0:00:02 > 0:00:03The strip on the right-hand side of your screen
0:00:03 > 0:00:05should be a good, solid black,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07and the one on the left should be a clear brilliant white.
0:00:07 > 0:00:09You're going to see a lot of photographs and it's important
0:00:09 > 0:00:11that you should see them to the best advantage,
0:00:11 > 0:00:13so don't hesitate to adjust your set.
0:00:13 > 0:00:17MUSIC: Foot Tapper by The Shadows
0:00:17 > 0:00:21As television rose, so photography boomed.
0:00:22 > 0:00:26Professional or amateur, it seemed like everyone had a camera.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28Public-spirited as always,
0:00:28 > 0:00:32the BBC tried to teach us how to take better pictures.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Point the camera in the right direction and press the button.
0:00:35 > 0:00:37SHUTTER CLICKS
0:00:37 > 0:00:41And you've made a picture - a picture in the camera.
0:00:41 > 0:00:44But the BBC has also inspired its viewers
0:00:44 > 0:00:47by giving them unique access to the masters of the medium.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50A view doesn't make a picture. YOU make the picture.
0:00:50 > 0:00:52Try a new position.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Pioneering art programmes have created intriguing portraits
0:00:59 > 0:01:01of top photographers at work.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Bring your head towards me. A bit more. Bit more.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07The fashion photographer, their finger on the pulse of glamour...
0:01:07 > 0:01:09Now, that's marvellous. Now, hold that.
0:01:09 > 0:01:12..domineering personalities...
0:01:12 > 0:01:15No, who told you to move? Go back the way you were.
0:01:15 > 0:01:16..and celebrities in their own right.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18Stay, stay, stay, stay.
0:01:18 > 0:01:20The documentary photographer
0:01:20 > 0:01:23on the hunt for those decisive moments
0:01:23 > 0:01:26that define the modern world...
0:01:26 > 0:01:28I'm interested in life itself.
0:01:29 > 0:01:32..no matter how uncomfortable they make us.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35But do you not get upset when you learn that you've upset someone?
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I do. It's not my intention to upset people at all.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41The portrait photographer, revealing character...
0:01:43 > 0:01:47..bringing us close up to stardom and beauty.
0:01:47 > 0:01:52She was always sort of golden looking, almost angelic.
0:01:53 > 0:01:54And the landscape photographer,
0:01:54 > 0:01:58inviting us to look again at the places around us.
0:01:58 > 0:02:01I can't be happier than when I see a day like today,
0:02:01 > 0:02:04with great rolling skies, and I cannot be happier.
0:02:04 > 0:02:06- Lovely view, isn't it?- Beautiful.
0:02:07 > 0:02:11These treasures from the BBC's archive bring into focus
0:02:11 > 0:02:14how photographers have captured our changing lives and times.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17# She's not there
0:02:17 > 0:02:20# Well, let me tell about the way she looks
0:02:20 > 0:02:24# The way she acts and the colour of her hair... #
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Look, it's like this. Here's a lamp, a girl and a camera.
0:02:31 > 0:02:34Light from the lamp travels towards the girl.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39Some of it bounces off and goes into the camera.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44And it's this light that forms the picture.
0:02:46 > 0:02:49SHUTTER CLICKS
0:02:50 > 0:02:53MUSIC: Jaan Pehechaan Ho by Mohammed Rafi
0:03:00 > 0:03:04For decades, fashion had been the domain of a wealthy elite.
0:03:06 > 0:03:07But in the 1960s,
0:03:07 > 0:03:11the explosion of British youth culture revolutionised the industry.
0:03:13 > 0:03:16Suddenly, it was open to a new generation of talent.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18Bring your head towards me.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20A bit more, bit more.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23David Hurn was one of the first
0:03:23 > 0:03:26of the new breed of fashion photographers.
0:03:26 > 0:03:28Directed by a young Ken Russell,
0:03:28 > 0:03:31this Monitor film successfully foresaw the prominent role
0:03:31 > 0:03:34of the fashion photographer in pop culture.
0:03:34 > 0:03:37MUSIC: Jaan Pehechaan Ho by Mohammed Rafi
0:03:43 > 0:03:45You're really producing an advertising picture,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48whose sole job is to sell the clothes,
0:03:48 > 0:03:51the manufacturer and the magazine.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Now, these clothes have been put, by an expert,
0:03:54 > 0:03:56on a very rare kind of female
0:03:56 > 0:04:00and her job is to be able to look elegant and at ease in them.
0:04:00 > 0:04:05And I have to try to produce as beautiful a picture as I can,
0:04:05 > 0:04:09but in such a way as to persuade people buying the magazine
0:04:09 > 0:04:11that they're going to look the same.
0:04:13 > 0:04:17Hurn creates a relaxed atmosphere for his shoot by throwing a party.
0:04:17 > 0:04:22Although, this just being the early '60s, it's a fairly genteel one.
0:04:23 > 0:04:29The Harper's Bazaar sittings are nearly always in my own studio,
0:04:29 > 0:04:31which is also my home
0:04:31 > 0:04:35and, as the people involved are all close friends of mine...
0:04:37 > 0:04:39..everything's very informal and, to an outsider,
0:04:39 > 0:04:43it would look a little bit like an afternoon tea party.
0:04:43 > 0:04:48We play records and we dance and everything's very relaxed.
0:04:51 > 0:04:54JAZZ MUSIC PLAYS
0:04:54 > 0:04:58David Hurn's minimalist informal style set the template
0:04:58 > 0:05:00for what was to come.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05# She walks
0:05:06 > 0:05:09# Like an angel walks... #
0:05:11 > 0:05:14By the middle of the decade, three plucky Brits,
0:05:14 > 0:05:18known as the Black Trinity, had taken over fashion photography
0:05:18 > 0:05:21and their names were synonymous with the '60s -
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Bailey, Donovan and Duffy.
0:05:26 > 0:05:30Brian Duffy's unorthodox methods were described by one of his models.
0:05:30 > 0:05:32She seems familiar.
0:05:33 > 0:05:35- I worked with Duffy quite a lot. - Joanna...
0:05:35 > 0:05:39- Duffy's great to work with cos he's sort of...- Patsy?
0:05:39 > 0:05:41You go in there and sort of three hours later,
0:05:41 > 0:05:44when you've finished all the bottles of wine that are lying around...
0:05:45 > 0:05:47and you've sort of talked about everything and listened
0:05:47 > 0:05:49to 100 records of old war songs...
0:05:51 > 0:05:54..somebody arrives with a sort of handful of clothes, you know.
0:05:54 > 0:05:56Out come all the paper flowers.
0:05:57 > 0:05:59And he's standing there with a camera
0:05:59 > 0:06:03and you have to go on talking. And he makes you sing, you know!
0:06:04 > 0:06:06He won't take the shot, and he gets bolshy.
0:06:06 > 0:06:09"I'm not taking the picture unless you sing. Go on, sing!"
0:06:09 > 0:06:11So, you have to sing, stand there singing in the studio. It's great.
0:06:11 > 0:06:15So, all the pictures are sort of dodgy birds with teeth showing,
0:06:15 > 0:06:17but they're natural.
0:06:17 > 0:06:19What one's trying to do is to try and make her look beautiful.
0:06:19 > 0:06:22If you don't do that, then you lose out.
0:06:23 > 0:06:26And she loses out and then it's a bore.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30I think there is a natural pleasure in making someone look...beautiful.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32# You really got me
0:06:32 > 0:06:34# You really got me... #
0:06:36 > 0:06:38The camera eye is vital to this industry,
0:06:38 > 0:06:40as are the men behind it -
0:06:40 > 0:06:42the top photographers who deal in dreams.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44Open you mouth slightly. Good.
0:06:44 > 0:06:46The winsome David Bailey,
0:06:46 > 0:06:48who created the famous model Jean Shrimpton
0:06:48 > 0:06:51and married the famous mother Catherine Deneuve,
0:06:51 > 0:06:54shows how to bring out the best in a woman
0:06:54 > 0:06:56with a combination of charm and authority.
0:06:56 > 0:06:59That's good. Hold it.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02- SHUTTER CLICKS - Good, good.
0:07:02 > 0:07:04Make that... Let me... No, who told you to move?
0:07:04 > 0:07:07Go back the way you were. Come on, back the way you were.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11Good, and that flipping...hand.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13Yeah, good, there.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17Bailey's signature style used a stark white background.
