An image tells us a story, whether it has detailed facts or not When we think of a documentary the first thing that comes to mind is usually a film. Beyond that we typically think of writers and photographers, especially those of the journalistic type, as documentary artists, but that's not necessarily all that's out there. Painters were definitely the documentary artists before photography was invented. Artists such as Raffaele Carelli and Johann Moritz Rugendas were painters who documented the landscapes they visited. In fact, the Hudson School was probably the dominant American documentary art style of the 1800s as they brought back vast works depicting the mostly unseen American west to the masses on the east coast.
Documentary arts relies on a definition that's similar to this one given by Mimi Fine Arts: "Any artwork the purpose of which is to present facts objectively, without inserting fictional matter, recording and/or commenting on some content, often political or social, by accumulating factual detail." That's a fine definition, except that it's completely wrong on one point: objectivity doesn't exist in that way simply because bias is inherent in how we perceive things.
(click above to read more)
Documentary arts relies on a definition that's similar to this one given by Mimi Fine Arts: "Any artwork the purpose of which is to present facts objectively, without inserting fictional matter, recording and/or commenting on some content, often political or social, by accumulating factual detail." That's a fine definition, except that it's completely wrong on one point: objectivity doesn't exist in that way simply because bias is inherent in how we perceive things.
(click above to read more)
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