As photographers, we often try to show the beauty of the world through our lenses. However, even if that is our primary objective, we are also doing something else. We are capturing a moment in time that will never happen again. That makes us all in some form or another documentary photographers.
The world around us is in constant change. Cities, towns, even the rural landscape are in a state of constant change. That change is imperceptible on a day to day basis but over the months and years, it can and often is quite dramatic. As photographers, often without even knowing it, we are capturing history. Today we are going to look at the importance of photographing places as they change.
Havana – A Case Study
If you have followed me for a while on Light Stalking, you will know I have a bit of a love affair with Havana, Cuba. There is a cliche that time stopped in Cuba in the 1960s and it’s easy to see why that might be the case. Old American cars, colonial architecture, the distinct lack of many modern buildings, it all feels like stepping into a scene from The Godfather II.
However, over the years that I travelled to Havana, there was constant change. This was made more obvious to me because I visited, perhaps once a year as opposed to living there.
The most obvious example is in the buildings. Cuba is a poor country and struggles to maintain its building stock. Many of these buildings are very old and as such they crumble and collapse on a frequent basis. I have actually seen a balcony fall off of a building onto a busy street. Thankfully no one was hurt.
Whilst in Havana I realised that things were changing quickly, and took time to try to document some of the things I felt would disappear. Some haven't yet but some have to a certain extent, such as the Camello buses. These are huge articulated buses pulled by truck units and were ubiquitous in Havana in the early 2000s. Whilst they still exist they are around they are not seen as often these days.
Another thing that is changing and this might surprise you is the old American cars. Sure there are still plenty of them to be seen, but every year there are less and less. Despite the Cuban’s innovation, many are just so old they are beyond repair.
I haven’t been back to Havana for a few years but am hoping to do so in the near future, to capture the changes that have occurred in my time away. But you don’t have to travel far to document change.
Gentrification – Your Local Change
All cities go through gentrification. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes not so much. The biggest challenge in documenting gentrification is identifying where it’s going to happen. Back in the late 1980’s one of the first projects I did for myself was to document the transition of London’s docklands. At the time, most of the maritime infrastructure had been pulled down and in its place were small, bland office units.
However, it was clear at the time that those offices were only a small part of what was going to be a massive change, and so it proved, with London’s docklands becoming a second, immense financial district that’s incomparable to its early roots.
That was a fairly easy gentrification to spot. However that’s not always the case. Gentrification often takes place over decades and is a slow imperceptible change. Identifying it can be hard, but there are often clues. A high end coffee shop or restaurant, high tech business startups, a subtle but significant increase in property prices, the clues are there.
If you can spot those clues, then that is the time to get out and start documenting that particular location. The great thing about this type of documentary photography is that it can cover multiple genres. Street photography, street portraiture, urban exploration, architectural and even travel style photography.
Capturing that change has to be a long term project and as such the location that you choose needs to be one that you can access, if not a frequent basis, definitely a regular basis. However the more often you can visit the location the more likely you are to pick up on the more subtle changes. A repainted house, resurfaced road or graffiti that has been cleaned. By noticing those little details you can find subjects that are likely to change in the near future.
Beyond The Urban
Whilst towns and cities are the obvious choice for photographing change, the rural and wild landscape also changes, albeit much slower. Wildland can be claimed for farming, coasts and rivers redefined through erosion or environmental change.
The depopulation of rural villages as jobs move to the cities, is a very common rural issue in many countries. All of these are open to many varied genres of photography from landscape through portraiture to the more obvious documentary.
That slow pace of change requires a decades-long commitment from you as a photographer, so it would need to be in an area that you know well and perhaps know the people as well. These sorts of projects are never finished as the change is constant. However they do create an important record of the world evolving.
Being Sympathetic
There are some important things to consider when photographing change, especially in the urban environment. The most obvious is being sympathetic to the locals. Gentrification often prices people out of the area, people that may have lived there all their lives. It’s important to be aware of social tensions and to choose your subjects carefully and with consideration. Because of this, photographing more local areas will often be more productive. Not only will there be the possibility of knowing people, but because you can return more often, your face will become more familiar. This in turn hopefully will make you more approachable.
It’s important to understand the history of the location. You don’t have to have a deep knowledge but understanding how that place came to be, will help you photograph it as an ongoing story.
It’s also important to get eyes on your project. Whilst you might be documenting the change for yourself, the images you create may well have great local historical importance in the future.
Photographing change is not a one visit wonder. It’s a long term, perhaps even lifetime project. However because change, both urban and rural, is slow, you are not under pressure to get out and shoot once a week. It’s the sort of project that you can work on a few times a year and yet it can also play an important part in documenting the way our world is changing.
