Chapter Seven

Documentary

Stephanie C. Roberts

 

“I work from awkwardness. By that I mean I don’t like to arrange things. If I stand in front of something, instead of arranging it, I arrange myself.”—Diane Arbus

There was a hum of energy in the room. I could feel it when I peeked in the window and eased open the door to document a glimpse of lunchtime leisure in a classroom at Shepherds Junior School in Arusha, Tanzania. The children were seated closely beside each other on wooden benches. Clutching bright plastic bowls, they scooped rice to their mouths and chatted between a flurry of bites and glances. Entering the room, I quietly placed my audio recorder in the “on” position at the teacher’s desk, then stepped before the classroom of children to survey the natural light of the interior space. Shifting my wide-angle lens to autofocus and lifting the camera to my squinted eye, a silent current snapped through the room as curious eyes turned toward me. Smiles followed and eyebrows lifted. These children, ranging in age from six to 12, were eager to be seen.

As a documentary photographer, I make my best images when my subjects are engrossed in the action of life—when they’ve lost interest in me and have forgotten my presence. But here, on the first day of my week-long visit to this primary school, I was unable to hide. I was the muzungu (white person) visitor with the big camera “from USA.” My fellow Shutter Sister, Jen Lemen, and I had just arrived at the primary school to document the story of Mama Lucy Kamptoni, founder of Shepherds Junior School, and her students. As much as I wanted to blend into the background and just observe their ritual of lunch at that moment, I surrendered to the role of subject in that buzzing classroom, smiling wildly back at those beautiful children exposing their keen interest in my presence.

“Take me,” a young boy insists, jumping out from under his desk, bits of rice dropping to the floor. I oblige without hesitation, then turn the camera screen towards him so he can admire his image. He responds with a proud grin and quickly repositions himself for another shot. Sparks fly as benches scratch the concrete surface, making way for eager footsteps.

“And me, take me!” says another.

“Take us,” they say, throwing their arms around each other, doing all of the things I never want my subjects to do. I give myself permission to click, despite the weight of my presence in their eyes, and so our relationship begins with a wealth of grins, giggles, and goofy poses. We fall into a comfortable rhythm of clicks and poses, until I notice a flurry of activity with a collection of students toward the front of the classroom.

“What is your name?” a fiery young boy exclaims to another student, extending his index finger inches from his subject at the teacher’s desk. “What is your age? Where do you stay?” he continues in rapid succession.

I ease quietly toward the lively exchange to find that this young boy had discovered that my audio recorder was on and took the initiative to begin interviewing his classmates. I can’t help but smile at his bold stance and booming voice. There the students stood, completely engrossed in this young boy’s line of questions, sharing their answers with excitement—eager to not just be seen, but to be heard. And as I repositioned myself to study my subjects engrossed in the action of life inspired by my forgotten device, I was grateful to go unnoticed.

Introduction

Can you visualize the expression on your daughter’s face just before she blew out the candles on her sixth birthday? Do you remember how exciting it was to see your son’s courage mount and culminate in a bold leap off a dock? Most of my childhood memories would have faded, had it not been for my mother documenting significant moments in my life with her Polaroid camera. Her camera surfaced at dance recitals and in the driveway each year on the first day of school. It captured family members seated around holiday tables and prom poses. Because instant and film-based photography had a notable cost associated with the number of exposures captured, the family camera was often held at bay and reserved to document “special” events. Each image had to be worthy and significant. But today, thanks to digital photography, we can be free to experiment with our exposures. We have the power to instantly review, delete, and re-shoot images with ease. I shoot more often because of this.

For me, the power of photography is most clearly evident in its ability to document and celebrate the significance of a single moment in time. These moments seem to most often occur when we least expect it. Naturally, my camera is on hand for those “special” events, but documenting the fascination found in everyday life with something as simple as the camera on your mobile phone can be even more compelling.

My Boy’s Bold Leap

You don’t have to visit faraway lands or witness life-changing events to practice the art of documentary photography. In fact, the closer you are to your subject and the more comfortable you are in the setting, the more intimate and expressive your images will be.

