0:00:02 > 0:00:10THIS PROGRAMME CONTAINS SOME STRONG LANGUAGE.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17Set up in 1936, LIFE magazine believed that pictures
0:00:17 > 0:00:19could change the world.
0:00:24 > 0:00:27The brainchild of publisher Henry Luce, it was a weekly
0:00:27 > 0:00:31news magazine packed full of extraordinary photojournalism.
0:00:35 > 0:00:41Through America's most dynamic decades - the '40s, '50s and '60s -
0:00:41 > 0:00:44LIFE documented its growth into a world superpower.
0:00:44 > 0:00:49The torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51But not in words - in pictures.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Really, LIFE is a celebration of America,
0:00:59 > 0:01:01that's what they're celebrating in the pages of LIFE -
0:01:01 > 0:01:05its power, its shift, its change.
0:01:05 > 0:01:08It's a fantastic magazine,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11because at that time, America was a fantastic place.
0:01:11 > 0:01:13At LIFE, the photographer was king.
0:01:13 > 0:01:16They pioneered new forms of photojournalism like embedding
0:01:16 > 0:01:21and photo essays, and they caught the big moments in American history.
0:01:22 > 0:01:26These were people directly in front of me who were being shot.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31From political assassination to the civil rights movement.
0:01:31 > 0:01:36I keep asking you this, but you weren't scared for your life at all?
0:01:36 > 0:01:39I didn't think about it. I really didn't think about it.
0:01:39 > 0:01:41It was about the pictures.
0:01:41 > 0:01:43And the new sexual freedom.
0:01:43 > 0:01:47I was able to go live in Hugh Hefner's mansion
0:01:47 > 0:01:49and stay for ever and ever and ever.
0:01:51 > 0:01:52What was that like?
0:01:52 > 0:01:55Well, it made me horny, I'll tell you that!
0:01:59 > 0:02:01To me, the men and women who shot for LIFE
0:02:01 > 0:02:03are the gods of photography.
0:02:03 > 0:02:05I'm on a pilgrimage across the USA
0:02:05 > 0:02:08to find out how THEY told the story of America,
0:02:08 > 0:02:12what made them tick and what made them click.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23I'm starting with the first era of LIFE photographers from 1936,
0:02:23 > 0:02:25so I've come to Martha's Vineyard
0:02:25 > 0:02:28to meet a very special guy, Ralph Graves.
0:02:28 > 0:02:32- Hi!- Hello.- You must be Ralph.
0:02:33 > 0:02:36And you must be Rankin. Almost certain of it!
0:02:36 > 0:02:39- Nice to meet you.- Come on in. - How you feeling?
0:02:39 > 0:02:43'Ralph held the top job at LIFE, managing editor.'
0:02:43 > 0:02:45When he started in the early days, he was a cub reporter.
0:02:45 > 0:02:47It's those days I want to talk about.
0:02:47 > 0:02:50Because unlike any other magazine,
0:02:50 > 0:02:53at LIFE, it was the photographers who led
0:02:53 > 0:02:54and the reporters who followed.
0:02:55 > 0:03:00Our job was to help the photographer get the story.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03We carried the photographers' bags,
0:03:03 > 0:03:08sometimes very heavy bags and sometimes quite a lot of them.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11We were the pigs
0:03:11 > 0:03:14and the photographers were the big-time farmers.
0:03:17 > 0:03:20No other magazine held the photograph
0:03:20 > 0:03:23or the photographer in such high esteem.
0:03:23 > 0:03:26The list of guys whose bags Ralph carried
0:03:26 > 0:03:29reads like a who's who of photography.
0:03:29 > 0:03:33But they started with just four - Thomas McAvoy, Peter Stackpole,
0:03:33 > 0:03:37Alfred Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White.
0:03:37 > 0:03:40Bourke-White had the honour of shooting the very first LIFE cover.
0:03:40 > 0:03:44Glamorous, dynamic and completely fearless,
0:03:44 > 0:03:46she became a household name,
0:03:46 > 0:03:48and Ralph knew her very well.
0:03:52 > 0:03:56She was very painstaking
0:03:56 > 0:04:00in the way she photographed anything.
0:04:00 > 0:04:06It took for ever! She liked to use lights, flash lights for everything.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11I don't think she trusted God to handle the sun properly.
0:04:11 > 0:04:13SHE was going to do it!
0:04:13 > 0:04:21She had a quite a reputation as a very hot property.
0:04:21 > 0:04:27Beautiful woman. Very well dressed, always looked like a lady.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Which she wasn't, totally.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35She slept with a fair number of generals,
0:04:35 > 0:04:39but they were important to her cause.
0:04:39 > 0:04:44And an occasional colonel, if he had authority
0:04:44 > 0:04:47for something she wanted to shoot.
0:04:49 > 0:04:56The LIFE picture editor sent a cable to another LIFE photographer,
0:04:56 > 0:05:01Eliot Elisofon, who was also covering World War II in Europe.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04This message was very insulting.
0:05:04 > 0:05:11It said, "Bourke-White is getting stories that you aren't getting
0:05:11 > 0:05:13"and pictures that you aren't getting.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15"What's the matter with you?"
0:05:15 > 0:05:22And Eliot sent back one of the legendary cables in LIFE's history.
0:05:22 > 0:05:30He said, "Bourke-White has a piece of equipment that I don't have."
0:05:30 > 0:05:34All those generals and colonels knew about it!
0:05:38 > 0:05:40Bourke-White's methods may have been unique,
0:05:40 > 0:05:44but her three colleagues in those early days were just as inventive.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47Thomas McAvoy specialised in disguises
0:05:47 > 0:05:50and hidden cameras to catch people with their guard down.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54Peter Stackpole was the mad scientist,
0:05:54 > 0:05:58tinkering in his home workshop where he invented an underwater camera.
0:05:58 > 0:06:03But for me, the master of the first four was Alfred Eisenstaedt.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06Fleeing his native Germany in 1935, he brought with him
0:06:06 > 0:06:10a candid style of photography that became LIFE's trademark.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14He's the one photographer who worked for the magazine
0:06:14 > 0:06:17from the beginning to the end on over 2,000 assignments.
0:06:17 > 0:06:20"Eisie" would become the grand old man of LIFE
0:06:20 > 0:06:22and a photography legend.
0:06:22 > 0:06:26Eisie to look at was not much.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30He was short, he was stocky,
0:06:30 > 0:06:34but very proud that he could do one-handed push-ups.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37One-handed! I was pretty damn impressed.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39And I saw him do it.
0:06:40 > 0:06:43He could shoot anything that moved.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47So quick with a candid camera,
0:06:47 > 0:06:49lights almost never needed,
0:06:49 > 0:06:52and one or two shots, and he was finished.
0:06:52 > 0:06:54Let's go on to something else.
0:06:54 > 0:06:57Needle sharp, very certain of his skills.
0:07:01 > 0:07:06These are all American military men saying goodbye
0:07:06 > 0:07:10to their sweethearts and wives at Pennsylvania Station.
0:07:13 > 0:07:16These were taken, not with a Leica, but with a Rolleiflex.
0:07:16 > 0:07:21You know why? Because with a Rolleiflex, I could focus like this,
0:07:21 > 0:07:26with the old Rolleiflex, like this, and hold it for minutes, like this.
0:07:27 > 0:07:32As you see, I talk to you like this, and watch you and click there.
0:07:32 > 0:07:35Click. See? Do this and watch you again.
0:07:35 > 0:07:37Absolutely motionless, like a stone.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40They didn't know that I photographed them.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43But if I would do this, they would see me.
0:07:43 > 0:07:45"What are you doing?" See, like this.
0:07:45 > 0:07:47Here like this. Click.
0:07:49 > 0:07:53I think all photographers look to Eisie as this kind of guy
0:07:53 > 0:07:57who we put up on a pedestal.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59If you know anything about photography,
0:07:59 > 0:08:01you put him on a pedestal.
0:08:01 > 0:08:04He made him feel, to me, really cheeky and naughty,
0:08:04 > 0:08:07and the fact he does one-handed press-ups
0:08:07 > 0:08:12and was shooting for the magazine into his late 70s is incredible.
0:08:14 > 0:08:16Part of why the photographers of LIFE
0:08:16 > 0:08:20are so influential is the millions of people who saw their work.