0:07:17 > 0:07:19It's kind of my way of making
0:07:19 > 0:07:24everything minimal and just concentrating on the person
0:07:24 > 0:07:26and getting rid of everything else.
0:07:26 > 0:07:29It's just the person I want. That's the only thing I want.
0:07:29 > 0:07:32I don't want anything else in. I don't want their hands.
0:07:32 > 0:07:36I want very sophisticated passport pictures, really,
0:07:36 > 0:07:38which are quite hard to do.
0:07:38 > 0:07:42Good, angel. Yeah, and it's nearly right, if that hand was nice and...
0:07:42 > 0:07:44And here's Terence Donovan.
0:07:44 > 0:07:47Any resemblance to Austin Powers is entirely coincidental.
0:07:47 > 0:07:49OK, hold it there.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52And just, just push round. That's it.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55Excellent, excellent. Now, just a little, a little... That's it.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58Excellent. Just a little bit more, just a little bit more.
0:07:58 > 0:08:01But what about the models, staying still,
0:08:01 > 0:08:04looking pretty and being bossed around all day?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07A really good model,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09when you're looking back at the camera,
0:08:09 > 0:08:11is completely involved in what you're doing.
0:08:11 > 0:08:12It's very strange, it's very magic.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15One minute they're in a very dull swimming costume
0:08:15 > 0:08:17and the next minute a huge fur coat, and they change.
0:08:17 > 0:08:22And sort of bring, you know, the face round a little, yeah?
0:08:22 > 0:08:27Well, I mean, you know. You know exactly what I mean.
0:08:30 > 0:08:32But there would have been no Black Trinity
0:08:32 > 0:08:35if it weren't for Norman Parkinson,
0:08:35 > 0:08:37the daddy of British fashion photography.
0:08:37 > 0:08:42'The name is Parkinson. The other photographers call me The Governor.
0:08:42 > 0:08:46'My life's work is a constant search for beautiful women.'
0:08:46 > 0:08:51In 1967, the BBC gave Parkinson the full colour treatment,
0:08:51 > 0:08:55in a film that captured his world and all its jet-setting glamour.
0:08:55 > 0:08:58MUSIC: The Infant Phenomenon by Johnny Dankworth Orchestra
0:09:01 > 0:09:04'You'll never see me hung about with cameras like a Christmas tree.
0:09:04 > 0:09:06'But I am a photographer
0:09:06 > 0:09:10'and photographers are the myth-makers of the '60s.'
0:09:12 > 0:09:16The film takes us through each stage of Parkinson's process.
0:09:18 > 0:09:20- Could I have your name, please? - Suzanne Bates.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24- Measurements?- Er, 33, 24, 34.
0:09:24 > 0:09:28He starts off at an agency, looking for the right model.
0:09:28 > 0:09:34- I can see that you're a sort 36-cum-24-cum-35 girl.- Yes.
0:09:34 > 0:09:37'Many photographers might find what they're looking for here,
0:09:37 > 0:09:39'but it's just not my day.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42'So, not for the first time,
0:09:42 > 0:09:46'it's out into the streets in search of the raw, the rare material.
0:09:49 > 0:09:51'Just a minute.'
0:09:51 > 0:09:55Do you mind if I speak to you a moment? Did you ever think of...?
0:09:55 > 0:09:57- Did she ever think of being a model or not?- I don't know.
0:09:57 > 0:09:59Like a fairy godfather,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01Parkinson plucks Pauline off the street
0:10:01 > 0:10:03and whisks her off for a shoot,
0:10:03 > 0:10:06coaching her to become the next face of the moment.
0:10:06 > 0:10:09# It's the time of the season
0:10:11 > 0:10:13# When love runs high... #
0:10:13 > 0:10:15..the focus off her.
0:10:15 > 0:10:17OK, baby.
0:10:19 > 0:10:24# And let me try with pleasured hands... #
0:10:24 > 0:10:27It's a silly thing to say, but give me more style.
0:10:27 > 0:10:29Remember that picture I told you
0:10:29 > 0:10:32that you might do with your bottom stuck out? Let me see it.
0:10:34 > 0:10:36You can't stick your bottom out at all.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39It's a terrible thing to say, but behave like a model.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42- Stay like that, baby. Don't move. - SHUTTER CLICKS
0:10:43 > 0:10:46Parkinson made his name with work like this for Vogue,
0:10:46 > 0:10:49breaking convention and shooting his models outside the studio.
0:10:49 > 0:10:52Babe, put the camera on. Bang.
0:10:53 > 0:10:57'While I'm working with Marisa, we're surrounded by the BBC.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00'But it won't really matter if they're in my shot or not.'
0:11:00 > 0:11:02Ring somebody up that you really like.
0:11:02 > 0:11:05She's great down there. Do I have a film in the camera?
0:11:05 > 0:11:08And one again. That's it. Stay, stay, stay.
0:11:08 > 0:11:11That's it. Good. OK, we're done, we're done.
0:11:11 > 0:11:14Shall we have a little hand now it's done?
0:11:14 > 0:11:17- CLAPPING - All done! Thanks a lot to you.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20'We think we've captured Marisa Mell on celluloid.'
0:11:20 > 0:11:24The only thing that worries me a little is the background.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26- I think it's a bit too busy. - I think it is busy.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29I think it, in a way, sets the scene.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32I rather like that feeling, you know.
0:11:32 > 0:11:34- It's got a sort of "stop press" quality.- Yeah.
0:11:35 > 0:11:39Parkinson's improvised setup pays off.
0:11:39 > 0:11:42The resulting picture has an effortless grace.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46MUSIC: Time Of The Season by The Zombies
0:11:48 > 0:11:52In a final flourish, the programme pairs Parkinson
0:11:52 > 0:11:55with the most famous British model of the decade.
0:11:55 > 0:11:58- Just adorable. Twiggy.- Yes?
0:11:58 > 0:12:00We've seen...
0:12:00 > 0:12:04We've seen lots and lots of very good photographs of you.
0:12:04 > 0:12:08- We've never seen you move. Would you dance for us?- All right.- So, dance.
0:12:09 > 0:12:12# Jimmy Mack, Jimmy
0:12:12 > 0:12:16# Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back?
0:12:16 > 0:12:19# Jimmy Mack, Jimmy
0:12:19 > 0:12:23# Oh, Jimmy Mack, when are you coming back?
0:12:24 > 0:12:27# My arms are missing you
0:12:27 > 0:12:31# My lips feel the same way too... #
0:12:31 > 0:12:35The entire 1960s distilled into a few moments of television.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38# Like I promised I'd do... #
0:12:38 > 0:12:42MUSIC: Boys Don't Cry by The Cure
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Fresh waves of youth culture would shift the fashion industry again
0:12:51 > 0:12:56and by the early 1990s, a new photographer had emerged,
0:12:56 > 0:12:59strikingly different from her male predecessors.
0:12:59 > 0:13:01I'm talking to, I think,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04one of the most important photographers of our generation -
0:13:04 > 0:13:07certainly a person who changed, dramatically,
0:13:07 > 0:13:09what we thought of as fashion photography.
0:13:09 > 0:13:11Before Corinne Day, it was one thing,
0:13:11 > 0:13:13and then after Corinne Day, it was a different thing.
0:13:13 > 0:13:18The pictures that made Corinne Day's name appeared in The Face magazine
0:13:18 > 0:13:23in 1990 and they launched the career of our most famous model, Kate Moss.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26When I was modelling, the photographer...
0:13:26 > 0:13:29The photographs were always about him, not the subject,
0:13:29 > 0:13:32and I reversed it and that's what I did with Kate.
0:13:32 > 0:13:34I captured her presence.
0:13:34 > 0:13:38# I wanna be adored... #
0:13:38 > 0:13:40This picture has the quality of a snapshot.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Corinne's camera responds directly to Kate Moss
0:13:43 > 0:13:46and the photo looks spontaneous and natural.
0:13:46 > 0:13:49I guess, when I saw Kate, I just saw myself.
0:13:51 > 0:13:54She didn't like being told to look at me
0:13:54 > 0:13:57when the sun was going into her eyes or to look into the camera
0:13:57 > 0:13:59when the sun was going in her eyes.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03She pulled such funny faces
0:14:03 > 0:14:05that she looked great
0:14:05 > 0:14:08and I took photographs of her moaning
0:14:08 > 0:14:12and pulling silly faces and just being herself,
0:14:12 > 0:14:16just trying to capture as much personality of hers I could.