Shutter Sisters’ Blog, by Stephanie

Recently, I shared with another photographer my hesitation to identify myself as an “artist.” I don’t have any formal training in photography or fine art or even mediocre art. I’m not the type of person to spend serious time in art museums and I am more than a little bit embarrassed at my lack of knowledge of famous photographers. You see, when I take photographs, I consider my camera a documentary tool. My first thought is not about making art, but about capturing the humdrum moments that comprise our lives.

And I’m beginning to realize that I don’t need better credentials to embrace my inner artist; I need courage. And by courage, I love how Brené Brown points to the original definition of courage as being able “to speak one’s mind by telling all one’s heart.” I think that one way for me to “tell all my heart,” or my own story, is through my photographs of the mundane and yet fleeting, and often beautiful moments of my life as a mom, wife, daughter, sister, and friend. These are the stories I have a compulsion to document and this is my inner artist that I have the courage to finally recognize.

Approach

Documentary work is more about observing your subjects than interacting with them. As a documentary photographer you are more a “fly on the wall” than a participant.

Shooting documentary images requires you to be patient and yet alert—to quickly adjust your camera to accommodate subtle shifts in light and areas of focus—and to be flexible enough to change your perspective, crafting compositions on the fly as the story unfolds just beyond your lens. Pretend you are invisible. Soak in the wide view first, then eliminate elements of the setting that are not important to the story. What you choose to include in the viewfinder shapes the intent of the story and ultimately the viewer’s emotional connection with your image.

Ask yourself what’s unique or revealing about the environment in the context of the story. Focus on the action and then quickly shift your eye to facial expressions or hand gestures. Watch feet. Tilt your lens. Get down on the floor, hop up on a chair, or creep in closer to see if this perspective tells the story in a more unique way. Don’t be afraid to shift your body to create compositions that ebb and flow with the fluid nature of the experience.

Getting Air, by Sarah

The secret to creating powerful documentary images is to insert yourself in settings where people can comfortably interact with each other or their environment. Sarah didn’t have to ask her daughter to jump up and say “AAAAHHHH” into the fan because people, particularly kids, will simply do what comes naturally to them. Those are the true moments we seek to celebrate.

The Way it Is

I made this image on the day Jen and I shared with BEST (Business and Entrepreneurship Support Tanzania), an Arusha-based non-profit organization, during our Picture Hope trip to Tanzania. We were traveling in the back of their vehicle to meet their clients, “the poorest of the poor,” in remote villages. In this image, you can see the weight of the experience in Jen’s expression, contrasted by the detachment of her daughter seated beside her. As you document life experiences, seek to reveal emotions that are honest and true.

Living Miracle

Push yourself to places where you’ve never been and open your heart and mind to soak in new experiences “for the first time.” Use the uniqueness of your fresh perspective to document a powerful experience—such as the delivery of this new baby.

See It!

Not only is this an emotional subject matter, the image itself is powerful in its razor-sharp focus of everything from the baby’s wrinkled feet, the texture of the doctor’s clothes and gloves, and also the reflective highlights on the baby’s skin and umbilical cord. All of these elements work together in creating a perfectly documented, living miracle.

Perspective

Gathering a lot of information in a single shot often means a wide scope. But it’s up to you how to effectively tell the story in one frame and it can take a special perspective.

As you create documentary images, perspective defines not only the vantage point of your camera—the placement of your feet and the tilt of your lens—but also the unique personal perspective you bring to the experience—the position of your heart and your mind. While there are times when an objective perspective is required to expose the reality of a subject or situation, particularly in the art of photojournalism, making images for yourself allows you to share a perspective about a subject by determining what you choose to expose in your images.

An Act of Balance

The art of parenting is complex. Like a balancing act, many of us can relate to the call of an exciting career balanced by the anchor of a sweet child. Because I am a mother with a career, I could appreciate the authenticity of this moment. I could have waited for my friend to hang up the phone, to turn his focus entirely toward his son, but the reality of this moment resonated with me.

Dance with Fire

The position of your lens will influence the way in which the viewer consumes an experience. Creeping in close to your subject engaged in an intense moment such as this using a zoom lens lets you offer an intimate perspective without being physically intrusive or disruptive to your subject.

