Documentary Photography

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Sebastiao Salgado creates international documentary photography. The photograph. Workers Emerging from a Coal Mine, is a perfect example of this. In countries like India, the coal mining industry is very dangerous, riddled with children labor, disease, and even death. To capture an image like this and like Salgado’s other work, we works very closely with those who he photographs. The photographs are not often take from the distance and Salgado gets as close to the subject as he can, often putting himself in potentially dangerous situations. He says “Each of my stories is about globalization and economic liberalization.” He is trying to bring attention and focus to the people that he is photographing.

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Robert Capa was a Hungarian-American photographer and journalist. The photo I chose is from a very large collection of photographs taken during World War II. This specific photograph is taken during active combat, of soldiers, during active combat. The soldiers are hiding behind these large beach obstacles to avoid gun fire from the German’s. To have taken this photo, Capa was literally in the middle of active combat and could, himself, be killed. The extreme risk of taking this photograph just speaks to need for documentary photography and what these photographers risk to capture documentation of the historical significance of these events.

Morris, John Godfrey. “The Magnificent Eleven: The D-Day Photographs of Robert Capa.” SkyLighters, www.skylighters.org/photos/robertcapa.html. 

“Sebastião Salgado: Workers Emerging from a Coal Mine. Dhanbad, Bihar State, India (1989): Available for Sale.” Artsy, www.artsy.net/artwork/sebastiao-salgado-workers-emerging-from-a-coal-mine-dhanbad-bihar-state-india.