0:00:02 > 0:00:08This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11On 29th May 1985, I came here to Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14I was a sports photographer for the Observer and looking forward to
0:00:14 > 0:00:19recording the European Cup Final between Liverpool and Juventus.
0:00:23 > 0:00:29I wasn't expecting anything like the horror that was about to unfold
0:00:29 > 0:00:31and which I would capture on camera.
0:00:32 > 0:00:37The place was packed, as I remember, and it was warm, like it is today.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39And I was getting great pictures.
0:00:39 > 0:00:41The stands are full of screaming and yelling
0:00:41 > 0:00:44and the joy of a midsummer game. It was fantastic.
0:00:47 > 0:00:50But before kick-off there was trouble.
0:00:50 > 0:00:54A group of Liverpool fans charged towards Juventus supporters,
0:00:54 > 0:00:56forcing them to flee.
0:00:57 > 0:01:01The Juventus fans couldn't escape.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03They had nowhere to go.
0:01:03 > 0:01:06And just as I get to the wall, the wall breaks.
0:01:06 > 0:01:09CRASHING AND SHOUTING
0:01:11 > 0:01:15I take two frames on a very cheap Sure Shot camera.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25And I get these pictures of these poor souls
0:01:25 > 0:01:28being crushed and gasping for air,
0:01:28 > 0:01:30and I got out the way
0:01:30 > 0:01:33because I could tell all hell was breaking loose.
0:01:37 > 0:01:39Then I went into news photographer mode.
0:01:39 > 0:01:42What is going on? What is the story?
0:01:42 > 0:01:44I didn't know, so I shot everything I could.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48The ambulance men, the ambulances, the home-made stretchers,
0:01:48 > 0:01:51all the people I remember, sadly, going blue on the pitch.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53It was appalling.
0:01:53 > 0:01:56And the strange thing of people losing their shoes on these terraces
0:01:56 > 0:01:58is a very powerful image.
0:02:01 > 0:02:05I didn't know at the time, but 39 people had been killed
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and hundreds seriously injured.
0:02:08 > 0:02:12My job now was to record these terrible scenes.
0:02:14 > 0:02:18Heysel is by far the worst memory I have
0:02:18 > 0:02:20from a long career in photography,
0:02:20 > 0:02:23and that night in the stadium has troubled me ever since.
0:02:25 > 0:02:28I won an award for my pictures from Heysel Stadium.
0:02:28 > 0:02:30I wish I never had.
0:02:30 > 0:02:32It was the most awful night,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35and those pictures will haunt me for ever.
0:02:35 > 0:02:39I came here as a sports photographer and left as a news photographer.
0:02:40 > 0:02:42Ever since that night in Heysel,
0:02:42 > 0:02:46I've wanted to better understand how photographers have responded to the
0:02:46 > 0:02:50most important events in our history,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52and so in this programme,
0:02:52 > 0:02:55I'll look back to the start of the 20th century
0:02:55 > 0:02:59when a new genre emerged - photojournalism.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02I'll find out how a pioneering press
0:03:02 > 0:03:05reported an infamous armed siege in Edwardian London,
0:03:05 > 0:03:09how soldiers became citizen journalists,
0:03:09 > 0:03:13how game-changing printing and camera technologies
0:03:13 > 0:03:16transformed the practice of photography,
0:03:16 > 0:03:21and I'll also discover how rare talents like Cecil Beaton
0:03:21 > 0:03:23injected a new visual flair
0:03:23 > 0:03:28to create a glamorous world of style and fashion.
0:03:28 > 0:03:29And I'll explore how all this meant
0:03:29 > 0:03:32that by the end of the Second World War,
0:03:32 > 0:03:37British photography had become the dominant visual medium.
0:03:56 > 0:04:00My journey starts at one of Britain's oldest newspapers.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05At the Daily Mirror's press plant in Watford,
0:04:05 > 0:04:08they print almost one million copies every night,
0:04:08 > 0:04:10each page filled with photographs
0:04:10 > 0:04:14illustrating the latest news stories.
0:04:14 > 0:04:17But at the start of the 20th century,
0:04:17 > 0:04:22a photograph could only appear in a newspaper as an engraved copy.
0:04:24 > 0:04:29Then, in 1904, the Mirror exploited a new printing technology
0:04:29 > 0:04:32called halftone,
0:04:32 > 0:04:35to allow the actual photographic image to appear on the page.
0:04:39 > 0:04:42At the Mirror's press plant, they also have an archive,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45where I want to look at the first time a big news story
0:04:45 > 0:04:49was extensively covered by British photographers.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53Here, they have a collection of quarter-plate glass negatives,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56the format of choice for the press back then,
0:04:56 > 0:04:58and there's one particular event
0:04:58 > 0:05:02that kick-started photojournalism in this country.
0:05:04 > 0:05:09It took place on 3rd January 1911, and centred on a tense standoff
0:05:09 > 0:05:13between the authorities and an armed gang in Sydney Street, east London,
0:05:13 > 0:05:17following a botched robbery that had killed three policemen.
0:05:24 > 0:05:26Now, this photograph is so powerful.
0:05:28 > 0:05:31The soldiers are pointing their guns
0:05:31 > 0:05:34at the very window where they believe the people are holed up,
0:05:34 > 0:05:38and a few policemen standing underneath a hoarding by a shop.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45For me, the drama is being with the soldiers.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48I feel as though I am one of them, looking down this street,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51not knowing maybe where the danger is.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53It's got energy, it's got fear,
0:05:53 > 0:05:56you're not quite sure what's happening in the middle distance
0:05:56 > 0:05:58because it's a bit muzzy and soft,
0:05:58 > 0:06:00but you know something serious has gone on.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02But what I do really like about it
0:06:02 > 0:06:05is the fact that we're right in the middle of the action.
0:06:05 > 0:06:09This extraordinary photograph, taken just a few yards from where
0:06:09 > 0:06:11the gunmen had barricaded themselves in,
0:06:11 > 0:06:15would make the front cover of the Daily Mirror the following morning.
0:06:18 > 0:06:21The first thing I noticed from this Daily Mirror front page
0:06:21 > 0:06:23was the powerful crop.
0:06:23 > 0:06:25There are three soldiers in the original glass plate,
0:06:25 > 0:06:27but here it's down to two,
0:06:27 > 0:06:29making it even stronger.
0:06:29 > 0:06:31And because the background is slightly out of focus,
0:06:31 > 0:06:34they've had to label what's been going on.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Plain clothes police fired from these doorways.
0:06:37 > 0:06:39Police fired from these windows.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42And this is the window from which the burglars fired.
0:06:42 > 0:06:44And down here, sinister,
0:06:44 > 0:06:47very, very sinister, is armed police.
0:06:47 > 0:06:49It's a very clever device.
0:06:49 > 0:06:52Looks crude now,
0:06:52 > 0:06:55but very powerful at the time, but this told the viewers,
0:06:55 > 0:06:56the buyers of this Daily Mirror,
0:06:56 > 0:06:58everything they needed to know,
0:06:58 > 0:07:01and it would've added thousands to their sales.
0:07:06 > 0:07:08Now, this photograph is amazing.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11I have never seen so many people watch a big news event.
0:07:11 > 0:07:16Nowadays, the police would clear you behind lines half a mile away,
0:07:16 > 0:07:18but here, the public are part of the picture.
0:07:18 > 0:07:21Thousands of them. It's incredible.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34Now, I'm astounded by this photograph -
0:07:34 > 0:07:40to get so near policemen aiming to shoot their guns at a window
0:07:40 > 0:07:42in Sydney Street.
0:07:42 > 0:07:44You don't get anywhere near like that now.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48Nowhere near. You would not see a policeman that close with guns,
0:07:48 > 0:07:52and to see policemen with guns on the streets of London is shocking,
0:07:52 > 0:07:55and it must've shocked the people of Britain in those days.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59Despite their skill and bravery,
0:07:59 > 0:08:02these Mirror photographers were never credited by name,
0:08:02 > 0:08:05yet their work meant the Sydney Street siege
0:08:05 > 0:08:08was covered in unprecedented depth,
0:08:08 > 0:08:11dozens of images appearing to illustrate
0:08:11 > 0:08:13the copy of the journalists.
