Documentary and photojournalism: Surveyors and surveyed

Documentary and photojournalism are used all over the world and are used to document and display events or past occurrences. Both types of photography have no clear boundaries and they cannot be defined. Photographs are a powerful tool to get a reaction and to let people have an insight into places or events that they may never see, past and present. Photojournalism and other types of photography such as fashion often respond to events happening at that time. However, even though putting a message across through a photograph might be seen as an important objective, to see what is happening in other parts of the world, faith in photographs has been somewhat lost. Photographs were initially seen as scientific and an object of evidence with truth, however with developments in editing, the relationship between photographs and reality has been somewhat compromised. This is clearly shown in fashion and magazine photography where images are heavily edited to create a unrealistic image. Documentary photography has no clear definition as it does not have a specific style. A war could be documented or a family could be documented through a family album or photos. These two examples are completely different events. Photojournalism and documentary photography are both linked in some ways as they both narrate current events and are good ways to illustrate them. Photojournalism spread quickly during the 1930's with the introduction of magazines like 'Look' and 'Life' in America, however developments with technology such as camera phones means it is slowly becoming less needed. Both types of photography claim to have an an accurate view of the world through their photographs however trust in photographs has been lost and whether they are factual is being questioned. There is now a need to make images which are in line with society so for social and commercial uses that the nature of photography is being questioned and understanding 'the real' is becoming more difficult.