The Documentary Conversation
Last winter I wrote the long essay The Documentary Deficit, commissioned by Dutch Doc (Dutch Documentary Photography Foundation) and FotografenFederatie, on the state of the documentary photography debate in The Netherlands. I posted the English version of my essay at my page at academia.edu where you can read it in full. In addition to the long essay , in which I try to grapple with the slippery issue of the definition of documentary (photography), I wrote a mini-essay which accompanied Dutch Doc’s exhibition showing all 34 longlisted projects for the Dutch Doc Award 2014, at the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, 23 May – 6 July 2014.
The Documentary Conversation
How does a photojournalist differ from a documentary photographer? The latter not only collects a series of photographs about a certain theme, but also approaches his subject based on a research question, a concept and a personal perspective. Perhaps the opposition between ‘to react’ and ‘to begin’ will cast a new light on the matter. A photojournalist supposedly reacts, while the documentary photographer initiates. He takes up a task, an inquiry, negotiations; he gets a conversation going.
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2011-2023