0:14:16 > 0:14:20MUSIC: I Wanna Be Adored by The Stone Roses
0:14:20 > 0:14:22Corinne Day's pictures of Kate Moss became
0:14:22 > 0:14:25a landmark in fashion photography.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27They defined '90s' style.
0:14:30 > 0:14:33And her approach owed much to another photographic genre.
0:14:34 > 0:14:40# Adored... #
0:14:40 > 0:14:44MUSIC: Sunny Afternoon by The Kinks
0:14:44 > 0:14:48The 1960s were one of the great decades of documentary photography,
0:14:48 > 0:14:50as magazines and the new colour supplements
0:14:50 > 0:14:52competed for the best pictures.
0:14:55 > 0:14:59The BBC encouraged viewers to take their own documentary images,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02using some slightly scary examples.
0:15:03 > 0:15:06The photojournalist composes and shoots his picture
0:15:06 > 0:15:08while the action is happening.
0:15:08 > 0:15:11He cannot stop the action while he makes his picture,
0:15:11 > 0:15:14so he develops an instinctive reaction
0:15:14 > 0:15:16which causes him to press the shutter release
0:15:16 > 0:15:18at the decisive moment.
0:15:20 > 0:15:23Now, in order to take these kind of pictures,
0:15:23 > 0:15:25these unposed photographs,
0:15:25 > 0:15:28you've got to learn how to operate your camera quickly.
0:15:28 > 0:15:32It needs practice but if you practise enough,
0:15:32 > 0:15:35you'll be able to raise the camera smoothly to your eye,
0:15:35 > 0:15:37press the shutter release, bring it down again, just like that.
0:15:37 > 0:15:41At the decisive moment, up with the camera, press release, down again.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Practise and practise until you can do it, at least as quickly as that.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50MUSIC: Gnossienne No 1 by Erik Satie
0:15:50 > 0:15:54The "decisive moment" is a term enshrined in photographic history.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01It was coined by the man who caught these images -
0:16:01 > 0:16:04a fleeting but revealing instance.
0:16:04 > 0:16:08MUSIC: Gnossienne No 1 by Erik Satie
0:16:10 > 0:16:12Henri Cartier-Bresson travelled the world
0:16:12 > 0:16:17in search of his "decisive moments" and, in 1960, the BBC joined him.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22I always have my camera, except for shaving in the morning.
0:16:22 > 0:16:24It's an extension of the eye.
0:16:24 > 0:16:27Photography is very much, to me, a physical pleasure,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31like hunting, except that we don't kill.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33I'm interested in life itself.
0:16:33 > 0:16:35It's a curiosity in the human being,
0:16:35 > 0:16:37it's a curiosity of what is going on in the street.
0:16:37 > 0:16:42It depends how far you're willing to dig into it or to scratch.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45And then you have to be as unobtrusive as possible
0:16:45 > 0:16:49because, unfortunately, the camera is a very noticeable thing.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Like everybody's got a fountain pen or a watch,
0:16:53 > 0:16:54everybody's got a camera nowadays.
0:16:54 > 0:16:57It's so easy and, at the same time, it's so difficult.
0:16:57 > 0:17:02In photography, we are passive up to a certain point,
0:17:02 > 0:17:04and the world is active in front of us.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08We are active only in the fraction of a second
0:17:08 > 0:17:11when we press and we decide it is now.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14It's just that choice which is most important.
0:17:14 > 0:17:19Whereas a painter, he is active and the canvas is passive. He creates.
0:17:19 > 0:17:22We don't create, except for that fraction of a second.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26MUSIC: Gnossienne No 1 by Erik Satie
0:17:27 > 0:17:30Cartier-Bresson moves like a ballet dancer,
0:17:30 > 0:17:32pirouetting around his subjects
0:17:32 > 0:17:35to find the most expressive, naturally-composed image.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42And it's true photography is a mania.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45You have to do it with a passion.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53MUSIC: House Of The Rising Sun by The Animals
0:17:55 > 0:17:58One kind of documentary photographer is a breed apart -
0:17:58 > 0:18:00the war photographer.
0:18:00 > 0:18:05# There is a house in New Orleans... #
0:18:05 > 0:18:07No war has been so vividly documented,
0:18:07 > 0:18:10so dramatically photographed as Vietnam,
0:18:10 > 0:18:12and Larry Burrows has worked
0:18:12 > 0:18:13harder at it than most.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16For seven years, he's returned time after time
0:18:16 > 0:18:18to record the events of that tragic country.
0:18:18 > 0:18:20To anyone but a photojournalist,
0:18:20 > 0:18:22such persistence must seem an act of madness.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30He prepares for war like a soldier preparing for battle.
0:18:30 > 0:18:31He's a veteran.
0:18:31 > 0:18:33During the last 20 years, he's covered Cyprus, Suez,
0:18:33 > 0:18:37the Congo, the Chinese-India conflict and South Vietnam.
0:18:40 > 0:18:43He normally takes 50 rolls of film into the field,
0:18:43 > 0:18:47one pocket for the exposed negative, another for the unexposed.
0:18:47 > 0:18:49The decisive moment for Larry Burrows
0:18:49 > 0:18:52is when to stand up and when to lie down.
0:18:53 > 0:18:58# Down in New Orleans... #
0:18:58 > 0:19:01If he lost an opportunity of making a memorable picture,
0:19:01 > 0:19:04either through fear or miscalculation, he'd live with it
0:19:04 > 0:19:08for the rest of the story and hate himself for having missed it.
0:19:10 > 0:19:12There have been moments, yes,
0:19:12 > 0:19:16when your lips go dry and you sort of lick those, yes.
0:19:16 > 0:19:20And if there's anybody that does not, does not have any fear,
0:19:20 > 0:19:23then he's a complete idiot.
0:19:23 > 0:19:28# The only time that he's satisfied... #
0:19:28 > 0:19:31Larry Burrows will spend as much as three days with a patrol
0:19:31 > 0:19:33before he takes a photograph.
0:19:33 > 0:19:35He wants to feel accepted, on equal terms.
0:19:35 > 0:19:37He wants to share the soldiers' ordeal with them.
0:19:37 > 0:19:40Only then does he feel he has the right to photograph them
0:19:40 > 0:19:42in their moment of crisis.
0:19:42 > 0:19:45UNCLEAR MESSAGE OVER RADIO
0:19:45 > 0:19:47EXPLOSIONS
0:19:49 > 0:19:52EXPLOSIONS
0:19:52 > 0:19:57People that you had seen alive a few minutes ago suddenly were dead.
0:19:58 > 0:20:00And you realise that it could have been you.
0:20:02 > 0:20:06Photography was credited with helping end the Vietnam War,
0:20:06 > 0:20:09by turning public opinion against American involvement.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12But was it possible to become desensitised
0:20:12 > 0:20:15by repeatedly witnessing such horrific scenes?
0:20:15 > 0:20:19GUNFIRE
0:20:21 > 0:20:25Throughout the mayhem, he remains obstinately humane.
0:20:25 > 0:20:30Do I have the right to carry on working and leave a man suffering?
0:20:30 > 0:20:33To my mind, the answer is no. You've got to help him.
0:20:33 > 0:20:36GUNFIRE
0:20:36 > 0:20:40But not all his work is concerned with men at war.
0:20:40 > 0:20:42GUNFIRE
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Well, there's the story - in fact, the last story which I did here,
0:20:46 > 0:20:49which was on a little girl, a little Vietnamese girl called Tron,
0:20:49 > 0:20:53and she was having a leg fitted for the first time.
0:20:54 > 0:20:57And her leg was fitted and she stood up with the crutches
0:20:57 > 0:21:00and he was encouraging her to let the crutches be taken away,
0:21:00 > 0:21:02which he did. She held onto the bench.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04She just held on with this one hand.
0:21:04 > 0:21:07He said, "Come on, you don't need to do this."
0:21:07 > 0:21:11And so, she gradually slid her hand off the bench.
0:21:11 > 0:21:15She was holding on with one little finger, then she took it away.
0:21:15 > 0:21:18And then she realised what was happening
0:21:18 > 0:21:21and she was standing for the first time in many, many months.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25She looked up and a big smile came on her face.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28At that point, tears were running down my cheeks.
