Documentary Photography

The history of the genre Larry Clark (1943- Present) Richard Billingham (1970- Present) Fay Godwin (1931 – 2005) Martin Parr (1952 – Present) Harry Gruyaert (1941 – Present)

The earliest form of photography was the...

Daguerreotype

This can be classed as documentary photography, as can all early photography due to its nature of recording.

Photography was created purely to document the surrounding world, so that it could be showed to people living in different parts of the globe.

As photography became slightly more accessible, only slightly more accessible as metal plates still had to be carried around to expose the photograph photographers were sent off to far exotic locations to report back with images of what they saw.

1860’s Civil War

World War

Robert Capa

Vietnamese War

Eddie Adams 1970’s

Iraq War

Documenting life....

Robert Frank

Diane Arbus

Nan Goldin

LARRY CLARKLawrence Donald "Larry" Clark (born January 19, 1943) is an American film director, photographer, writer and film producer who is best known for the movie Kids and his photography book Tulsa. His most common subject is youth who casually engage in illegal drug use, underage sex and violence, and who are part of a subculture (such as surfing, punk rock or skateboarding).

RICHARD BILLINGHAMRichard Billingham (born 25 September 1970) is an English photographer and artist who is best known for his book Ray's A Laugh which documents the life of his alcoholic father Ray and obese, heavily tattooed, mother Liz.

FAY GODWINFay Godwin (17 February 1931 – 27 May 2005) was a noted British photographer, most widely known for her black-and-white landscapes of the British countryside and coast.

Godwin was less active in her final years; in a December 2004 interview for Practical Photography, she blamed "the NHS. They ruined my life by using some drugs with adverse affects that wrecked my heart. The result is that I haven’t the energy to walk very far.”

MARY ELLEN MARKMary Ellen Mark (born March 20, 1940) is an American photographer known for her photojournalism, her portraiture, and her advertising photography. She has had 16 collections of her work published and has been exhibited at galleries and museums worldwide. She has received numerous accolades, including three Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Awards and three fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts.

MARTIN PARRMartin Parr (born 23 May 1952 in Epsom, Surrey) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take a critical look at modern society.

HARRY GRUYAERTHarry Gruyaert (born in Belgium in 1941) began his career as a Director of Photography in television production, but by the early 1970s he had moved over to still photography. He picked up editorial assignments from National Geographic, Fortune and Vogue, among others, and his total immersion in the colour and landscapes of Morocco earned him the 1976 Kodak Prize.