0:08:20 > 0:08:24The first issue rolled off the press in 1936.
0:08:24 > 0:08:28Every copy sold out on the first day.
0:08:28 > 0:08:29America took to it instantly.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36With success on the home front established in its first few years,
0:08:36 > 0:08:39it was the onset of World War II
0:08:39 > 0:08:43that really secured LIFE's place in American hearts and minds.
0:08:43 > 0:08:46America didn't just want LIFE, it needed it.
0:08:46 > 0:08:49From 1941 onwards,
0:08:49 > 0:08:52American husbands, sons and lovers were overseas fighting.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55You could hear about what they were going through on the radio,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58but the only place you actually saw it was in LIFE.
0:08:58 > 0:09:03The horror of it and the occasional glory of it.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06The first photograph ever published of an American soldier dead
0:09:06 > 0:09:08was in LIFE magazine.
0:09:08 > 0:09:11LIFE was defined by its bravery.
0:09:11 > 0:09:14Its photographers dangled from helicopters
0:09:14 > 0:09:15and crawled into caves.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19They dodged bullets and survived prisoner-of-war camps.
0:09:19 > 0:09:22Robert Capa's pictures of the Omaha Beach landings,
0:09:22 > 0:09:25Bob Landry's of French collaborators,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28or W Eugene Smith's work in the Pacific.
0:09:29 > 0:09:33These are some of the most harrowing and emotional images
0:09:33 > 0:09:36in the history of photojournalism. It was a tough time for America,
0:09:36 > 0:09:41but right to the end of the war, LIFE was there for them.
0:09:41 > 0:09:44- VOICE-OVER:- It was the long-awaited moment, and the lid was off!
0:09:44 > 0:09:46Unparalleled were the scenes as multitudes
0:09:46 > 0:09:50surged around Miss Liberty throwing restraint to the winds!
0:09:50 > 0:09:53And when victory was declared, LIFE was there again.
0:09:53 > 0:09:57The magazine caught the jubilation and the spirit of America in 1945,
0:09:57 > 0:10:01and nowhere better than in this single famous frame by Eisie.
0:10:04 > 0:10:06I love the spontaneity of this shot.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09He stood, he waited and he grabbed it.
0:10:10 > 0:10:13I'm going back to the same spot in Times Square
0:10:13 > 0:10:16to try to get my own Eisie moment.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Hi, guys. You haven't got any idea where this was shot, do you?
0:10:30 > 0:10:33- Where that was shot?- Yeah. - I think it was over there.
0:10:33 > 0:10:36Look, there's a Coca-Cola sign right down there.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39I just spoke to the cops, and the cop says that there is
0:10:39 > 0:10:44a Coca-Cola sign, and he's saying that Coca-Cola have had
0:10:44 > 0:10:48that sign there for ever and ever,
0:10:48 > 0:10:52so he's saying that it's most probably this way.
0:10:52 > 0:10:56If you were shooting this way, that would be the Paramount,
0:10:56 > 0:10:57and that's Bond's.
0:10:59 > 0:11:03After half an hour of searching, I'm sure I've found the spot,
0:11:03 > 0:11:06but hadn't found anything to shoot.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09But Eisie must have been smiling down on me,
0:11:09 > 0:11:11because just when all hope was lost,
0:11:11 > 0:11:14these two popped up in the crowd.
0:11:15 > 0:11:17- Hi, I'm Rankin, nice to meet you. - Hi.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20I'm a photographer from London
0:11:20 > 0:11:23doing a documentary about LIFE magazine,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26and you guys almost look perfect for the photograph,
0:11:26 > 0:11:30- and we were wondering if we could quickly duplicate it.- OK.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33- If you could do the kiss, that would be brilliant.- I go like this?
0:11:33 > 0:11:37You go like that, yeah. Hold on, hold on, hold on!
0:11:38 > 0:11:43That's it, and kiss. Kiss! Kiss! That's it! That's it! That's it!
0:11:44 > 0:11:46Hold on, wait for the cab!
0:11:49 > 0:11:50Lean her over, lean her over!
0:11:52 > 0:11:54Here we go. OK, go! Go!
0:11:54 > 0:11:56CHEERING
0:11:56 > 0:11:58That's amazing, one more.
0:11:58 > 0:12:00That's good kissing!
0:12:00 > 0:12:02CAR HONKS HORN
0:12:02 > 0:12:05Yeah, we love it as well. Brilliant!
0:12:09 > 0:12:10Nice!
0:12:15 > 0:12:19Thank you! So lovely to meet you. Thank you.
0:12:33 > 0:12:35America after the war was a changed place.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37It had become a superpower
0:12:37 > 0:12:40and was learning how to deal with that responsibility.
0:12:42 > 0:12:46LIFE was growing up, too. The four start-up photographers were now 38
0:12:46 > 0:12:50and they were developing new ways of telling stories.
0:12:50 > 0:12:55Over ten or 12 pages, with just the tiniest amount of text,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57LIFE brought people their news
0:12:57 > 0:13:00by turning it into gripping, compelling stories
0:13:00 > 0:13:04using only photographs. They called it the photo essay,
0:13:04 > 0:13:07and it brought an intensity to news stories
0:13:07 > 0:13:09that had never been experienced before.
0:13:13 > 0:13:16Some of LIFE's essays are seminal.
0:13:16 > 0:13:19Stories like Leonard McCombe's Career Girl
0:13:19 > 0:13:21which took the issue of women in the workforce
0:13:21 > 0:13:24and turned it into a touching melodrama.
0:13:24 > 0:13:27And W Eugene Smith's Country Doctor,
0:13:27 > 0:13:29essentially a call to arms for more GPs,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32but through his eyes, a poignant and heroic look
0:13:32 > 0:13:34at the work of a rural physician.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39'A few blocks from Times Square lives John Loengard,
0:13:39 > 0:13:41'one of LIFE's most influential photographers.'
0:13:41 > 0:13:43He shot many brilliant photo essays for LIFE
0:13:43 > 0:13:46as well as some amazing portraits.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50He also impressed the soldiers in Vietnam
0:13:50 > 0:13:53with his toughness and appetite for dog, lizard, even rats,
0:13:53 > 0:13:55when food was scarce.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57John's not only a brilliant photographer.
0:13:57 > 0:13:59He went on to become LIFE's picture editor.
0:13:59 > 0:14:02I could talk to him all day about his work,
0:14:02 > 0:14:05but that's not why I'm here.
0:14:05 > 0:14:08I want to ask him about LIFE's photo essays, and in particular,
0:14:08 > 0:14:11about the two giants who created its Golden Age
0:14:11 > 0:14:13in the late '40s and early '50s.
0:14:15 > 0:14:19So in your opinion, was the photographic essay a LIFE invention?
0:14:19 > 0:14:21I don't know whether the essay was. The term was.
0:14:21 > 0:14:27It was one that Henry Luce coined about a year after LIFE started,
0:14:27 > 0:14:32so something that he coined looking at what the magazine had done.
0:14:32 > 0:14:35And, you know, it really started in the first issue.
0:14:35 > 0:14:37Bourke-White had gone out to do
0:14:37 > 0:14:41a story on the workers at the Fort Peck Dam
0:14:41 > 0:14:43and how they spent Saturday night.
0:14:43 > 0:14:45And of course, what it does is
0:14:45 > 0:14:49it takes the whole dam-building story on the west,
0:14:49 > 0:14:53which was news, and gives it a human dimension.
0:14:53 > 0:15:01I love that idea of it being an insight into people's lives,
0:15:01 > 0:15:03actually as they were doing it.
0:15:03 > 0:15:05Which you couldn't have done before,
0:15:05 > 0:15:08as you didn't have cameras that were necessarily as fast,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10- film that was as fast... - You didn't, no.
0:15:10 > 0:15:12..to be able to picture these people
0:15:12 > 0:15:16in the midst of what they were doing in life.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18And you didn't really have the publications
0:15:18 > 0:15:19that gave the opportunity
0:15:19 > 0:15:23to instruct photographers in that possibility.
0:15:23 > 0:15:27If you skip ahead to after the war, you have a change.