0:08:14 > 0:08:19The most intriguing character for me is, Winston Churchill turns up.
0:08:19 > 0:08:23Now, this guy had been a journalist, so he knows the power of the press,
0:08:23 > 0:08:25he knows the power of his own image being in the press,
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and here he is, surrounded by guns.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30It's an amazing photo opportunity.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Probably the first photo opportunity for a politician.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40The most dramatic news story in Edwardian Britain
0:08:40 > 0:08:42ended with a six-hour gun battle,
0:08:42 > 0:08:45during which a fire engulfed the building
0:08:45 > 0:08:49where the gang were holed up. All of them were killed.
0:08:52 > 0:08:55I really admire these pioneers,
0:08:55 > 0:08:58these early photographers in newspapers, my game.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01To take such strong pictures so many years ago,
0:09:01 > 0:09:03I take my hat off to them.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06To get this close with the basic cameras they had,
0:09:06 > 0:09:09plate cameras shooting a glass plate like this,
0:09:09 > 0:09:12this is really incredible and powerful,
0:09:12 > 0:09:16and the Mirror got a great set of pictures the next morning.
0:09:18 > 0:09:21This fantastic story of Sydney Street
0:09:21 > 0:09:24was the making of press photography
0:09:24 > 0:09:27and led to the Mirror becoming one of the country's
0:09:27 > 0:09:30largest-selling newspapers.
0:09:34 > 0:09:38There was a growing public appetite for photography,
0:09:38 > 0:09:40and now a major national institution
0:09:40 > 0:09:44sought to harness its power with pictures which, for the first time,
0:09:44 > 0:09:48would reveal an intimate view of the Armed Forces.
0:09:48 > 0:09:51MILITARY DRUMBEATS
0:09:55 > 0:09:59Wellington Barracks is home to the Household Division...
0:10:01 > 0:10:04..one of the oldest and most illustrious regiments
0:10:04 > 0:10:06of the British Army.
0:10:17 > 0:10:21I'm following in the footsteps of one photographer who was given
0:10:21 > 0:10:25unprecedented access to record the lives of British soldiers here
0:10:25 > 0:10:29in the years leading up to the First World War.
0:10:38 > 0:10:42Christina Broom was a middle-aged housewife who took up photography
0:10:42 > 0:10:45when her husband became seriously ill,
0:10:45 > 0:10:47and I think her great skill was in
0:10:47 > 0:10:49creating portraits that showed
0:10:49 > 0:10:51the human faces behind
0:10:51 > 0:10:53the fighting machine.
0:11:00 > 0:11:02HE SHOUTS COMMANDS
0:11:08 > 0:11:09INDISTINCT
0:11:09 > 0:11:14Almost a century later, the Army have agreed to let me photograph
0:11:14 > 0:11:18the same regiment as they perform their traditional morning parade.
0:11:25 > 0:11:28This was ground-breaking documentary photography.
0:11:30 > 0:11:35Never before had everyday life in the Army been captured this way,
0:11:35 > 0:11:37with its routines and rituals,
0:11:37 > 0:11:42from daily chores to the pleasure of Christmas lunch.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56And as this morning parade ends,
0:11:56 > 0:12:00I get the chance to snap a few more informal shots with some of the lads
0:12:00 > 0:12:02from the Household Division.
0:12:05 > 0:12:08Lovely. That's great, thank you very much.
0:12:08 > 0:12:10Thanks for the picture. Thank you.
0:12:11 > 0:12:15Broom was a canny entrepreneur and she harnessed a new phenomenon
0:12:15 > 0:12:19in Edwardian Britain in order to earn a living from her work.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25The picture postcard was the perfect vehicle for her, and it helped embed
0:12:25 > 0:12:30photography as the most popular visual medium of the day.
0:12:31 > 0:12:35At the Museum of London, they have an archive of these postcards.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40Here I am meeting curator Anna Sparham
0:12:40 > 0:12:43to find out how Broom exploited this new form.
0:12:44 > 0:12:47She would come to the barracks a couple of times a week.
0:12:47 > 0:12:52She'd set up a little table and you can even see, actually,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55here, where she's got an image of the soldiers
0:12:55 > 0:12:58- browsing through her stock of postcards.- Yes, yes.
0:12:58 > 0:13:00So people could order several dozen at a time.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02They wouldn't necessarily order one,
0:13:02 > 0:13:04and obviously when you've got a group shot,
0:13:04 > 0:13:06that's several heads times...
0:13:06 > 0:13:08- That's good business. - It's good business.
0:13:10 > 0:13:15Broom's postcards were also sold in stationery shops across London.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18This was a golden era for the picture postcard,
0:13:18 > 0:13:20cheaper to send than a letter.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23There were up to ten deliveries a day.
0:13:23 > 0:13:25Millions were sold in Britain every year,
0:13:25 > 0:13:30and it became a popular way to consume the photographic image.
0:13:30 > 0:13:33How did she produce these wonderful postcards?
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Well, it was very much a cottage industry.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38Compared to some of the mass-production
0:13:38 > 0:13:42picture postcard agencies that were out there producing millions a year,
0:13:42 > 0:13:45she was at home and, to be honest,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47this is very much a mother-daughter business.
0:13:47 > 0:13:49Winnie, her daughter,
0:13:49 > 0:13:52would have been the person printing the vast majority
0:13:52 > 0:13:56of these postcards, and they could produce hundreds a night.
0:13:56 > 0:14:00- Winnie has even said that she could make up to 1,000 a night.- Gosh.
0:14:00 > 0:14:03And for them, it was very important that they were able to get prints
0:14:03 > 0:14:05back to their customers incredibly quickly,
0:14:05 > 0:14:08so that was really what they prided themselves on.
0:14:08 > 0:14:10Living in Fulham, London,
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Broom realised that every big event in the capital
0:14:13 > 0:14:16was a business opportunity she could exploit.
0:14:19 > 0:14:22She regularly photographed the Boat Race on the Thames
0:14:22 > 0:14:26and also snapped the tumultuous suffragette marches.
0:14:28 > 0:14:30But it was her work with the military
0:14:30 > 0:14:34which had the most widespread appeal and the biggest impact.
0:14:34 > 0:14:36The Army top brass were delighted.
0:14:38 > 0:14:45Christina's ability to capture that everyday, relaxed soldier
0:14:45 > 0:14:48gave a really different impression of life in the Army
0:14:48 > 0:14:50and, in fact,
0:14:50 > 0:14:54the Army credited her with boosting recruitment because soldiers would
0:14:54 > 0:14:57send their photographs home to family and friends,
0:14:57 > 0:15:00they'd see these happy, healthy soldiers at the barracks
0:15:00 > 0:15:02and would be really keen to sign up.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10When the First World War began in August 1914,
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Broom recorded the excitement of many troops
0:15:13 > 0:15:16as they eagerly left for France.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18But she wasn't a combat photographer
0:15:18 > 0:15:21and stayed behind to document life on the home front.
0:15:21 > 0:15:25ROUSING MUSIC PLAYS
0:15:25 > 0:15:28# When first I made me mind up that a soldier I would be
0:15:28 > 0:15:31# The girl that I was courting with came round and said to me
0:15:31 > 0:15:33# I've had me photo taken, Bill
0:15:33 > 0:15:35# If we are to part
0:15:35 > 0:15:38# Promise me you'll always wear my photo next your heart... #
0:15:38 > 0:15:41The first wave of British troops arrived here on the Western Front
0:15:41 > 0:15:45in northern France, where they dug their first trenches
0:15:45 > 0:15:47and prepared for battle.
