Photography represents the process of capturing a specific moment on a substrate, which creates a still light image that remains permanently preserved. In the history of photography different subgroups have developed and this paper deals with early documentary photography. The goal of this group of photos is to show the subject in the most realistic way, without embellishment. For this reason, photography was used to show the reality of people and social problems, thereby causing a reaction in the observer. The earliest examples are associated with photographs of the Scottish fishing village of New Haven, photographed by David Octavius Hill and Robert Adamson. The most important photographers of documentar photography are Jacob Riis and Lewis Hine, whose works are extremely important for the history of photography, but also for social engagement. Jacob Riis fought against class injustice, pointing out the horrors of life. His follower, Lewis Hine, photographed refugees from Ellis Island, working children and advocated for their rights. Finally, he photographed the workers during the construction of the Empire State Building, glorifying the skills of the workers and the new construction. The topic of this thesis came from L. Hine's practice of putting a stamp on the back of his photographs, „interpretative photography “, with which he added to his photographs a symbol of social document and aesthetically sublimated reality. Controversy „is documentary photography only a social document that does not possess artistic value? “has been pursued since the beginning of photography. This paper emphasizes the artistic characteristics of photography on the examples of Riis and Hine, as well as other photographers who marked its value.