0:15:27 > 0:15:29And here, right after the war,
0:15:29 > 0:15:34one big thing is women wanting to stay in the workforce,
0:15:34 > 0:15:38women going to work, and to pick out one girl,
0:15:38 > 0:15:44one person in New York, and focus on her, which Leonard McCombe did.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47And Leonard had an absolutely brilliant way
0:15:47 > 0:15:50of being able to photograph absolutely ordinary things,
0:15:50 > 0:15:53telling you so much about the people in them.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59"Marilyn and Gwyned take their morning baths hurriedly,
0:15:59 > 0:16:01"according to a strict rotation schedule.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04"The other placidly waits her turn,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07"and reads aloud from the St Charles Cosmos-Monitor,
0:16:07 > 0:16:10"which is mailed to them daily, and remains a firm link with home."
0:16:10 > 0:16:12The Bourke-White photographs to these,
0:16:12 > 0:16:16- there's an intimacy, there's a closeness.- Yes.
0:16:16 > 0:16:21And actually, as you go through it, gets closer and closer and closer.
0:16:21 > 0:16:25"After a telephone squabble with Charlie, Gwyned bursts into tears.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27"She's under continual strain,
0:16:27 > 0:16:30"because she's anxious to make a success of her career.
0:16:30 > 0:16:31"Tears might be caused merely
0:16:31 > 0:16:35"by the shattering of a tumbler or a cigarette burn on a new dress.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39"In this case, it was the simple and harmless vagueness
0:16:39 > 0:16:40"of Charlie Strauss."
0:16:41 > 0:16:47For intimacy, McCombe's photo-essays have never been equalled.
0:16:47 > 0:16:50But the other master of the photo-essay, who I have a special,
0:16:50 > 0:16:51personal interest in,
0:16:51 > 0:16:53is W Eugene Smith.
0:16:53 > 0:16:57It was seeing his work as a young man that made me want to become
0:16:57 > 0:16:59a photographer in the first place.
0:17:02 > 0:17:04W Eugene Smith, who I would argue
0:17:04 > 0:17:08is possibly the greatest photographer that was on the staff,
0:17:08 > 0:17:10he was doing essays that had
0:17:10 > 0:17:13extraordinary drama and emotion to them.
0:17:16 > 0:17:22"Having done his best for the child, Ceriani is worn out and tense.
0:17:22 > 0:17:24"He has stitched the wound in her forehead,
0:17:24 > 0:17:27"but already knows that nothing can be done to save her eye,
0:17:27 > 0:17:31"and tries to think of a way to soften the news for her parents."
0:17:32 > 0:17:35There's just an extraordinary
0:17:35 > 0:17:37amount of empathy in his photographs.
0:17:37 > 0:17:40Whereas with Leonard,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43you're surprised at how intimate things are.
0:17:43 > 0:17:46With Gene, I think you're surprised
0:17:46 > 0:17:50at how you understand exactly how anybody in the photograph feels.
0:17:50 > 0:17:53"In the kitchen, while the women whisper,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56"Ceriani telephones the priest,
0:17:56 > 0:18:00"to tell him that the old man will not live through the night."
0:18:00 > 0:18:05I think that he had this extraordinary ability,
0:18:05 > 0:18:11and what came with it was some personal liabilities, if you want,
0:18:11 > 0:18:12we all have them.
0:18:12 > 0:18:16And sometimes, they got in his way.
0:18:18 > 0:18:23I'm learning that to be The Man From LIFE meant many different things.
0:18:23 > 0:18:28Smith was definitely the tortured genius - LIFE's Van Gogh,
0:18:28 > 0:18:32partly because he had such empathy for his subjects.
0:18:35 > 0:18:42I do like to become so immersed in their life,
0:18:42 > 0:18:45that I become a part of their life.
0:18:45 > 0:18:49Maybe even a contributing part, although this is not my intent.
0:18:51 > 0:18:59And then I like to speak from that position.
0:18:59 > 0:19:03I like to speak of what I am participating in.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07A unique blend of journalism and art
0:19:07 > 0:19:09the photo-essay became
0:19:09 > 0:19:12the very definition of what LIFE was all about.
0:19:12 > 0:19:16All the next generation of photographers needed was stories,
0:19:16 > 0:19:18and America was going to provide them...
0:19:18 > 0:19:20# Don't know why I love you
0:19:20 > 0:19:23# Don't know why I care
0:19:23 > 0:19:27# I just want your love to share
0:19:27 > 0:19:29# I wonder why
0:19:29 > 0:19:31# I love you like I do
0:19:31 > 0:19:34# Is it because
0:19:34 > 0:19:36# I think you love me, too?
0:19:36 > 0:19:38# I wonder why
0:19:38 > 0:19:40# I love you like I do... #
0:19:41 > 0:19:45The 1950s were the boom years for America.
0:19:45 > 0:19:48In a time of increasing affluence and after wartime austerity,
0:19:48 > 0:19:50LIFE was playing back to its readers
0:19:50 > 0:19:51images of their country and themselves,
0:19:51 > 0:19:55that seemed both authentic and reassuring.
0:19:55 > 0:19:58Millions of people could discover modern American life,
0:19:58 > 0:20:01be stimulated by it and feel part of it.
0:20:06 > 0:20:10I can't begin to tell you all the things in LIFE this week,
0:20:10 > 0:20:11and every week.
0:20:11 > 0:20:15News, sports, fashions, politics, everything.
0:20:15 > 0:20:18I have my copy. Why don't you get yours?
0:20:18 > 0:20:21At your nearest news dealer tomorrow.
0:20:23 > 0:20:26LIFE and America were now going steady,
0:20:26 > 0:20:28and nothing was going to split them up.
0:20:28 > 0:20:32Nearly 100 million Americans looked at the magazine every week.
0:20:32 > 0:20:35That's more than half the country. Incredible.
0:20:35 > 0:20:38The man in charge of choosing and laying out the stories
0:20:38 > 0:20:40was the director of photography.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Ron Bailey held that post
0:20:43 > 0:20:46and witnessed the impact LIFE had on ordinary Americans.
0:20:48 > 0:20:52What do you think the American population loved about it so much?
0:20:52 > 0:20:53I'm not sure.
0:20:53 > 0:21:01You know, for many years it was the way we could see the world.
0:21:01 > 0:21:05We find it hard now with all the television, and all the cable,
0:21:05 > 0:21:10and all the internet where you can see videos, but, you know, LIFE...
0:21:10 > 0:21:14We always thought of LIFE as a way of seeing the world.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18And it carried....
0:21:18 > 0:21:20..carried a lot of influence.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22As a photographer, that's what you strive for.
0:21:22 > 0:21:25You strive to be able to have your photographs touch other people
0:21:25 > 0:21:29and make them feel something, and LIFE photographers had that.
0:21:29 > 0:21:32When I think about it that gives me goose bumps, I'm like,
0:21:32 > 0:21:36"Wow, to be able to get those stories, to go and do those things,"
0:21:36 > 0:21:42and not just essays but, brilliant science photos or brilliant portraits.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45You know, they had the ability to touch people.
0:21:45 > 0:21:46Right.
0:21:46 > 0:21:51One of the most powerful stories we did while I was at the magazine
0:21:51 > 0:21:59was in 1969, and it was an editor's idea to take pictures,
0:21:59 > 0:22:03pick up pictures from families of the week's dead in Vietnam.
0:22:03 > 0:22:07I think it was 220-something.
0:22:07 > 0:22:13And we carried a photograph of everyone killed in that week.
0:22:14 > 0:22:18To me, that was the most powerful thing
0:22:18 > 0:22:21we could have done against the war, and I was against the war.
0:22:21 > 0:22:23Sometimes I think back on, you know,
0:22:23 > 0:22:25what was the impact of this magazine?
0:22:25 > 0:22:29And the impact was there in, I guess, a thousand other ways
0:22:29 > 0:22:30when I was growing up.
0:22:32 > 0:22:33It was, you know...
0:22:33 > 0:22:36You looked at LIFE magazine and that was how you saw the world.
0:22:54 > 0:22:57What Ron said is quite shocking.
0:22:57 > 0:23:00For one publication to be the window of the world
0:23:00 > 0:23:03is massively influential.
0:23:03 > 0:23:07I knew LIFE's coverage of Vietnam had turned people against the war,
0:23:07 > 0:23:11but talking to Ron made me realise LIFE always had that power.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13Right from the beginning, telling America
0:23:13 > 0:23:16what to think, not just about big world events,
0:23:16 > 0:23:18but about itself.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21LIFE always cared about the big issues of the day,
0:23:21 > 0:23:24but was devoted to small-town America.
