Documentary Vs. Journalism

What is the difference? Hear from two photographers & zeke editor.

- Paula Sokolska

LORI WASELCHUK first arrived in Angola, Louisiana on a magazine assignment in 2011. A photographer with over 15 years’ experience including published work in Newsweek, LIFE, and The New York Times, she was there to document the Louisiana State Penitentiary’s prisoner-run hospice program.

But the “incredible journey” Waselchuk saw in the caregivers—the tenderness and care demonstrated by what society dubs hardened criminals—had her returning to Angola again and again for over two years. Her study of these “people with mostly heart and not a lot of skill making life better for others” culminated in the award-winning photo documentary series Grace Before Dying.

Even though most viewers would be stumped telling the difference between the two, a division exists in the world of visual reporting between photojournalism and documentary photography. The definitions of each are broad and the same body of work can be considered both, but as we see in the evolution of Waselchuk’s work, differences between the genres do not manifest in the finished product but in the photographer’s process and intention.

“Documentary photographers are almost always, by definition, personally driven by the subject matter and the issue,” says Glenn Ruga, ZEKE Executive Editor and a photographer whose experience chronicling issues relating to the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, particularly Bosnia, led him to founding the Social Documentary Network.