0:21:28 > 0:21:32And you cannot go through these elements
0:21:32 > 0:21:36without, obviously, feeling something yourself.
0:21:36 > 0:21:37You cannot be mercenary in this way
0:21:37 > 0:21:41because it would make you a lesser photographer.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45And so often, I wonder whether it's my right to capitalise,
0:21:45 > 0:21:48as I feel so often, on the grief of others.
0:21:49 > 0:21:54But then I justify my own particular thoughts by feeling that,
0:21:54 > 0:21:57if I can contribute a little to the understanding
0:21:57 > 0:22:00of what others are going through, then there's a reason for doing it.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06In 1971, two years after he recorded this interview,
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Larry Burrows died when his helicopter was shot down.
0:22:12 > 0:22:14Images of the war fuelled the debate
0:22:14 > 0:22:17about the ethics of documentary photography.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20The BBC invited the influential critic Susan Sontag
0:22:20 > 0:22:22to air her concerns.
0:22:22 > 0:22:24Look at this advertisement.
0:22:24 > 0:22:29All but one of the group looks stunned, excited, upset.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31The one who wears a different expression
0:22:31 > 0:22:33is the one who holds a camera to his eye.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36He seems self-possessed. He's almost smiling.
0:22:37 > 0:22:41The others are passive, clearly alarmed spectators.
0:22:41 > 0:22:43Having a camera has transformed
0:22:43 > 0:22:45one of these people
0:22:45 > 0:22:47into someone active, into a voyeur.
0:22:47 > 0:22:50Only he has mastered the situation.
0:22:50 > 0:22:53MUSIC: Ever Fallen In Love With Someone by Buzzcocks
0:22:53 > 0:22:57By the 1990s, a new school of street photographers had arrived,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00who were no longer deferential to their subjects.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04New Yorker Bruce Gilden was downright in your face.
0:23:04 > 0:23:08# You make me feel I'm dirt and I'm hurt... #
0:23:08 > 0:23:10But by now, the photographers weren't being shown
0:23:10 > 0:23:12much deference either.
0:23:14 > 0:23:16On The Late Show, Martin Parr was put on the spot
0:23:16 > 0:23:19about his candid documentary photographs.
0:23:19 > 0:23:22Some of the images, as we've heard,
0:23:22 > 0:23:25have actually upset the people involved.
0:23:25 > 0:23:27Do you think it's acceptable
0:23:27 > 0:23:31to focus on an individual in that way, to make a wider point,
0:23:31 > 0:23:35however uncomfortable that image may be for the person in it
0:23:35 > 0:23:37and for the person looking at it?
0:23:37 > 0:23:40People come up to me and say, "You can't photograph me.
0:23:40 > 0:23:42"I know my rights." The irony is, of course,
0:23:42 > 0:23:47that their rights aren't actually there to stop me taking photographs.
0:23:47 > 0:23:49You can actually take photographs
0:23:49 > 0:23:51of people in public places and publish them.
0:23:51 > 0:23:52So, they say they know their rights,
0:23:52 > 0:23:55but the irony is that, in fact, they don't.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57But they think that because they understand, perhaps,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00the power of photography or the power in the media,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03that they should have some input into that decision
0:24:03 > 0:24:05as to whether the work gets used.
0:24:07 > 0:24:10Parr had to continue defending his work for many years to come.
0:24:10 > 0:24:13In fact, he became rather adept at doing it.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Inevitably, because I was angry in the '80s
0:24:17 > 0:24:20about what was happening in Britain, you had to,
0:24:20 > 0:24:23at the expense of individuals - and this has obviously been the point
0:24:23 > 0:24:26where my critics have a good field day -
0:24:26 > 0:24:30make photographs that show people in situations
0:24:30 > 0:24:32where it wasn't particularly complimentary.
0:24:32 > 0:24:35When you had Thatcher saying to everybody
0:24:35 > 0:24:38that we were a great country and people really seemed to believe it,
0:24:38 > 0:24:41this is the thing that really, sort of, would gall me,
0:24:41 > 0:24:45and this is why I would look round and find places like New Brighton,
0:24:45 > 0:24:47which showed quite clearly the country
0:24:47 > 0:24:49wasn't the great country it was for everybody.
0:24:51 > 0:24:53Viewers were able to scrutinise
0:24:53 > 0:24:55Parr's working practice for themselves
0:24:55 > 0:24:57when the BBC challenged him to make a documentary film,
0:24:57 > 0:25:01using one of the latest lightweight digital video cameras
0:25:01 > 0:25:03and pairing him with one of their producers.
0:25:05 > 0:25:06Martin thought it would be good to have
0:25:06 > 0:25:08one known element in the project
0:25:08 > 0:25:11and so chose tourism as his subject to film.
0:25:11 > 0:25:13- You're good at French, aren't you? - LAUGHTER
0:25:13 > 0:25:16Eventually, I came up with a group of ladies
0:25:16 > 0:25:19who were taking a weekend trip to Paris.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21They were from the former mining village
0:25:21 > 0:25:23of Ystradgynlais near Swansea.
0:25:26 > 0:25:30Martin's most recent exhibition is a series of pictures of food
0:25:30 > 0:25:34so, at the motorway services, he was eager to get stuck into the action.
0:25:34 > 0:25:37One of the things I wanted to explore was this idea
0:25:37 > 0:25:41of just doing details and not having the wider situation
0:25:41 > 0:25:43which you'd normally get with television filming,
0:25:43 > 0:25:49but just coming right in and going for very simple visual language.
0:25:49 > 0:25:52These tight shots have the kind of objective quality
0:25:52 > 0:25:54that's textbook Martin Parr.
0:25:55 > 0:25:58But he soon realised they couldn't capture what was really going on.
0:25:58 > 0:26:00Where's that then?
0:26:02 > 0:26:06Is that for us? Can we go there? Can we go there?
0:26:06 > 0:26:10What you notice is the more detached, cool approach
0:26:10 > 0:26:15at the beginning had been superseded by a more involved approach,
0:26:15 > 0:26:18where I wasn't paying the attention to the visual shot
0:26:18 > 0:26:20that I thought I would be in the first place
0:26:20 > 0:26:23and I was just letting the situation flow along
0:26:23 > 0:26:26and I would be filming it almost by accident.
0:26:26 > 0:26:28They are beginning this afternoon
0:26:28 > 0:26:31and they stop at a quarter to eight, I think.
0:26:31 > 0:26:34Oh, we could have gone to that, could we?
0:26:34 > 0:26:37- I think that's a private party. - Oh...
0:26:38 > 0:26:43I think, to a certain extent, I've been seduced by these ladies
0:26:43 > 0:26:46and I've made quite a sweet film about them.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48In fact, it's probably more sweet
0:26:48 > 0:26:51than I thought it would be in the first place.
0:26:54 > 0:26:57The sharp gaze of Martin Parr was clearly softened
0:26:57 > 0:26:59by the ladies from South Wales,
0:26:59 > 0:27:03revealing a gentler side to Britain's most acerbic photographer.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12SHUTTER CLICKS
0:27:13 > 0:27:17MUSIC: Foot Tapper by The Shadows
0:27:18 > 0:27:20Sitting for a portrait is an awkward business.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23It's hard not to feel like a bit of a lemon -
0:27:23 > 0:27:27as poor Anya demonstrates for us, live on television.
0:27:27 > 0:27:31There we are. Now, you should be able to see the picture now.
0:27:31 > 0:27:32There is it.
0:27:32 > 0:27:35There's Anya, and we're not playing games -
0:27:35 > 0:27:38the picture really is upside down.
0:27:39 > 0:27:42But the greatest portrait photographers have sought to achieve
0:27:42 > 0:27:45something altogether more ambitious than a simple headshot.
0:27:48 > 0:27:50From the earliest days of the medium,
0:27:50 > 0:27:52portrait photographers have used the camera
0:27:52 > 0:27:55to immortalise and, ideally, to flatter.
0:27:55 > 0:27:57For actors and performers,
0:27:57 > 0:28:00a career could be made or broken by the quality of a portrait.
0:28:00 > 0:28:05# Stars shining bright above you... #
0:28:06 > 0:28:09In the 1940s and '50s, Angus McBean was Britain's
0:28:09 > 0:28:12preeminent theatrical portrait photographer.