Shutter Sisters’ Blog, by Jen

We are walking on a thin muddy path that borders Agnes’ rice paddy. This is the land she works with her husband in order to feed her children. Before she obtained the seed capital from BEST, a locally founded NGO, she barely had enough to survive. Her house was nothing more than pieces of sheet metal rigged together with scrap wood and rope. Now she works this land and sleeps in a simple bed in a solid house with the profits of her own labor.

I try to wrap my mind around what it takes to keep this field, this family, alive and thriving. I know I should be watching her hopeful eyes and capable hands for a sign, but all I can see is her feet. How she carefully picks her way through the muddy field, how she knows where to step, how to walk, where to stand. How the immense strength of her spirit carries her, even as the frailty of her body dares her destiny and expands her hope.

Composition

Composing a shot that balances the main subject with some context and details of the moment at hand can be a challenge and is often achieved through a wide-angle lens.

Composing documentary images most often happens on the fly, requiring you to think fast and move your body to reveal an intriguing view of an experience. (Either that or display incredible patience in anticipation of the perfect moment yet to be revealed.) Telling a good story with your image requires you to consider not only the placement of your primary subject, but also to balance that subject with details found in the setting, to place the shot in context. To do this most effectively, I shoot with a wide- or super wide-angle lens to expose as much information about the experience as I can, immersing the viewer in the space to explore the story.

Her Path

She walked toward me through the field in Rwanda. Slipping me a shy glance, she pressed past me without pause, carrying the bundle of sticks that would fuel the fire for her family’s evening meal. The bundle of sticks and the narrow dirt path draw the viewer’s eye to a single point of intersection just at the edge of the horizon. The weight of her shadow and mine in the lower right quadrant of the image helps to balance.

See It!

Shooting with a wide-angle lens (14mm) while approaching your subject will offer an intriguing distortion. See the sticks coming right out of this image! With the slight blur of motion and the strong diagonal of the sticks, the composition lends itself to the fluidity of this poetic daily routine.

Family

Melanie’s collection of pets meandered in and out of my field of vision throughout our visit. When she sat down on the covered sofa to talk about the process of making art, her dog Lucky and one of Melanie’s 12 cats jumped at the chance to get close to her. I stood over Melanie and chose to include the empty dog crate and her clutter-free drafting table in the composition to give the viewer some open space to balance the intensity of this trio’s connection.

Male Bonding

Place the primary subject of your image off-center to give your image visual interest and consider the natural lines that appear within a setting to direct the viewer’s eye where you want it to go. In this image, I placed the boys off-center and tilted my camera slightly to balance the prominence and detail of my primary subject with the weight of the stone wall. By placing the wall on a diagonal plane, your eye is naturally drawn to follow this line straight to the subject.

Lighting

Because you’re recording a moment in time with little or no ability (or even desire) to manipulate your scene, you have to do your best with the light you’ve got.

Light has the power to set the mood and shape the emotional connection between the viewer and the story as it unfolds. Images bathed in light tend to inspire uplifting feelings of hope, joy, serenity, even bliss—while images with less light convey a sense of drama, depth, sensuality, and mystery as edges fade into darkness. The more you shoot, the better you become at learning to sculpt light rapidly by adjusting your aperture, shutter speed, and ISO settings, freeing you up to follow the actions of your subject.

Betty’s Glow

Because there was just one dim light bulb overhead in this simple outdoor setting and I wanted to keep my ISO on a low setting (to avoid a grainy portrait), I reached for my speedlight. Turning the speedlight, or external mount flash, to point behind me and tilting it to the left at a 45-degree angle, I bounced the light diagonally off the wall behind me to bathe Betty in a soft, warm glow of light.

Shoot It!

Using an external flash gives you the flexibility to “bounce” the flash light off of walls or ceilings. Experiment with this creative technique for softer results than using your flash pointed directly at your subject.

Jam Session, by Andrea

Documenting life’s moments inside the home often puts you in challenging lighting situations. Just remember that exposure, highlights and shadows can be adjusted with image processing, but the moment can’t be recreated. Typically, when bright light is coming from behind your subject, it will place your subject in the dark, but in this case there was enough light in the foreground to offset the warm glow coming through the window in the back room. You can generate foreground light using flash.

