4 Reasons I Create Social Documentary Essays
Two weeks ago I explained what social documentary in general is and how I define it for my work. Call it the ‘what’ of social documentary photography.
More important than the ‘what’, however, and what I want to share this week, is the ‘why’ of this photographic genre: in general, and for me personally.
Guided by my vision to show the viewer the not-so-obvious and using the documentary narrative, I aim to create images for my essays that tell a story; inviting the viewer to ponder questions about our society, environment, and how we as people live together.
The above points provide two reasons why in my opinion social documentary photography is important:
to make us aware of things and situations that are not always obvious;
to document what is considered to be ‘normal’ today;
Two other reasons why social documentary has an important role are:
to explore our (social) environment; and
to ask questions about what we see.
After the break, I will elaborate on each of these four reasons.
Let’s start by exploring why it is important that social documentary photography makes us aware of things and situations that are not always obvious to us.
As I explained in the previous article, this type of photography does not always have to be about ‘big’ issues: it includes showing everyday life as it happens around us. Showing the mundane, the everyday environment and human interactions can make us aware of situations or things that we did not notice before.
Have you ever walked through a street that you have walked on before, maybe daily? And have you maybe looked up someday and looked at the facades of houses, surprised by what you saw?
Or do you pass an office building every day without ever looking inside through the windows? And then, one day you did and realized people are working there?
There is a lot in our day-to-day life that we just take for granted or don’t notice. Social documentary photography will help to recognize these things, people, and situations and make us aware. This can enrich our lives or trigger an action we would not have taken otherwise.
Related to this is the pure ‘documentary’ function of this genre of photography. There is so much that we consider being ‘normal' that we forget that the tools we use, the clothes we wear, the things we do and the ways we do these, the food we eat, probably will be different in the future.
People in the future probably will have an interest in knowing about this, knowing about how we worked, played, lived and thought. Have you ever looked at a photograph from the 1800s or even from the 1970s and wondered how people then lived? Or wondered who the people in those photographs were? Images we create today are documenting these same things for people in the future, who probably will look with the same wonder at our lives. That, by the way, is an important reason to print images!
The third reason is related to exploration. Social documentary photography helps us to understand the world we live in, make sense of it, and discover how other people live. It is for that reason, as mentioned, that it is important that the photographer documents day-to-day scenes and not only the ‘big news’ features. We can learn from just looking at images of other people, whether in our cities or at the other end of the world. And to learn about these people and their cultures we need more than selfies, landscapes, or travel images. We need images created by photographers who have a genuine interest in how people live and sharing those with the world.
And this, finally, brings me to the fourth reason for the importance of social documentary photography. Being made aware of our social environment, our own ‘normal’, and that of other people can trigger questions. Sometimes just out of curiosity, sometimes to question the status quo, sometimes even triggering action to ask more and drive for changes.
Yes, ‘big’ documentary is important to show the big issues (war, famine, injustice) to the world. But social documentary photography as I see it has its own important role to help people become aware, recognize, explore, and ask questions about ourselves and the world we live in today.