BBC - The Genius of Photography (2006) Part 3 Right Time, Right Place

The first major television history of the most influential art form in the world, this landmark series explores the key events and the key images that have marked the development of photography. At the heart of the series is a quest to understand what makes a truly great photograph. What is it that makes a photograph by Nan Goldin or Henri Cartier Bresson stand out among the millions of others taken by all of us every single day? The Genius of Photography examines the evolution of photography in its wider context social, political, economic, technological and artistic. It also brings a critical perspective and a strong aesthetic sense to the subject. Beginning with the earliest days of the photograph in the 1840s and ending with an examination of the state of photography today and the effect that the 'digital revolution' will have, the series challenges not only how we look at a photograph but what it is in a physical sense. It examines all the different genres of photography from landscape and portraiture to news and reportage. It also tells the great stories behind many of the world's most iconic photographs and reveals the extraordinary characters — from Louis Daguerre and Cindy Sherman, Paul Strand and Robert Capa — who have made and defined this art form. Telling the stories behind the world's greatest photographs and photographers, the series takes us from the achievements of the first photographers to the acceptance of photography as a credible medium; from its adoption as an essential household possession to the impact and possibilities of the digital world. And, with interviews with some of the world's greatest living photographers including William Eggleston, Nan Goldin, William Klein, Martin Parr, Sally Mann, Robert Adams, Juergen Teller, Andreas Gursky and Jeff Wall, it seeks to understand what makes a truly great photograph. In six comprehensive episodes The Genius of Photography chronicles this magical, unpredictable and democratic medium that has transformed the way we see ourselves and our lives.

Part 3 Right Time, Right Place

“Being in the right place at the right time”; “the decisive moment”; “getting in close” — in the popular imagination this is photography at its best, a medium that makes us eyewitnesses to the moments when history is made. But just how good is photography at making sense of what it records? Is getting in close always better than standing back, and just how decisive are the moments that photographers risk their necks to capture? Set against the backdrop of the Second World War and its aftermath, The Genius of Photography - Right Place, Right Time examines how photographers dealt with dramatic and tragic events like D-Day, the Holocaust and Hiroshima, and the questions their often extraordinary pictures raise about history as seen through the viewfinder. With contributions from Magnum legends Philip Jones Griffiths and Susan Meiselas, soldier-lensman Tony Vaccaro, 9/11 photographer Joel Meyerowitz, and broadcaster Jon Snow.

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