Documentary Photography

Documentary Photography

Documentary photography usually refers to a popular form of photography used to story significant and historical events. It is typically covered in professional photojournalism, or real life reportage, but it may also be an amateur, artistic, or educational pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually straight photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people.

Overtime people have developed ways to make an image last longer. Such as, Photogravure which is an intaglio printmaking or photo-mechanical process whereby a copper plate is coated with a light-sensitive gelatine tissue which had been exposed to a film positive, and then etched, resulting in a high quality intaglio print that can reproduce the detail and continuous tones of a photograph. Another method is halftone, halftone is a reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery with dots, varying either in size, in shape or in spacing.

The refining of photogravure methods, and then the introduction of halftone reproduction around 1890 made low cost mass-reproduction in newspapers, magazines, and books possible. The figure most directly associated with the birth of this new form of documentary is the journalist and urban social reformer Jacob Riis. Riis was a New York police-beat reporter who had been converted to urban social reform ideas by his contact with medical and public-health officials, some of whom were amateur photographers. Riis used these acquaintances at first to gather photographs, but eventually took up the camera himself. His books, most notably How the Other Half Lives of 1890 and The Children of the Slums of 1892, used those photographs, but increasingly he also employed visual materials from a wide variety of sources, including police "mug shots" and photojournalistic images.

Riis's documentary photography was passionately devoted to changing the inhumane conditions under which the poor lived in the rapidly expanding urban-industrial centers. His work succeeded in embedding photography in urban reform movements, notably the Social Gospel and Progressive movements. These two techniques photogravure and halftone has helped amateur photographers put a message across.

People are now using smaller cameras to capture moments in time. The small camera that allows that is an I-phone, it enables people to take pictures with hardly anyone noticing, and an advantage especially in the street photography that people are interested in. Photographers are using the iPhone for their professional work and winning awards for their work. Damon Winter of the New York Times won an award for his work in Afghanistan.

How the other half lived JUNE 19 2013

Riis also took early advantage of flash photography to steer his camera into the city's darkest corners -- tenements, dark alleys, sweatshops, opium dens, beer halls -- and emerged with photographs that helped shift public opinion on NYC's poverty and slums.

The image is clearly staged and is looked closely the audience can see one of the small boys smiling, but it does get its message across.

Bandit's Roost (1888) by Jacob Riis, from How the Other Half Lives. This image is Bandit's Roost at 59½ Mulberry Street, considered the most crime-ridden, dangerous part of New York City. A long shot is used to see the poverty and poor living conditions.

Two men appear to guard the alley entry. Hanging on the railing of the right-hand staircase is a third man who has assumed a casual, yet commanding, pose. Perhaps he is the gang leader. There is a women leaning out the windows, the young child in the right background, the three figures on the opposite porch. The houses are very close to another, the viewer can see the harsh conditions the individuals are living in. there is long lines of laundry stretch between the buildings to emphasis the poverty. 

Riis walks the beat in New York City behind his friend and fellow reformer, NYC Police Commissioner, Theodore Roosevelt (1894—Illustration from Riis's autobiography).

Theodore Roosevelt introduced himself to Riis, offering to help his efforts somehow.

(sketch)

Goldberg is best known for his photographic books, multi-media exhibits and video installations, among them: Rich and Poor (1985), Nursing Home, Raised by Wolves (1995), Hospice, and Open See (2009). Goldberg photographs sub-cultures, creating photo collages, and including text with his photographs, often written by his subjects.

Goldberg is part of the social aims movement in photography, using a straightforward, cinéma vérité approach, based on a fundamentally narrative understanding of photography. Goldberg's empathy and the uniqueness of the subjects emerge in his works, "forming a context within which the viewer may integrate the unthinkable into the concept of self. Thus diffused, this terrifying other is restored as a universal." (Art Forum, Summer 1987).

An image from Jim Goldberg's Open See exhibition. includes this image of a Congolese refugee in 2008 French photographer wins £30,000 prize for UK photographer US photographer Jim Goldberg has won this year's Deutsche Borse photography prize for his exhibition Open See. Shown last year at the Photographers' Gallery in London, the exhibition documented the experiences of refugees and immigrants travelling from war-torn countries to make new lives in Europe. In the photograph the Congolese man is holding an old radio, his arms are across. The radio is held close to his chest to give of an impression this is one of the few possessions he owns. His wearing an apron with nothing underneath. He is melancholy; his head is down and his facial expressions are miserable. The camera is in focus of the Congolese man. An extreme midi shot is taken We can some sort of camp site behind with tents maybe due to the destruction of the homes.  Susan Sontag captured the essence of that faith in her monumental reverie.  On Photography when she wrote “Photographed images do not seem to be statements about the world so much as pieces of it."

