8/7/2019 Research - Documentary Photographers

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Documentary Photography ResearchFamous Documentary Photographers

The first photographer who I have decided to research is a

man named Jacob Riis, a documentary photographer who workedin New York City in the twentieth century. Riis started looking intophotography as a new and interesting way o documenting thesqualor of New York City, but at the time photography was a veryexpensive and extremely little knows enterprise. One of the primaryreasons why Riis was such a good documentary photographer andmanaged to acquire so many new and interesting photographs ofNYC is because of his determination. This was so important to himbecause it did take a lot of effort before he was able to photographthe slums and back alleys of New York at night, something whichhad never before been done due to the lack of flash photography. Ithink that looking back at Riis achievements in the world ofphotography shows us that although it may be at times, extremelytough to get the shots which you are after, if you feel stronglyenough about the subject which you have chosen to document, andyou do not give up, it is possible to capture some incrediblephotographs which may even one day change lives. This is one ofthe main reasons why I have decided to try and pursue a topicwhich I feel very strongly about for my story, and so have settleon the primary theme of Music.

The second photographer whose works I have decided to

study is one who is much more closely related to my current chosentheme for my documentary photography. Gered Mankowitz is oneof Londons most famous rock music photographers and has hadthe privilege of working with such famous acts as Jimi Hendrix, MickJagger and The Rolling Stones. I chose to look at the work ofMankowitz because he is one of the most famous photographerswho worked on the same sort of subject that I wish to pursue, andalso because I am greatly interested by the style of photography heused when he first started out as a music photographer. The mainelement of his music photography which I have looked at is some ofhis earlier work in which he worked with artists who were not very

well known, but also chose artists who were of a very similar age tohimself, this allowed him to work in a much less formal atmospherein the studio then any other music photographer before him hadand was one of the key features in allowing him to acquirecompletely unique shots, the like of which had never been seenbefore. This is also very relevant to my project in the sense that Iam also going to be working with some local unsigned bands whoare of a very similar age to myself and this will allow me to recreatea similar sort of atmosphere for shooting to that which Mankowitzmanaged to create.