FSA Documentary vs Photo Essay

FSAドキュメンタリー / フォトエッセイ

FSA Documentary comes from Photography Movements and Photo Essay from Publishing and Editing. One is style and the other layout. They are reached for with some of the same intent, which is where they get confused.

FSA Documentary

FSA Documentary — ラング『移民の母』1936 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainFSA Documentary — 『移民の母』LOC所蔵プリント — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainFSA Documentary — ウォーカー・エヴァンズ「雑貨店の内部（アラバマ州マウンドヴィル）」 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The documentary program of Depression-era America's Farm Security Administration. Lange's Migrant Mother and 270,000 archived negatives defined the public role of documentary.

Photo Essay

Photo Essay — ユルバン・フォレック『Vu』誌「戦時下のマダガスカル」1940 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPhoto Essay — エル・リシツキー『建設のソ連邦』第8号「地下鉄ができた！」1935 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domainPhoto Essay — 『Vu』誌 前線新聞『As de Carreau』の制作を追った組写真 1940 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

The page form LIFE perfected: photographs edited into narrative arcs. Spread-scale contrasts, opening and closing images and the voice of captions gave photography a story grammar.

FSA DocumentaryPhoto Essay
Era1935–19441936–1972
FamilyPhotography MovementsPublishing and Editing
KindStyleLayout
CuesPortraits preserving dignity / Living conditions described / The archive as state project / Field information in captionsSequenced narrative arcs / Size contrast across spreads / The full-page key image / Captions that narrate
Best used forProgram records for agencies and foundations that keep their subjects' dignity · Long-term community documentation built so it can be searched laterLong-form field reporting laid out to be read straight through in print or online · Annual reports that retell a business as the work of people
TypeLog place, date and situation in a fixed form, never opinionWrite captions in a voice apart from the body text
CompositionAlways pair a portrait with the setting that person lives inOne dominant image per spread and never equal sizes
MaterialMonochrome throughout, camera height matched to the subjectFull-page frames open and close, denser pages between
CautionEmphasizing the look of hardship becomes the quick route to sympathy, and what was meant as a record turns the people in it into a spectacle.Good pictures get lined up without a sequence being designed, every spread arrives at the same pitch, and the reader loses any reason to turn the page.

Put these two together

Photography Movements ／ Publishing and Editing

IndexStyle