0:28:14 > 0:28:19'I suppose I was stage-struck. The theatre was an unreal world.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24'It was fantasy. It was what you wished it to be.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29'I used to go to The Old Vic,
0:28:29 > 0:28:31'into the gods, of course,
0:28:31 > 0:28:33'and somehow or other,
0:28:33 > 0:28:37'I realised that what I was watching was something transcendental -
0:28:37 > 0:28:40'I think that's the right word -
0:28:40 > 0:28:42'and it was the acting of Laurence Olivier.
0:28:43 > 0:28:46'I used to take my camera and a couple of lights
0:28:46 > 0:28:51'and get Larry into the corner of the stage and take a photograph.'
0:28:52 > 0:28:55# Stars fading
0:28:55 > 0:28:58# But I linger on, dear... #
0:28:58 > 0:29:00McBean was the photographer of choice
0:29:00 > 0:29:03for the biggest names in showbusiness
0:29:03 > 0:29:06and his pictures were theatrical performances in themselves.
0:29:06 > 0:29:11# I'm longing to linger till dawn, dear... #
0:29:11 > 0:29:15He began by experimenting with surrealism in the 1930s...
0:29:16 > 0:29:20..creating elaborate photomontages in his studio.
0:29:20 > 0:29:25'Strangely enough, I was born, I think, the same day as Salvador Dali
0:29:25 > 0:29:30'and his work has always fascinated me, absolutely fascinated me.'
0:29:34 > 0:29:37McBean combined surrealism with his commercial work
0:29:37 > 0:29:41to create a unique, unearthly style of portrait.
0:29:43 > 0:29:47This 1951 picture of a then unknown Audrey Hepburn
0:29:47 > 0:29:49is one of his unconventional masterpieces.
0:29:53 > 0:29:55McBean was the master of artifice.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57He played with camera techniques and lighting
0:29:57 > 0:29:59to make his sitters look like stars.
0:30:02 > 0:30:05People want to look young, they want to look virile,
0:30:05 > 0:30:08they want to look attractive.
0:30:08 > 0:30:11You can move one light and you can make ten years' difference
0:30:11 > 0:30:15to a person's appearance, and so why not do that?
0:30:18 > 0:30:21Everybody wants to be flattered and, what's more,
0:30:21 > 0:30:26they'd go to endless lengths to be beautiful, with their make-up,
0:30:26 > 0:30:29with the lighting, with the whole illusion of the stage,
0:30:29 > 0:30:33all towards making them look absolutely glorious,
0:30:33 > 0:30:36so my job was to preserve this.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40This portrait of Quentin Crisp is a perfect example
0:30:40 > 0:30:45of McBean's careful composition and flattering lighting.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47I only accidentally get below the surface.
0:30:49 > 0:30:53But if the sympathy between me and the sitter is high,
0:30:53 > 0:30:57then you do get under the surface in a very odd way.
0:30:59 > 0:31:04What I'm looking for is the skin texture,
0:31:04 > 0:31:09the planes of the face, the physical outside of people.
0:31:09 > 0:31:11The fact that it's the outside of their souls
0:31:11 > 0:31:13is of secondary matter, in a way.
0:31:18 > 0:31:20The McBean look was widely imitated.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Throughout the 1940s and '50s,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27Hollywood studios commissioned portraits of their leading actors
0:31:27 > 0:31:29in a similar style.
0:31:36 > 0:31:39But one photographer rejected all this artifice.
0:31:39 > 0:31:40For her portraits of the stars,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43she preferred a more down-to-earth approach.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46The traditional Hollywood still, you know,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49was to try and flatter
0:31:49 > 0:31:52and titillate as much as possible.
0:31:52 > 0:31:53so that in lighting,
0:31:53 > 0:31:57you would light it as though you were lighting up a cigarette pack.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02You would light for the eyes and the legs and, er, the breasts.
0:32:02 > 0:32:06And so, each little bit became something very special.
0:32:06 > 0:32:08You never get a sense of the person.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11It was just that commodity that was being sold.
0:32:11 > 0:32:16And in the early '50s, I was just beginning as a photographer
0:32:16 > 0:32:20and I got a crack at trying to get away from that traditional look.
0:32:20 > 0:32:24And I got a call from Marlene Dietrich,
0:32:24 > 0:32:26asking me to come to Columbia Records,
0:32:26 > 0:32:28where she was recording all those songs
0:32:28 > 0:32:30that she'd made famous during the Second World War.
0:32:30 > 0:32:33I walked in and the studio was very stark.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36It was like a big barn, there was no lighting.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39She was sitting on a stool, singing away,
0:32:39 > 0:32:42and I just wanted the reality of that situation.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44I didn't want to flatter her.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47MUSIC: Doin' The Rounds by Humphrey Lyttelton
0:32:50 > 0:32:54Eve Arnold gave the celebrity portrait a fresh modern look
0:32:54 > 0:32:59and her work caught the eye of the savvy young Marilyn Monroe.
0:32:59 > 0:33:05What happened was Marilyn had seen a set of pictures I'd done for Esquire
0:33:05 > 0:33:08on Marlene Dietrich and she looked at me and she said,
0:33:08 > 0:33:10"If you did that well with Marlene,
0:33:10 > 0:33:12"could you imagine what you can do with me?"
0:33:12 > 0:33:14Which I thought was quite wonderful.
0:33:14 > 0:33:17And she was very clever, she was...
0:33:17 > 0:33:21When she sensed a camera - cos sometimes I didn't even know
0:33:21 > 0:33:23there anybody else there with a camera -
0:33:23 > 0:33:26suddenly the breasts would heave up,
0:33:26 > 0:33:29the back, the buttocks would jut out,
0:33:29 > 0:33:32and there she was. She was the movie star.
0:33:32 > 0:33:34The smile was brilliant.
0:33:34 > 0:33:38She was always sort of golden looking and because...
0:33:39 > 0:33:42..she had a down,
0:33:42 > 0:33:47just very fine golden hairs all around on her face,
0:33:47 > 0:33:50it trapped the light. It was extraordinary.
0:33:50 > 0:33:51I've never seen it before.
0:33:51 > 0:33:54It acted as a nimbus, so that she looked almost angelic
0:33:54 > 0:33:57and it was marvellous to photograph her.
0:33:57 > 0:34:00And the fun was to watch what she would do,
0:34:00 > 0:34:02because you would set a situation,
0:34:02 > 0:34:04you would say, "Shall we do so and so?"
0:34:04 > 0:34:07And she would say, "Fine, let's go with it."
0:34:07 > 0:34:11MUSIC: I Wanna Be Loved By You by Marilyn Monroe
0:34:11 > 0:34:14The BBC took Eve Arnold back to the location
0:34:14 > 0:34:16of her most famous portraits of Marilyn
0:34:16 > 0:34:19and Eve explained what it was like to photograph her.
0:34:19 > 0:34:23I'm not going to lie down - no, thank you very much!
0:34:23 > 0:34:27It was always a collaboration between us.
0:34:27 > 0:34:30I don't remember where I began and she ended or the other way around.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33She was always having bright ideas.
0:34:33 > 0:34:36It was always her session, it was never mine.
0:34:36 > 0:34:40It was never the photographer's. She was in charge. She loved it.
0:34:42 > 0:34:45Eve and Marilyn enjoyed a truly creative partnership
0:34:45 > 0:34:47and their easygoing approach
0:34:47 > 0:34:49to what had been a rather rigid style of portraiture
0:34:49 > 0:34:53produced genuinely surprising and touching images.
0:34:54 > 0:34:57Eve would use the techniques she developed with Marilyn
0:34:57 > 0:34:58throughout her career.
0:35:01 > 0:35:04Sometimes it's a great sense of excitation.
0:35:04 > 0:35:07You know you've got it. It's within one frame or another.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11Isabella, give me some stuff.
0:35:11 > 0:35:15'They're always successful if they tell something about the subject
0:35:15 > 0:35:18'that I would not have expected to be given.'
0:35:18 > 0:35:21Move your arms a little. 'Cos it is a collaboration
0:35:21 > 0:35:23'between you and the person you're photographing.'
0:35:24 > 0:35:28MUSIC: Have A Good Time by The Brand New Heavies
0:35:30 > 0:35:35# Let's all just have a good time... #
0:35:37 > 0:35:39Not just a pretty face, is she?
0:35:40 > 0:35:41Din-dins.
0:35:43 > 0:35:44There you are.
