BBC4 TV night of photographers

[Jyoti]

(This post won't be much use to you if you don't live in Britain. Or get BBC4.)

Sorry to post after the event but BBC4 often repeat stuff so it's worthwhile keeping an eye out.

Tonight, I switched on and there was an excellent documentary on Jaques-Henri Lartigue (http://www.lartigue.org/us2/jhlartigue/index.html) and also progs on Frank Hurley, Robert Capa and Paul Seawright. I've just started watching the one about Robert Capa and it's got up to his meeting with Cartier-Bresson.

I would have posted earlier but I didn't know myself. The Lartigue and Hurley progs were fascinating insights into how these photographers worked.

[dewmuw]

I saw the Bob Capa documentary. Where the others as good?

[Jyoti]

The Lartigue doc was only half an hour (it wasn't part of the Storyville strand the Capa prog was from) which seemed a tad short to me. It was still well worth watching. Just as a story, it was tremendously moving. I like the way it covered his entire output, not just the early photography. For example, his colour portrait of Giscard d'Estaing is one of the best photos I've ever seen, just brilliant.

I haven't watched the one about Seawright yet but the Hurley prog was also a great story. It made some intriguing points about the nature of photography, some similar to those made by Bazin (http://web.nwe.ufl.edu/~crinne/bandtwo/bazinonto.html).
There's some more good stuff tonight, starting with Yann Arthus Bertrand:

BBC4 listings for tonight (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/listings/index.shtml?service_id=4544&dstart=today)

[dewmuw]

Icouldn't watch last night - I was watching the Liverpool game! :x

[Jyoti]

Hmmm... I thought it was meant to be a week of progs but there's nowt on tonight. The Lartigue thingy is repeated on Sunday though:

BBC4 TV Sunday Listings (http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/listings/index.shtml?day=sunday&service_id=4544)

[iwatkins]

Watched the Bertrand prog. last night "Earth from the Air". Glad to see he is a Canon user :D

There was a bit where he took a shot of a village full of people in Africa (I think) from a balloon. That shot has been used on a Canon print advert in the past.

Anyway, facinating programme.

Cheers

Ian

[jobe]

I watched the Frank Hurley one, he's photo manipulations were seen as a disgrace and cheating and they were all done in the dark room absolutely amazing, just think what he could do these days in the digital era, Its generally accepted now, I wouldnt think there are many photos around that havn't been manipulated in one way or another.

[Jyoti]

Yep, I thought the Hurley prog raised some very interesting points about the nature of photography itself. Is it justifiable to ever use composites in reportage photography? How about a shot that appears to be a candid but is actually carefully pre-arranged?

Practically every photography magazine I read has a letters page full of people fuming about digital photography, the digital darkroom etc. I think it's good to remember that photographers have been manipulating their images ever since the medium was invented.