A Critique of the Definition of Documentary Art
Documentary Art: a Definition [caption id="attachment_3563" align="alignleft" width="155"] Documentary arts: An image tells us a story, whether it has detailed facts or not[/caption] The first thing that comes to mind when we think of a documentary is usually a film. Beyond that, we typically think of writers and photographers, especially those of the journalistic type. But that's not all. Painters were definitely the documentary artists before photography was invented. Painters such as Raffaele Carelli and Johann Moritz Rugendas documented the landscapes they visited. In fact, the Hudson School was probably the dominant American documentary arts style of the 1800s. They influenced the...