Documentary Photography

Documentary photography carries a responsibility that few other genres share — to represent people, places, and events truthfully and with care. This section explores the craft and ethics of documentary work, from building long-term projects and gaining trust with subjects to the practical decisions around gear, approach, and how to tell a story across a body of images.

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.  

"Punching Back Time" Photographs Of Senior Boxers

Photojournalist David Eulitt recently completed Punching Back Time, a series of photographs that features senior athletes who at seasoned ages, strap on gloves and spar in the ring.

The boxers were participants in the 2nd Annual Ringside Masters Championship boxing tournament, a competition for amateur boxers ranging in ages from 35 to 75.  

Powerful Photos Document Daily Life Fighting Cancer

Over the last 48 hours I have looked at these photos time and time again. I have shared them with my wife and daughter. I have been touched tremendously and my water-filled eyes have been opened to the daily struggles and emotions those face who are fighting cancer.

Capturing 20 Years of China Through Their Negatives

An interesting documentary that Emiland Guillerme filmed about collecting photographs from all over china and putting them together which you can see at 9:45 in the film. "Beijing Silvermine is a unique photographic portrait of the capital and the life of its inhabitants following the Cultural Revolution.

Portrait Of A Photographer: Beautiful Video Tells The Story Of Marty Knapp

While many aspiring photographers work for a long time to reach their goals, it's often the journey to get there that is the most interesting story of all. This short video from Vertical Online reveals a thoughtful and inspirational tale of one landscape photographer's experiences from going broke to making amazing images. 

Bert Stern: Original Mad Man Trailer

Bert Stern's career started in the mailroom at Look Magazine and soon became sought after by Hollywood and Madison Avenue.

Bert Stern: Original Mad Man directed by Shannah Laumeister, follows Stern's career through the golden age of the ad world and the iconic Marilyn Monroe "The Last Sitting" series.

The Muir Project and Project Yosemite Collaborate on an Epic New Film

I never thought a hiking film could be exciting until I saw some of last year's clips from The Muir Project. Well they are at it again, and this time they are working in collaboration with Project Yosemite to bring us another film from one of America's most epic places, Yosemite National Park.

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.

Building The Animatronic Dinosaurs For Jurassic Park

Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time. The story line itself is captivating but the incredible special effects are what really set this film apart. The movie was released 20 years ago in 1993 and the CGI and robotic dinosaurs still look more realistic than the majority of special effects in movies today.

Behind The Scenes Look At 'Killing Lincoln' With Photographer Joey L.

Fstoppers recently brought you an exclusive interview with photographer Joey L. In the process, we took a peak into some of his latest projects and revisited some of his previous work. He recently also photographed the national campaign for National Geographic's film, Killing Lincoln. He teamed up with Variable to execute the campaign.  

Is Crowdsourcing Right For You?

Having ambition, creativity, and passion are not enough to make an independent documentary or photo project a reality. To see the movie play or hang the photo project in a gallery you will need money. It is a cruel reality for creatives, but money is needed to make large and ambitious projects happen. So what does one do?

 

How I Filmed a Feature Length Cross Country Cycling Documentary on $2500 With No Assistants

Last spring, I met a group of 4 cyclists planning a 35 day epic adventure from coast to coast across the US. Their goal was to cycle over 100 miles a day, resting only one day a week, in order to raise awareness and funds for the poor and needy in Burundi, Africa. I decided it would be awesome to tag along and film their journey.

 

The Project

Winners of the 2013 World Press Photo Contest Announced – Some NSFW

The winners of the 2013 World Press Photo Contest have been announced, with the photo of the year going to Paul Hansen from the Swedish newspaper, Dagens Nyheter. His image was a haunting photo of a group of Palestinian men carrying the bodies of two small children, who were killed during fighting between Hamas and Israeli forces.  

How To Compose An Image For Concert Photography

Guest writer J. Dennis Thomas is an Austin, Texas based photographer and the author of the Nikon Digital Field Guide series by Wiley Publishing as well as the author of Concert and Live Music Photography, Pro Tips from the Pit and Urban and Rural Decay Photography ,Finding the Beauty in the Blight published by Focal Press.

