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Visitor Information: The RPS Gallery and coffee shop will be closed on Saturday 7 December

Reference Books
CREDIT: Mark A Phillips FRPS

Documentary

Documentary photography communicates a clear narrative through visual literacy. It can be applied to social, cultural, historical and political events.

Welcome to the Documentary Group

Documentary photographers’ work always has an intent; whether that is to represent daily life, explore a specific subject, deepen our thinking, or influence our opinions.  

Our Documentary Group members have a common interest in documentary, urban and street, photography. The group offers a lively events programme (including online talks and workshops),  a quarterly e-journal and the opportunity to participate in other photographic initiatives and competitions.

The Traveller
CREDIT: Simon Revington
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CREDIT: Evan Dawson
Events

Documentary Event Search

Liz Vaz Tattoo Project
CREDIT: Liz Vaz ARPS
Resources for documentary photographers

This page will provide links to useful information to support documentary photographers and development of their projects:

Online picture archives - a useful source of inspiration and research material

Useful text and resource books on conducting documentary projects - to follow

 

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CREDIT: Michael Knapstein

Documentary Photography Awards 2023

The Documentary Photography Awards (DPA)  are a development from our previous DPOTY competitions. The expanded format aims to showcase more work from documentary photographers and create a touring UK exhibition.  It is organised by the RPS Documentary Group. The awards opened for entries in May/June 2023 and closed in August 2023. The selected projects were announced in November 2023 and the touring exhibition will take place in 2024. 

This year we have Open, Student and RPS Member categories.

For more details click on the link below. 

Learn more
The Decisive Moment November 2024 Edition 31; Raymond Hughes ARPS
CREDIT: Raymond Hughes ARPS

Read our digital magazine

The Decisive Moment is a quarterly journal that showcases the work of the Documentary Group members, shares insights and reviews about exhibitions related to the field of documentary photography and contains articles and interviews with prominent members of the photographic community.

 

 

Browse our archive
Andrewmaxted 10. MG 1422Abc 700Px
CREDIT: Andrew Maxted

Regional Activities

Regional teams

As well as centrally organised events, our Regional teams put on local events. These include talks and presentations (currently online), local workshops or exhibitions (of members work), a group project, visits and photo walks, feedback and critique sessions and online Zoom meetings. We currently have teams in:

Northern
Yorkshire
East Anglia
Thames Valley
Southern
South East
and joint teams with Contemporary in Central, North West and Scotland.

These teams are generally aligned with the RPS Regional structure, but events are generally open to documentary members from other regions.