0:23:24 > 0:23:27Stories of the lives of ordinary people, their work,
0:23:27 > 0:23:29their pleasure, their anguish.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33The magazine returned to them again and again, across the decades,
0:23:33 > 0:23:37as if the small town summed up everything that LIFE believed in.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40But why?
0:23:40 > 0:23:44'I've come to Wilson, North Carolina, to meet photographer Burk Uzzle.'
0:23:44 > 0:23:46That's the famous red-eye gravy.
0:23:46 > 0:23:50Hold onto it - it'll walk by itself right out the door if you're not careful.
0:23:50 > 0:23:52'Burk came from a small town,
0:23:52 > 0:23:56'travelled the world taking pictures for LIFE, and now he's back in one.'
0:23:56 > 0:24:00How do you think small town America, somewhere like this,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02kind of reflects America as a whole?
0:24:06 > 0:24:10I think... It's an interesting question because in a way it reflects
0:24:10 > 0:24:14what I both like and dislike about LIFE magazine.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17The great thing about working for LIFE magazine
0:24:17 > 0:24:22was that it, in those days, what you, what you went for,
0:24:22 > 0:24:28the ideology of the magazine, was to go for that superb moment,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31the exalted moment.
0:24:31 > 0:24:35Even in a quiet people story, it was that really intense moment.
0:24:35 > 0:24:37Well, that brings me to a small town.
0:24:37 > 0:24:39Why would I live in a small town?
0:24:39 > 0:24:44In a way, it's more intense here than it ever was in New York,
0:24:44 > 0:24:45all the years I lived in New York.
0:24:45 > 0:24:49Because I get to know the people more deeply.
0:24:49 > 0:24:51I'm more involved with them.
0:24:51 > 0:24:55So there's an intensity of involvement, possible,
0:24:55 > 0:24:59within all the aspects of American culture in this little town
0:24:59 > 0:25:02of Wilson than I ever had in New York.
0:25:02 > 0:25:05But why do you think LIFE was so obsessed with the small town,
0:25:05 > 0:25:08because, I mean, it was, you've got
0:25:08 > 0:25:11so many small town stories in the magazine.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14LIFE was about the population at large.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18LIFE was not Vogue magazine. LIFE was not Conde Nast.
0:25:18 > 0:25:22And LIFE, because of its small town orientation,
0:25:22 > 0:25:25seemed to care about real people.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29So LIFE, because it was interested in the small town, cared...
0:25:29 > 0:25:31I feel like it did.
0:25:31 > 0:25:34And you could go into a small town as a LIFE photographer
0:25:34 > 0:25:38and it would be like some TV star walking into town.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42I mean, you were a celebrity if you walked into town
0:25:42 > 0:25:47and said you were from LIFE magazine back in those days and...
0:25:47 > 0:25:50They would open the town up to you.
0:25:50 > 0:25:53And then it was your job to be respectful
0:25:53 > 0:25:59and to treat it seriously, and to love it in your own way.
0:26:03 > 0:26:07Burk's been taking photographs for over four decades and I love
0:26:07 > 0:26:10that he feels the small town reveals something wider about America.
0:26:12 > 0:26:16'At 23, he was the youngest photographer ever hired by LIFE.'
0:26:16 > 0:26:20Pretty impressive. Then he went on to work at Magnum for 15 years.
0:26:20 > 0:26:22But, despite a career to die for,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25he feels he's making his best work today.
0:26:28 > 0:26:31Well, Rankin, this is one of the floors of the studio.
0:26:31 > 0:26:33This is the small studio.
0:26:33 > 0:26:36This is the small one?!
0:26:43 > 0:26:45Oh, wow, that's wonderful.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49'Some of his recent work is closer to fine art,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53'but there's still echoes of LIFE in a lot of it.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56'And you can see him in every frame.'
0:26:58 > 0:27:00Why do you think you are still taking pictures?
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Because a lot of the LIFE photographers,
0:27:02 > 0:27:06when it finished, they gave up...
0:27:06 > 0:27:07Went into real estate?
0:27:07 > 0:27:08Yeah.
0:27:08 > 0:27:11Because the fact that you're still shooting
0:27:11 > 0:27:14and the work is incredible, is brilliant, and I wondered why?
0:27:14 > 0:27:17One of the first big conversations I ever had with a LIFE photographer
0:27:17 > 0:27:21when I was 23 years old, there was a LIFE photographer in the bureau
0:27:21 > 0:27:25by the name of Robert W Kelly who took me and says,
0:27:25 > 0:27:29"Burk, you're a young photographer, I want you to know the secret to being a LIFE photographer."
0:27:29 > 0:27:31And I said, "What's that?"
0:27:31 > 0:27:35And he says "You shoot every picture for the managing editor."
0:27:35 > 0:27:38And I thought to myself, "You stupid shit,
0:27:38 > 0:27:40"you don't have a ball to call your own!"
0:27:40 > 0:27:44I mean, if you're taking pictures for the fucking managing editor,
0:27:44 > 0:27:47you know, give it up right now!
0:27:47 > 0:27:50Because you've got nothing to stand on. There's no YOU there.
0:27:50 > 0:27:51There's no "there" there!
0:27:51 > 0:27:55'Most photographers would have killed for a staff job at LIFE,
0:27:55 > 0:27:57'but Burk's not most photographers.
0:28:00 > 0:28:02'Always a free spirit, he turned down their offer
0:28:02 > 0:28:06'and worked freelance, determined to keep his independence.'
0:28:06 > 0:28:09There's some interesting LIFE stories in here.
0:28:09 > 0:28:14I'm going to have to do it down here. See, this is how LIFE worked.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18I wanted to do a story on growing up in North Carolina.
0:28:18 > 0:28:20This is Cousin Balgie, this is my wife's uncle.
0:28:20 > 0:28:24And this is her father's porch.
0:28:24 > 0:28:26The story you haven't heard is that,
0:28:26 > 0:28:30when they were doing the layout and the art director was
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Bernie Quint, and he made a layout and cropped out the dirt.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36- How could you do that? - That's the point of the picture!
0:28:36 > 0:28:39And he kept saying, "Well, this is the way I feel it."
0:28:39 > 0:28:42I said, "Well, you know what, you didn't fucking grow up there,
0:28:42 > 0:28:46"these are my pictures and you can't do that to my work, about my place!"
0:28:46 > 0:28:48And he said, "I can so, I'm the art director,"
0:28:48 > 0:28:51and I said, "Well, I'll be damned if you can,"
0:28:51 > 0:28:53and I picked up a layout and I tore them up
0:28:53 > 0:28:56and threw them on the floor and I picked up my colour transparencies
0:28:56 > 0:28:58and I walked out of the room.
0:28:58 > 0:28:59What did they do?
0:28:59 > 0:29:03Well, they had some serious talks about my future at LIFE magazine!
0:29:03 > 0:29:06With the director of photography,
0:29:06 > 0:29:08and he said, "You can't treat Bernie Quint that way,"
0:29:08 > 0:29:11and I said, "He can't treat my pictures that way!"
0:29:18 > 0:29:21Burk's work blows me away.
0:29:21 > 0:29:22It doesn't matter where he is,
0:29:22 > 0:29:25whether it's a sheep ranch in Wyoming
0:29:25 > 0:29:28or a kitchen in Minnesota, he finds that intimate human thing,
0:29:28 > 0:29:32that moment where the subject actually reveals themselves.
0:29:44 > 0:29:46It's close, it's personal,
0:29:46 > 0:29:48and it's intimate.
0:29:48 > 0:29:51Then again, he wasn't always allowed
0:29:51 > 0:29:53to get quite as intimate as he wanted.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55I was able to go live in Hugh Heffner's mansion,
0:29:55 > 0:29:58and stay for ever and ever and ever.
0:29:59 > 0:30:01What was that like?
0:30:01 > 0:30:03Well, it made me horny, I tell you that!
0:30:07 > 0:30:10There was a lot of pretty poon-ta... a lot of stuff walking around!
0:30:10 > 0:30:14And I was married at the time and my wife,
0:30:14 > 0:30:19I was living in New York, she said, "You're doing a story on Hefner, huh?