0:15:47 > 0:15:50# ..The photo of the girl I left behind me
0:15:50 > 0:15:53# I went and joined the Army full of glee... #
0:15:53 > 0:15:55And some of these soldiers
0:15:55 > 0:15:58did something that had never been done before.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01They brought their own cameras
0:16:01 > 0:16:03and immediately began photographing
0:16:03 > 0:16:06their own unique vision of the front line.
0:16:06 > 0:16:09The British soldiers were armed with one of the most important
0:16:09 > 0:16:12photographic inventions of the 20th century.
0:16:12 > 0:16:16The Vest Pocket Kodak was aimed directly at the troops
0:16:16 > 0:16:19and became known as "the Soldier's Kodak".
0:16:21 > 0:16:24The VPK was the latest design from the company
0:16:24 > 0:16:27which had pioneered the first roll-film cameras,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31with the release of the Box Brownie a decade earlier.
0:16:31 > 0:16:33Cheap to buy and easy to use,
0:16:33 > 0:16:38this revolutionary camera ushered in a mass democracy of picture-taking
0:16:38 > 0:16:41and also introduced a new level of realism
0:16:41 > 0:16:43into British war photography.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47To find out more, I'm meeting historian Richard van Emden,
0:16:47 > 0:16:50who has brought his own VPK.
0:16:50 > 0:16:55The camera itself is beautiful, all metal construction, lightweight,
0:16:55 > 0:16:56about the size of an iPhone today,
0:16:56 > 0:16:58so you could pop it in your waistcoat.
0:16:58 > 0:17:01For a soldier, it would be in his tunic pocket or his haversack.
0:17:01 > 0:17:03Very easy to use.
0:17:03 > 0:17:05You pull out the bellow lens here.
0:17:05 > 0:17:08You then set your shutter speed,
0:17:08 > 0:17:11so you could set it to a 25th or a 50th,
0:17:11 > 0:17:12depending on how bright it was,
0:17:12 > 0:17:15and then your aperture here on the bottom.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18Then you look through the viewfinder on the top.
0:17:18 > 0:17:21There is a little viewfinder here. This is for a portrait.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Take your photograph. If you're doing a landscape,
0:17:23 > 0:17:27you can turn that viewfinder around, once more take your picture.
0:17:27 > 0:17:30You can be taking a photograph within seconds of pulling it out
0:17:30 > 0:17:32of your haversack, so perfect for trench conditions.
0:17:32 > 0:17:34And it had this wonderful device for captioning.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36Yes, it had this stylus,
0:17:36 > 0:17:38this little rod on the back here,
0:17:38 > 0:17:41and you could open up the back of the camera here
0:17:41 > 0:17:44and you could take the stylus out
0:17:44 > 0:17:48and you could actually write in on the negative what you'd just taken.
0:17:48 > 0:17:51So, you'd taken a picture at Fricourt, a couple of miles away,
0:17:51 > 0:17:53you could write "Fricourt", the date,
0:17:53 > 0:17:56and that'd be preserved on the final photograph that you would make.
0:17:56 > 0:17:58So you would never have to write notes about,
0:17:58 > 0:18:00"Oh, where was that possibly taken?"
0:18:00 > 0:18:03You had it already written on the photograph.
0:18:03 > 0:18:05It's shame this went out of photography.
0:18:05 > 0:18:06Every day, I take pictures
0:18:06 > 0:18:08and I forget three months later where they were.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Exactly. And for soldiers, in the extremis of warfare, you know,
0:18:11 > 0:18:14you didn't want to be pulling out notebooks and making notes,
0:18:14 > 0:18:19you just wanted to quickly scratch it on the back, close, off you go,
0:18:19 > 0:18:20continue your war.
0:18:22 > 0:18:26For me, these photographs of everyday life in the trenches
0:18:26 > 0:18:31are all the more poignant because of the tragedy that was later to come.
0:18:31 > 0:18:34The vast majority are scenes of trench life,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37of men cooking, of men... just friends together, buddies,
0:18:37 > 0:18:41got arms round each other, and behind the scenes, at rest.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45You would see them in their camps, in their billets, playing sport,
0:18:45 > 0:18:48so it showed as much as the soldier could afford to take
0:18:48 > 0:18:51given the circumstances they were living under.
0:18:51 > 0:18:53In the first 12 months of the war,
0:18:53 > 0:18:56there were very few press photographers on the front line,
0:18:56 > 0:19:01so newspapers offered hundreds of pounds to buy soldiers' pictures.
0:19:06 > 0:19:07This photograph,
0:19:07 > 0:19:11taken by British soldier Robert Money, is believed to be
0:19:11 > 0:19:14one of the first pictures of action on the Western Front.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18The men are seen diving for cover from a German attack.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22It was published in the War Illustrated newspaper
0:19:22 > 0:19:24in November 1914.
0:19:25 > 0:19:30But the Army were unhappy that they weren't in control of these images.
0:19:30 > 0:19:32This was heightened a month later
0:19:32 > 0:19:35when soldiers photographed one of the most famous events of the war.
0:19:37 > 0:19:41The really great case are pictures taken of the Christmas truce,
0:19:41 > 0:19:43an incredibly historically important event.
0:19:43 > 0:19:461914, the Germans and the British meet in no-man's-land.
0:19:46 > 0:19:49The only cameras that were there that day
0:19:49 > 0:19:53were privately held cameras, were the VPKs of that time.
0:19:53 > 0:19:54And they took pictures of them,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58standing together swapping cigarettes and food, and chatting.
0:19:58 > 0:20:01Incredibly important historical documents.
0:20:01 > 0:20:04Images of fraternisation like these
0:20:04 > 0:20:07marked a turning point for the soldier photographers.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Strict new censorship rules were introduced.
0:20:13 > 0:20:17Well, when these pictures appeared in the press, in the national press,
0:20:17 > 0:20:20in January 1915, the military authorities were apoplectic.
0:20:20 > 0:20:23They'd known that the fraternisation had taken place, they'd banned it,
0:20:23 > 0:20:25they said nothing like this is going to happen again.
0:20:25 > 0:20:27But to add salt to the wound,
0:20:27 > 0:20:29were suddenly these pictures of British and German soldiers mates.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32I mean, you can't have this in the middle of a war.
0:20:32 > 0:20:34So they introduced this War Office instruction
0:20:34 > 0:20:36saying absolutely, from now on,
0:20:36 > 0:20:40you will be completely forbidden from not only taking photographs,
0:20:40 > 0:20:41but they made the point,
0:20:41 > 0:20:44and you are forbidden from selling them to the press,
0:20:44 > 0:20:45and that was crucial.
0:20:45 > 0:20:48So from that time on, was from about mid-1915,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51you really see far fewer cameras on the Western Front,
0:20:51 > 0:20:52privately held cameras.
0:20:52 > 0:20:55It's sad but, luckily for us, for posterity,
0:20:55 > 0:20:57some of them kept them and hid them.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59But there was a real risk. If you were caught,
0:20:59 > 0:21:02then you were straight back into the trenches,
0:21:02 > 0:21:05so it was a very risky situation from 1915 onwards.
0:21:09 > 0:21:12And after cameras were banned in 1915,
0:21:12 > 0:21:16few soldiers risked the very real threat of a court martial.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25But the pictures they had taken are a moving historical record
0:21:25 > 0:21:30and, for me, these troops can claim to be the first citizen journalists,
0:21:30 > 0:21:34documenting their own personal experience of war.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37They were certainly part of a generation
0:21:37 > 0:21:42for whom taking photographs was now a normal part of everyday life.
0:21:45 > 0:21:48By 1918, when the war ended,
0:21:48 > 0:21:52almost three-quarters of a million British troops had died,
0:21:52 > 0:21:55including many of those captured in these pictures.
0:21:55 > 0:21:57They are gone,
0:21:57 > 0:22:01but the photographs survive as a compelling visual testimony
0:22:01 > 0:22:03of one of the deadliest conflicts ever.
