.•°☽⥃Caitlyn Kingery⥂☾°•.

The photographic essay ties together a sequence of pictures to tell a story or to convey a single theme. In the 11th chapter of his book, Kobre discusses the different approaches that a photographer can use when developing a story idea. One of these approaches is the documentary reporting method, which is the style of photography that I will use for my photo story.

The documentary approach captures a real moment which usually conveys a message about a particular person, place, thing or idea.  

The photo story that has inspired is Bruce Davidson’s “Brooklyn Gang,” which focuses on a group of teenage gang members living in New York City during the 50’s. Davidson spent several months with this group of outliers and documented their day to day lives.

The correlation between the subjects of Davidson’s photo story and the 1950s is very interesting to me. Back then, these rebellious youths were considered social outcasts, so for Davidson to document this was considered taboo. Through the use of photography, Davidson told the story of a group of troubled youths who were products of a broken family, and shortly thereafter had become involved in money trouble and drugs.

Davidson’s social commentary about a group of Italian-Catholic youths in Brooklyn shed more light on a little known demographic of American society.