Recent Documentary Articles

What A Week Of Groceries Looks Like Around The World

It seems as a people, we have a fascination with photographing our food. From Henry's series of riders, to looking on instagram we cant help but document what we consume. Photographer Peter Menzel started this intriguing series of one weeks of groceries from around the world, taking traditional food photography to a much larger scale.

Drone Disguised as Hummingbird Captures Incredible Footage of Monarch Butterfly Swarm

It's not very often that I watch a video online and react by literally gasping and audibly saying "wow." Watching Captain America stare down Thanos and his whole army, in an IMAX cinema, on a huge screen, was the last time I reacted in such a way. This time, even without the huge screen, resolution, and quality, this video is simply incredible.

Vintage Crime Scene Photos Superimposed on Modern NY Streets (Warning: Graphic)

Photographer and historian Marc Hermann has done a beautiful job pulling historic crime scene photos from the New York Daily News archive to blend them with photographs of the same locations today. For those who live in New York now, it may be easy to forget just how rough the city was in the not-too-distant past.

Jeff Bridges Honored for His Photography

Jeff Bridges has been nominated for six Academy Awards and has won once (for 'Crazy Heart'). He can now add another honor to his list of awards. This week at the 29th annual Infinity Awards, he is being nominated for his photography. 'The Dude' has been shooting on-set images of the films he has worked on since 1984, and his work gives us a peek at a world most people never get to see.

What It's Like to Photograph F16s... From Another F16

It's hard to imagine someone not describing what Sergeant Larry Reid Jr. does as a dream job. Once you see what he does, the images he captures and the joy on his face as he explains his process, part of you (no matter who you are) kind of wishes you were him. With two cameras strapped around his neck firing shots off while his pilot banks at seven G's, Sergeant Reid is living the dream.

Top 15 Photography Clichés Everyone Hates

Any photographer who wants their work to stand out has to offer something unique to the viewer. The following list contains ideas, poses and editing techniques that probably aren't too original and should be avoided. If I had known this when I started photography, I probably would have found a signature look sooner.

The Cinematic Look – How To Make Your Photographs Look Like Films

I recently noticed that a handful of photographers were producing images that had a look as if they were stills captured from films. A couple of the most well known photographers of this genre are based here in New York so I got them together and challenged them to not only come up with a dynamic personal project on the fly incorporating this cinematic look, but to share with us how it is achieved. Read on to find out how it all went down...

The Shortest, Most Insightful Interview Of A Photographer I’ve Ever Seen

“There was a sniper, he was trying to kill me, and he hit my camera which was by my face, and I still have that Nikon camera with a bullet hole in it". So begins one of the most compelling interviews I’ve ever seen. Welcome to a rip-roaring three minutes and twenty seconds of a wonderful journey into the mind of Don McCullin.

The Short Story of the Iconic Photo 'The Falling Man'

15 years after the tragic day, Time Magazine published a video from their "Behind the Photo" series about "The Falling Man,” captured by well-known Associated Press Photographer Richard Drew. Apart from the published images of 9/11 attacks, this photo made viewers feel the despair and horror in an unusual way.

Photographer Shares Shocking Images Commercial Fishermen Don't Want You to See

Brian Raymond, a lifelong fisherman turned shark dive operator and photographer, recently shared some powerful and disturbing images he captured of bycatch in the waters off of southern New England. Bycatch refers to unintended species that are caught while fishing for another species and is a regular occurrence in commercial fishing.

How Not to Photograph Sex Workers

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?

Our $3,000 DSLR Was Stolen in Italy and We Filmed It Happen

Yes, you read that title correctly. In this episode of the behind the scenes of “Photographing the World 3,” we face the most disastrous day of filming yet! While Lee was recovering our crashed DJI Mavic in the mountains of Matera, someone on the hiking trail stole our brand new Nikon D500 DSLR and Tamron 18-270mm lens.

One Photo A Day In The Worst Year Of My Life

The photo a day project is something that has been done now hundreds of times. You know the one, in which a person snaps a photo of themselves every day and combines it all together into one video. While I have seen a number of these videos before, I have never seen one quite like this. In this video we witness photos of a young lady who over the year shows signs of bruising evidently caused by domestic abuse. Read on to learn more about this video and why it was shared.