0:22:16 > 0:22:20And at the same time as this new style of photography
0:22:20 > 0:22:23was emerging to make a powerful document of our history,
0:22:23 > 0:22:27back in London, the 19th-century tradition of portraiture
0:22:27 > 0:22:30was being reinvented by a young maverick
0:22:30 > 0:22:33with a distinctive artistic approach.
0:22:35 > 0:22:37This is Alvin Langdon Coburn,
0:22:37 > 0:22:41captured in a typically stylish self-portrait.
0:22:44 > 0:22:47An American who moved to this country as a young man,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51he was part of an exclusive circle of British photographers
0:22:51 > 0:22:55who wanted to pursue the medium as an art form in its own right.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59Coburn first made his name in 1906
0:22:59 > 0:23:04with this notorious portrait of playwright George Bernard Shaw
0:23:04 > 0:23:09adopting the pose of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker.
0:23:10 > 0:23:12And through his friendship with Shaw,
0:23:12 > 0:23:14Coburn went on to become
0:23:14 > 0:23:16the country's first celebrity photographer,
0:23:16 > 0:23:20taking a series of captivating profiles,
0:23:20 > 0:23:23like this one of the poet WB Yeats.
0:23:27 > 0:23:29I'm meeting Nadav Kander,
0:23:29 > 0:23:30an acclaimed photographer
0:23:30 > 0:23:33who draws inspiration from Coburn's approach
0:23:33 > 0:23:37to create stylish portraits of famous figures today.
0:23:39 > 0:23:42What's your appreciation of this portrait of WB Yeats?
0:23:42 > 0:23:47I think it's a great example of Coburn collaborating with his sitter
0:23:47 > 0:23:52and, as I understand it, WB is reciting poetry in this picture.
0:23:52 > 0:23:55And through that, it feels very intimate,
0:23:55 > 0:23:56and especially for the time.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59I don't think there were many pictures that were
0:23:59 > 0:24:01so aggressively staring at you.
0:24:04 > 0:24:05When I first saw this picture,
0:24:05 > 0:24:08I thought that mouth is really quizzical.
0:24:08 > 0:24:11Am I being quizzed? Am I being scrutinised?
0:24:11 > 0:24:14It felt quite arrogant, in a way.
0:24:14 > 0:24:17Each viewer looks at that differently.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21- What do you think?- I look at it and I get a sense of danger from it.
0:24:21 > 0:24:24There's an urgency, a vibrancy about it
0:24:24 > 0:24:27- and it also feels incredibly intimate TO ME.- Yeah.
0:24:27 > 0:24:29I'm thinking he's talking to me.
0:24:29 > 0:24:34Exactly. The other thing that's so clear is that it's 100% honest.
0:24:34 > 0:24:38For some reason, we know, we can read body language, or the frown,
0:24:38 > 0:24:40or the mouth,
0:24:40 > 0:24:44somehow we know that that is not set up, that is not clever,
0:24:44 > 0:24:47which must have been really startling at the time.
0:24:48 > 0:24:50Coburn wanted to break down
0:24:50 > 0:24:53the barriers between photographer and sitter.
0:24:56 > 0:24:59And Nadav, too, wants to make his subjects feel
0:24:59 > 0:25:01involved in the process.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04I wonder how he gains their trust.
0:25:13 > 0:25:17I think that the life story of the person when they walk in the room
0:25:17 > 0:25:20and my life story come together,
0:25:20 > 0:25:23and it's that meeting and that collaboration,
0:25:23 > 0:25:28whether it's conscious or verbal or through body language or thought,
0:25:28 > 0:25:33or however it is, is what really determines that picture that day.
0:25:33 > 0:25:35But there's obviously great challenges with ego
0:25:35 > 0:25:37of well-known people,
0:25:37 > 0:25:41and you have to be conscious and courteous
0:25:41 > 0:25:44and, I think, very importantly,
0:25:44 > 0:25:46I want people to feel they're in good hands
0:25:46 > 0:25:49so that they can be generous of spirit,
0:25:49 > 0:25:50and I think Coburn, too,
0:25:50 > 0:25:53reading between the lines,
0:25:53 > 0:25:56was very into the psychological presence of people
0:25:56 > 0:25:59and the mystical presence of people, and himself,
0:25:59 > 0:26:00so, really, what I've said
0:26:00 > 0:26:04I don't think is that different to how he might have worked.
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Coburn was avant-garde and modernist,
0:26:08 > 0:26:13as you can see in this stunning photograph of the poet Ezra Pound.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16This striking image used three mirrors attached to a camera
0:26:16 > 0:26:20to create what he called a vortograph.
0:26:24 > 0:26:28You feel about this man, especially with the vortographs,
0:26:28 > 0:26:29that he's a man pushing,
0:26:29 > 0:26:33never, ever happy with staying the same, and I think, "Good on him."
0:26:35 > 0:26:37Coburn has confidence to move on,
0:26:37 > 0:26:39which I think's most important
0:26:39 > 0:26:42and the biggest inspiration about Coburn.
0:26:45 > 0:26:49And Coburn brought his artistic sensibility to
0:26:49 > 0:26:53the urban landscape, too, taking his inspiration from London,
0:26:53 > 0:26:57a city he considered the most photogenic place in the world.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03These images of the capital are beautifully composed
0:27:03 > 0:27:06with a moody, atmospheric feel.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11Coburn injected a magical quality into the great Edwardian metropolis.
0:27:13 > 0:27:16And the key to Coburn's distinctive photography
0:27:16 > 0:27:19was his mastery of the art of printing.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21Coburn employed a technique
0:27:21 > 0:27:26pioneered in the 19th century which used platinum.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30I've come to rural Gloucestershire to meet an expert craftsman who will
0:27:30 > 0:27:35show me just how Coburn achieved these wonderful prints.
0:27:35 > 0:27:39Max Caffell runs Studio 31
0:27:39 > 0:27:43and is a specialist in recreating this amazing old process.
0:27:43 > 0:27:47We've got hold of an enlarged copy
0:27:47 > 0:27:49from one of Coburn's original negatives
0:27:49 > 0:27:51and I've asked Max to create
0:27:51 > 0:27:54a platinum print of this London landscape.
0:27:54 > 0:28:00Coburn was a master of printmaking techniques, and the platinum process
0:28:00 > 0:28:06lends itself beautifully to a moody, dark
0:28:06 > 0:28:09but tonally rich image.
0:28:13 > 0:28:18Watching Max, I appreciate just how skilled Coburn must have been.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25The process requires a precise measurement of platinum,
0:28:25 > 0:28:29palladium and iron oxalate to create a solution
0:28:29 > 0:28:31which is painted onto the paper.
0:28:41 > 0:28:44It's a careful, time-consuming practice,
0:28:44 > 0:28:47and is very different from the darkroom techniques
0:28:47 > 0:28:49I'm familiar with.
0:28:56 > 0:28:58After a few hours drying,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01the enlarged negative is then placed on top.
0:29:03 > 0:29:07Back in Coburn's day, you'd have then left it for several hours
0:29:07 > 0:29:10in the sunlight but Max can shorten this process
0:29:10 > 0:29:14by exposing it to a blast of intense UV light for ten minutes.
0:29:20 > 0:29:23Finally, it will be washed with a developer mix
0:29:23 > 0:29:25which will reveal our photograph.
0:29:27 > 0:29:32I've heard it's a spectacular moment and I'm eager to see the results.
0:29:34 > 0:29:36Wow, look how quick that is.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39- Instant.- That's amazing.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41And there's a Coburn coming to life.
0:29:41 > 0:29:43In your sink.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Extraordinary.
0:29:45 > 0:29:46Are you pleased with that?
0:29:46 > 0:29:49I'm very pleased. It looks very promising.
0:29:50 > 0:29:53It's incredible to see this photograph
0:29:53 > 0:29:56developed right in front of me and up close,
0:29:56 > 0:30:00I can really appreciate the high quality of this platinum print.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07Now, what does platinum printing bring to this image?