0:35:44 > 0:35:47How's our dustbin dog?
0:35:49 > 0:35:52Far away from the glitz of Hollywood,
0:35:52 > 0:35:54one of Britain's finest portrait photographers led the life
0:35:54 > 0:35:56of a country housewife for most of the week...
0:36:02 > 0:36:05..only commuting to London for a couple of days
0:36:05 > 0:36:08to take her portraits for the Observer newspaper.
0:36:10 > 0:36:13When did you get interested in people then?
0:36:14 > 0:36:17Um...I think they were rather forced on me.
0:36:19 > 0:36:23Although Jane Bown wasn't exactly a people person,
0:36:23 > 0:36:25she developed a singular style
0:36:25 > 0:36:27which reveals these sitters' characters.
0:36:28 > 0:36:31Jane worked with minimal equipment and natural light.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33In each of these photographs,
0:36:33 > 0:36:37nothing distracts from the face, which almost fills the frame.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41That's better. That's it, that's it.
0:36:41 > 0:36:43When you go on an assignment now,
0:36:43 > 0:36:47do you always know who the people are and how...?
0:36:47 > 0:36:52- No.- Do you try and find out about them?- No, no.
0:36:54 > 0:36:58'But I don't think I need... I just see their faces. I don't...
0:37:00 > 0:37:02'..necessarily need to know how they tick or what they do.'
0:37:02 > 0:37:05You want to come over here and sit on my lap, darling?
0:37:05 > 0:37:07'I purely just see things. I don't think about people.'
0:37:07 > 0:37:09That's lovely.
0:37:10 > 0:37:11Do you think you get what you want?
0:37:13 > 0:37:15'I go to town to get what I want.'
0:37:15 > 0:37:17Yes, I need you looking this way.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21'And when I feel I'm losing...
0:37:22 > 0:37:23'..and not getting what I want,
0:37:23 > 0:37:27'perhaps sometimes I become a bit of a bossyboots.'
0:37:27 > 0:37:29Look straight at me.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32On assignment for the Observer,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35Jane sometimes only had a few snatched minutes to get her shot,
0:37:35 > 0:37:39but years of practice taught her how to make the best of any situation.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43Right, what are we doing?
0:37:45 > 0:37:47- I thought I might put you down there. I don't know.- Mm-hmm.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51But I'm going to start moving... I wonder if you can squat down there.
0:37:51 > 0:37:53Is it...? I don't know.
0:37:56 > 0:37:58I may be wrong, you see.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02- Can you squat?- Just here?
0:38:02 > 0:38:05I just want to see what the light's like.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09- Very beautiful.- Now, I notice that the whole session took 18 minutes.
0:38:09 > 0:38:11Is that fairly standard?
0:38:11 > 0:38:14Um, I like to think I have half an hour,
0:38:14 > 0:38:16but I'm usually quicker than that, yes.
0:38:16 > 0:38:1820 minutes is fine.
0:38:18 > 0:38:20- Bye-bye.- Bye-bye.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26- That was quick, wasn't it? - What a charming lady.
0:38:26 > 0:38:30I thought she was very pleasant, very nice. Straight to the point.
0:38:30 > 0:38:33MUSIC: Looking For Turner by Humphrey Lyttelton
0:38:35 > 0:38:39In the late 1980s, Arena profiled a portrait photographer,
0:38:39 > 0:38:41whose work and life were a world away
0:38:41 > 0:38:44from the prim and proper Jane Bown's.
0:38:46 > 0:38:49It's like you get to a place and you can do it with a flower,
0:38:49 > 0:38:50you can do it with a cock,
0:38:50 > 0:38:52you can do it with a portrait,
0:38:52 > 0:38:56where you don't know why it's happening, but it's happening.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01You've, like, somehow tapped into a space that's magic.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04The leading light of the New York arts scene,
0:39:04 > 0:39:06Robert Mapplethorpe was one of America's
0:39:06 > 0:39:08most controversial photographers.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11MUSIC: What New York Used To Be by The Kills
0:39:11 > 0:39:13At the height of the AIDS crisis,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16his work was openly and often explicitly gay.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Maybe it was the forbidden because I was young, you know.
0:39:21 > 0:39:26That if I could get that across and make an art statement,
0:39:26 > 0:39:28do it in a way that just kind of, like,
0:39:28 > 0:39:31reached a certain kind of perfection,
0:39:31 > 0:39:33that I would be doing something
0:39:33 > 0:39:35that was uniquely my own.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39Most of the time, people, photographers,
0:39:39 > 0:39:43who move in that direction have a disadvantage -
0:39:43 > 0:39:46I think a disadvantage - in that they're not part of it.
0:39:46 > 0:39:48They're just voyeurs,
0:39:48 > 0:39:52moving in on a scene
0:39:52 > 0:39:55and with me, it was quite different.
0:39:56 > 0:39:57They were most...
0:39:57 > 0:40:00Often, I had experienced some of those experiences
0:40:00 > 0:40:03that I recorded myself firsthand, without a camera.
0:40:06 > 0:40:09But Mapplethorpe's notoriety was matched by his skill
0:40:09 > 0:40:12and in the '80s, he became the go-to portrait photographer
0:40:12 > 0:40:14for some of the biggest names in the arts.
0:40:14 > 0:40:16Specially commissioned portraits
0:40:16 > 0:40:19cost the sitter up to 10,000 a session.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23He often uses his friends for his models.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Here, artist and musician Laurie Anderson poses
0:40:25 > 0:40:27for her new record cover.
0:40:27 > 0:40:30INDISTINGUISHABLE
0:40:31 > 0:40:33The whole shoot of...
0:40:34 > 0:40:39..of Laurie Anderson was worthwhile for those two pictures.
0:40:39 > 0:40:41I like them both with the eyes open and the eyes closed.
0:40:45 > 0:40:47The picture with her eyes closed captures a moment
0:40:47 > 0:40:49that you're not so familiar with.
0:40:52 > 0:40:53Anyway, I think I have the...
0:40:55 > 0:41:00The work involved in taking pictures is deciding which image
0:41:00 > 0:41:03is the right image in the end.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07One of Mapplethorpe's more mischievous sitters
0:41:07 > 0:41:10knowingly poked fun at his most provocative pictures.
0:41:11 > 0:41:16I thought it was going to be a catastrophe and I prepared for it.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19I thought I could not imagine what would go on,
0:41:19 > 0:41:22but I knew it would, everything would go on,
0:41:22 > 0:41:24er, if I was not prepared.
0:41:24 > 0:41:30So, even though I travel light, I did take a piece of mine.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33Why did you choose a large phallus?
0:41:33 > 0:41:36This gave me security and I brought this big...
0:41:36 > 0:41:39this big, dark kind of one.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45You look, in the photo... You've got a grin on your face.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Yes, of course, because I knew what people were going to say.
0:41:52 > 0:41:54But what I would like you to tell me...
0:41:54 > 0:41:57I thought it was a good collaboration, right?
0:41:57 > 0:42:00Because he's famous, not for his flower pictures,
0:42:00 > 0:42:03but he's famous as a controversial artist.
0:42:03 > 0:42:08And this photograph fitted in his, in his album.
0:42:08 > 0:42:10Right?
0:42:10 > 0:42:13MUSIC: Lullaby by The Cure
0:42:13 > 0:42:16Another New York-based photographer has repeatedly presented us
0:42:16 > 0:42:19with images of herself, although Cindy Sherman's pictures
0:42:19 > 0:42:22are anything but conventional self-portraits.
0:42:25 > 0:42:27Some people use a camera just straight on
0:42:27 > 0:42:30and document exactly what they see, but,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33but I think it's more interesting to show
0:42:33 > 0:42:36what, perhaps, you might never see
0:42:36 > 0:42:39and, um...um...
0:42:39 > 0:42:43It's showing maybe what's in somebody's imagination.
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Cindy Sherman's photographs are as distinctive
0:42:47 > 0:42:51as any of Mapplethorpe's, but for very different reasons.
0:42:52 > 0:42:56These portraits conjure up strange figures and menacing scenarios.
0:42:56 > 0:43:00Sherman explained to the BBC how she began transforming herself
0:43:00 > 0:43:02into such unnerving characters.
0:43:03 > 0:43:06I always sort of retreated into my room,
0:43:06 > 0:43:11whether it was my bedroom or my studio and, um,
0:43:11 > 0:43:16shut everybody else out and then would turn into these other people.
