Categorizing photography is controversial. For example, the category of ‘photojournalism’, in my opinion, is an exceedingly narrow definition. It traditionally demanded that photography be defined as close to events as they unfolded avoiding interpretation. When I started working with GEO in the 70’s, it meant something extremely narrow and factual, and today we might, perhaps, call it ’hard news’. It was then solely defined in terms of factual parameters. Magnum photographers were the exception to the rule. They each saw the world with their own eyes.
I believe that now, a more interpretative, personal photography is seen in documentary photography. For example, we have chosen 5 images by Richard Mosse, still lives of the borders in the American side of Mexico. They are, without doubt, documentary photographs. Alongside Richard we show Shaul Schwarz’s work. He worked extensively on ‘Narcos’ in Mexico. Shaul’s work is hardcore journalistic, yet he has a unified vision in his documentary photography. At the New York Photo Festival, these two photographers will be exhibited side by side in one room to show how they are close in terms of subject yet radically different in terms of their visual interpretation.
Documentary Photography nowadays is more inclusive than exclusive, and it can go from portraiture to fine art to landscape and still life. There definitely is room for interpretation. Some people see it with a much narrower perspective. In my opinion, a photographer is documenting events in a broad sense. It can go from merely showing what is there to interpreting it in a highly personalized way.