0:30:07 > 0:30:12It brings the aesthetic tone that Coburn was striving for.
0:30:12 > 0:30:17Coburn was looking for that dark, misty,
0:30:17 > 0:30:20almost ominous feeling,
0:30:20 > 0:30:24but with this ethereal light coming off the Thames.
0:30:24 > 0:30:27And so he wasn't looking for a heavy, contrast-y image,
0:30:27 > 0:30:30he was looking for the mid-tones,
0:30:30 > 0:30:32and that's where platinum excels in
0:30:32 > 0:30:35and it can create, still, a feeling of depth
0:30:35 > 0:30:37and the feeling of a three-dimensional work.
0:30:37 > 0:30:40I think platinum printing would be the only medium that could really
0:30:40 > 0:30:42achieve that and convey that.
0:30:48 > 0:30:52The market for Coburn's photographs was London's top art galleries,
0:30:52 > 0:30:57where his prints were exhibited for the select few
0:30:57 > 0:30:58with the money to buy them.
0:31:04 > 0:31:07Coburn reinvigorated both landscape
0:31:07 > 0:31:10and portrait photography in Edwardian Britain,
0:31:10 > 0:31:13and his images have a timeless, stylish quality.
0:31:20 > 0:31:24And this artistic tradition continued into the 1920s,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27with the work of a precocious young talent
0:31:27 > 0:31:30who drew inspiration from the frivolous,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33playful and stylish world of high society.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Cecil Beaton captures the spirit of the Roaring Twenties,
0:31:40 > 0:31:43injecting a new sense of glamour into photography.
0:31:43 > 0:31:46He would combine an artist's approach
0:31:46 > 0:31:48with real commercial appeal.
0:31:51 > 0:31:55Beaton's personal archive is held at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
0:31:55 > 0:31:58where I'm meeting curator Susanna Brown.
0:31:58 > 0:32:01I want to see one of his earliest photographs,
0:32:01 > 0:32:03a portrait of his sister Nancy,
0:32:03 > 0:32:08which really encapsulates Beaton's signature flamboyant look.
0:32:08 > 0:32:11Now, tell me what you like about this picture,
0:32:11 > 0:32:15this set-up photograph of his sister Nancy?
0:32:15 > 0:32:19This is perhaps one of Beaton's most famous pictures of the 1920s.
0:32:19 > 0:32:23It's his sister in an extraordinary costume that Beaton himself created
0:32:23 > 0:32:26with his friend Oliver Messel, the theatre designer.
0:32:26 > 0:32:29She is dressed as a shooting star,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31she has this incredible headpiece
0:32:31 > 0:32:34and glittering stars in her hair
0:32:34 > 0:32:39and she's posed against this sparkling, crinkling cellophane.
0:32:39 > 0:32:41- Home-made.- Absolutely home-made,
0:32:41 > 0:32:43and probably very cheap to produce,
0:32:43 > 0:32:46but has this wonderful glittering effect.
0:32:46 > 0:32:48There are little twinkling stars
0:32:48 > 0:32:51stuck on the fabric and in her hair.
0:32:51 > 0:32:54It looks to me as though she couldn't stand up in this.
0:32:54 > 0:32:57It looks like a set's been built ON her.
0:32:57 > 0:33:00Where does the dress begin and the background start?
0:33:00 > 0:33:01I don't...
0:33:01 > 0:33:04It's wonderful but it's a mystery.
0:33:04 > 0:33:06She almost merges with the background, doesn't she?
0:33:06 > 0:33:10But I think there's a great sense of dynamism to this image.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14This very strong diagonal line all the way through from top to bottom,
0:33:14 > 0:33:18created here and then echoed in the line of her headdress, so that we
0:33:18 > 0:33:24really see her as shooting through the sky as a glittering star.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30One trick Beaton frequently used in his portraits
0:33:30 > 0:33:34was to place a bright light behind the sitter's head.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36This technique really makes
0:33:36 > 0:33:39a subject stand out against the background.
0:33:39 > 0:33:43And Beaton was equally meticulous in crafting the image
0:33:43 > 0:33:45after it was taken.
0:33:47 > 0:33:50The image is quite heavily retouched,
0:33:50 > 0:33:55which was always an essential part of Beaton's process.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59Often, he would use watercolours and other paints
0:33:59 > 0:34:02to slim down the waistlines, paint on extra eyelashes
0:34:02 > 0:34:04and remove the double chins,
0:34:04 > 0:34:09and that's all very much a central part of his photographic process.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13Nancy is seen dressed for an exclusive society event,
0:34:13 > 0:34:17the Galaxy Ball at the Park Lane Hotel in London.
0:34:17 > 0:34:19And, for me, this photograph represents
0:34:19 > 0:34:23more than just a beautifully crafted portrait.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It also reflects Beaton's fascination
0:34:26 > 0:34:28with the bright young things.
0:34:28 > 0:34:32The fashionable clique who've come to define our perception
0:34:32 > 0:34:34of the Roaring Twenties
0:34:34 > 0:34:37as a swinging decade of extravagant parties.
0:34:38 > 0:34:41These sons and daughters of Britain's millionaires
0:34:41 > 0:34:45and aristocrats wanted to escape the collective trauma
0:34:45 > 0:34:50of the First World War by embracing a hedonistic, bohemian lifestyle.
0:34:53 > 0:34:56Beaton's interesting in the circle of the bright young things, I think,
0:34:56 > 0:35:00because he's very much a part of that group,
0:35:00 > 0:35:02going out to the fancy-dress balls,
0:35:02 > 0:35:05going on the wild treasure hunts across London,
0:35:05 > 0:35:07living this kind of wild, eccentric life,
0:35:07 > 0:35:12but he's also the documenter and the recorder of that group
0:35:12 > 0:35:15of young people at that moment in time.
0:35:18 > 0:35:22So he sits within the group but also steps back from it
0:35:22 > 0:35:27to record their activities and their antics.
0:35:27 > 0:35:31Beaton's glamorous photographs of this immaculately dressed,
0:35:31 > 0:35:37privileged circle were published in society magazines and earned him
0:35:37 > 0:35:41a call from the most prestigious fashion magazine in the world.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43In 1927,
0:35:43 > 0:35:46Beaton signed his first contract with Vogue magazine
0:35:46 > 0:35:50and for him, that was a real turning point in his career.
0:35:50 > 0:35:55It was an incredibly long and fruitful relationship with Vogue.
0:35:55 > 0:35:59He was still photographing for the magazine many decades later.
0:36:00 > 0:36:02Just like newspapers,
0:36:02 > 0:36:07fashion magazines were now replacing their hand-drawn illustrations
0:36:07 > 0:36:11and engravings with photographs to help sell the latest designs.
0:36:11 > 0:36:16This image for Chanel is a great example
0:36:16 > 0:36:18of the sense of style Beaton
0:36:18 > 0:36:21brought to the pages of Vogue.
0:36:21 > 0:36:23This is the model Mary Taylor
0:36:23 > 0:36:27wearing a beautiful evening dress by Coco Chanel.
0:36:27 > 0:36:30The picture was published in Vogue with the title,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32In the Manner of the Edwardians,
0:36:32 > 0:36:36a period that Beaton greatly admired and, as you can see,
0:36:36 > 0:36:40the image is crammed full of elaborate lace and tablecloths
0:36:40 > 0:36:42and bows, sculpted bust here,
0:36:42 > 0:36:45and this very elaborate chandelier.
0:36:45 > 0:36:47And Beaton in his diaries writes about
0:36:47 > 0:36:50how he would appear at the Vogue studio
0:36:50 > 0:36:55with truck loads of props and antiques to fill his pictures.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59It strikes me, as a photographer, it's nearly all set and small dress,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01whereas, presumably,
0:37:01 > 0:37:02you're trying to sell this dress.
