15 Powerful Documentary Photography Stories

When we speak about a documentary photo story, we look at the change we can bring upon the individual or a community through the pictures. The Pictures are not a mere proof of their lives and struggles, it reflects the intensity at which the affected looks ahead, amidst all the forces pulling them down.

A Photo story becomes much more powerful when it happens to be extremely subjective rather than environmental. When studied upon a Individual or a collective group, it makes the viewer to listen more to them.

Here we have carefully selected some 15 extremely powerful and intense documentary stories for your inspiration. Take the good and greater values from them.

If you have any photography story with you, Feel free to share with us [email protected], we will be more than happy to show your work in our site. Thanks in advance.

Please check our previous documentary related articles here:

• 15 Unseen Powerful Documentary Photography Stories
• 10 Soulful Documentary Photography Stories
• 15 Heart Touching Documentary Photo Stories
• Great Articles on Documentary Photography and Photojournalism – A Roundup

Diane’s Story by Carl Bower

On a winter morning, Diane warmed herself in the steam of her shower. Sliding her fingers over her right, she met the resistance of what felt like three raw peas. She froze. Fumbling for the soap, she rolled the bar in her hands andd slid her fingers over the area again, desperate to deny what she felt.

 

Never Let you go by Alejandro Kirchuk

The first photograph made from this project was realised a bit more than 3 years ago. In that moment, my grandmother Monica was already suffering from Alzheimer’s disease other 3 more years ago, and her memory began to shut down. From that precise moment in which she was diagnosed, her husband, my grandfather Marcos, decided that he was going to be the one who would take care of her in her illness.

 

Tuberculosis in the former Soviet Union by Misha Friedman

Tuberculosis is still a very deadly disease – especially in the former Soviet Union. The number of patients with very difficult to treat forms of tuberculosis is growing steadily in that part of the world. Officials from health organizations say it is an epidemic and it is not slowing down. More and more patients are found to have the non-treatable form of tuberculosis – XDR (extensively drug-resistant).

 

Alehovshchina: Two Sisters by Nadia Sablin

In 1952, my grandfather bean to lose his vision as a result of being wounded in WWII. Wanting to returnn to the place where he grew up, he foud an unoccupied hill in a village in the Leningrad region of Russia, close to his brothers, sisters and numerous cousins.

 

Wanawake, to be a woman in Congo by Martina Bacigalupo

Every minute in the world a woman dies of childbirth. 99% of these women live in developing countries. More than half of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. For every maternal death, 20 women suffer pregnancy-related injuries, infections or diseases and, in some case, long term disabilities.

 

Agent Orange Vietnam by David Dare Parker

A Result of agent orange sprayed on the agricultural lands of Vietnam during the Vietnam war 1961-1971. Its a deadly chemical combination which has a strong and terrible cause to the genes of human. The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to Agent Orange.

 

Acid Violence by Stijn Pieters

The last years there are less victims of acid violence in Bangladesh but still every two days there’s an incident. In 2008 there were according to official statistics 179 acid attacks. 60 percent of the victims were women and children.

 

East Timor by Ed Wray

Stories on sufferings, the rebels of East Timorese their needs and the very act for achieving the needs the strategies they use and the pain they undergo.

 

Kashmir by Andy Spyra

Each and everything that moves in Kashmir, there has to be a cause and reason behind everything feels Andy Spyra. His Pictures and the documentary strongly reflects them.

 

A Room of Her Own by Wenjie Yang

A room of her own is meant to show the complexity of an independent woman’s life: her moments of reflections, her moments of joy, her moments of sadness, her moments of contentment, her moments of anger, and her moments of liberation in her own space.

 

Portraits of Alzheimer by Alex Ten Napel

In 1996 I began a portrait series about people suffering from Alzheimer’s. I shot the portraits in ‘Wittenberg’ a hospital for elderly people in Amsterdam. It is about losing your life and identity. I wanted to show how Alzheimer’s affects people’s personal life and how it appears on the face.

 

Cambodia TB by KC Oritz

As civil war and genocide go the way of history in Cambodia, a new war in the troubled nation is being fought today; one against Tuberculosis, a very real and deadly foe.

 

Bhagdad Mental Hospital by Cheryl Diaz Meyer

With their stained white dresses billowing in the wind and screams echoing into the night, patients scattered to escape hundreds of marauders wielding pipes, knives and chains, intent on looting the Baghdad Mental Hospital during the war.

 

I’ll be a beautiful girl by Ariel Zambelich

This is a limited view on Elena’s life. In the course of one year, she shed her previous life as Rick Nafzinger, the tie-dye wearing father of five grown children, seminary graduate, Hindu priest and husband.

 

Srebrenica 2011 – No more tears by Giuliano Camarda

A Critical condition in Srebrenica where there was a genocide. A dangerous war zone, this story reflects the people who visit their relatives coffins and mass burial lands.