describes documentary photography as: “a style of photography that provides a straightforward and accurate representation of people, places, objects and events, and is often used in reportage.” Aesthetica selects five examples from the archives, expanding upon this definition through architectural images, portraits and conceptual projects. These features provide a window into experiences across the globe.
Oliver Wainwright, Inside North Korea
Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, once declared: 鈥淟et us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland.鈥澛Guardian聽architecture critic Oliver Wainwright gained access to the country in July 2015, and published a new photography book,聽Inside North Korea, with Taschen. 鈥淎t first it sounds like meaningless propaganda,鈥 he tells聽Aesthetica. 鈥淏ut I realised there might be something genuine behind it. The interiors and aesthetics of the new buildings did have this childlike, fantastical, kindergarten look to them. It made me think it could be part of a state-sponsored ideology 鈥 it seemed to be a kind of sugar-coated architectural tranquilliser.鈥 Read full feature.
Dawoud Bey, 聽On Photographing People and Communities
Dawoud Bey’s (b. 1953) book is an extremely approachable and modest guide to shooting portraits, in which Bey adopts a friendly, informal tone. His notes are penned with honesty and vulnerability 鈥 much like many of his sitters from over the years. Writing about one of the most famous shots, which depicts a young man in shades outside a cinema lobby, Bey remarks: 鈥淗e is stylin鈥 big time. He鈥檚 cool with his grape drink, his aviator sunglasses, his tracksuit and white sneakers.鈥澛燘ey is also extremely thoughtful in his process and self-reflection 鈥 raising and discussing issues of representation and the 鈥渜uestion of outsiderness鈥 from the outset. Read full feature.
Pieter Henket and Eva Vonk, Congo Tales
The Congo Basin is a tropical rainforest second only in size to the Amazon. It is described by ecologists as the earth鈥檚 鈥渟econd lung.” From 2013, Eva Vonk spent three years working closely with people in the Mbomo District of the Congo Basin to learn about the importance of oral culture.聽Pieter Henket, a Dutch portrait photographer, has translated these stories into spell-binding images inspired by 17th聽century Golden Age painting. The resulting series,聽Congo Tales, raises awareness of the rainforest 鈥 spanning 500 million acres and six nations. Henket and Vonk speak to Aesthetica about their collaboration and its wider impact. Read full feature.
Ute Mahler (b. 1949) and Werner Mahler (b. 1950) grew up in the former German Democratic Republic (GDR, 1949-1990). Together with five other photographers, they founded the Ostkreuz photo agency in 1990, named after the S-Bahn station 鈥 the busiest traffic hub in Berlin. Their work from the 1970s to the present-day highlights groundbreaking reports and social documentaries from a range of different collaborative series. The most recent images from聽碍濒别颈苍蝉迟补诲迟听(2015-2018) depict landscapes and provincial towns all over Germany, taken in the decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Read full feature.
Claudia Andujar, The Yanomami Struggle
“It鈥檚 not only an artistic exhibition but a political project that features photography about other cultures. It鈥檚 about how we understand the world and what we can do to protect its diversity,鈥 says Curator Thyago Nogueira. He鈥檚 talking about Claudia Andujar’s The Yanomami Struggle. Andujar worked for over five decades with the Yanomami people, one of Brazil鈥檚 largest indigenous groups, with approximately 35,000 people. “The whole project was to understand the culture and offer a representation of that culture, not to give an outside point of view,鈥 says Nogueira. Read full feature.
Lead image: Journey by pirogue.聽Catrimani, Roraima, 1974. 漏 Claudia Andujar.
1. Courtesy of Taschen 漏 Oliver Wainwright.
2. A Couple At A Main Street Bus Stop, Rochester, New York, 1989; From Dawoud Bey On Photographing People And Communities (Aperture, 2019)
3. The Night Husband. 鈥淒reams possess a reality whose truths are neither denied nor obscured by real life. .鈥 Photo by Pieter Henket. Edited by Eva Vonk and Stefanie Plattner. Story based on a tale reported by A茂chatou Mboyo Lady and Vulgain Imbonda Teddy. Produced by Tales of Us.
4. Kleinstadt, 2015-2018 漏 Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler
5. The forest,聽infrared film, Roraima, 1972鈥76. 漏 Claudia Andujar.