A Photographer's Journey Back To Chukotka

Two years ago, we posted this video from photographer, Sasha Leahovcenco. His mission was to literally travel to the end of the earth to photograph people who never had their photo taken. This March, he and his crew are going back to reach even more people - people who have never even had visitors. Sasha has put his project on Kickstarter to help raise funds for his amazing project.  

Balance of Life Combines Great Time Lapses With Compelling Story

One of the greatest challenges when creating art is being able to create something visually stunning while maintaining the integrity to your message. Often, one must suffer for the other to thrive, and blending them both can be a challenge within itself. Jony Karlsson was able to merge those two perfectly, with his beautiful and heartfelt short film entitled Balance of Life. 

An Amazing Look into National Geographic's Wildlife Photographers

Over the last 100 years, National Geographic has brought us some of the most iconic and incredible images of wildlife spanning across the globe. Though on rare occasion, we're able to actually see the work that goes into capturing these images. Some of these amazing photos take days, or even weeks to capture.

Shooting Jimmy Fallon: Interview With Lloyd Bishop

A month or so ago I was touring NBC's studios at 30 Rock with a friend of mind who works on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon and he introduced me to the show's photographer, Lloyd Bishop. After meeting Lloyd I checked out his work online and discovered that this guy has an impressive portfolio!

A Chemical History Of Photography

When I bought my first DSLR 4 years ago, I offered a very enthusiastic "SAYONARA!" to the film era. This wasn't because I'm not grateful for the journey that photography has endured to end up where it is, but because my ADHD spark plug of a mind needed a process that was faster and more efficient than it's film and darkroom roots.

Shooting On-Location Video Interviews And Rock Climbers With DSLRs

Back in September I spent a few days in New River Gorge, West Virginia, rock climbing with a group of friends. For this trip I developed a plan to put together a short documentary that would involve shooting an interview in the climbing area and doing a multicamera shoot of a climber. Watch the final video, and then read on for a breakdown of how it was all done. 

Beautiful Story of a Photographer Making a Difference

This month I have been studying the book Aspire by Kevin Hall and in it was touched by the paragraph that reads, "The two most important days of our life are the day we were born and the day we discover what we were born to do. That's the day we catch the vision of who we are meant to be." Photographer Rocky Braat wanted more in life and found it on a trip to India.

Making Films And Photographs Of Africa's Wildlife For 30 Years

In a recent 60 Minutes special, CBS Reporter Lara Logan spent time with Dereck and Beverly Joubert in Southern Africa. The Jouberts have been shooting images and video of the wildlife there, for over 30 years. They have produced countless amazing images and have even created documentary films from the content they captured. Embedded video inside. 

Using Cameras to Make Custom Music Through Heart Rate: PULSE

This is a crazy concept that is truly amazing: Directed by Emmy-award winner Patrick Moreau of stillmotion, the docu-short PULSE profiles the making of the BioBeats app, a new technology that utilizes cameras to generate custom music based on a human heart rate. The subject of this short is awesome in itself, but it's also one of the first Short films to be done on the Canon C100.

Watch the Largest Iceberg Breakup Ever Caught on Camera

Photographer James Balog has put together a documentary called "Chasing Ice," which we featured last October, designed to look at the controversial issue of climate change. The video here is the trailer if you haven't yet seen it, but I stumbled upon another video of the largest iceberg breakup ever caught on camera over at The Guardian.

One Day On Earth Begins Now! 12.12.12

For the past 3 years the One Day On Earth community has set out to capture video of the entire planet on triple digit days (10.10.10, 11.11.11, 12.12.12). In short the project is comprised of amateur and professional filmmakers from every country, background, technique, etc. and creates a beautiful, geotagged video archive of the day.

#NoFilter – Behind The Lens With Instagram's Biggest Stars

Have you ever wondered who the people are behind some of Instagram's biggest profiles? With the way it's setup, you see their work first but you don't get to know too much about who they are. Some of the users on Instagram have tremendous followings. What drives them to shoot and who are they? Here are some great interviews about them and their work.   

 

Intimate Exposé On Commercial Photographer Fred Lyon

I'm a big fan of the mission and idea behind websites like Kickstarter. I appreciate creating a community of people from all over the world who help each other pursue their dreams. On Indieagogo, a site similar to Kickstarter, I came across this cool project on photographer, Fred Lyons.  After spending 7 decades behind the camera, Lyon is still going strong at 88 years old.

