Create Documentary and Artistic Photographs

Plan in Advance

    Determine what subject (person, place, thing, event, etc.) you would like to document.

• Contact anyone who is in charge of any place you want to photograph. Explain that you want to take photographs for a documentary project, so you will need their permission and cooperation.
• After your interview, think about the subject you will document and make a list of what kind of photographs you might want to define your subject. List the people, places, events, and details you think are important to help you tell your subject's story.
• Visit the subject. View the space and surroundings, the people involved, and the things that contribute to their identity. Consider what details the subject presents that you may want to include in your photograph.
• Consider whether you will be making color or black-and-white photographs or both. This choice should be based on your subject. For instance, to photograph your neighbor's flower garden, you would probably want to do that in color to emphasize the beauty and variety of colors. For photographs taken to document the architecture in your town, you might decide on black-and-white to accentuate the form and scale of the buildings or the deep shadows they cast on a sunny day.
   

Set the Stage

• In order to create a photograph that is interesting to look at and communicates your ideas clearly, you will want to consider its composition (design) and content (meaning). Three important things to think about are the angle from which you aim your camera, the frame or boundary of the image so that you include desired details,  and the light and shadows or colors you see within the frame.
• Note: Viewing the same scene from above, eye level and below will change what you see and reveal about your subject.
   

Photograph

• Read through your list of what photographs to take to define your subject, and recall your thoughts on using color or black-and-white.
• Different people approach and interpret subjects in different ways, so always allow your own sense of the subject to guide you as you take your pictures.
   

Edit

• When your photographs are completed, look through them several times and choose the ones that best describe your subject.
• If you are planning to use your photographs as a narrative (to tell a story) determine their sequence by arranging them to introduce and explain aspects of the story. Practice this step several times and try different sequences.
• If you want to include text, discuss with your teacher the possibility of adding words on your photographs (pen or markers work well) or alongside them, to further explain the subject.
   

Present

• Consider how you would like to display or present your photographs. Some options include mounting them onto construction paper or tag board for a wall exhibition, combining them on a poster, or creating an album or book. Don't exclude unconventional yet creative solutions such as hanging mobiles, or stacking photographs with instructions for viewers to arrange them in different ways.

Follow-up

• Thank your subjects, parents, teacher, and anyone who helped you with this project. Consider offering a selection from the project photographs as a gift.