"Raised by Wolves" Goldberg’s documents the lives of teenage runaways who live on the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles. Recorded between 1987 and 1993, Jim Goldberg was on the California streets photographing and interviewing his adolescent subjects, their social workers and the police. They all lend a distinct dimension to the harrowing picture of American urban life, and the adversarial institutional culture surrounding it. A combination of photographs and video stills, found documents, and handwritten texts by the subjects themselves create a scrapbook of the stark and unsparing lives. At its heart, this book is a compassionate and moving study of adolescent life in America, of displaced and misunderstood youths. It reveals the myriad traps which are set by drugs, violence, and exploitation, and the ultimate longing for happiness. On the left hand side a long shot is used to capture the dangerous surroundings young people live in. The young boy seems to be taking a beer from a young girl. The fact that Goldberg captures this moment we see how these young people are made to grow  up fast and are expose to maladaptive behaviour. Even though the image seems to be staged the audience are aware of what is happening with  these young people. On the other side there is a image of image of two young people hugging .  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_photography

Risk assessment for using computer

Risk Assessment For Using The Computer For Photo Manipulation 

Risk	How I am at Risk	Level Of Risk	Control Measure To Be Implemented
Eye strain	The brightness of the screen can strain my eyes as well as the duration I spend looking at the screen.	L	Have easily adjustable brightness and contrast tilt and swivel easily to suit me. Avoid using glare and reflections by using a separate base for the screen.  Taking regular breaks from computer work. (5 minutes every hour)
Repetitive strain injury	Repetitive strain injury can be caused by sitting in the same position for a long period. Awkward positioning of the wrist and hand in relation to the keyboard. High workload for a prolonged period of time. Excessive use of the mouse.	M	Taking regular breaks from computer work. (5 minutes every hour as).  Ensure I position the keyboard in a comfortable position.  Ensuring the mouse in a position that best suits me.
Stress	May be caused by repeated problems with software (Photoshop) or hardware as well as excessive working hours and demanding deadlines.	M	Seek support for the repeated problems. Also have a plan and stick to it.

risk assessment for using the dark room

Risk Assessment For Using The Dark Room 

What are the risks:	Level of risk	Why are you at risk?	Ways to prevent these risks:
Electricity	L	The Developers which are liquids are located near the wall sockets. I could be electrocuted If the developer gets on it and I wipe the sockets.	There is no other place to put the developer as there is a lack of surface space. Therefore I have to ensure I do not splash the developer on the sockets when developing my image.
Door	L	The dark room is confined the door is heavy; therefore if I am behind the door when it opens I could be injured.	Ensuring the door remains locked at all times when I am in the room and don’t stand behind the door when someone is about to open it and knocking and telling them I am about to enter so I do not injure anyone.
Developer	L	The developer is a chemical and constantly touching the developer can cause damage. It could go one my eyes and damage my vision.	Ensuring I use the tongs so the chemicals do not go on my hands although the chemicals are not too dangerous. I will ensure the chemicals do not splash in my eyes so I will stand at a distant. If it does I will immediately wash it out with water so it does not damage my vision.
The dark	H	There is minimal light; I could collide into to something causing injury.	I have to ensure I walk carefully and slowly in order to prevent myself from bumping into the counters and other objects and so I do not hurt myself.
Slipping	H	The liquid on the photo might drip on the floor causing me to slip.	I have to make sure I do not let any liquid go on the floor.

health and safety

Health and safety

There are initially three objectives of the health and safety Work Act (1974); ensuring the health, safety and welfare of personnel and others at work. The act prevents and controls the use of highly flammable and toxic substances otherwise dangerous substances used and at the work place. As well as preventing the use of unlawful substances and ownership of such substances. There was a forth objective; keeping a tight restriction in the amount of emission released into the atmosphere. However, the act was repealed, when the control of emission was brought under the Environmental Protection Act 1990.

The health and safety act also defines the duty of any person who manufactures, imports or supplies any substance for use at work, which is in section 6(4). Its explains that personnel should be aware of the substances they are handling, they must be given adequate information about their health and safety and any risk with when dealing with the substances, they must undergo testing such as written testing which can also be carried out by other personnel as long it is reasonable, to ensure the safety of an item. Manufacturers must carry out research to identify and eliminate risks, as far as reasonably practicable. Furthermore, the health and safety act defines that substances employees handle are reasonable and practicable which means it does not cause harm to persons.

COSHH (control of substance hazardous to health) is the law that requires personnel to control substances hazardous to health. COSHHR (control of substances hazardous to health regulation) objective is to prevent or reduce employees harm to their health and safety by underlying the health hazards for companies and businesses are then deciding what precaution to take. Providing health control measures to reduce harm to health and ensuring they are used. Keeping all control measures in good working order by providing information. Instruction and training for employees and others by providing monitoring and health surveillance in appropriate cases; planning for emergencies.

The industries in which COSHHR covers are Agriculture, Baking, Beauty, Hairdressing, Printing and so on. The hazards in which the agriculture industry have is dusts, chemicals, diseases, toxic gases. COSHH covers substances that are hazardous to health. Substances can take many forms and contain chemicals, products containing chemicals fumes, dusts, vapours, mists, nanotechnology, gases and asphyxiating gases and biological agents (germs). If the packaging has any of the hazard symbols then it is classed as a hazardous substance. Germs that cause diseases such as leptospirosis or legionnaires disease and germs used in laboratories. However, COSHH does not cover lead, asbestos or radioactive substances because these have their own specific regulations.

