Documentary Photography Task 1,2&4

The first documentary photographer I have chosen is Jonas Bendiksen.

Jonas Bendiksen was born in 1977 in Norway. He was 20 years old his career started at Magnum Photography. He travelled to Russia as a photojournalist discovering the soviet union which lead him to publish his first book "Satellites". He then went onto his own project about the slums around the world which has lead to his next book "The places we live". 

Satellites Link - http://inmotion.magnumphotos.com/essay/satellites
The places we live link - http://theplaceswelive.com/

I have looked at all of the images from both his books and they are what documentary photography is all about. At first i didn't know what some of the images were about but as i found out more i realised what the images were about like this one for example from the Satellites book:

This image is a narrative image because the book was based exploring Russia and the surrounding countries. Two men were travelling with Jonas Bendiksen to show him the crash sites. The piece of metal that they are standing on is a crashed space rocket that had been launched and ended up crashed near the border of Kazakhstan. The white fluffy things in the image is white butterflies which I thought was snow at first.
I think that Jonas Bendiksen intentionally took his photographs in landscape so that he can document everything in his photographs for example if he chose to take the photograph in portraiture to include the biggest satellite remains (the one the men are standing on) then half the story would be missing as the background and the surroundings would have be cut off. 
I think its more effective in landscape format because its showing how abnormal things are: a spacecraft in the middle of a field also dead cows laying on the grass above a valley.

Which is another result of the crashed space rockets, the countryside for example:

The rocket fuel poisons the soil and regularly kills cows. At first when I saw this image my initial thought was the cows were laying down as a joke to show it was going to rain soon like the old saying but now that i know the story behind the image its quite shocking. I particularly like how you can learn so much from his images, like a history lesson.

The rest of his work from "the places we live".

I really enjoyed reading about the information of the conditions of the slums in India,Indonesia,Kenya and Venezuela because he took the time to interview people about the way they lived. This image is narrative as well because it shows how packed the slums are.

Jonas Bendiksen's images tell a story very successfully because the mysteriousness of his photographs make you want to find out what they are about. "The places we live" photographs document the conditions of the slums quite well as they are in a sequence. With the photographs Jonas took he made an animation almost so that you could see the whole 360 degree view of the house. The animation of the houses is very interesting because its a different layout instead of columns.

Another photographer I have chosen is Erich Hartmann. Erich Hartmann was born in 1922 he was 8 years old when he took his first photographs. During 1946-1956 he was an assistant portrait photographer then moved onto being a freelancer. 
I think Erich Hartmann was documenting life in the 1940's 50's and 60's in different parts of the country/world for example:

France: In this photograph American soldiers are being transported home on a transport train.This photograph is in landscape position because they are on a train and he's trying to capture the direction of the train to create a sense of movement which it does. The photograph would also work in portrait position if the focus was on them and their facial expressions that they were returning home.

 USA - Oklahoma This image is of a cattle rancher in portrait style I think it works well in portrait style because the focus is on the man in the photograph not anything else but also there is a mystery as to what the man is looking at, which could represent him as a person.

 USA -  New York 1955 This image is in portrait style because its a narrow street with hardly any people or cars there. The photograph made me realize that now the streets are flooded with cars because of mass production whereas then cars were still fairly new to people. 

 USA - New York 1948 This photograph is in a landscape style to show the building windows are boarded up and there are people living there I think it was done like this because Erich was trying to fit in all the surrounding buildings.  

 USA- Kansas This photograph works very well as a portrait photograph as the farmer is shovelling, its showing what he does and it adds to his character. But if it was a landscape photograph the focus would be on the background surroundings and not him.

Ireland: This photograph is in landscape showing some men in a bar or pub with lots of glasses of alcohol in front of them documenting the surrounding area. Whereas if the photograph was in portraiture the amount of glasses they have would be reduced and the photograph less informative. Again mystery is an element in this photograph because we dont know why they had so much alcohol in front of them.

I like how some of Erich Hartmann's photographs have the same style a woman or child with half their face blacked out or cut off but different people like these for example:

These photographs are in portrait style so that the focus is just on the subject and not on the surroundings.

