BBC - The Genius of Photography (2006) Part 5 We are Family

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 5 We are Family

Having conquered the street and the road, photographers approached the final frontier the family and the self. The Genius of Photography – We are Family is about what happens when photography translates personal relationships into photographic ones, when strangers, celebrities, lovers and children get fed to the camera. It's also about what happens when photographers turn their cameras on themselves—what they choose to reveal, and just what they try to conceal. The chronological heartland of the programme is the me decades of the 1970's and the 1980's. From Diane Arbus's freaks to Richard Avedon's confrontations with celebrities like Marilyn Monroe, from the confessional diaries of Larry Clark and Araki, to the uncomfortably intimate family portraits of Sally Mann and Richard Billingham, the series takes a photographic journey into some of the most intriguing ideas of the photographic self, including an unforgettable encounter as Nan Goldin photographs Joey the transsexual.

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