COSHH has a brief guide informing industries about personnel and other people’s health and safety. The guide includes instructions; when a product is ‘dangerous for supply’, by law, the supplier must provide you with a safety data sheet. The guide says medicines, pesticides and cosmetic products have different legislation and don’t have a Safety data sheet. The guide also says there should be An Assessing risk.

The Health and Safety (Display Screen Equipment) Regulations 1992 explains what an employer, may need to do to protect their employees from any risks associated with Display Screen Equipment (DSE) (i.e. computers and laptops). It will also be useful to employees and their representatives. These Regulations only apply to employers whose workers regularly use DSE as a significant part of their normal work (daily, for continuous periods of an hour or more). These workers are known as DSE users. These Regulations do not apply to workers who use DSE infrequently or for short periods of time. However, the controls described in ‘How to control the risk’ may still be useful for these workers.

The risks of employees not following the regulations when spending too long at a computer screen may cause them to experience fatigue, eye strain, upper limb problems and backache from overuse or improper use of DSE. These problems can also be experienced from poorly designed workstations or work environments. The causes may not always be obvious and can be due to a combination of getting comfortable the following may help users: forearms should be approximately horizontal and the user’s eyes should be the same height as the top of the screen. The regulatory bodies make sure there is enough work space to accommodate all documents or other equipment. A document holder may help avoid awkward neck and eye movements. Arrange the desk and screen to avoid glare, or bright reflections. This is often easiest if the screen is not directly facing windows or bright lights.

I will under take precautions so I do not breach these laws and cause harm to myself and my workers, the way I will do this is when I am using the computer I will make sure to lower the lighting of the screen and sit at a 30cm distance from the screen.  I will have to take regular breaks away from the workstation, say ten minutes in every hour, I may walk, have a stretch, give my eyes something different to do and rest my ears.

When working in a dark room, I must be aware of the increased risk of tripping on unseen objects.  I can prevent this by storing bags under the workstation.

When shooting my images in front of the green screen I will ensure all the wires from the lighting and other wires are in the corner, so no one trips over them and injures themselves.  I will make sure only the required people are there whilst shooting my images so no one is harmed such as colliding into one another. Everyone will be assigned to the required role so there is no chaos.

When I am I finish with the equipment, for example the lighting I will place it in the corner, again so no one trips over it and because it is hot I do not want anyone touching it. I will dismantle all the non-used equipment so no one is hurt.

https://www.gov.uk/browse/employing-people/health-safety 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_and_safety_law 

Editing in Photoshop (2)

Editing In Photoshop (2)

I inserted my still life image on Photoshop, I then wanted to change the colour of the petals. I did this by using the quick selection tool and only selecting the petals as this is the only area I want to change. On the property tools I decreased the brightness and contrast.

Photoshop created a new layer for the brightness Change. 

The petal has gone darker.

I experimented with the properties and using the dials increased as well as change the lighting. As you can see there is a number of layers as I experimented quite a few times also with the background lighting. 

I changed the lighting of the bottle by selecting areas to increase it.  

In order to make clones of the bottle and went on the layer of the image. I then used the clone stamp tool, held on Alt and with my mouse followed the shape of the bottle. Then I released it and place my mouse on a space a I could place replicates of the bottle.

final image

Editing in Photoshop (1)

Editing in Photoshop 

I first wanted to increase the shadow of the objects. In order to create this I had to first select the areas in which I did not want to be darkened. I used the quick selection tool then went to select then inverse to ensure selected area is not edited.

to create the shadow I went to the tool bar; images then to adjustment and clicked on shadow/brightness.  

 As you can see everything but the objects has darkened, particularly the shadows. however the warriors upper arm has darkened because I must have not selected that part.  

Here I decided to play with the lighting, I lowered the brightness and contrast levels.  I particularly like how the the shadow of the soldier is visible and there is now a sombre mood within the image.  

After I chose the perfect lighting. I used the quick selection tool on the flower. 

I changed the lighting of the flower by using the transformation tool and increasing it I had to go the layer of the original image in order to change the lighting of the image. 

The final image

Shutter Speed and Aperture Photographs

Examples Of My Shutter Speed And Aperture Photographs 

Shutter Speed Photography 

In order to have Sarah in focus and the background blurred, is that I had to decrease the shutter speed and track her whilst she walked. So instead of the moving object being a blur and the still objects such as the plants being in focus it is reversed. However, there were many trials and errors before I realized the technique to  achieve this image. 

I slowed down the shutter speed to 5 seconds and once Sarah started walking I tracked her movement and took the image. 

To create these light trails I slowed down the shutter speed on my camera to approximately 4 seconds. I then moved the light around, Unfortunately I did not have a tripod so I had to hold my camera very still. In the shots were there is red light trails I moved the camera around the light. There is also an image I took of a still object, a taxi using aperture.

My aperture photograph of a Taxi, as you can see I focused the lens on the taxi and the back is a blur.