What Makes a Photograph “Documentary”?

Photo by Ernest Cole, public domain (South Africa)

What Makes a Photograph “Documentary”?

Photo by Gordon Parks, public domain

ONLINE COURSE

What Makes a Photograph “Documentary”?

Dates: Tuesdays, July 29–Aug 19, 2025
Time: 1–3pm (ET)
Sessions: 4
Limited enrollment: 8 students
Fee: $375 $337
Earlybird Special! 10% off selected classes through Tuesday, April 22!

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“Documentary photography” is a slippery term — unlike “portraits,” for example, it’s not always clear what makes a photograph fit into this genre. Definitions of what makes a photograph “documentary” can range from a consideration of the attitude of the photographer to just declaring that a photograph is a documentary image.

Over 4 weeks, you’ll gain an overview of documentary forms and how they have been understood in different times and places. Based on case studies from the United States, France, South Africa, Japan, Ukraine, and others, we’ll look at different modes of documentary photography — such as socially engaged photography, street photography, and more. Through lecture, group discussion, and presentations, we’ll dig into the history and practice of documentary photography — and as a project, students will select and present a particular photograph (whether taken by the student or someone else) that they feel is documentary.

 
Dortje is an excellent lecturer and was thoroughly prepared for each session. This class with her was interesting, and learning about the history of photo exhibitions of merit was rewarding. Dortje gave us the challenge of preparing a short lecture, which was a stimulating exercise since it had us transfer classroom information into real life experience. My understanding of the history of photography has been greatly expanded by having had two classes with Dortje.
—Lenore (San Francisco)


Dortje Fink
photo by Detlef Eden
Dortje Fink

Dortje Fink is an art and photography historian, educator, cultural organizer and podcaster based in Berlin. With academic training at Humboldt University in Berlin and Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, her research interests involve photographic archives, exhibition histories, lens-based media art, visual culture, biases of canonization, and decentering the history of photography. Her deep engagement with works of Carrie Mae Weems, Philip Kwame Apagya, Boris Mikhailov, Martin Chambi, Nickolas Muray, and Manfred Paul has inspired her writing, which has been published in exhibition catalogues and magazines. Since 2014, she has been working with C/O Berlin — an exhibition space dedicated to photography and visual media. She hosts, along with Julia Wolf, the German podcast “rein theoretisch – Fotografisches mit Fink&Wolf” about photographs whose visibility is restricted for a variety of reasons.

Dortje teaches the history of photography for StrudelmediaLive.