Documentary

Can photography change the world? Iranian artist and journalist Farnaz Damnabi's new exhibit, "UNVEILED," set to open at 29 ARTS IN PROGRESS, would seem to suggest yes, at least in part. I don't think it's a surprise to anyone that shifts in power structures can be turbulent. Even minor revisions in social identities can lead to conflict. Damnabi's exhibit is a document of the transformations in the identity, visibility, and recognition of women as equal and free participants in Iran, an unveiling of a new Iran, if you will.

Photo festivals are a great way to show work outside of where you live. Many of them, such as Arles or Photo 2022, have open calls to pitch work. Since these festivals often show early career artists with established names, they offer deeper insight into current ways within photography.

As a medium, photography is all about sight. If you can’t see it, you can’t really take a photograph of it. The alternative is, of course, things like art, music, or prose where you don’t need to see something to make something about it.

Do you ever feel challenged by the creative energy of your subjects? The pressure to create something unique when you're walking amongst giants? I had a chance to talk with renowned music photographer, Denis O'Regan about shooting some of the biggest names in modern music history.

Queen Elizabeth’s passing has received quite a bit of coverage here in the United States. Millions of people turned out not only in London but all over the UK and the globe for various services held in her honor. The coverage has shown the sincere outpouring of respect and affection that the people of her country have for her, but there is a noticeable emphasis on the scale and spectacle of the event.

Imagine being tasked with photographing press events featuring some of the most famous people in the world, on a regular basis. Are you confident that you can come away with photographs as strong or better than those of your peers? Can you find the small, personal moments taking place in the chaos to create images that are unique? Christy Bowe is a photographer who has successfully accomplished these tasks for the past three decades.

One of the most exciting topics for me to cover during my time as a professional newspaper journalist was fires and firefighting, and the potential for great images is there for anyone who approaches the matter with a little preparation and knowledge.

This video is the second part (of three) of Smarter Everyday's in-depth tour of Kodak's film production line in Rochester, New York. In the first video, we saw how the base of the film is made out of pellets, as they're melted down and formed into uniform, thin, clear sheets.

Getty Images has announced the launch of the Black History & Culture Collection (BHCC), which consists of over 30,000 historical images of the African/Black Diaspora that are free for non-commercial usage.

The unifying thread which first attracted me to Hugo-Victor Solomon’s work is the honesty and candidness of his portraits.

If you ever get the feeling that photography is not valued today, it might interest you to know that Getty Images is offering $85k in three new editorial grants to support photojournalists and organizations, with an emphasis on supporting photographers whose work shines a light on important issues of our time.

In this video, MIT Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar says that photo-realism is dead. They're discussing machine learning and technologies working to give us evenly exposed night-time images on our mobile phones. If these technologies are not available in professional cameras today, will they ever be, and would you want them as a professional photographer?

With film photography once again becoming popular, photographers who wish to take it up must wonder where the current film stock is coming from. Is it from the remnants of film stock that was made years ago? Well, you'll be happy to know that Kodak still has production lines running at its factory and even happier to watch this deep dive into how they make the film that you shoot today.

Have you ever heard someone say: "you have to watch it at the cinema"? This is usually when it's a movie loaded with action, special effects, and sound design that captures your imagination. Is this all that gets the cinemas to sell seats? If your answer is yes, this video might make you consider your opinion.

Footage that’s cinematic doesn’t just mean a nice LUT and some grain. It means knowing how to use light — and maybe trees.

Non-photographers often complain about black and white images: they’re dated, they’re just a gimmick, or they’re elitist and boring. These are personal preferences; however, we live in a color world, so you can't discount that black and white images can create a disconnect for modern viewers. To bring history alive, is colorization a solution?

A street photographer’s task is to observe the mundane human interactions that take place throughout the day and turn them into something worthy of being preserved and shared through photography. This is not an easy task.

A frequent refrain among photographers is that the area around their home is just too boring to photograph. Here are a couple of ideas to help you find engaging and meaningful photographic projects in locations that feel completely uninspiring.

The entire genre of time-lapse photography is a game of patience and preparation, but creating short films involving the life cycle of a mushroom is on an entirely different level. When 24hrs worth of frames can equate to only a few seconds of footage there is not a lot of room for mistakes.

We usually see a photograph as a solitary work, a passing moment in time captured to be examined on its own. However, creating a coherent story through a body of work can lift your photography up to a new level.

If there is one type of news story that is a recurring theme in journalism it is the protest. Think "Tank Man", "The Burning Monk", or "Taking a Stand in Baton Rouge" (with Ieshia Evans). They stick in the memory, their iconographic status forming a peg from which we hang related memories. So why then are we more interested in riots as opposed to protests?

Instagram, in particular, is full of high-quality travel photography — there's no end to it. But if you want to tell a personal story from your adventuring or pique the interest of a commercial entity with the hope of landing a new photography client, then you need to be able to produce a cohesive set of images.

Putting together a cohesive set of images that illustrate a grand narrative is not an easy process, especially for those of us who taken up photography and end up just shooting single shots for a portfolio and/or to sell prints. This video has some great tips for those who want to break out of that mold and start something a bit more substantial.

