Artist Research - Documentary Photography

Artist Research - Documentary Photography

Henri Cartier-Bresson -

Henri Cartier-Bresson is was a French photographer who assisted in the development of street photography and was the co-founder of Magnum Photography. In addition to this, he is referred to as the father of modern photojournalism. The three images below come from Henri Cartier-Bresson's documentary series; The Decisive Moment. The Decisive Moment has been defined as a photograph which is taken at a precise moment which depicts the entirety of a story or action. 

Ed Thompson

Ed Thompson is a British photographer and his work focuses on different cultures and lifestyles. His work focuses on many different areas and he is mostly known for his documentary style photography. The three images below come from one of his documentary series known as Cowboy Church.

Comparison -

The two photographers and the way that they present their documentaries are very different. Firstly, Henri Cartier-Bresson obviously photographs in black and white whereas Thompson captures his images in colour. In addition to this difference, Thompson seems to stay with his topic more whereas Cartier -Bresson appears to stray further away from the original topic. In my opinion, I think that Thompson's work is more effective as it is easier to see what he is documenting as the images that he has captured are closer to the original topic and all the images relate more to each other. In comparison to this, Cartier-Bresson's images appear to be less related to each other and it is more difficult to see what is being documented by just looking at the images whereas you are able to detect a type of Western American theme when you look at Thompson's work, even when you are unaware of the actual topic of documentary.