Documentary photography usually refers to a type of professional photojournalism, but it may also be an amateur or student pursuit. The photographer attempts to produce truthful, objective, and usually candid photography of a particular subject, most often pictures of people. The pictures usually depict a certain perspective of the photographer.

Usually such photographs are meant for publication, but are sometimes only for exhibition in an art gallery or other public forum. Sometimes an organization or company will commission documentary photography of its activities, but the pictures will only be for its private archives.

Press photographers

Photojournalists who adhere to generally accepted ethical practices such as those proposed by organizations like the National Press Photographers Association generally strive to make documentary photos instead of posed photos because of the innate power of the candid, unguarded moment in depicting genuine news events. The challenge for that type of photographer is to make pictures of sensitive scenes and moments without changing them by the presence of a camera.

Posing people for an accurate record

If the aim is simply to document something - costume for instance - then sometimes posing people is the best way to make the required clear documentary picture. For instance, the posed "straight up" style of picture pioneered by iD magazine - these were of punks and New Wave youth found on English streets and simply asked to stand against any nearby blank wall. The resulting pictures - the subjects facing the camera and seen from "top to toe" - are a vivid historical documentary photography archive, and have established the posed "straight up" as a valid style of documentary picture-making.

One photographer who was exceptional in his efforts to pose and photograph individuals in their natural environment is found with the works of Milton Rogovin.

Amateur photographers

U.S. documentary photographers

• Jacob Riis
• Lewis Hine
• Berenice Abbott
• Steve McCurry
• Walker Evans
• Dorothea Lange
• Mary Ellen Mark
• W. Eugene Smith
• Lee Friedlander
• Robert Frank
• Gary Winogrand
• Eugene Richards
• Jim Richardson
• William Eggleston
• James Nachtwey

European documentary photographers

• Eugene Atget
• Gertrude Blom
• Bill Brandt
• Brassaï
• Henri Cartier-Bresson
• David Hurn
• Martin Parr
• August Sander
• Roman Vishniac

Brazilian documentary photographers

• Sebastiao Salgado

Australian documentary photographers

• Andrew Stark

For more notable photographers, see: List of photographers