Below we’ve listed over 150 of the best photography documentaries ever produced.

Not in the mood for a documentary? Take a look at our article: 50 Movies Every Photographer Should Watch

Editor note: Article updated in January 2021. If you find the list helpful, then we would be grateful if you could share it through social media or your own blog.

Photography Documentaries

1940 – 1989

• 1948, Edward Weston: The Photographer – YouTube
• 1957, Ansel Adams, Photographer – YouTube
• 1971, Beaton by Bailey – YouTube
• 1972, Going Where I’ve Never Been The Photography of Diane Arbus – YouTube
• 1973, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment – YouTube
• 1981, Joel Meyerowitz: Street Photography – YouTube
• 1983, Shadows from Light
• 1984, America and Lewis Hine
• 1985, 50 Years of Life Magazine – YouTube
• 1986, Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank – DailyMotion
• 1986, Karsh: The Searching Eye
• 1988, George Eastman: The Wizard of Photography – YouTube
• 1989, Creativity with Bill Moyers: The Photographer’s Eye (Garry Winogrand) – YouTube
• 1989, Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge
• 1989, Strand, Under the Dark Cloth
• 1989, W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult

1990 – 1999

• 1991, Pictures from a Revolution – YouTube
• 1991, Models: The Film by Peter Lindbergh – YouTube
• 1991, Dreamgirls: The Photography of Guy Bourdin – Dailymotion
• 1992, Blast ‘Em: A Celebrity Stakeout
• 1992, Sight & Insight: Photographer Sam Abell’s Art of Simplicity – YouTube
• 1993, The Real Weegee – YouTube
• 1993, Sebastião Salgado: Looking Back at You
• 1993, The South Bank Show: Annie Leibovitz – YouTube
• 1994, A Great Day In Harlem – YouTube
• 1994, Cindy Sherman – Nobody’s Here But Me – YouTube
• 1994, My Name Is Albert Watson – YouTube
• 1995, Lee Miller: Through the Mirror – YouTube
• 1995, Legends in Light: The Photography of George Hurrell – YouTube
• 1995, Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light – YouTube
• 1997, Man Ray: Prophet of the Avant Garde
• 1998, Dying to Tell the Story – YouTube
• 1998, John Szarkowski: A Life in Photography
• 1998, National Geographic: The Photographers – YouTube
• 1998, Man Ray’s Life and Work by Jean-Paul Fargier – YouTube
• 1999, Magnum Photos: The Changing of a Myth – YouTube
• 1999, Moments of Impact: Stories of Pulitzer Prize Photographs
• 1999, Martin Parr: Think of England – YouTube

2000 – 2004

• 2000, Half Past Autumn: The Life and Works of Gordon Parks
• 2000, Naked States – YouTube
• 2000, Self-Portrait: Max Vadukul – YouTube
• 2001, Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye – YouTube
• 2001, Henri Cartier-Bresson: L’amour Tout Court (Just Plain Love) – YouTube
• 2001, Jazz Seen: The Life and Times of William Claxton
• 2001, Near Equal: Daido Moriyama – YouTube
• 2001, War Photographer
• 2002, Dreamlives (Trent Parke, Narelle Autio) – YouTube
• 2002, Omnibus Special: Mario Testino – YouTube
• 2002, The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams’ Appalachia
• 2002, Ansel Adams, A Documentary Film – YouTube
• 2002, The Art of Bill Henson – Obsessions – YouTube
• 2002, The Real Blow Up: Fashion, Fame and Photography in the ’60s – YouTube
• 2003, Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye
• 2003, Martin Parr – De Magie van het Moment – YouTube
• 2003, Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time
• 2003, Robert Capa: In Love and War – YouTube
• 2003, The Colourful Mr. Eggleston – YouTube
• 2003, The World According To Martin Parr – YouTube
• 2003, The Search for the Afghan Girl – YouTube
• 2004, Arakimentari
• 2004, The War in Iraq: Through Photographers’ Eyes
• 2004, Thinking XXX
• 2004, Fame, Fashion and Photography: Bailey’s Seventies – YouTube
• 2004, Leaving Home, Coming Home A Portrait of Robert Frank
• 2004, The LOMO Camera: Shoot From The Hip – YouTube

2005-2009

• 2005, What Remains: Sally Mann
• 2005, William Eggleston in the Real World
• 2006, By the Ways: A Journey with William Eggleston
• 2006, Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens – YouTube
• 2006, Manufactured Landscapes
• 2006, Tierney Gearon: The Mother Project
• 2006, Eye Candy: The Crazy World of David LaChapelle – Vimeo
• 2007, At Close Range With National Geographic
• 2007, Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe
• 2007, Eloquent Nude: The Love and Legacy of Edward Weston & Charis Wilson
• 2007, Helmut by June – YouTube
• 2007, Misery Loves Company: The Life & Death of Bruce Gilden
• 2008, Guest of Cindy Sherman – YouTube
• 2008, An Unlikely Weapon
• 2008, Blood Trail: Shooting Robert King
• 2008, Eugène and Berenice – Pioneers of Urban Photography
• 2008, In Harm’s Way – War Photographers – YouTube
• 2008, Visual Acoustics The Modernism of Julius Schulman
• 2009, Erwin Olaf, on Beauty and Fall
• 2009, Japan in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn – YouTube
• 2009, Karsh Is History
• 2009, An American Journey in Robert Franks Footsteps
• 2009, Shadow Play: The Making of Anton Corbijn
• 2009, Rock Prophecies
• 2009, The Cambodian Room: Situations with Antoine D’Agata

