Reportage! Documenting!!

Although the starting point of folk art has informed my research greatly, and is something I am interested in, maybe I have been thinking of it too literally?

I was thinking about photography books after going to the library, and how they are artefacts that journal an idea, concept, theme, a time and/or place. In some ways, folk art is like documentary art. But instead of documenting something that applies to everyone, folk art can be personal as well as bearing universal themes.

There is also documentary illustration which is referred to as reportage, so maybe I could bring in ideas of chronicling and documenting something to go alongside the folk art theme and maybe bring it up to speed with contemporary art forms/illustration (even though there are still folk artists today).

The concepts of reportage and documentary (whether this is in the form of films, writing, or photography) all relate back to telling a story too. This links into what I've been wanting to look into so far.

Good thinking