Daphine Mlambo* discusses the documentary photography skills workshop.
Heated debates occurred about the use of documentary photography. In the documentary photography skills workshop participants raised a number of issues about its use in bringing about social change.
Documentary photography was defined as a means of recording daily events and as a platform for dialogue for people in different communities. Certain ethics need to be kept in mind when documenting photographs especially when taking pictures of humans. Through some of the ethical issues it was discovered how some photojournalists (mainly private) take advantage of situations around their subjects and don’t follow proper ethics in documenting people.
From our discussions it was evident that there is a relationship between documentary photography and social change. In other case studies presented by participants in the workshop, documentary photography also bring about social change as different issues like service delivery are addressed in these images.
People can also earn a living from documentary photography and give back to the community the photographs taken. As activists address social change through documentary photography, we suggest that their photos show the day to day social and political situations. Hopefully, through these images social justice issues within the communities we are living in can be addressed.
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