Documentary Photography

From Unawiki

Documentary Photography was a kind of photography with the aim to accurately describe unknown, hidden, forbidden places or circumstances difficult to access and to set up an archive of historical significant works. In the beginning of 20th century was the muckraking journalism in which, for example, Jacob Riis documented living conditions of poor workers in the low-class neighbourhoods. During the Great Depression in the 1930s there were many documentary photographers working in both rural and urban conditions and were actually funded by the Farm Security Administration. Through presenting pictures with the right mixture of accuracy and impassioned advocacy, it was the goal to arouse public commitment for social change. Important photographers were Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange with her picture ‘Migrant Mother’.