"PHOTOTELLING" AS THE INNOVATION OF PHOTOJOURNAL "6 MOIS" BY CONNECTING PRESS AND BOOK MARKETS

Abstract

he author analyses the French journal «6 MOIS», which was created in Paris in 2011, from the point of view of visual sociology. The notions of documentary photography (350 pages of journalistic photography) that represent social life in the 21st century are investigated. The goal of this article is to demonstrate that the journal is a unique and significant source for social science. The research connects the views of the editorial team with photographers from around the world by analysing and comparing interviews conducted in collaboration with the editorial team and photographers from China, The Netherlands, France, Russia. The interviews reveal the main criteria relevant in selecting documentary photographic material: the “concept-story”; their journalistic nature; visual quality; and the actuality of the topic. By analysing journal publications this author has discovered the way social problems in documentary photography are demonstrated: using age; gender; emotions of heroes; the location of story; and the main social issues. To answer the question of how the popular documentary journal «6 MOIS» constructs the image of the contemporary, the content analysis of photographs and the journal’s interviews and are presented and discussed.