0:30:19 > 0:30:21"Well, where are you going to be staying?"
0:30:21 > 0:30:26And I said, "Well, close," and she says, "Well, I'm coming to Chicago."
0:30:26 > 0:30:30And she came out and she checked into a hotel right down the street
0:30:30 > 0:30:34and so, I get, you know, I was able to reconvene with my wife
0:30:34 > 0:30:37whenever I would come out of the mansion and that was a good thing.
0:30:40 > 0:30:44For someone like me, who's used to big city America,
0:30:44 > 0:30:47I didn't think places like this still existed.
0:30:47 > 0:30:48Burk's invited me
0:30:48 > 0:30:53to bring my camera to the weekly service at the Wilson Cowboy Church.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57Yes, you heard me. The Cowboy Church.
0:30:57 > 0:31:01# I am holden to the Lord
0:31:01 > 0:31:06# I am holden to the Lord
0:31:06 > 0:31:10# If I could I surely would
0:31:10 > 0:31:14# Stand on the rock with Moses too... #
0:31:16 > 0:31:20You've got this, the horse, the flag, the ruins of the building,
0:31:20 > 0:31:24there's a lot of things going on at once. And all the body language.
0:31:24 > 0:31:25It's just amazing.
0:31:31 > 0:31:36# Sinner run and hide your face
0:31:36 > 0:31:40# Sinner run and hide your face... #
0:31:40 > 0:31:43Working alongside Burk, I realise the LIFE photographer
0:31:43 > 0:31:46was constantly performing a balancing act
0:31:46 > 0:31:50between joining the community and keeping enough distance to document it.
0:31:50 > 0:31:52Here at Cowboy Church,
0:31:52 > 0:31:55we think about horses and how things happen...
0:31:55 > 0:31:58Some men from LIFE came, made a fuss, got the shot, and left.
0:31:58 > 0:32:02But those that got the best out of small town America, like Burk,
0:32:02 > 0:32:03made real connections.
0:32:03 > 0:32:06Jesus died on the cross in obedience to the Father....
0:32:06 > 0:32:10And despite the modest subjects we're shooting,
0:32:10 > 0:32:13a bunch of horses, families, and a church service,
0:32:13 > 0:32:16the big themes of America are somehow revealed,
0:32:16 > 0:32:21patriotism, faith, nationhood, and community.
0:32:21 > 0:32:24# ..Stand on that rock
0:32:24 > 0:32:27# Where Moses stood. #
0:32:27 > 0:32:31It's been really great, actually, it's been really great.
0:32:31 > 0:32:32And I think Burk...
0:32:32 > 0:32:35He's very interesting, I watched him all through the service
0:32:35 > 0:32:37and he doesn't "partake" of the service.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41He's very stoic about the whole thing, which I kind of respect,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43because I'm very much of the same mind.
0:32:43 > 0:32:48I'm there to look and document, not to be involved.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51But I got a bit carried away with the parson,
0:32:51 > 0:32:53I liked him a lot.
0:32:57 > 0:33:01By 1956, LIFE was 20 years old, and coming of age.
0:33:01 > 0:33:04With a yearly profit of 17.5 million,
0:33:04 > 0:33:07the magazine was exceptionally wealthy.
0:33:07 > 0:33:11It was so successful that advertisers were falling over
0:33:11 > 0:33:13themselves to buy more and more pages.
0:33:13 > 0:33:17All that money allowed LIFE's photographers to do weird and wonderful things.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20They devised a host of bizarre cameras to capture
0:33:20 > 0:33:22the ever-advancing scale of man's achievements,
0:33:22 > 0:33:25from deep below the ocean surface,
0:33:25 > 0:33:28to miles up into the Earth's atmosphere,
0:33:28 > 0:33:30and even into outer space.
0:33:30 > 0:33:34LIFE pushed the boundaries of what could be photographed,
0:33:34 > 0:33:37creating world class, jaw dropping images
0:33:37 > 0:33:39that shook the world at the time.
0:33:39 > 0:33:40But most importantly,
0:33:40 > 0:33:41the money enabled LIFE's photographers
0:33:41 > 0:33:46to get closer to their subjects than ever before.
0:33:50 > 0:33:53'I've come to Connecticut to meet photographer Bill Eppridge.'
0:33:53 > 0:33:56- Bill.- Hey. How are you? Good to see you.- Good to see you.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58'Bill's skill was stealth.'
0:33:58 > 0:34:00- You got your camera there.- Always.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03Observing his subjects like an undercover agent,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06he often spent six months on a single story.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09It's this commitment to embedding with subjects
0:34:09 > 0:34:13that was the breakthrough in getting to the truth...in pictures.
0:34:13 > 0:34:18Just a common, ordinary, everyday couple crossing the street.
0:34:18 > 0:34:19You go to the next spread...
0:34:20 > 0:34:22..and that's what they are.
0:34:24 > 0:34:28She came from a very fine family on Long Island.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32To make money to support her habit, she was a prostitute.
0:34:33 > 0:34:37He came from a very fine family in New Jersey.
0:34:38 > 0:34:43To make money, he stole, he boosted from cabs, he was a petty thief.
0:34:43 > 0:34:46All for money for heroin.
0:34:47 > 0:34:51And I went and I lived with these people, virtually,
0:34:51 > 0:34:55for 22, 23 hours a day.
0:34:56 > 0:34:58And tried to be invisible.
0:35:00 > 0:35:03And that thing of embedding yourself,
0:35:03 > 0:35:05that was very particular to Life magazine.
0:35:07 > 0:35:11I mean, very few other magazines would have had
0:35:11 > 0:35:13the chance to do a six-month story.
0:35:14 > 0:35:19Yeah, it required time, but the magazine would give us the time.
0:35:19 > 0:35:24Embedding with two heroin addicts threw up all kinds of complications
0:35:24 > 0:35:26and moral questions for the Life photographer.
0:35:26 > 0:35:29Bill frequently found himself tangled up in lawbreaking,
0:35:29 > 0:35:32and sometimes life-or-death situations.
0:35:33 > 0:35:36My biggest problem at this point - knowing about it.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42Do I call the police, do I photograph it?
0:35:42 > 0:35:45I mean, the guy could have died.
0:35:46 > 0:35:49It's a very big dilemma.
0:35:49 > 0:35:51It's like standing there watching somebody on fire,
0:35:51 > 0:35:54and you've got a bucket of water in one hand
0:35:54 > 0:35:57and a camera in the other hand - what do you do?
0:35:57 > 0:36:02The heroin essay undoubtedly changed people's opinions of drug addicts.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04Even now, the images feel daring.
0:36:04 > 0:36:07There's no barrier between Bill and the couple.
0:36:09 > 0:36:13We see them as they really lived, as they really were.
0:36:17 > 0:36:20In 1968, he embedded with Senator Robert Kennedy
0:36:20 > 0:36:24on his Presidential campaign. After victory in California,
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Bobby and his entourage came to the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
0:36:28 > 0:36:31for what was meant to be a triumphant speech.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34Bill was about to take a career-defining picture.
0:36:35 > 0:36:37One I know well.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40My thanks to all of you. Now, it's on to Chicago, and let's win there.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46Bobby came off the stage, found us,
0:36:46 > 0:36:49and Bill Barry, who was the one bodyguard,
0:36:49 > 0:36:52said in very stern voice -
0:36:52 > 0:36:57and I know, I'm this far away from him, I'm there -
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Barry said, "No, Senator, this way!"
0:37:02 > 0:37:04And Bobby said, "No, Bill,"
0:37:04 > 0:37:07and just turned on his heel and walked back towards the kitchen.
0:37:12 > 0:37:16I saw people diving for cover, what I thought was diving for cover.
0:37:16 > 0:37:18They weren't.
0:37:18 > 0:37:22These were people directly in front of me who were being shot.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24Everybody out, just please stay back.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27Just the doctor, come right here.
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Is there a doctor in the house?
0:37:29 > 0:37:33We took a couple steps forward and came upon Bobby lying there.
0:37:35 > 0:37:41As I got to his feet, into a position,
0:37:41 > 0:37:44the crowd just opened for a second,
0:37:44 > 0:37:49and there he was, and the busboy was still holding him,
0:37:49 > 0:37:51Juan Romero, still holding him,
0:37:51 > 0:37:57and I took one frame, it was totally out of focus.
