ABSTRACT
Philosophy and psychology “The contemplation of things as they are without error without confusion,
without substitution or imposture is in itself a nobler thing than a whole
harvest of inventions.”1
Since the documentary genre comprises the majority of activist
photography, it is important to define documentary for the purposes of
this book. The definition of documentary photography in the twenty-
first century is complex, multilayered, and nuanced. It is both process
and aesthetic and applies to a broad range of imagery, from traditional,
straight reportage-type images to the manipulated faux documentary
images that appear on gallery walls. To some degree, all photography is
documentary because all photographs document something. Each
photograph is evidence of something that appeared in front of the camera.
Walker Evans qualified the difference between a photographic document
and documentary photography: “When you say documentary, you have to
have a sophisticated ear to receive that word. It should be documentary
style, because documentary is police photography of a scene and a
