product to documentary photography
The future situation may be like this. Documentary photography will continue to exist in the field of professional photography in the future, but on a general level, it will basically be replaced by short videos. This is a famous saying in Liu Cixin's novel "The Three-Body Problem". It means that the enemy who destroys you is often not your opponent, but the outsider who emerges from an unrelated field.
(3) The story behind documentary photography can be checked
In the daily photography news in "Photography Notes", it is written that "documentary photography is fake and innocent, helpless and shameless. We must work hard to cure this disease! ""Using staged photos to pretend to be snapshots is to deceive readers. This is called "malicious staged photography"
3. Photography is developing at a rapid pace. In order for photographic works to penetrate people's hearts, they still need to return to their essential attributes and record things. Use authenticity to fully demonstrate the charm and value of photography. Documentary photography is the basis of all photography, so it has great applicability in the future.
(1) The importance of documentary photography
The famous war correspondent Robert Capa’s judgment on photography: “The camera itself cannot prevent war, but the photos taken by the camera can reveal War, prevent the development of war.
"Robert Capa is the most famous war photojournalist of the 20th century. He participated in reporting on almost all important wars of the time, including the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the First Middle East War. By condensing the "decisive moment", his works truly represent the cruelty and violence of war. When it comes to Robert Capa, most people will think of one of his famous works, "The Death of a Soldier," which captured the moment of death of soldiers and soldiers in a war filled with bullets. As a result, the 25-year-old Capa was also called the world's greatest war photographer by many magazines in Europe and the United States.
Photographic work "The Death of a Soldier", photographer Robert Capa, 1936
(2) Reasons for advocating documentary photography
Documentary photography can The most important reason why it has developed globally is that people want to use it to come to the United States. Eugene Smith spent four years filming the mercury poisoning incident in a small fishing village in Kyushu, Japan. Because the small fishing village was polluted by wastewater from nearby companies, most of the villagers in the village suffered from mercury poisoning, and hundreds of people lost their precious lives. Smith realized that this was the best warning to people about destroying the environment, so he used his camera to record the miserable lives of people in the village, and used pictures to show the disasters caused by environmental pollution to mankind. Throughout the whole process of topic selection and shooting, he not only recorded objective facts, but also showed people's courage and the power of humanity through pictures and words. "Photography is just a small voice at best. But sometimes, a photo, or a group of photos, can trigger our sense of responsibility. Maybe many of us are affected by this, and they want to find out what is Wrong, find the way to the right.” Eugene Smith wrote in 1974.
Photography work Minamata Bay, photographer Eugene Smith, 1971
(3) The sustainable development of documentary photography
For the majority of news photographers It is of great significance and an important and urgent task. Bartemanz took many widely circulated and shocking photos of the Soviet Army during World War II. In shooting the semi-abstract "Attack" from 1942, Bartemanz used several hallmark elements of modern Soviet photography, such as blurring dynamic scenes and shooting the subject from a low perspective to highlight the characters. mental outlook. At first glance, you can tell that this photo reflects a war scene, but it will give people different feelings as time and space change.
"We have photographed many major events that make human beings sad and painful, such as wars, fires, earthquakes and killings. In fact, we are also willing to shoot the same high-quality pictures related to happiness, joy and love. Subject matter. But I realized that it was difficult."
Photography "Attack", Photographer Bartmann, 1942
4. Conclusion
? Documentary photography, as the basis of photography, may innovate with the progress of the times, but it will never become outdated and will always be used. This article explains that photography is the prerequisite and foundation of all photography through the famous sayings of Li Fan, Li Ge, and Robert Capa; on the other hand, it uses Zhang Jie’s essays, novels "Three Body Problems" and "Photographic Notes" to explain the false stories behind modern documentary photography. Sex, whether it can be checked. And through "Death of War", the incident in the small fishing village of Kyushu, Japan, and the photographic work "Attack", it is proved that documentary photography is a photography method whose main purpose is to record the reality of life. The materials come from life and reality and faithfully reflect what we see. Therefore, documentary photography has the value of recording and preserving history, and has unique qualifications as a social witness.
References
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2 .Li Chenghui, "Analysis on the Recording of Documentary Photography" [M], Academic Perspectives of Liaoning University, September 2020
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