0:43:16 > 0:43:20I don't know why and it wasn't about how lonely I was
0:43:20 > 0:43:25and I wanted a friend, I wanted to pretend I had this other friend.
0:43:25 > 0:43:28It wasn't really about that, it was more, like,
0:43:28 > 0:43:33changing the angles of my face to become different faces.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35# In the gathering gloom... #
0:43:35 > 0:43:39Sherman revealed how her transformations became
0:43:39 > 0:43:40even more elaborate.
0:43:42 > 0:43:48I started using some fake body parts...a long time ago.
0:43:48 > 0:43:50I guess it started out with fake noses,
0:43:50 > 0:43:56as just an extension of ways to make my face change.
0:43:56 > 0:43:59And then, probably around this time
0:43:59 > 0:44:02that I shopped for a lot of these novelty things,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06I found these fake breasts and fake asses.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10That's when the nudity started in with the body parts.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13# Quietly he laughs... #
0:44:13 > 0:44:17Sherman employs props, make-up and costumes to cinematic effect.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Her pictures look like still frames from a horror movie.
0:44:24 > 0:44:27And she's constantly on the lookout for new toys.
0:44:29 > 0:44:32When I'm looking for things for photographs,
0:44:32 > 0:44:38it's not like a day-to-day or even project-to-project kind of search.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41I don't look for things while I'm taking the pictures.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44Mostly I just keep my eyes open
0:44:44 > 0:44:49for anything that seems potentially weird.
0:44:49 > 0:44:51A bride.
0:44:51 > 0:44:55A child bride. That's... That's very nice.
0:44:59 > 0:45:01Some of these are great, though.
0:45:01 > 0:45:06I can dress up my little preemies in these sicko outfits.
0:45:08 > 0:45:12Cindy Sherman uses portrait photography not to flatter
0:45:12 > 0:45:16or document, but to express the imaginary and unconscious.
0:45:16 > 0:45:19Through a photograph, you can make people believe anything,
0:45:19 > 0:45:25so, um...it's not really the camera's doing,
0:45:25 > 0:45:27it's really the person behind it
0:45:27 > 0:45:32and figuring out ways to, um...
0:45:32 > 0:45:36to...to tell lies, in a way.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45When it really seems to suddenly click
0:45:45 > 0:45:49is when I don't even recognise what's in the mirror.
0:45:49 > 0:45:52I mean, in a way, maybe it's like possession,
0:45:52 > 0:45:56but I guess that's why I don't feel like it's me,
0:45:56 > 0:45:59or it's a fantasy of some hidden desire,
0:45:59 > 0:46:01because it's never planned out,
0:46:01 > 0:46:05it's just like, suddenly, like this apparition is there.
0:46:12 > 0:46:13SHUTTER CLICKS
0:46:16 > 0:46:20I was wondering around the coast of the west of Ireland the other day
0:46:20 > 0:46:21and I rounded a headland
0:46:21 > 0:46:24and came across this mountain in the distance.
0:46:24 > 0:46:26Without thinking, I pressed the shutter release
0:46:26 > 0:46:28and, as always happens with these snapshots,
0:46:28 > 0:46:29the result was pretty terrible.
0:46:29 > 0:46:32The BBC invited its audience to think carefully
0:46:32 > 0:46:33about landscape photography.
0:46:33 > 0:46:36The mountain is obscured by cloud...
0:46:36 > 0:46:40Transforming scenery into a decent picture takes imagination,
0:46:40 > 0:46:43technical skill and patience.
0:46:43 > 0:46:46..And a few hundreds yards away, got a much better viewpoint.
0:46:46 > 0:46:50I put a filter on the camera and got the clouds to stand out,
0:46:50 > 0:46:53got the horizon a third of the way up from the base,
0:46:53 > 0:46:54and even got a white cottage
0:46:54 > 0:46:58somewhere near one of the dividing thirds of the picture.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01Even the most hardened photojournalist can be seduced
0:47:01 > 0:47:03by the allure of landscape.
0:47:03 > 0:47:05SHUTTER CLICKS
0:47:05 > 0:47:06'I want to be a photographer.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08'I want my pictures to speak for themselves.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12'I don't really want to be involved in political punch-ups.
0:47:12 > 0:47:14'I want to take pictures of the English countryside
0:47:14 > 0:47:19'without any other reason than the countryside looks beautiful.'
0:47:19 > 0:47:23Don McCullin is Britain's most famous war photographer.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26For him, the landscape has offered a kind of therapy.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30I've seen every facet of life, so I'm much calmer now
0:47:30 > 0:47:31and I'm getting a lot older
0:47:31 > 0:47:34and there are good things about getting older.
0:47:34 > 0:47:37You calm down, you've done it all, you've calmed down,
0:47:37 > 0:47:40you've had experience and you change your opinions.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43I'm thrilled now to go and walk over those fields
0:47:43 > 0:47:45and do some landscape photography.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47Cos, after all, if you've been to all those wars,
0:47:47 > 0:47:50I take pictures to nourish my sanity.
0:47:53 > 0:47:56I can't be happier than when I see a day like today,
0:47:56 > 0:47:59with great rolling skies, and I cannot be happier.
0:47:59 > 0:48:02And a couple of rolls of film in my camera
0:48:02 > 0:48:04and I don't need anybody else.
0:48:04 > 0:48:08All I need is the sky and the freedom.
0:48:09 > 0:48:11The light's almost too good for me now.
0:48:11 > 0:48:13I don't like this kind of light. It's boring,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16so I'm going to wait for those thunderclouds to come over.
0:48:16 > 0:48:18About another 15 minutes.
0:48:20 > 0:48:22It's too tranquil and too peaceful.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32In fact, it was two hours before there were enough black clouds
0:48:32 > 0:48:34to make him really happy.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37McCullin's devotion to his light meter is legendary.
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Even in battle, he won't shoot without checking the exposure.
0:48:41 > 0:48:43It's coming together a bit.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51But landscape photography isn't just about capturing
0:48:51 > 0:48:53our green and pleasant land.
0:48:54 > 0:48:57MUSIC: Disorder by Joy Division
0:49:00 > 0:49:04Chris Killip is drawn to the industrial North of England.
0:49:06 > 0:49:09What I was interested in taking this picture is the idea of placement
0:49:09 > 0:49:14as people against industry, how dominant it is on their lives.
0:49:14 > 0:49:18And yet, at the same time, how the woman is quite oblivious to it.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27# I've been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand
0:49:28 > 0:49:31# Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures... #
0:49:31 > 0:49:34I tried to incorporate all the elements of the playground
0:49:34 > 0:49:36but minus the children that play there.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38That's taken from outside the playground,
0:49:38 > 0:49:40but you're looking INTO the playground
0:49:40 > 0:49:43and you can see everything it's surrounded by.
0:49:43 > 0:49:46It's not pretty, but the playground isn't pretty.
0:49:47 > 0:49:52People live and work in what we're calling the urban landscape
0:49:52 > 0:49:55and I'm going to where this activity is taking place.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00It's not something I'm inventing or creating out of my own imagination.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03It's working within realism,
0:50:03 > 0:50:05where the majority of people in England are living.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08And this is what interests me about photographing that,
0:50:08 > 0:50:11with existing conditions and in real settings.
0:50:16 > 0:50:18It's a new town in the North of England.
0:50:18 > 0:50:21I think it's the most awful place
0:50:21 > 0:50:23and it's totally dehumanised
0:50:23 > 0:50:28and surrounded by these barracks behind, which are the new housing.
0:50:28 > 0:50:31Putting the people in the photograph is to try and give the idea
0:50:31 > 0:50:34of what the human element is up against.
0:50:37 > 0:50:41MUSIC: Flamingo by Ronnie Scott Quartet
0:50:48 > 0:50:50In 1983, viewers were able to witness
0:50:50 > 0:50:54one of photography's all-time greats at work.
0:50:54 > 0:50:57MUSIC: Flamingo by Ronnie Scott Quartet
0:50:59 > 0:51:02Ansel Adams is America's most revered photographer
0:51:02 > 0:51:06and the world's leading figure in landscape photography.
0:51:06 > 0:51:10An ardent conservationist, he has spent almost half of the century
0:51:10 > 0:51:14exploring nature and recording its grandeur in photographs.
