-So, what is Documentary Photography? It means that I choose to capture and process photos as I encounter them, with no manipulation of physical content. The content you see in the photo is what I encountered when I captured the photo. It also means that as a general rule, I don’t attempt to manipulate a given subject to make a better photo before or during the capture, other than what I do with exposure, depth of field, and framing while looking through the camera’s viewfinder. It must be said, however, that no photo will exactly convey what was happening in front of the camera, content manipulation or no; photography is about context, even documentary photography. Manipulation before and after capture is often necessary in various types of commercial photography.