STOP THE VIOLENCE

Martin Luther King Jr. and followers peacefully Civil Rights on the Walk of Selma (photograph taken by Steve Schapiro)

Documentary Photography

Documentary photography is a way of recording events as they happen in the world it is. It’s been led to be known as a timelapse to see how events progress through the ages whether it be about cities, historic events, or even the photographers work from over the years. For example, if the photographer themselves were to do it on a city, they could document how it changes over the years. They can record the visions of what a city looked like over 30 years to go to how it progressed to be the way it is today. An example of a city could be New York City. New York has always had lots of famous documentary photos because of how it developed to be one of the most known cities from Madison Square Garden to Times Square and different monuments around the city.

Documentary photography was first introduced in the 1800’s which was during the time of the Civil War. With the Civil War happening, so much was documented from Abraham Lincolns famous Gettysburg Address to the battles fought between the Confederates and Union. Going forward from that, one of the most recognized important documentary projects was from Michael Collins who was known for being on the mission to the moon during Apollo 11 in 1969. What Collins did was take multiple photographs for how Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were getting ready to take off on the ship to space and for how they were able to also navigate on its surface. Other than the photographs taken of Armstrong and Aldrin, Collins had the ability to snap a shot of the view from what it looks like to see the planet from the moons surface.

Although Collins is known for being the odd man out from the group of astronauts who navigated the moon, another photographer who is known for his documentary work is Lewis Hine. Lewis Hine began his journey of documentary photography in the early 1900’s after seeing a series of child forced labor in the country. From then on, Hine documented everything from the time he was in the United States to when he traveled over seas. It was then, he found out that during World War 1 he would document the children who were working in factories in France for the Red Cross Magazine. When Hine had his work published by the Red Cross Magazine, it allowed for child labor laws to pass so they wouldn’t have to deal with not only harsh working conditions, but also the kids freedom to be themselves and grow to modeled citizens. Hines’s work to this day is still very known that child labor was a thing during the 1900’s and that laws came a long way to get passed. As child labor laws were passed during the time, there was also problems that progressed years later with the environment.

With climate change being known as an ongoing environmental crisis, Documerica was then established. Documerica was established in the early 1970’s and many photographers were used to document the crisis of pollution, decaying landscapes, and health issues towards individuals. Although these are just some of the main issues, there are also scenarios that have a positive outcome. For example, photographer David Hiser documented images of a man from Taos, New Mexico making a house of nothing but beer cans. His documented subject was local architect Michael Reynolds who built his house of beer cans in 1974. After Hiser was able to complete his work, he was able to submit his work to National Geographic magazine where he used to work at. Although Hiser is a known photographer for having his work distributed across the globe there are many other reasons why photographers today choose to document events.

Documentary photography is about capturing the moment without any type restrictions and have work made in the moment. A moment can be when anything such as seeing people walking the streets, historic events taking place, or even seeing the growth of certain individuals in the process of building architecture. Going back to the work from Hiser, he captures the moments of Michael Reynolds who built the house made of beer cans. He saw from the beginning when it was started to the end when the final product was constructed. Then there’s Michael Collins. Collins is the lone astronaut from the Apollo 11 mission when he took the photos of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. The Apollo 11 mission was mainly focused on Aldrin and Armstrong because they were the first people in history to walk on the moon’s surface. Not only they made history of placing an American flag on the moon, but they were able to provide what a glimpse of the earth looks like from the moon. They were able to establish how they reached the moon by showing before and after photographs when they got into the ship and when they went into space to have their names written in the history books.

Although Apollo 11 was one of the most historic documentations in the history of photography, there are also other historic that have happened along the way such as the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement was documented when Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers protested peacefully to have equal rights without having to deal with any type of physical violence that could have repercussions. One photographer who documented these events well was Steve Schapiro. Steve Schapiro a many projects that are dedicated to the Civil Rights Movement.

In conclusion, documentary photography has come a long way since the 1800’s. There have been a lot of benefits to why it has documented a lot of events from historic events to the stuff that has happened in environmental catastrophes.