 His other photographs documents the different concentration camps how they are now. I  really like these photographs because I would one day like to visit them. They are also in black and white format to represent the tragic occurrence that happened. 

This photograph is in portrait style because of the content of the photograph. 

The train track disappears into the horizon so portrait style is ideal as it emphasizes this. 

This photograph is in landscape style because it expresses the quantity of shoes giving a depressing feeling to the photograph. I think the window reflection was accidental but it is eye catching. 

Erich Hartmann's images are mostly black and white but there is about 5 or 6 which are in colour that he did in 1979 on circuit boards and i don't really like some of them because their a bit boring, like these for example:

But on the other hand i really like these because even though their close ups of eg a circuit board it resembles a city skyline like new york for example.

Out of all Erich Hartmann's colour photography these two images are my favourite.
Erich Hartmann also uses landscape and portrait style for his photographs.
I think Erich Hartmann's photographs tell a story quite well because of what he has chosen to photograph and the angles he has taken them at. 
Some of his images aren't sequenced but the photographs of the concentration camps are this effects the narrative because it shows the different parts of the concentration camps.






The third photographer i have chosen is Larry Towell. Larry Towell was born in 1953, he was interested in photography when it first began and started out as a freelancer in 1984 then joined magnum photography in 1988.
I like Larry Towell's work especially his documentary photographs of his family moments.


This photograph is of all Larry's children playing baseball together. Also this image is in landscape position so that the field and tree's are captured. I think it would look good in portrait position but it looks as good in landscape position.

This image is his daughter introducing his son to water for the first time. The image is in landscape because as his son is being introduced to the water I think Larry wanted to show the whole of the lake to show that his son swam all over in the lake. 

 This image is his son eating a wild pear in their pick up truck. I think this image was taken in landscape format because the outline of the mountain or hill points to the car with his son and wife inside.

 This image is his son ill on an uninstalled basement window. I think this was taken in landscape because it shows the scenery around his son who is ill. For example having their pet dog in the photograph makes all the difference as they say a man's best friend is a dog and to have the dog laying beside his son almost looking after him is ironic.

 This image is his daughter and a neighbour feeding the cows. This photograph was taking in landscape format but i think it should have been taken in portrait because it takes away the focus from the first cow their feeding and plus the two cows on the right hand side do not look like cows. 

This image is his daughter and son walking home after swimming in the river. This picture is taken in portrait style to focus on his daughter carrying his son back home.

This image is his son just had his haircut and laying on a bedspread his wife made.

 Larry Towell's images about his family are very effective to the views because it documents the family moments successfully so that certain moments are kept almost like a landmark. The other great thing about Larry Towell's images is that there isn't a million of images there is only a couple and it marks the precious moments captured.

I don't think his images are intentionally sequenced but in a way they are for example they follow on from each other throughout the years so they are in a sequence.

Larry Towell also documents what times were like during the war.
This image is of a goverment soldier standing over a dead guerilla.
These next two images are taken in portrait style so that the focus is just on the subjects as a result of the effect war had on the surrounding people.

 This image is of a wounded civilian recovering with her child.

 This image is of the unsanitary conditions due to lack of medical supplies when infant mortality rate was very high. This photograph is in landscape format to show how many babies were in boxes and not in the proper treatment they needed.

This image is of soldiers approaching a recently returned refugee as she was washing. This image is in landscape format to show how a woman was stopped by soldiers in an ordinary environment so it was documenting the environment and the woman.

 This image is of "the day of the dead" when all the families have a picnic on their relatives graves. These two photographs are in landscape format to show how many graves there are and how many people have died because of the war their in.

This image is of a daughter comforting her mother after fainting at her son's graves. 

 This image is of the FMLN guerillas rest after a day of fighting. This image is in landscape style to show the people in the background resting. 

I think these images are very successful in telling a story because all the images are documenting the effects of the war on civilians and hospitals. 
I think Larry Towell's images are sequenced as it shows images of children to women to graves like a sequence of life.