Documentary photo. Outgoing into the past

What to photograph in the gray overcast everyday life? All landscape and architectural (and not only) photographers are always waiting for a good light. If not good light, then what? You can wait for the snow - this is also an excuse to go out and take pictures of snow-covered trees, minimalism, black-and-white contrasts. But now there is nothing - the trees have long stood naked, the grass is dirty, constant gray and damp weather. In principle, you can get excellent genre scenes about the Russian depressive depths. And what if I want beautiful pictures, well, I really want to? You need to have steel nerves and be strong spirit to constantly adjust to the weather and constantly shoot, as for example now - decay, despondency and despair. I found for myself a temporary exit, through which you can move for a while and wait for this grayness before the onset of this winter.

Documentary photography - what is meant by this phrase? In fact, any photo is documentary. As soon as we press the release button - we fix the reality, which in a moment becomes a history, a document of what is happening and this point can not be returned. Landscape, portrait, macro, reporting, studio photography - this is all a documentary photograph. So why did they come up with such a concept then and why did they carry a documentary photo to a particular genre of photography? I could google and find the answer to this question on the Internet, but I decided to figure it out myself.
In our provincial town, in Veliky Ustyug, there are a lot of old stone and wooden buildings, which are very beautiful and are monuments of cultural heritage, but they can just disappear from the face of the earth. Why is that? This should be asked from local officials...Recently, the house was dismantled, with a memorial tablet and QR code on the wall ... I'm at a loss. It can be disassembled in the event that in its place they will build a similar appearance...but I doubt that they will do so.

So we came to what to shoot on days when there is nothing to photograph and at the same time came to what is a documentary photograph. I walked through the center of the city and photographed those houses and buildings that could soon be demolished and dismantled. Just as a document, for memory, for history. Many houses are no longer there, but they have remained on my photos and this has been useful to me for various books, magazines and booklets. Perhaps one of you will find a completely different subject for documentary photography.

Now I know for sure the main difference between documentary photography and other genres - such pictures only takes a few years to become valuable. You need to be able to run ahead and take pictures "for good" - yes, it's not easy, but the point is this. If you take the camera in your hands, walk along any street and shoot everything that has got to the left and right, that is, there is a small chance that some photo will be valuable later. The chance is not great, therefore here, as in any other genre of photography, you also need to think and adapt to the goals and objectives of the genre, so that there is a maximum result. Reportage photo - report, landscape - aesthetics, portrait - memory, wedding photo - family album, macro - science, travel photo - report/science, and documentary photo - is history...

Over time, any photo becomes documentary.

The Baroque house was recognized as an emergency, there were almost no residents left. Soon it will not be here, since 3 houses in front are already demolished in 2013.

Stone structures and buildings stand many times longer than wooden ones.

An old house with a stone bottom, a wooden second floor and a late annexe.

The emergency house, maybe already resettled.

In any case, this masterpiece will last as long as possible.

These are all the houses on Pavel Pokrovsky Street. This year street was fully asphalted. That is, documentary doubly - not only at home, but also the road surface got into the story.

This street was still this spring. Again - a historical frame that became valuable after a while.

And now the most equal asphalt and sidewalks.

Red Street. Twin houses. Both are resettled.

What fate awaits them - one can only guess.

Some houses still live and they are not recognized as emergency, but this is a matter of time.

If I were shooting during the day, it would be gray and non-removable, and in the case of street light, the picture will be slightly transformed, so if you want beautiful pictures, then shoot at night - even in cloudy weather in the late autumn, pictures can turn colorful.