0:51:17 > 0:51:21Born in San Francisco in 1902, Adams has never moved far away
0:51:21 > 0:51:25from the sweeping landscape of his native California.
0:51:29 > 0:51:32Very good..for an experiment.
0:51:34 > 0:51:38Ansel Adams spoke to the BBC just a year before his death.
0:51:39 > 0:51:41In this rare television interview,
0:51:41 > 0:51:45he discussed his working practice and reflected on his lengthy career.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50This must be your most famous picture, isn't it?
0:51:50 > 0:51:53Well, it's the best-known, I guess, yeah.
0:51:55 > 0:51:58It's, er, it's been rather popular.
0:51:58 > 0:52:02Does it bother you that this image has become
0:52:02 > 0:52:05so popular and now become a museum piece?
0:52:05 > 0:52:08No, I think it's good that people like it.
0:52:08 > 0:52:12I think sometimes the values could be, to an outsider, excessive.
0:52:12 > 0:52:14But it's completely out of my control.
0:52:14 > 0:52:17This could be seen and I just happened to see it
0:52:17 > 0:52:19at an extraordinary moment.
0:52:19 > 0:52:23And the picture was actually made with a leeway
0:52:23 > 0:52:27of about 13...15 seconds, because the sun went off...
0:52:27 > 0:52:31The crosses were illuminated from a very western sun
0:52:31 > 0:52:33going along the edge of the clouds.
0:52:33 > 0:52:35Would you call this a perfect picture?
0:52:35 > 0:52:38No, it comes pretty close to it,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40but I couldn't find an exposure meter,
0:52:40 > 0:52:43so I had to rely on what I do, is the brightness of the moon,
0:52:43 > 0:52:46or the luminance of the moon, as we say.
0:52:46 > 0:52:49And I could have given it more exposure with a little more support
0:52:49 > 0:52:52in the lower area, but I can't cry over spilt milk.
0:52:52 > 0:52:55Have you taken the perfect picture yet?
0:52:55 > 0:52:59No, the best picture's around the corner, like prosperity.
0:53:03 > 0:53:06If Ansel Adams had a British counterpart,
0:53:06 > 0:53:08it was, perhaps, Fay Godwin.
0:53:09 > 0:53:13And in 1993, she gave viewers of the BBC's Countryfile
0:53:13 > 0:53:15their very own masterclass.
0:53:16 > 0:53:20Just a couple of miles away, Sussex meets the sea -
0:53:20 > 0:53:23in photographic terms, often a forgotten piece of countryside,
0:53:23 > 0:53:28but one which Fay Godwin has been developing and printing for years,
0:53:28 > 0:53:31documenting, quite simply, the way it is.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36OK, let's take a little look around here. What views strike you?
0:53:36 > 0:53:38What would you take photos of here?
0:53:38 > 0:53:41Well, I've endlessly photographed the groynes
0:53:41 > 0:53:44and various kinds of sea breaks, cos I'm interested in the way
0:53:44 > 0:53:48people are always trying to defend themselves from the sea.
0:53:48 > 0:53:50And they also make very sculptural
0:53:50 > 0:53:52and interesting patterns on the beach.
0:53:52 > 0:53:55And the other thing is these land forms,
0:53:55 > 0:53:59with the kind of mud flats and the moulding of the light on those
0:53:59 > 0:54:00are endlessly interesting
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and the colour is, of course, very beautiful -
0:54:03 > 0:54:05that lovely lime green on the land.
0:54:05 > 0:54:07What about the film and the choice
0:54:07 > 0:54:09of whether you use colour or black and white?
0:54:09 > 0:54:13Well, I like using black and white for rural landscape.
0:54:13 > 0:54:17I feel it gets at the bones of the landscape better than colour.
0:54:17 > 0:54:19I feel that colour is more about the outside.
0:54:19 > 0:54:21It's about the clothing of the landscape
0:54:21 > 0:54:24and I'm very interested in getting right at the bones.
0:54:24 > 0:54:26I'm doing more and more colour work,
0:54:26 > 0:54:28but it tends to be fairly close-up work,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31and I use colour on the beach sometimes.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35MUSIC: Forgive by Burial
0:54:39 > 0:54:42One of the things I find that amateurs do is so often,
0:54:42 > 0:54:46they'll think, "Wonderful view, open space," and they take a picture
0:54:46 > 0:54:49of the open view and they've got really nothing when they look at it.
0:54:49 > 0:54:54And I have a sort of war cry, when I teach on my workshops,
0:54:54 > 0:54:57is "A view doesn't make a picture. YOU make the picture."
0:54:57 > 0:55:00You have to work to make the picture. It isn't just there.
0:55:00 > 0:55:04Just the sheer discipline of looking at the landscape makes you begin
0:55:04 > 0:55:07to see things and see how the light affects the landscape.
0:55:07 > 0:55:10MUSIC: Forgive by Burial
0:55:11 > 0:55:14- Lovely view, isn't it?- Beautiful.
0:55:19 > 0:55:23One of today's leading landscape photographers is Albert Watson.
0:55:23 > 0:55:26But he doesn't just photograph the land as he finds it.
0:55:27 > 0:55:31Stuart, it's Albert here. Could you bring up a couple of sparklers?
0:55:31 > 0:55:33Don't forget the matches.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40What I'm looking for is the kind of place that fairies hide,
0:55:40 > 0:55:44you know. So, I'm just going to run a test here,
0:55:44 > 0:55:48with some sparklers I got, and maybe some Roman candles
0:55:48 > 0:55:54and see if we can work some of that sparkle into the shots here.
0:55:54 > 0:55:55There we go.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59Look at these two fairies working with the lights here. OK, hold on.
0:56:01 > 0:56:03- Now, just... - SHUTTER CLICKS
0:56:03 > 0:56:06So, you don't have any kind of qualms about, like,
0:56:06 > 0:56:09- manipulating nature to get the shot, do you?- Not at all.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11When a painter...
0:56:11 > 0:56:14If Monet's painting his Lily Pond, guess what -
0:56:14 > 0:56:18those colours aren't exactly what was in the lily pond, so I mean...
0:56:18 > 0:56:22It's... You're doing impressions of things. You're creating images.
0:56:23 > 0:56:25Do you think it's going to go up?
0:56:26 > 0:56:29What we're just adding on top here
0:56:29 > 0:56:31is a little bit of, we hope, mystery,
0:56:31 > 0:56:35a little bit of suggesting some magic here, which fireworks are.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38FIREWORK CRACKLES
0:56:45 > 0:56:47Stuart, a little bit to your left.
0:56:50 > 0:56:53I'm sure there are times in the year when there is some mist
0:56:53 > 0:56:57coming through here, but I'm not really able to sit here
0:56:57 > 0:57:01for 365 days until that mist drifts through exactly the way I want it.
0:57:07 > 0:57:10That's about 20 packs of cigarettes you had there.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15Do you ever think, "What am I doing here?"
0:57:15 > 0:57:20in bad weather conditions, or do you always want to go to work still?
0:57:20 > 0:57:22No, I never think, "What am I doing here?"
0:57:22 > 0:57:25I think, "I'm lucky to be here." So, er...
0:57:27 > 0:57:30When you have a camera in your hand, you don't really,
0:57:30 > 0:57:32as a photographer, you don't really...
0:57:32 > 0:57:37You don't notice anything, actually. I can easily work ten hours.
0:57:37 > 0:57:39I don't even need to eat anything.
0:57:39 > 0:57:42So, you can just keep going, as long as you have a camera.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Take away the camera, then suddenly you feel hungry, tired,
0:57:45 > 0:57:46thirsty, whatever, you know.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50MUSIC: Familiar by Nils Frahm
0:57:54 > 0:57:57That's my rush in doing photography.
0:57:57 > 0:58:02You've somehow tapped into a space that's magic.
0:58:02 > 0:58:05'Photography is an amazing business.
0:58:05 > 0:58:11'It's a piece of sensitive emulsion put inside a piece of technology.
0:58:11 > 0:58:16'But, in effect, that's got nothing to do with photography, in a way.
0:58:16 > 0:58:20'The true arrangement is in my head. That's where my camera is.'
0:58:21 > 0:58:25'Sometimes, it's a great sense of excitation. You know you've got it.
0:58:25 > 0:58:28'It's within one frame or another.'
0:58:29 > 0:58:31'And it's true photography is a mania.
0:58:31 > 0:58:33'You have to do it with a passion.'