0:37:02 > 0:37:05The fact we can't even see the bottom of the dress,
0:37:05 > 0:37:06does that matter?
0:37:06 > 0:37:09I think with so many of the images in Vogue
0:37:09 > 0:37:12at this era, it's about selling a fashionable lifestyle,
0:37:12 > 0:37:15rather than focusing too much on the garments themselves.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19But Beaton and his fellow photographers at Vogue would often
0:37:19 > 0:37:22clash with the art directors and the editors for that very reason.
0:37:22 > 0:37:24Some things never change.
0:37:24 > 0:37:27We're still arguing about these things now, all these years later.
0:37:29 > 0:37:31And in this photograph,
0:37:31 > 0:37:33published by Vogue in 1936,
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Beaton draws influence from the surrealist art movement...
0:37:38 > 0:37:41..arranging the models in mannequin-like poses
0:37:41 > 0:37:45for a shoot for the Italian designer Schiaparelli.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50I think, with Beaton, there's a wonderful sense of sort of
0:37:50 > 0:37:53British eccentricity,
0:37:53 > 0:37:58of theatre and magic and glamour, and no restraint,
0:37:58 > 0:38:00in terms of the theatricality
0:38:00 > 0:38:03and how much he could cram into an image.
0:38:05 > 0:38:09Beaton played a vital role in establishing the new and vibrant
0:38:09 > 0:38:12genre of fashion photography.
0:38:12 > 0:38:16He reworked artistic portraits for a commercial market,
0:38:16 > 0:38:19and became one of the most influential British photographers
0:38:19 > 0:38:22of the 20th century.
0:38:24 > 0:38:26But away from the glittering elite,
0:38:26 > 0:38:31there was another, very different side to Britain in the mid-1930s.
0:38:35 > 0:38:38This was an era of unemployment,
0:38:38 > 0:38:42poverty, and mass protest like the famous Jarrow hunger march.
0:38:45 > 0:38:49And one photographer was drawn to bear witness to the bitter struggle
0:38:49 > 0:38:51facing many people.
0:38:54 > 0:38:59In 1937, German-born Bill Brandt travelled to the north of England,
0:38:59 > 0:39:04where he pioneered a combination of art and photojournalism.
0:39:06 > 0:39:10As a foreigner, Brandt brought an outsider's perspective,
0:39:10 > 0:39:13claiming that he wasn't making a political point.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18But his pictures, like this one of a cobbled lane in industrial Halifax,
0:39:18 > 0:39:21have become defining images of the Great Depression
0:39:21 > 0:39:24and continue to have a significant impact
0:39:24 > 0:39:27on young photographers working today.
0:39:27 > 0:39:29One of these is Mahtab Hussain,
0:39:29 > 0:39:33whose work documenting northern working-class communities
0:39:33 > 0:39:38is being displayed alongside Brandt's in an exhibition.
0:39:38 > 0:39:43I want to discuss this striking shot of a row of coalminers' houses
0:39:43 > 0:39:46in Northumbria, taken in 1937.
0:39:48 > 0:39:52When I first look at this image, it's almost disbelief, really.
0:39:52 > 0:39:54These are houses without windows,
0:39:54 > 0:39:57and I think Brandt's asking you the question,
0:39:57 > 0:40:00can you live in a house like this and if not,
0:40:00 > 0:40:04why ARE people living in homes with no windows?
0:40:04 > 0:40:07It's almost unreal.
0:40:07 > 0:40:10And he contextualises it so well, with the chimneys.
0:40:10 > 0:40:13You get this impression there's maybe three families living here
0:40:13 > 0:40:15and they probably all work in these factories,
0:40:15 > 0:40:18so it's all in one picture, he's told the story.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21Exactly, and it's the way that he's done that.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24He's pointing towards why these houses are here,
0:40:24 > 0:40:26they're for coalminers.
0:40:26 > 0:40:29And then, when you realise they're for coalminers,
0:40:29 > 0:40:31you start to ask all sorts of questions.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33Well, they're in the pits all day long,
0:40:33 > 0:40:35surely they want some kind of daylight,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38and why are they living without windows?
0:40:38 > 0:40:41So even though it can be quite a simple image,
0:40:41 > 0:40:44there's still a lot that we can read here.
0:40:48 > 0:40:52This is in the tradition of landscape photography,
0:40:52 > 0:40:55but applied to the gritty urban environment,
0:40:55 > 0:40:58and though it looks like a scene of desolation,
0:40:58 > 0:41:02there is also something else here, if you look carefully.
0:41:04 > 0:41:06It's very beautiful,
0:41:06 > 0:41:09it's very romantic, in the sense you've got this streetlight
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and he's carefully made sure in the darkroom
0:41:12 > 0:41:15to just make sure that the smoke is there.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17So even though it's a very still image,
0:41:17 > 0:41:20with the smoke, there's a beautiful movement in there.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23So you can step back and appreciate it,
0:41:23 > 0:41:26but I think, also, it's so otherworldly,
0:41:26 > 0:41:28so disconnected from our reality today,
0:41:28 > 0:41:31and for many people who would have seen this image,
0:41:31 > 0:41:33they would never live in a house like this,
0:41:33 > 0:41:36so it was a very voyeuristic image for them, and beautiful,
0:41:36 > 0:41:39because it was so different.
0:41:41 > 0:41:45And Brandt also wanted to bring his highly stylised approach to create
0:41:45 > 0:41:50uncompromising portraits of the people who lived and worked
0:41:50 > 0:41:53in these industrial communities,
0:41:53 > 0:41:56like this shot, taken in 1937,
0:41:56 > 0:42:00of a Durham coalminer having a ciggie and a cuppa
0:42:00 > 0:42:02by the kitchen stove.
0:42:02 > 0:42:07He looks completely exhausted after a long shift.
0:42:08 > 0:42:11And this is Brandt's most celebrated photograph
0:42:11 > 0:42:14from his northern journey -
0:42:14 > 0:42:15another miner eating his tea,
0:42:15 > 0:42:18watched over by his wife.
0:42:24 > 0:42:27For me, this image really talks about poverty,
0:42:27 > 0:42:30and true poverty and how suffocating it can be.
0:42:30 > 0:42:33Here is a man who works incredibly hard.
0:42:33 > 0:42:36He probably eat his lunch in the pits,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39in complete darkness, or no natural light,
0:42:39 > 0:42:43and inhales that dust and that dark coal,
0:42:43 > 0:42:46and then comes home and is consuming it,
0:42:46 > 0:42:49when he breaks the bread or picks up his sandwich,
0:42:49 > 0:42:52and then his loyal wife, who's obviously cooked his supper,
0:42:52 > 0:42:55and she's just as exhausted as he is,
0:42:55 > 0:42:57with the real struggles of poverty.
0:42:59 > 0:43:03For me, there's a sense that Brandt has carefully posed this picture,
0:43:03 > 0:43:06directing the characters and arranging the set,
0:43:06 > 0:43:10but does this detract from the power of the image?
0:43:10 > 0:43:14You know, when I first saw it I thought, this is so staged,
0:43:14 > 0:43:18the fork is too clean, and he's... It's comical in the way he's been
0:43:18 > 0:43:21blackened up, almost like a Laurel and Hardy sketch.
0:43:21 > 0:43:24But it doesn't bother me as much any more.
0:43:24 > 0:43:27I think what's really important is Brandt has spent a lot of time
0:43:27 > 0:43:29in this community.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32He's really got to understand the nuances and complexities of
0:43:32 > 0:43:36that community, and I think he saw himself as an artist.
0:43:36 > 0:43:38He wasn't just documenting,
0:43:38 > 0:43:41he was creating and, as a result,
0:43:41 > 0:43:44he wanted to respectfully pay homage to a community
0:43:44 > 0:43:47that is struggling through poverty.
0:43:47 > 0:43:49I think it's brilliant,
0:43:49 > 0:43:51and he's done a great job in representing that
0:43:51 > 0:43:54true suffocation of poverty.