2010 – 2013

• 2010, Bill Cunningham New York
• 2010, South Africa in Pictures
• 2010, Teenage Paparazzo
• 2010, Smash His Camera
• 2010, Moonbug
• 2010, Brian Duffy: The Man Who Shot The 60s – YouTube
• 2010, David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and No Cheating
• 2010, The Pirelli Calendar Saga
• 2010, National Geographic: The Last Roll of Kodachrome – YouTube
• 2010, The Weird Adventures of Eadweard Muybridge – YouTube
• 2010, David Hockney on Photography & Other Matters – YouTube
• 2011, America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine – Vimeo
• 2011, Artists and Alchemists
• 2011, Beyond Iconic: Photographer Dennis Stock
• 2011, Bert Stern: Original Madman
• 2011, Rock ‘N’ Roll Exposed: The Photography of Bob Gruen
• 2011, Sam Abell – The Life of a Photograph – YouTube
• 2011, Shooting the Hollywood Stars
• 2012, Anton Corbijn: Inside Out
• 2012, Chasing Ice
• 2012, Art of The Photographer: Photography, Travel & Adventure – YouTube
• 2012, Gregory Crewdson Brief Encounters
• 2012, McCullin
• 2012, No Worries – Martin Parr – YouTube
• 2012, The Many Lives of William Klein – YouTube
• 2012, Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film
• 2013, In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter
• 2013, The Man Who Shot Beautiful Women
• 2013, Everybody Street – YouTube
• 2013, Fred Lyon: Living Through the Lens
• 2013, Herb Ritts: L.A. Style – YouTube
• 2013, Eye on the Sixties: The Iconic Photography of Rowland Scherman
• 2013, Vivian Maier Who Took Nanny’s Pictures
• 2013, Finding Vivian Maier
• 2013, Which Way is the Front Line from Here? The Life and Time of Tim Hetherington

2014 – Present

• 2014, The Salt of the Earth, Sebastiano Salgado
• 2014, Dorothea Lange – An American Odyssey – YouTube
• 2014, Albert Watson: What Do Artists Do All Day – YouTube
• 2014, Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People
• 2014, The Man Who Shot the Great War
• 2014, Monk with a Camera
• 2014, Duane Michals: The Man Who Invented Himself
• 2014, Looking for Light: Jane Bown
• 2015, Don’t Blink: Robert Frank
• 2015, Zimbelism: George Zimbel
• 2015, Koudelka Shooting Holy Land
• 2016, Harry Benson: Shoot First
• 2016, Underfire: The Untold Story of Pfc. Tony Vaccaro
• 2016, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures
• 2016, Shorebreak: The Clark Little Story
• 2016, The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography
• 2016, SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock (Mick Rock)
• 2017, Hondros: War photographer Chris Hondros
• 2017, Love, Cecil
• 2017, On Camera: Photographers at the BBC – Vimeo
• 2017, Inside The Storm, S2 E2 – Fujifilm
• 2018, Garry Winogrand: All Things are Photographable
• 2018, Jay Myself
• 2019, Peter Lindbergh – Women’s Stories
• 2019, Peter Lindbergh: The Supermodel Photographer – YouTube
• 2020, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful

Photography Documentary Series

• 1983, BBC Master Photographers: Adams, Brandt, Eisenstaedt, Feininger, Kertesz, Lartigue
• 1980, Vision and Images Interview Series – YouTube Playlist
• 1985-1991, The World of Photography – YouTube Channel
• 1988, Contacts, Vol. 1 The Great Tradition of Photojournalism
• 1992, Contacts, Vol. 2 The Renewal of Contemporary Photography
• 1997, Decisive Moments – The Photographs That Made History
• 1999, American Photography: A Century of Images
• 2001, Contacts, Vol. 3 Conceptual Photography
• 2003, The Adventure Of Photography – YouTube
• 2007, Edwardians in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn
• 2007, The Genius Of Photography (BBC)
• 2012, Capture with Mark Seliger (RSRV)
• 2015, Richard Hammond’s Jungle Quest (BBC)
• 2017, The Man Who Shot Tutankhamun (BBC)
• 2017, Britain in Focus: A Photographic History (BBC)
• 2019, Don McCullin: Looking for England (BBC)

Which documentary is your favorite? Do you have any additions for our list? Share in the comments section below!

View our Photography Documentary YouTube Playlist (featuring 75 of the documentaries listed in the article).

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