Shutter Sisters’ Blog, by Tracey

Despite my plans to execute our annual birthday-cake-baking ritual in the light of day (for optimum photographs of course), some years it’s more difficult than others to find the time. This year, I knew that baking at night (past our bedtime even) wouldn’t offer a picture-perfect scenario. Luckily, I have long abandoned my expectation for perfect so I figured I’d give it a shot (or two) and tell this year’s story as it really is. We’re busy. And my daughter is growing up. And although life sometimes gets sticky, it’s always sweet. This shot will stand as an all-time favorite of mine. I should have remembered that when I surrender and give it my best attempt to cook up something wonderful, something yummy happens.

Details

Whether it is a facial expression, texture of the landscape or contextual details, clicking the shutter at the right second is essential in capturing “the moment.”

Choosing to notice and incorporate details in your documentary images helps provide context and clues for the viewer, and can often add an element of irony or humor to your images. Small details in the setting might include an odd expression on someone’s face in the periphery of action, or the presence of something unique such as a turtle shell displayed over a fireplace, or a clever phrase written on the front of someone’s T-shirt. Also consider details that can help reveal subtle information about your subject, such as the frayed edges of a worn sweater or skinned knees beneath too-tight shorts to offer a more authentic view.

Intrigue in the Tub, by Maile

Successful documentary images are most often captured as spontaneous moments. But what makes this shot of Maile’s so expressive are the little details she captured in the setting—tiny toes pressed up against the edge of the tub, the curious expressions of the girls’ discovery of something mysterious beyond our view, and the inclusion of two small toys in the corner of the tub anchoring the composition.

 

Beyond the Window

As you consider the details of a setting, think about what they might indirectly reveal to the viewer. Shooting an image with a narrow aperture setting ensures your entire shot will be in focus, which helps give context to the story and the subject. By sharing the details of a particular space—such as a welcoming living room, toys on the floor, a pregnant woman’s profile by the window—it’s obvious that my friend is expecting her second or third child. It’s these kinds of telling details you can reveal in documentary photography.

Set It!

ISO: 1600

Exposure: 1/15 sec

Aperture: 8

Focal Length: 14mm

Flash Used: No

Her Beauty

As I moved carefully in the tight space of this beauty shop in the Remera district of Kigali, Rwanda, to study the beauty of Grace and the art of hair styling, I was surprised to see the vast variety and quantity of familiar products lining the walls of this foreign space and intrigued by the tools used to straighten and curl her hair. By using a wide-angle lens and a narrow aperture setting to focus on the details, I was able to offer a complete view of the scene here, while maintaining a focus on Grace.

Processing

With little or no time to prepare, shooting in a documentary style can sometimes warrant a little extra help after the fact. Enter post processing.

As you study your collection of documentary images during or following a shoot, you may be tempted to delete images that appear to not work on first glance. Hold yourself back and apply a broad filter before pressing that delete key. You’ll be amazed at how making some simple adjustments to the exposure and white balance can save a well-composed image made under dismal lighting conditions. Or how converting a complex scene of clashing colors can be simplified and redefined as a black-and-white image. I often go back through my archive of images—some of which I took years ago—and find something magical that I didn’t see before because over time I’ve changed. It could be a delicate gesture, a curious facial expression, or a new appreciation for the blur of motion to convey the essence of a moment in process. Give yourself some time and space away from your documentary images so you can evaluate and process them more objectively.

Her Light

Processing images in black and white works well for high-contrast images and in situations where you want to emphasize an expression or a gesture.

Faith Dancer

One of my favorite processing techniques for documentary images is to enhance the contrast and definition to play up the gritty details and intensity of an image. I made this image of the faith dancer under really dim lighting conditions. To compensate for the lack of light and my inability to use a flash, I increased the ISO setting up to 6400 (causing the grainy texture of the image) and used a really wide ƒ/2.8 aperture setting. By adding a substantial vignette to darken the edges of the image, I sought to pull the viewer’s eye to the dancer in the center of the image.

Evening Indulgence, by Sarah

Sarah’s take on vintage processing lends emotional impact with a bit of whimsy to this honest moment in time. Its soft tones enhance the focus on her subject’s full-body expression and away from the complexity of the street scene. Because the Chicago streetlights at night are generally quite orange, Sarah used a preset she created, aptly named Kinda Vintage, to desaturate all the colors by a little more than 50 percent.