Unite for Sight - April 17, 2011 Yale University

Telling the Story: Documentary Photography for NGOs

Documentary Photography

What is photography?

Photography is reacting to what you

see and organizing it into a frame.

Elliot Erwitt - Magnum Stories; Pg. 138

We’re responsible for EVERYTHING in the frame.

The Frame.

Placement of the subject

Eleanor, Chicago, 1949 © Harry Callahan

© Henri Cartier-Bresson/Magnum Photos

The Rule of Thirds …

Our next choice is where to put the horizon?

What is this photograph about ?

The Earth or the sky?

Ansel Adams. Canyon De Chelly National Monument, Arizona, 1942

© 1982 by William Albert Allard from Vanishing Breed, published by the New York Graphic Society Books

© Joseph Koudelka/Magnum Photos

Pay special attention to the edges of the frame.

© Alex Webb, Magnum Photos

Light.

The Blue Sixty:The sixty-minutes after the sun has gone over the horizon.

• Holding the camera• Approaching people• Working with interpreters• Ethics

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