You take photos, you write books, you're published in weekly and monthly newspapers and magazines, and travel the world with the sole purpose of... traveling. You sound like one of the early social media influencers of the 2010s who was "living the dream," constantly on the road, distributing a drip of photos and articles to the travel-enthused general public. However, it's 1888, and your name is Frank Carpenter.

Vuhlandes is a film photographer based in Detroit, Michigan. In this video, he collaborates with cowgirl Brianna and her horse, Dapper Dan, to create images that meld Vuhlandes’ urban style with a distinctly nostalgic, yet new Americana.

Two of the most important artists working as photographers in the second half of the twentieth century shaped our understanding of documentary image-making, largely through their photographs of cooling towers, coal bunkers, and water tanks.

Rather than awarding $40,000 to a single photographer, this year’s W. Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography is doing something different: it will award five photographers each with $10,000.

Renowned Scottish photographer, Rankin, has teamed up with Relate, the UK's largest relationship support provider, to help reduce the stigma related to later life sexuality. Shot with a stark black and white style, Rankin and Relate have produced something quite special.

There are many ways in which a photographer can tackle a particular project in order to create a set of images that complement each other. — from color to composition, the list is a long one. This photographer points out some interesting themes which have influenced how he approaches his projects.

Instead of running away from the recent volcanic eruption in Iceland, this photographer duo decided to rush towards it instead and capture some immense photographs.

This video takes you through the process of piecing together a documentary or any video with a story. You'll see the workflow, how the edit is put in a workable space, and how you can recycle certain parts of the shots you captured to strengthen the narrative.

One of the most important things about photography is that it records moments in time so they are never forgotten by future generations. It also provides evidence that things actually happened. These incredible images from last week's monster ocean swells in Hawaii show why photography is so important in documenting history.

Drug and alcohol addiction often go hand in hand with art. Painting has Van Gogh and Pollock, poetry has Coleridge and Ginsburg, music has The Beatles and Jim Morrison, and novels have Burroughs and Welsh. I was, however, surprised by how little information I could find about photographers’ substance abuse. Where are the in-depth books about photographers that were inspired or crushed by their addictions?

Marc Silber, of Advancing Your Photography, sits down with three renowned photojournalists to talk about the stories behind some of their incredible images and how they approach their craft.

With cityscapes, traffic trails, shadow puppets, pink bikes, and bat portraits, Jakarta seems to have such diverse stories for a travel and photography show.

The various versions of Tank Man are among the most iconic photographs of the 20th century, having a lasting impact on history to the point that the Chinese State banned the use of the word “Leica” on social media last year. In this short video, Magnum photographer Stuart Franklin discusses how his image came about, and the consequences of its publication.

The Black Lives Matter movement is arguably one of the most significant political and social movements in US history. The photographers in this video sit down to share their thoughts on why photographing the BLM movement is important to them, personally, as well as for posterity.

Two recent photographic projects focusing on sex workers stand in stark contrast to one another. One exploits them as a commodity, the other seeks to give them a voice. Why does the art world seem to value one so much more than the other?

In the early hours of Friday morning U.K. time, Magnum took its entire archive offline. Later that day, it released a statement explaining that it was reviewing its practices following revelations about some of its photographs. Difficult questions still need to be answered and the sequence of events shows how, despite Magnum’s crisis management, they’re not going away.

Are you ready for the new season of "Moments in Time?"

Documentary photographer and former president of Magnum Photos Martin Parr has stepped down from his post as the Artistic Director of Bristol Photo Festival following complaints that he edited a racist photobook.

For photographers, inspiration comes in many forms: some from abstract thoughts, some from life experiences. When inspiration isn't as forthcoming, it's helpful to look at those photographers who forged their own creative paths.

Digital photography usurped film photography within the last two decades almost entirely. But there are still film and analog photographers who swear by their process. This mini-documentary explores their reasons.

With the Black Lives Matters protests attempting to trigger a shift in attitudes towards race around the world, the role of black photographers in documenting the demonstrations is crucial, as outlined by this short video from PBS NewsHour. (Warning: This video contains graphic imagery.)

With the wide theatrical release of "The Picture Of His Life" just a few days away, I thought it might be interesting to create a list of some of the best documentaries about photography and photographers ever made. What are your favorites?

When your income disappears overnight, what do you do? Like many professional photographers during the lockdown, Tristan Poyser found himself suddenly out of work. He took a job at the Amazon warehouse, which led to a fascinating documentary project with unprecedented access to this notoriously secretive company.

How do you photograph extremists without giving them the publicity they desperately crave?

As the narrator describes in the video, what's amazing is that prior to this, no human eyes have ever seen this piece of the ocean floor. I was immediately hooked by the immense beauty as soon as I saw the first creature.

Jeff Rhode has the highly unusual role as a full-time hospital photographer. In this interview, he shares his heart-rending photographs of COVID-19 patients and the staff supporting them and talks about the experience of photographing history as it happens.

Scientists are constantly capturing the devastating effects of environmental decline all over the world. However, doing so underwater has always proven to be a challenge. In the latest documentary binge watch, a team has successfully shown just how the world below the surface is declining at an advanced rate.