Approach Quote by Beaumont Newhall

Documentary is thought to be art when it transcends its reference to the world, when the work can be regarded, first and foremost, as…

— Allan Sekula

[Documentary photography] is unwittingly literary, because it is nothing other than an observation of contemporary life apprehended at the right moment by an artist…

— Pierre Mac Orlan

The documentary style is an incredibly flexible and useful one. It's a wonderful tool for establishing the credibility of the version of things that's…

— Frank Gohlke

To me documentary photography means making a picture so that the viewer doesn’t think about the man who made the picture. At its esthetic…

— Aaron Siskind

What I believe is really good in the so-called documentary approach to photography is the addition of lyricism.[this quality] is usually produced unconsciously and…

— Walker Evans

Photography is not documentary, but intuition, a poetic experience.

— Henri Cartier-Bresson

A documentary film-maker can't help but use poetry to tell the story. I bring truth to my fiction. These things go hand in hand.

— Chloe Zhao

Documentary is a little like horror movies, putting a face on fear and transforming threat into fantasy, into imagery. One can handle imagery by…

— Martha Rosler

Documentary: That’s a sophisticated and misleading word. And not really clear… The term should be documentary style… You see, a document has use, whereas…

— Walker Evans

Film relates to almost every other form of expression, but poetry is a bit abstract in its strength and sometimes even the white spaces…

— Jim Jarmusch

To the documentary director the appearance of things and people is only superficial. It is the meaning behind the thing and the significance underlying…

— Paul Rotha

The reason I call myself a documentary photographer is the idea of how photographs contain and participate in history.

— Catherine Opie