0:37:57 > 0:38:03The second frame I made, he's in focus,
0:38:03 > 0:38:06but Juan Romero is looking down at him.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08The third frame, as quickly as I could make it,
0:38:08 > 0:38:13Juan Romero looks up towards me
0:38:13 > 0:38:20and there's this kind of look of "Help me" in his face.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31I've never been able to hang that picture on the wall.
0:38:31 > 0:38:33- I can't.- You've never shown it?
0:38:33 > 0:38:38I've shown it, I've shown it, but not in my home.
0:38:38 > 0:38:43I cannot put it up, just because it brings back memories
0:38:43 > 0:38:44that I don't want.
0:38:46 > 0:38:48That picture still terrifies me.
0:38:49 > 0:38:50And it...
0:38:52 > 0:38:56I also think about what happened in this country afterwards,
0:38:56 > 0:38:58and what should not have happened,
0:38:58 > 0:39:00politically.
0:39:02 > 0:39:06I'm sorry I had to make it, but it had to be done.
0:39:14 > 0:39:18Bill's image definitely captured a moment.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Robert Kennedy's assassination stunned America.
0:39:21 > 0:39:25Another irrational act to add to the anguish and conflict
0:39:25 > 0:39:26that was dividing the country.
0:39:26 > 0:39:30Bill's picture said it all. Something precious had been lost.
0:39:30 > 0:39:32I've met a few Life photographers now,
0:39:32 > 0:39:35and it's clear that every one of these guys had a role to play
0:39:35 > 0:39:39at key moments in American history.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42They were right there at the coalface, camera in hand.
0:39:43 > 0:39:46I don't feel dressed for the occasion, Bill.
0:39:46 > 0:39:49Yeah, well, hey, the fish don't know!
0:39:50 > 0:39:53Just being in the company of guys like Bill has been
0:39:53 > 0:39:54an education for me.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59But LIFE photographers were like a school of artists,
0:39:59 > 0:40:00an exclusive club.
0:40:00 > 0:40:03And their clubhouse was the photographers' common room,
0:40:03 > 0:40:05Room 2850.
0:40:05 > 0:40:07My first visit to that office,
0:40:07 > 0:40:13I was a...a junior in college,
0:40:13 > 0:40:18so that probably would have made me about...19.
0:40:18 > 0:40:19Wow.
0:40:19 > 0:40:22Was it amazing?
0:40:22 > 0:40:24It was. It was.
0:40:24 > 0:40:26That's when I started learning.
0:40:26 > 0:40:30And...I just did nothing else but learn,
0:40:30 > 0:40:32at that magazine.
0:40:32 > 0:40:34Every one of those guys was a teacher,
0:40:34 > 0:40:38and I figure that's where I got my Masters degree,
0:40:38 > 0:40:42and maybe partway to a PhD.
0:40:43 > 0:40:44You walk in that office
0:40:44 > 0:40:47and you just never knew
0:40:47 > 0:40:48who was going to be there.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50I mean,
0:40:50 > 0:40:54Eisenstaedt, you walk in, he'd be sitting there doing something,
0:40:54 > 0:40:58Carl Mydans right next to him.
0:40:58 > 0:41:01I met Eugene Smith in there one day,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06once, I had the privilege of speaking to him,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09and it was in 2850.
0:41:09 > 0:41:11I heard he was a bit grumpy?
0:41:11 > 0:41:12Oh, yeah. Yeah.
0:41:12 > 0:41:16But hey, everybody's got to be something.
0:41:17 > 0:41:19LIFE was like a family,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22and Room 2850 was where the torch was passed.
0:41:22 > 0:41:25Bill's generation saw dramatic changes,
0:41:25 > 0:41:27and the unravelling of a society
0:41:27 > 0:41:30which LIFE had to some extent helped hold together.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32LIFE and its photographers
0:41:32 > 0:41:34went to new and dangerous places.
0:41:50 > 0:41:52The biggest story in 1960s America
0:41:52 > 0:41:55was happening halfway around the world.
0:41:55 > 0:41:57The war in Vietnam was tearing America apart.
0:41:57 > 0:42:01No war had been so vividly documented,
0:42:01 > 0:42:03so dramatically photographed as Vietnam,
0:42:03 > 0:42:06and the British photographer Larry Burrows
0:42:06 > 0:42:08worked harder at it than most.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11You can't let yourself think.
0:42:12 > 0:42:15For nine years he returned time and time again
0:42:15 > 0:42:18to record the events in that tragic conflict.
0:42:18 > 0:42:19To anyone but a photojournalist,
0:42:19 > 0:42:24that persistence must have seemed like an act of madness.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Eventually, he met his death there,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30shot down in a helicopter in 1971.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33I've come to meet Russell Burrows,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36the son of LIFE's greatest war photographer.
0:42:36 > 0:42:38A lot of war photographers are seen as quite macho,
0:42:38 > 0:42:41but from what I've heard,
0:42:41 > 0:42:43your dad was almost the opposite of that.
0:42:43 > 0:42:47Yes, he was not a dare-doing man.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49He was a mild-mannered man
0:42:49 > 0:42:51who went to war.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54GUNFIRE, EXPLOSIONS
0:42:54 > 0:42:56He talked about his experiences of war,
0:42:56 > 0:42:58but he'd never discuss the danger.
0:42:58 > 0:43:01It was no different going to Vietnam
0:43:01 > 0:43:05or spending a night at the Victoria and Albert Museum, photographing.
0:43:10 > 0:43:13He prepares for war like a soldier preparing for battle.
0:43:13 > 0:43:14He's a veteran.
0:43:14 > 0:43:16During the last 20 years,
0:43:16 > 0:43:18he's covered Cyprus, Suez, the Congo,
0:43:18 > 0:43:21the Chinese-India conflict, and South Vietnam.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23There have been moments, yes,
0:43:23 > 0:43:27when your lips go dry, and you sort of reflect those, yes.
0:43:27 > 0:43:30I think anybody that does not,
0:43:30 > 0:43:31does not have any fear
0:43:31 > 0:43:33is a complete idiot.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38And have you heard the rumours
0:43:38 > 0:43:42that guys that were fighting saw him as a kind of lucky mascot?
0:43:42 > 0:43:45Because he seemed to get away with,
0:43:45 > 0:43:46you know, not being shot.
0:43:46 > 0:43:48Yes. For nine years in Vietnam,
0:43:48 > 0:43:51he went again and again to the front.
0:43:51 > 0:43:56He took chances that other people would consider, perhaps, ridiculous.
0:43:56 > 0:43:58But they were calculated risks.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08There was one particular story called One Ride With Yankee Papa 13,
0:44:08 > 0:44:11which involved 17 helicopters,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13four of which were shot down,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16and quite a lot of people were killed and wounded.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18And...
0:44:19 > 0:44:22..we tried to rescue a pilot off a ship,
0:44:22 > 0:44:27and we were trapped between these two 30-calibre machine guns.
0:44:27 > 0:44:30The pilot was slumped over the controls.
0:44:30 > 0:44:33We could see him.
0:44:33 > 0:44:36Farley ran across, I ran after him.
0:44:36 > 0:44:38And visually, there were many...
0:44:38 > 0:44:41The sound of gunfire and all that was happening,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44but trying to do it visually was extremely difficult.
0:44:44 > 0:44:46It looked documentary.
0:44:46 > 0:44:47It was frustrating.
0:44:47 > 0:44:52The co-pilot that had to climb onto our ship
0:44:52 > 0:44:54had two bullet holes,
0:44:54 > 0:44:56one in the arm, one in the leg,
0:44:56 > 0:44:58and one we hadn't noticed, a third one
0:44:58 > 0:44:59which was just under the armpit.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01And he died.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04It was a very sad moment, a very touching moment,
0:45:04 > 0:45:06when our crew chief broke down and cried.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09And so often I wonder whether it is my right
0:45:09 > 0:45:11to capitalise, as I feel so often,
0:45:11 > 0:45:12on the grief of others.
0:45:14 > 0:45:17But then I justify in my own particular thoughts
0:45:17 > 0:45:20by feeling that if I can contribute
0:45:20 > 0:45:23a little to the understanding of what others are going through,
0:45:23 > 0:45:25there's a reason for doing it.