Photographer Captures People's Reactions When Told They Are Beautiful

What's your response when you're told that you're beautiful? Eighteen year-old photographer and student, Shea Glover, decided to "film what I thought was beautiful." Without intending to, she has conducted an amazing social experiment on the effect of simple positivity and a compliment. The reactions are perfect!

GoPro Mounted On Syrian Tanks Record Interesting and Terrifying Videos

This is not an educational piece or a product review. This is also not a post showing the creative and artistic work done by people in the industry. It is just a post about a very unique use of the GoPro camera. While it is not creative, artistic or educational, it is very important to watch this video. It shows us what news cameras will never be able to show: the real POV of the war in Syria.

We Pirated Our Own Video and This Is What Happened

Piracy is a major issue among all types of creatives. Regardless of if you make handbags, design websites, create beautiful paintings, produce movies, or craft amazing photographs, at some point or another, someone is going to steal and rip off your work. Recently, we decided to run a social experiment; we actually pirated one of our own tutorials and put it online for free before it was even released to the public. What happened next was pretty interesting.

The Photography Community Lost a Special Person Today

Photographers woke up this morning to hear that Jen Burgess Thompson passed away peacefully this morning. Jen was courageous enough to share her battle with the community over the last year as we all grew to love her. Jessica Person said it best this morning, "...the photography world watched a courageous photographer, woman and mother battle cancer. She was victorious. She didn't lose her battle with cancer this morning, she sailed into victory."

Photo Series Shows How the Media Can Manipulate Reality Using Different Lenses

This photo series reveals how easily it is for the media to manipulate perspective with different lenses, in particular when reporting on social distancing during the current pandemic. By placing images side-by-side, the pictures show how, with the right angles, people respecting the rules can be made to appear as if huddled together.

And the 2013 Pulitzer Prize Winners for Photography Are...(NSFW)

...pretty outstanding and powerful photos. Every single image that was awarded the prize was taken by photographers covering the war in Syria. What's particularly unique about the winner of the "Breaking News" category was that there was not a solitary winner; the award was shared by five photographers.

A Technically Perfect Photo is Meaningless

As a viewer, you rarely look at a photo and say “wow, that shutter speed and ISO really moved me,” right? The most memorable and moving photos may not be technically perfect at all. Adrian McDonald is the quintessential photographer, with photos that resonate with the viewers because of the way it makes them feel. That’s how you remember a photo.

Within The Underworld: Photographer Spends 2 Years Inside Japan's Yakuza Crime Family

Over 50,000 members strong, Japan's Yakuza gangs make up one of the largest crime syndicates in the world. After ten months of attempts, Belgian photographer Anton Kusters was granted a meeting with "The Godfather" of the Yakuza family. He then spent two entire years capturing these dark and moody images that show what life inside the family is like from all sides of the operation.

Top Seven Must-Watch Photography Documentaries

For all things photography, documentaries offer a unique window into the lives and works of iconic photographers. They reveal the stories behind their most famous images and the people who shot them. Here's a list of seven compelling photography documentaries that every photographer should watch.

Magnum Photographer Bruce Gilden On What Makes A Good Photograph Great (And A Bad Photograph Terrible)

Bruce Gilden is one straight talker. The no-nonsense Brooklyn born, Guggenheim-awarded, Magnum photographer does not mince his words, that’s for sure. There is so much to learn from him in this interview, in between his quips and comments. Listen in as he shares more than 45 years worth of experience as he critiques a selection of images of street photographs in this VICE interview.

Documentary Photographer Who Toured With Motorhead Trialled Mirrorless Nikon Z7 at Heavy Metal Festival: Here Are The Results

As far as perks of being a photographer go, traveling the world and documenting everything you see along the way is right up there with the best of them. Luckily for Pep Bonet, he’s been around the globe as Motorhead’s previous resident photographer of 7 years, as well as documenting the impact of war and disease in Africa. Then, he became one of the first in Europe to test out the Nikon Z7 and S-line NIKKOR Z lenses. So how did he find it faired against DSLRs?