The Documentary Photography Special V

Groundbreaking gravitas — As one of the most prominent voices to document American life in the 1950s and ’60s, Gordon Parks used his camera as a ‘weapon’ to fight racism, intolerance and poverty – paving the way for others to blur the line between artist and activist. LaToya Ruby Frazier is determined to further that legacy through social documentary that’s both personal and political.

Written by: LaToya Ruby Frazier, as told to Cian Traynor

Intimate Distance — By identifying as an artist rather than simply a photographer, Todd Hido has forged an illustrious career out of sheer creative freedom. Taken at a step removed but with an inquisitive eye, the breadth of his work proves that there are no limits except the ones you impose on yourself.

Written by: Todd Hido, as told to Cian Traynor

Out now! — Huck's annual celebration of visual storytelling returns, celebrating photographers whose unconventional styles have broken new ground and transcended limitations.

Written by: HUCK HQ

Kindred spirits — There is a lineage of photographers who shoot to shock, planting themselves in fringe-dwelling scenes with the eye of a lustful voyeur. Larry Clark was never one of them. His photographs of wayward teens bingeing on sex and drugs, and leaving 1960s America aghast, are moments that he lived. It’s in this brutal suburbia, in the faces of strung-out kids, that skateboarder Ed Templeton first realised that his own life could be a muse.

Written by: Ed Templeton