0:45:34 > 0:45:35There were letters of complaint
0:45:35 > 0:45:38about the graphic nature of some of LIFE's war pictures,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41but the magazine held firm.
0:45:44 > 0:45:45John Shaw Billings,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48its first Managing Editor, once said,
0:45:48 > 0:45:50"If free men refuse to look at dead bodies,
0:45:50 > 0:45:53"then brave men will have died in vain."
0:45:59 > 0:46:01Back home, America was burning.
0:46:01 > 0:46:06A change was sweeping the nation as black America fought for equality.
0:46:07 > 0:46:11Just like Vietnam, LIFE's coverage of the Civil Rights Movement
0:46:11 > 0:46:13was opinionated. And deliberately so.
0:46:17 > 0:46:18From black bus riders
0:46:18 > 0:46:21who sat in the white seats in Mississippi
0:46:21 > 0:46:23to heavy-handed police treatment in Alabama,
0:46:23 > 0:46:24the man from LIFE
0:46:24 > 0:46:26wasn't dodging any punches.
0:46:26 > 0:46:30He was getting stuck into the biggest issue of the day.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33LIFE gave these stories such prominence,
0:46:33 > 0:46:36there was no way America could ignore them.
0:46:38 > 0:46:40The '60s saw unprecedented change,
0:46:40 > 0:46:42but was LIFE merely reporting it,
0:46:42 > 0:46:44or was it driving it?
0:46:44 > 0:46:46To answer that question,
0:46:46 > 0:46:47I've come to the South Bronx
0:46:47 > 0:46:51to meet one of its most fearless photographers, John Shearer.
0:46:51 > 0:46:53This has got energy, this area, right?
0:46:53 > 0:46:56It's not like Manhattan.
0:46:56 > 0:46:58To look at John's work
0:46:58 > 0:47:01you might think he was a combat photographer,
0:47:01 > 0:47:04but these photos aren't from a distant battlefield.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06They were taken in America's back yard.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08When riots broke out at Attica Prison,
0:47:08 > 0:47:12John chose to walk in with his cameras.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14He spent four days inside in a riot
0:47:14 > 0:47:17where 41 men lost their lives.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20LOUDSPEAKER: We want to stop the slave labour here.
0:47:41 > 0:47:43So, we're in the Bronx.
0:47:43 > 0:47:45Has it changed much?
0:47:45 > 0:47:47You know, this street, it feels like I was here yesterday.
0:47:47 > 0:47:49It's really been able to hold on
0:47:49 > 0:47:54to that wonderful character it had, you know?
0:47:54 > 0:47:58Can you tell me the ways that you felt America was changing
0:47:58 > 0:48:00when you started as a staffer at LIFE?
0:48:00 > 0:48:03Well, America, you know, is exploding,
0:48:03 > 0:48:07I mean, I think I was lucky enough to live through the '60s,
0:48:07 > 0:48:11and to be a working photojournalist during the '60s.
0:48:11 > 0:48:15The world was really changing radically, and...
0:48:15 > 0:48:16and I guess I was changing with it,
0:48:16 > 0:48:18I was, my horizons were changing,
0:48:18 > 0:48:22and my, my views about things were changing.
0:48:23 > 0:48:26Did you ever feel the issues around the Civil Rights Movement
0:48:26 > 0:48:28affected you directly at all?
0:48:28 > 0:48:29Oh, no question about it.
0:48:29 > 0:48:32I mean, there was a greater need for Black voices,
0:48:32 > 0:48:34Blacks to help tell that story,
0:48:34 > 0:48:36and I covered Selma, Birmingham
0:48:36 > 0:48:40and went to Jackson, Mississippi, to cover the Klan and other stories.
0:48:40 > 0:48:42That was my beat, you know.
0:48:42 > 0:48:45And, you know, to me, certainly in terms of covering things,
0:48:45 > 0:48:48that was more important to me than covering like a Vietnam,
0:48:48 > 0:48:50cos that was our story, you know.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52And so, when I had the chance,
0:48:52 > 0:48:55I said, "No, I'll stay, I want to stay and cover this."
0:48:55 > 0:48:59I keep asking you this, but you weren't scared for your life at all?
0:48:59 > 0:49:00I didn't think about it.
0:49:00 > 0:49:03I really didn't think about it.
0:49:03 > 0:49:05It was about the pictures, you know.
0:49:05 > 0:49:07- And you know how that is.- Yeah...
0:49:10 > 0:49:13Yeah... I'm saying yes,
0:49:13 > 0:49:16but the bravest I get is turning the air conditioning off in my studio.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26But I'm here in the middle of the South Bronx,
0:49:26 > 0:49:28and there's a good reason for that.
0:49:28 > 0:49:29John's brought me here
0:49:29 > 0:49:32because this was the site of another of his reportage missions.
0:49:32 > 0:49:36In 1972 he embedded for six weeks with a street gang
0:49:36 > 0:49:38known as The Reapers.
0:49:48 > 0:49:49Now this has all changed.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52This is where we shot the gang meeting picture.
0:49:52 > 0:49:56I think Eddie stood on those steps over there,
0:49:56 > 0:50:00the steps on the right, and he would talk to all the fellas.
0:50:00 > 0:50:02But they were deciding that night
0:50:02 > 0:50:05if they were going to go to war on another gang.
0:50:06 > 0:50:09One of the things you learned over the years
0:50:09 > 0:50:13is you always had a little bottle of vinegar with cotton in it,
0:50:13 > 0:50:16in your shirt pocket. So that way, if you were ever in a situation
0:50:16 > 0:50:19where there was tear gas or any of that kind of stuff,
0:50:19 > 0:50:22you could stick that cotton in your nose to keep your eyes clear.
0:50:22 > 0:50:24And those were all the little things
0:50:24 > 0:50:27that you always had going on, you know.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32Also, you know, you tended to
0:50:32 > 0:50:35always dump your film, as you went along, through the day,
0:50:35 > 0:50:37so if you got into a jam, you know,
0:50:37 > 0:50:41you wouldn't have to worry about losing all the day's work, you know.
0:50:41 > 0:50:42So there was a couple of delis
0:50:42 > 0:50:45and other places I would typically stash my stuff
0:50:45 > 0:50:47- during the course of the day.- Wow.
0:50:47 > 0:50:50- So I didn't have a lot of it on me. - That's so brilliant.- Yeah.
0:50:52 > 0:50:54John's an incredible guy,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56dedicated and totally fearless.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58I'm amazed the freedom he had
0:50:58 > 0:51:01to go out on his own and bring back the story.
0:51:01 > 0:51:04His "beat", as he modestly described it,
0:51:04 > 0:51:07were the big stories of the late 1960s.
0:51:07 > 0:51:09But LIFE's frontline coverage of Civil Rights
0:51:09 > 0:51:15and Vietnam seems to me a last gasp of campaigning photojournalism.
0:51:15 > 0:51:19By the early 1970s, a new national obsession was taking hold.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23One I know intimately - celebrity.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26So long the champion of making the ordinary extraordinary,
0:51:26 > 0:51:30LIFE needed to feed this appetite.
0:51:33 > 0:51:38Despite publishing portraits of America's great and good since its earliest days,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41celebrity culture put the magazine under pressure.
0:51:41 > 0:51:43LIFE needed a different kind of photographer.
0:51:43 > 0:51:47A pushy, hungry, talent to get to the stars.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50Glaswegian Harry Benson was their man.
0:51:55 > 0:51:59- Hello.- Oh, Mr Rankin. Very nice to meet you.
0:51:59 > 0:52:02- Nice to meet you. Who's this? - This is my son, Oscar.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06- Nice to meet you.- Very nice to meet you, yes.- I'm a big fan.
0:52:06 > 0:52:08This enticing picture of Greta Garbo
0:52:08 > 0:52:11is a classic Benson celebrity portrait.
0:52:11 > 0:52:16It's a kind of hybrid shot. Reportage with a hint of paparazzi.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19How did you take these? Did you hide for these?
0:52:19 > 0:52:22- No, I was on a boat.- On a boat? - A kind of hiding.
0:52:22 > 0:52:25But I didn't mess up her holiday by chasing her.
0:52:25 > 0:52:29- Yeah. You just did one? - Well, maybe more than one.
0:52:31 > 0:52:34Harry's treatment of Greta Garbo was a sign of things to come.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36As public figures began to put barriers up,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40photographers needed to devise ways to overcome them.
