documentary

“World Press Photo is committed to supporting and advancing high standards in photojournalism and documentary photography worldwide.”

That's what the "About The Foundation" page on the World Press Photo says. Now follow this timeline of recent events.

We shared last week that the Belgian town of Charleroi was protesting after a series of photos casting it in a bad light was awarded 1st prize at the prestigious World Press Photo contest. According to the town's mayor, Italian photographer Giovanni Troilo had gone out of his way to stage shots for the purpose of painting the city as "The Dark Heart of Europe."

Today, after investigating the claims against the photographer, World Press Photo announced that it will be sticking by its decision on the controversial award.

Over the past year, the Carnegie Museum of Art has been slowly releasing a 5-part documentary series titled The Invisible Photograph, which offers a look into the hidden side of photography -- things that are "guarded, stashed away, barely recognizable, or simply forgotten."

The last installment was released today, completing a series of videos that you may want to set aside some time to enjoy.

I recently took a trip to Lake Placid, NY to follow the Team USA Bobsled crew as they prepared for the upcoming World Cup competitions taking place all over Europe. In 2014, I photographed Jazmine as a personal project after the Sochi Olympics. We stayed in touch, and I convinced her to let me come to Lake Placid and photograph them training next time they were there.

Lynsey Addario is a 41-year-old photojournalist who has taken her camera into virtually ever major theater of war in the 21st century. She has covered conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Darfur, the Congo, Haiti, and Libya (she was one of the four NYTimes journalist kidnapped in Libya in 2011).

In addition to documenting wars for the world to see, Addario is passionate about human rights and the topic of women's roles in traditional societies.

Here’s a nice little 5-minute profile of a man named Armand Kohandani and his store, …

Here’s a 9-minute mini-documentary by the NPPA titled “The Value of Professional Photojournalism.” …

Above is a full 50-minute documentary from 1998 about the life and work of Henri Cartier-Bresson, the legendary photographer who's considered to be the father of photojournalism. It's titled "Pen, Brush and Camera."

Countless photographs have been captured by numerous photographers over the course of Super Bowl history, but only four photographers have covered all 48 Big Games since Super Bowl I in 1967: John Biever, Walter Iooss, Mickey Palmer and Tony Tomsic.

"Keepers of the Streak" is a new documentary film by sports photographer Neil Leifer that chronicles the journey of those four men. Above is the official trailer for the movie.

I grew up in Guelatao de Juárez, a Mexican village of approximately 500 people in Oaxaca's Sierra Norte. Guelatao is famous not only as the birthplace of Mexican president Benito Juárez, but also as the site of the annual Copa Benito Juárez, in which more than 200 teams of indigenous Zapotec, Mixe, and Chinantec players compete at basketball over a period of three days.

Ever wonder what happens to subway cars after they're decommissioned? For cars owned by the Metropolitan Transit Authority, they're dropped into the ocean to create artificial coral reefs. Photographer Stephen Mallon documented this dumping for his project "Next Stop Atlantic."

Here's a nice dose of inspiration: above is a beautiful 16-minute mini-documentary that looks at the work of Sydney-based street photographer Markus Andersen. Titled "Belly of the Beast," the profile features Andersen talking about his thought process and love for film photography.

For his ongoing project "Lands in Limbo," photographer Narayan Mahon has been visiting de-facto countries that aren't recognized as countries by most of the world. Unless you're into geography and/or politics, you may never have heard of any of the places before: Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh, Northern Cyprus, Somaliland, and Transnistria.

Yunnan, China is home to some of the most beautiful rice paddy fields in the world. The traditional agriculture fields are sprawling in size and are often found built into slopes, creating mesmerizing patterns in the landscape. These fields are also rapidly disappearing due to urbanization.

With the risk of their extinction looming on the horizon, photographer Samuel Peck visited the region and captured a series of beautiful images to preserve their memory.

The Tower of David in the Venezuelan capital city of Caracas is an unfinished skyscraper and the third tallest building in the country. The construction of the tower came to an abrupt halt in 1994 due to the Venezuelan banking crisis, and it was quickly taken over by squatters. Thus, for years the building was known as the "tallest slum in the world."

24-year-old photographer Alejandro Cegarra spent time with the residents and documented their way of life through images. The resulting project is titled, "The Other Side of the Tower."