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Brandt's northern work never made him money
0:44:01 > 0:44:03and was only published later.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08But what he had achieved with these pictures was an unprecedented
0:44:08 > 0:44:11coming together of styles,
0:44:11 > 0:44:15to create a stark and vivid vision of Britain never seen before.
0:44:17 > 0:44:20And this has inspired photographers like Mahtab,
0:44:20 > 0:44:24who record working-class communities today.
0:44:26 > 0:44:28When I make work and I stop people,
0:44:28 > 0:44:32I tend to walk the streets a lot and if you just go up to anyone and say,
0:44:32 > 0:44:34"Look, I'm really interested in making your portrait,"
0:44:34 > 0:44:37there's an automatic kind of, "Oh, wow, why me?
0:44:37 > 0:44:39"I'm not that important."
0:44:39 > 0:44:42I think very much the working-class community back then,
0:44:42 > 0:44:47just as they are today, still feel like they are not part of society.
0:44:47 > 0:44:50For me, and what I find very interesting from Brandt,
0:44:50 > 0:44:52is that that's a really interesting subject matter,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55that kind of rawness of those communities.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59He made it relevant, from editing and making the work,
0:44:59 > 0:45:01he made it incredibly relevant.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06Bill Brandt never stopped pushing the boundaries of his art,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09and he is rightly considered one of the most important photographers
0:45:09 > 0:45:11to have worked in Britain.
0:45:15 > 0:45:18And he went on to work for a ground-breaking new publication,
0:45:18 > 0:45:22which photographed every aspect of British life.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28On 1st October 1938,
0:45:28 > 0:45:32Picture Post was launched, a weekly magazine filled with photographs
0:45:32 > 0:45:34on every page.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38Its mission was to make a visual record of British people at home,
0:45:38 > 0:45:40at work and at play.
0:45:46 > 0:45:48I've come to the fairground...
0:45:50 > 0:45:53..which would have been a very typical Picture Post assignment.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57I've brought along a camera
0:45:57 > 0:46:00which was vital to this pioneering magazine.
0:46:00 > 0:46:02The roll-film Leica,
0:46:02 > 0:46:06which really liberated professional photographers in Britain.
0:46:09 > 0:46:12Photographers could lose the tripod. They were now mobile,
0:46:12 > 0:46:15they could go anywhere and take pictures,
0:46:15 > 0:46:17not be slowed down by the heavy equipment.
0:46:17 > 0:46:19Now, the only trouble is,
0:46:19 > 0:46:22it's a tricky camera to use, tricky to load.
0:46:22 > 0:46:26You always have to measure distance from the subject, you can't focus,
0:46:26 > 0:46:28and your maths have to be good to get a picture.
0:46:28 > 0:46:32Then you have to remember to wind on, because if you don't wind on,
0:46:32 > 0:46:34you don't get another frame.
0:46:34 > 0:46:38But if you master it, it takes the most beautiful pictures,
0:46:38 > 0:46:40the lenses are so sharp,
0:46:40 > 0:46:44and when it came into Britain, it really changed photography.
0:46:48 > 0:46:52Made in Germany, the Leica used 35mm film,
0:46:52 > 0:46:55with each roll taking up to 36 pictures,
0:46:55 > 0:46:57enabling photographers on Picture Post to take
0:46:57 > 0:47:00a series of more spontaneous snaps.
0:47:02 > 0:47:06One of the first to exploit this new technology was another German,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09Kurt Hutton, who arrived in Britain in the mid-1930s,
0:47:09 > 0:47:14and who I really admire for his ability to make an everyday scene
0:47:14 > 0:47:16appear extraordinary.
0:47:18 > 0:47:20In September 1938,
0:47:20 > 0:47:23Hutton fired off a roll of film of two girls at the funfair.
0:47:38 > 0:47:41He eventually captured a shot
0:47:41 > 0:47:45which I think sums up what Picture Post was all about.
0:47:45 > 0:47:47On three. One, two, three.
0:47:48 > 0:47:51Nice smiles, got you, well done!
0:47:53 > 0:47:57This photograph is emblematic of an era when the majority of people
0:47:57 > 0:47:59holidayed in this country.
0:48:01 > 0:48:03But it's also quite risque.
0:48:08 > 0:48:13This is a great British holiday photograph, but it's more than that.
0:48:13 > 0:48:16It's ahead of its time, it's cheeky, subversive,
0:48:16 > 0:48:21provocative, and it shows working-class girls having a laugh.
0:48:24 > 0:48:26Picture Post, mindful of morality,
0:48:26 > 0:48:30was forced to resort to some careful editing.
0:48:30 > 0:48:31So before going to press,
0:48:31 > 0:48:34the girl's knickers were airbrushed out.
0:48:34 > 0:48:37Despite this caution,
0:48:37 > 0:48:41Hutton's photograph is the best example of Picture Post's ambition
0:48:41 > 0:48:45to document ordinary people doing ordinary things.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50But a year after this joyful picture was taken,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53everyday life in Britain was shattered.
0:48:53 > 0:48:56AIR-RAID SIRENS WAIL
0:48:56 > 0:49:00When the Second World War began in September 1939,
0:49:00 > 0:49:03Picture Post took on a new and very challenging role -
0:49:03 > 0:49:07to record the battle to defend the country.
0:49:09 > 0:49:12And to do this, it needed photographers
0:49:12 > 0:49:14who had a fearless approach to capturing
0:49:14 > 0:49:17what would be Britain's darkest hour.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20In the magazine's archives,
0:49:20 > 0:49:23I am seeing how Picture Post responded to the war,
0:49:23 > 0:49:27with images of the Blitz taken in January 1941
0:49:27 > 0:49:29by photographer Bert Hardy.
0:49:33 > 0:49:37This is a really striking cover of firefighters,
0:49:37 > 0:49:39but you sense the danger.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41It is set up, it's sort of mocked up,
0:49:41 > 0:49:43but it's very vital, very strong.
0:49:43 > 0:49:45Two great faces, looking off camera.
0:49:45 > 0:49:48It's a bit of an old photographer's trick, that,
0:49:48 > 0:49:51to make people think that you're in the middle of the action,
0:49:51 > 0:49:53but it works. It's very, very striking,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55and an incredibly strong cover.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00For Hardy, this was personal.
0:50:00 > 0:50:03He was born and raised in the East End of London,
0:50:03 > 0:50:07so it really was his manor that was under attack.
0:50:07 > 0:50:10Bert Hardy had spent two weeks at a fire station,
0:50:10 > 0:50:12waiting for something to happen,
0:50:12 > 0:50:15and then, one night, the Germans bomb London,
0:50:15 > 0:50:17and he gets his story.
0:50:17 > 0:50:20All his time waiting pays off.
0:50:20 > 0:50:22Several pages are devoted to this story.
0:50:22 > 0:50:26Here, we see behind the scenes. This is the first time we've got
0:50:26 > 0:50:29behind the scenes of the control rooms,
0:50:29 > 0:50:33the fire station, and see people getting ready to fight these fires.
0:50:36 > 0:50:39Even silhouetted pictures work very well.
0:50:39 > 0:50:41Nowadays, we'd be shooting these in flash,
0:50:41 > 0:50:45but in those days, it was all available light, and the mood works.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49It's a very, very powerful sense of danger, fire everywhere,
0:50:49 > 0:50:52buildings collapsing.
0:50:53 > 0:50:56Bert Hardy used the Leica camera,
0:50:56 > 0:51:00which by now had become the photojournalist's tool of choice.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03And with this story,
0:51:03 > 0:51:06Hardy really exploited the full potential
0:51:06 > 0:51:08of this small, mobile camera,
0:51:08 > 0:51:11capable of firing off dozens of shots.
0:51:11 > 0:51:15It was perfect for such an unpredictable assignment.