0:52:40 > 0:52:46Well, I mean, my background was completely different, Rankin.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49I came from Fleet Street. London Daily Express.
0:52:49 > 0:52:52It was competitive.
0:52:52 > 0:52:53And it was fun.
0:52:53 > 0:52:55When I came to America
0:52:55 > 0:52:59and...and I started working for LIFE,
0:52:59 > 0:53:02LIFE was a dude ranch.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06You know, fancy. Limousines. You know.
0:53:06 > 0:53:08I was hungry.
0:53:08 > 0:53:10Still hungry. You're still hungry now!
0:53:10 > 0:53:12Yeah, I was hungry. I was hungry...
0:53:12 > 0:53:15That's why I would go and do any job.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18You're just like a rat, you're looking for ways to...
0:53:18 > 0:53:22- Capture something? - To capture, if you have your wits about you.
0:53:22 > 0:53:24To get your morsels, right?
0:53:24 > 0:53:28- And if you work hard, you're inclined to get lucky.- Yeah.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32I think you're incredibly humble about it, I have to say, Harry.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34Because I think that, number one,
0:53:34 > 0:53:36you've got a fantastic eye.
0:53:36 > 0:53:39And number two, you know, yes, I agree with you,
0:53:39 > 0:53:43hard work gets you in those places, but to get that close to people
0:53:43 > 0:53:46and to be able to capture those images is very...
0:53:46 > 0:53:47is very much a talent.
0:53:49 > 0:53:53When there is an opportunity, the door opens slightly. It's...
0:53:53 > 0:53:54You ram your way through it?
0:53:54 > 0:54:00Yeah, just like a rat. Or a nasty dog coming to you.
0:54:03 > 0:54:05Harry's determination to get the picture
0:54:05 > 0:54:07meant he got some amazing portraits of famous,
0:54:07 > 0:54:09often very elusive people.
0:54:09 > 0:54:11And that's how LIFE used him.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15If they had a tough subject, send in Benson.
0:54:15 > 0:54:19They didn't come much tougher than chess genius Bobby Fischer.
0:54:19 > 0:54:22Considered by many to be the most gifted player of all time,
0:54:22 > 0:54:25he was just as famous for being a cantankerous grump.
0:54:26 > 0:54:31Bobby Fischer, everyone knew he was a piece of shit.
0:54:31 > 0:54:32He was terrible.
0:54:32 > 0:54:35- A nightmare to deal with? - Absolutely!
0:54:35 > 0:54:37But then it's a challenge.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41It was worth fighting for, to get as close as you can.
0:54:41 > 0:54:44And get out. My idea has always been get in,
0:54:44 > 0:54:46get as close as you can and get out.
0:54:46 > 0:54:49I don't want to become friends with these people.
0:54:49 > 0:54:52None of them. I don't...
0:54:52 > 0:54:54I...I don't care.
0:54:55 > 0:54:59I mean, if I finish a job and they ask me for dinner,
0:54:59 > 0:55:01and that happens often, I never go.
0:55:01 > 0:55:04I don't want...
0:55:04 > 0:55:06the individual to say to me,
0:55:06 > 0:55:10"Harry, that picture of me in the bubble bath, please don't use it."
0:55:10 > 0:55:13Bang goes my best picture because of my new best friend.
0:55:13 > 0:55:17Who isn't my best friend! It's somebody I've photographed.
0:55:17 > 0:55:18You know?
0:55:18 > 0:55:20Never.
0:55:21 > 0:55:24No matter how difficult somebody is,
0:55:24 > 0:55:29at one time, the story will soften on you,
0:55:29 > 0:55:31and you've got to be ready for this.
0:55:31 > 0:55:36This is your road in. And it'll happen on every story.
0:55:36 > 0:55:41There is a moment where you can take advantage, you can do your job.
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Because that's all I'm talking about is being able to do your job.
0:55:48 > 0:55:54That's what President Nixon said when he let me into San Clemente
0:55:54 > 0:55:55after he got thrown out of office.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59I said, "I want to thank you, Mr President, I know this isn't
0:55:59 > 0:56:01"the best time in your life," and he said,
0:56:01 > 0:56:06"Harry, you must allow professional people to do their job."
0:56:06 > 0:56:09Nixon, Johnson, Reagan.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14In fact I've photographed every American president since Eisenhower.
0:56:16 > 0:56:21- I'm showing off now. - That's good, I like that. - I'm showing off to everybody!
0:56:23 > 0:56:27I can see why Harry continued to be such a success
0:56:27 > 0:56:31when photojournalism changed through the '70s and '80s.
0:56:31 > 0:56:35He's a scrapper. Even now, aged 81, he's still got his edge.
0:56:38 > 0:56:40The cult of celebrity marked a new era.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42But the demise of LIFE.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51Since 1936, LIFE had held America's hand through its greatest decades,
0:56:51 > 0:56:53witnessing its first steps as a superpower
0:56:53 > 0:56:56and the great blossoming that followed.
0:56:56 > 0:57:00LIFE's most powerful voices, its photographers,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03had championed America's greatest achievements.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06But certainly weren't afraid to reflect its darker,
0:57:06 > 0:57:08more painful divisions, too.
0:57:10 > 0:57:16But the window on the world the men from LIFE created had splintered.
0:57:16 > 0:57:17TV was king now.
0:57:17 > 0:57:21And people's desire to create their own window on the world had begun.
0:57:21 > 0:57:26So, in December 1972, the magazine closed.
0:57:26 > 0:57:31And many its photographers hung up their cameras for good.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35When I came here I wondered what it took to be "the man from LIFE".
0:57:35 > 0:57:39Meeting the guys I have, I realise that I could never have been one.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41I'm just not brave enough.
0:57:41 > 0:57:44What I discovered is they're all incredible human beings first,
0:57:44 > 0:57:46and photographers second.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50Luckily for us, they chose the camera to tell us who they were,
0:57:50 > 0:57:52and how they saw their world.
0:57:53 > 0:57:57So, here I've got the last issue, and the first issue of LIFE,
0:57:57 > 0:58:00and I guess it's kind of fitting that for the last issue of LIFE
0:58:00 > 0:58:03they decided not to put a photograph on the cover.
0:58:03 > 0:58:05It's all text.
0:58:05 > 0:58:07In a way, it kind of like...
0:58:07 > 0:58:10it sums up the fact that it was over
0:58:10 > 0:58:12for the photographic magazine
0:58:12 > 0:58:15that had been so successful from the 30s onwards.
0:58:15 > 0:58:19- # That's life - That's life
0:58:19 > 0:58:22# That's what all the people say
0:58:22 > 0:58:27# You're riding high in April, shot down in May... #
0:58:27 > 0:58:31All of those fantastic photographs that showed us a window
0:58:31 > 0:58:36into what America was like, it's rise and development,
0:58:36 > 0:58:40we wouldn't have them. And that's why LIFE's amazing.
0:58:40 > 0:58:44- # ..I said, that's life - That's life... #
0:58:44 > 0:58:48LIFE had a place in American homes, hearts and minds
0:58:48 > 0:58:51that I just hadn't understood before I came here.
0:58:51 > 0:58:56I don't think there's ever been a magazine that has had such a strong bond with its readers.
0:58:56 > 0:58:59And what a role LIFE played.
0:58:59 > 0:59:01Sometimes guardian, sometimes magician
0:59:01 > 0:59:04and always, I think, a kind of teacher.
0:59:04 > 0:59:08Whatever LIFE set out to say, its language was always photography.
0:59:08 > 0:59:10And its lesson?
0:59:10 > 0:59:13To teach America how to be American.
0:59:13 > 0:59:15Yee-ha!
0:59:15 > 0:59:18- # ..That's life - That's life
0:59:18 > 0:59:21# And I can't deny it
0:59:21 > 0:59:27# Many times I thought of cutting out but my heart won't buy it
0:59:27 > 0:59:33# But if there's nothin' shaken come this here July
0:59:35 > 0:59:38# I'm gonna roll myself up
0:59:38 > 0:59:41# In a big ball
0:59:41 > 0:59:49# A-a-a-nd die
0:59:49 > 0:59:53# My, my. #
0:59:53 > 0:59:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:59:55 > 0:59:57E-mail: subtitling@bbc.co.uk