The Saddest Boy In The World

The Saddest Boy In The World is a short film by Vancouver filmmaker, Jamie Travis of Modern Family Productions. "Saddest Boy" is a perfect double rainbow of dark humor and a vintage nabes-esque aesthetic. On Modern Family Production's site, there is a Q&A section with the director that gives some insite to how they made the movie. Here is a selection from the Q&A ...  

Powerful Photos Of Devastation And Destruction Around The World

It could be the aftermath of a war, or the result of a strong Tsunami. It could be the destruction of a Hurricane, or the Devastation of a terror attack. The moment after something horrible happens, is also the moment people capture powerful images of (bad) historic events.

Ian Ruhter's American Dream

From the guy who brought you silver and light, Ian Ruhter brings you American Dream. Not only are the unique images he creates breath taking, but the stories behind them are incredibly inspirational.

Photographing Death: Tragedies Turned Into Art

As I started to get into photography I've always been curious about the many different fields and who would want to shoot them. Sara Sudhoff has an interesting outlook on death and how we are affected by it, so she decided to exploit that interest through photography. Filmmakers Mark and Angela Walley follow photographer Sara Sudhoff as she works on her series titled At the Hour of Our Death.

Chase Jarvis Live: Behind Brain Farm's Art of Flight

Most of our readers should be familiar with Brain Farm. Basically they have been taking cinematography to the next level when it comes to action sports; think of them as the planet earth of extreme footage. Chase Jarvis recently invited executive producer Chad Jackson and pro snowboarder Travis Rice over to his Seattle studio to talk about the release of The Art of Flight.

Portrait: A Documentary Insatgram vs Professional

Andy Newman created this intriguing documentary that explores the question "In the age of Instagram, what sets a professional photographer apart. In this film, photographer Andria Lindquist and web designer/ professional instagramer Cory Staudacher talk about their outlook on photography and how it has impacted their life.

TIME Magazine's Recent Cover Shot with iPhone and Hipstamatic

Okay, so with proper lighting, good make-up, and the right wardrobe, we know we can get great fashion images with the iPhone. But for those of you who thought it could never be used for news, think again. TIME Magazine's recent cover, shot by Ben Lowy, was shot on an iPhone using the popular Hipstamatic app.  

Via Hipstamatic's Blog

Below is the full cover:

On the Ground: The FS Perspective of Hurricane Sandy

I don't expect many of you have lived through a natural disaster, and that's a good thing. Up until this point, the worst I had ever experienced was a couple of earthquakes, the most damaging of which occurred when I was a toddler. But these past few days living in the heart of Manhattan (and Jerrit, Noam, and Jon as well, spread out across the city) have been a scary, eye-opening challenge.

Assignment Photokina with the Olympus OM-D E-M5

Derrick Story of thedigitalstory.com has been a fan of the Olympus portable cameras for a few years now, and has really taken a liking to the Olympus OM-D E-M5 mirrorless camera. He recently traveled to Cologne, Germany armed with the micro four thirds compact camera, and his story proves that you can get a whole lot of bang for such a small package.  

Never Before Seen Photos Of Hiroshima

They say one mans trash is another mans treasure, that is true for the man that was walking his dog, saw a briefcase in a pile of trash, opened it up and discovered these rare photographs. "After the United States detonated an atomic bomb at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, the U.S. government restricted the circulation of images of the bomb's deadly effect.

Some Fun and Well Done Canon 550D Rebel t2i Test Footage

Short films are regular projects for Andres Overgaard. Instead of doing his normal work, for one of his most recent projects, Andres decided to take out the Canon 550D/Rebel t2i and test out his Tamron 18-270 mm shooting some video. All shots were hand held with some work done later in post.

Jerry And Maggie: This Is Not Photography

If you don't know Jerry Uelsmann or Maggie Taylor you should. Jerry creates works of art blending multiple photos together using enlargers while Maggie uses a scanner to create her art. All of jerry's work is shot on film and processed and manipulated in the darkroom which truly makes his work so unique. Being husband and wife these two are some of the biggest names in the modern art world.