Watches, glasses and combs... these are the kinds of everyday objects that photographer Ziyah Gafić has spent a great deal of time photographing over the past few years. They're objects that are seemingly mundane and unimportant, but in fact tell a tragic story that Gafić's work seeks to reveal and preserve.

Get the tissues ready, because this one is aiming right for the feels. Tucked away within a documentary on the history of Japanese cameras, this touching story of Yoko and Minoru Tanaka took us completely unawares.

We thought we were watching a mildly interesting and informative documentary... as it turns out, it was much more than that.

A month ago we shared with you a video documenting the story behind the ‘lost’ negatives famed conflict photographer Robert Capa captured on D-Day.

In the documentary, there’s a moment where the empty rolls of film are shown, emulsion gone and the plastic worn and tattered. Many of us probably didn’t think twice about the negatives that were shown, but A.D. Coleman and Rob McElroy did, and what they found out was a bit shocking, especially coming from a publication as respected as TIME.

Earlier this year, renowned Cape Town photography store Orms developed their last roll of slide film through the E6 process. To bring the era of a legendary process to a proper close, Hero AV brought together a short documentary depicting three photographers who were asked to shoot the last of the slide film that would be developed at the lab.

Willard Psychiatric Center began its life in 1869 as Willard Asylum for the Insane, closing down over 125 years later in 1995. Thousands of long-term patients passed through its doors, and when the center was shut down, it was discovered that hundreds of suitcases belonging to some of its earliest residents had been set aside and forgotten in one of the hospital's attics.

Those suitcases and their contents have been preserved, catalogued and, thanks to photographer Jon Crispin and his compelling Willard Asylum Suitcases series, now they have been photographed as well.

Born in Jerusalem, Israel, Michelle Frankfurter is a documentary photographer from Takoma Park, MD. Before settling in the Washington, DC area, Frankfurter spent three years living in Nicaragua where she worked as a stringer for the British news agency, Reuters and with the human rights organization Witness For Peace documenting the effects of the contra war on civilians.

Since 2000, Frankfurter has concentrated on the border region between the United States and Mexico, and on themes of migration.

Diving into the latest exhibition from Vietnamese American fine arts photographer Dinh Q. Lê, Walley Films created this short doc to tell the story behind the beautiful art project Crossing the Farther Shore.

Lytro recently created a fascinating documentary to show off the capabilities of its new Illum camera.

By teaming up with five different photographers, all from different styles of work, the company was able to capture how this new approach to photography can be used to turn a photograph into something more... an experience.

It was the year 1974 when Jamaican reggae king Bob Marley met a young, 16-year old photographer by the name of Dennis Morris. Marley was enamored by Morris from the start, and their relationship quickly blossomed into a friendship which would last for many years to come.

The above video, titled “Bob Marley: Giant,” documents that friendship by sharing the story of Bob Marley's life through Morris' eyes and viewfinder.

We've been told again and again that gear only matters far down the road, like last step down the road, once all of your skill and creativity has already been put to use.

The aerial photography work of Edward Burtynsky is spectacular. So much so that Canadian filmmakers Jennifer Baichwal and Nick de Pencier -- the creators of the Burtynsky documentary Manufactured Landscapes -- are featuring him in yet another visual stunner called Watermark.

If you're commissioned to make an ad for a major camera company, might we make a small suggestion? Don't show any cameras. It might seem like a stupid idea on the surface, but when you consider the effectiveness of the Canon ad we shared a couple of weeks ago and this Pentax ad we're sharing today, you might just agree with us.

Marine biologist turned photographer Thomas Peschak spent some time documenting the remote atolls of Bassas de India and Europa, known to be home of some of the most beautiful seascapes in the world.

While doing so, cameraman Dan Beecham and writer Sunnye Collins created a behind the scenes video showing how Peschak went about capturing the beautiful scenery.

In the (slightly paraphrased) words of rapper and former Pimp My Ride host Xzibit, "Yo dawgs, we heard you liked the Nikon D4s, so here's a video about the D4s, shot on a D4s".

Apparently the newest, coolest way to show off your new camera is by sending it up with some professional skydivers and telling them to have at it. Okay, maybe it's too early to spot a trend, but Nikon did recently decide to follow in Sony's footsteps and send a couple of D5300s up with a pro skydive photographer to show them off.