0:51:19 > 0:51:23And on this last spread, you get a real sense of London in danger.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26You see these tall, tall buildings,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28with ladders extending up to the sky,
0:51:28 > 0:51:30of men fighting the fires.
0:51:35 > 0:51:38From my own experience of covering news events,
0:51:38 > 0:51:41I can tell how dangerous this is.
0:51:41 > 0:51:42This is not an easy place to work,
0:51:42 > 0:51:45you're not even sure what's going to happen next.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Will a building come down on top of you? Will a ladder collapse?
0:51:48 > 0:51:51Bert Hardy is working at the edge,
0:51:51 > 0:51:55and it must have been a very, very dangerous place to work,
0:51:55 > 0:51:56but very stimulating.
0:51:56 > 0:51:59When you see these pictures, photographers,
0:51:59 > 0:52:03we just get off on it, we like the drama, we like the energy,
0:52:03 > 0:52:07we like the light and the sounds of big news stories.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09And for the first time in Picture Post,
0:52:09 > 0:52:12the photographer gets a credit, and I love this credit.
0:52:12 > 0:52:16"They were taken by A Hardy, one of our own cameramen."
0:52:20 > 0:52:23Picture Post became Britain's most popular news magazine,
0:52:23 > 0:52:27at its peak selling almost two million copies a week.
0:52:28 > 0:52:33And Hardy was soon recruited into a new specialist military outfit
0:52:33 > 0:52:36which would document the war on the front line.
0:52:38 > 0:52:42The British Army's Film and Photographic Unit,
0:52:42 > 0:52:44set up in October 1941,
0:52:44 > 0:52:48was tasked with recording the key battles of the conflict.
0:52:48 > 0:52:51Bert Hardy accompanied British forces
0:52:51 > 0:52:53as they fought their way through Western Europe.
0:52:55 > 0:52:58In April 1945,
0:52:58 > 0:53:03Hardy and other Army photographers arrived here in north-west Germany,
0:53:03 > 0:53:06to record the liberation of a prison camp
0:53:06 > 0:53:09but, although by now battle-hardened,
0:53:09 > 0:53:11they were not expecting the scenes
0:53:11 > 0:53:16of unprecedented human suffering that they would witness.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20To discuss just how the photographers recorded
0:53:20 > 0:53:24the horror of Bergen-Belsen, I'm meeting photojournalist Paul Lowe,
0:53:24 > 0:53:26who has covered conflicts,
0:53:26 > 0:53:31including civil war in Somalia and the siege of Sarajevo.
0:53:31 > 0:53:33They made a really complete documentation
0:53:33 > 0:53:35of the process of the liberation,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38right from literally walking into the camp and discovering
0:53:38 > 0:53:41these incredible scenes of bodies strewn all over the open fields.
0:53:47 > 0:53:50Obviously, those bodies then had to be disposed of and buried,
0:53:50 > 0:53:53so there are incredible pictures of these mass graves being dug
0:53:53 > 0:53:56and the Nazi guards being used as forced labour
0:53:56 > 0:53:57to help fill the graves.
0:53:57 > 0:54:00Literally throwing the bodies into the holes
0:54:00 > 0:54:03and, in some cases, even using a bulldozer to push them in.
0:54:05 > 0:54:09Extraordinarily graphic and very, very disturbing images.
0:54:10 > 0:54:13Some of the photographers' most haunting images
0:54:13 > 0:54:16are the portraits of the survivors.
0:54:16 > 0:54:19They seem to hold our gaze.
0:54:25 > 0:54:27There was an extraordinary picture by George Rodger
0:54:27 > 0:54:29which really sums up, I think,
0:54:29 > 0:54:31the difficulty of working in a situation like this.
0:54:31 > 0:54:33It's of a young boy,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36who looks like a little schoolboy out for a walk in the woods.
0:54:37 > 0:54:41And yet he's walking past these piles of bodies.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48It's this incredible tension between this little boy,
0:54:48 > 0:54:51who you sort of imagine - what was his future, where did he end up,
0:54:51 > 0:54:54what happened to him? - walking past this scene of incredible horror.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56I think Belsen was a really difficult experience
0:54:56 > 0:54:58for all the photographers,
0:54:58 > 0:55:00because they had to balance this extremely difficult problem of,
0:55:00 > 0:55:03how do you represent some incredible, horrific scenes
0:55:03 > 0:55:05and yet still turn it into a photograph that's going to have
0:55:05 > 0:55:08some visual appeal to people, that's going to work as a photograph?
0:55:08 > 0:55:11But as a photographer, that's what you're there to do,
0:55:11 > 0:55:13to make the photographs.
0:55:13 > 0:55:15You obviously channel the horror or the outrage
0:55:15 > 0:55:17that you might be feeling into the frame.
0:55:17 > 0:55:19I think you can see that in the way that they worked here.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22You can see that they're taking all that anger, horror and shock
0:55:22 > 0:55:23they must have felt
0:55:23 > 0:55:26and then try and synthesise that into a strong, single image.
0:55:28 > 0:55:33This photo, taken by George Rodger, was published in Life magazine.
0:55:35 > 0:55:38Back in Britain, photographs from Bergen-Belsen
0:55:38 > 0:55:41appeared unedited, in their full horror,
0:55:41 > 0:55:43in every press publication,
0:55:43 > 0:55:46and it would have been impossible to avoid seeing them.
0:55:46 > 0:55:50Of course, they had an enormous impact on the British public.
0:55:50 > 0:55:52The liberation of the camp
0:55:52 > 0:55:55was one of the biggest news stories of the war,
0:55:55 > 0:55:58and these pictures offer the ultimate justification
0:55:58 > 0:56:00for Britain's fight against the Nazis.
0:56:00 > 0:56:03A lot of the commentators at the time,
0:56:03 > 0:56:05they talk about the failure of language.
0:56:05 > 0:56:08Journalists say, "The words cannot describe what I saw."
0:56:08 > 0:56:12Edward Murrow's famous thing, "For most of it, I have no words."
0:56:12 > 0:56:14And I think the visual, the film
0:56:14 > 0:56:16and, obviously, particularly the photographs,
0:56:16 > 0:56:18are seared into our memory, really,
0:56:18 > 0:56:23as the most defining moments that we have of this incredible crime.
0:56:25 > 0:56:27And, crucially, the Army photographers
0:56:27 > 0:56:30did more than educate the British public.
0:56:30 > 0:56:34They created a record of the Holocaust,
0:56:34 > 0:56:37which formed part of the evidence of the atrocities.
0:56:40 > 0:56:43Some of these shots were used to convict Nazi war criminals,
0:56:43 > 0:56:47like Josef Kramer, the camp's commander.
0:56:49 > 0:56:52But there's one photograph taken by Bert Hardy
0:56:52 > 0:56:55that I find especially moving.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58After the bodies had been buried, the British Army,
0:56:58 > 0:57:00fearful of disease spreading,
0:57:00 > 0:57:03ordered the camp to be set ablaze.
0:57:05 > 0:57:07With the soldiers' backs to us,
0:57:07 > 0:57:09we are being asked to bear witness
0:57:09 > 0:57:12to the final act of an unspeakable tragedy.
0:57:22 > 0:57:24Unlike other Nazi camps,
0:57:24 > 0:57:27Bergen-Belsen was completely destroyed.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33Coming here to the site of the most horrific images
0:57:33 > 0:57:36ever taken by British photographers
0:57:36 > 0:57:40has helped me understand the importance of recording events,
0:57:40 > 0:57:45no matter how terrible, as a lasting visual testimony.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49There is a sombre silence here, not even the birds sing.
0:57:49 > 0:57:51There's nothing much to look at,
0:57:51 > 0:57:55but you get a sense that something dramatic happened here.
0:57:55 > 0:57:59I'm so grateful to the British press photographers who came here in 1945
0:57:59 > 0:58:03to show my generation and my children's generation
0:58:03 > 0:58:05what really happened here.
0:58:14 > 0:58:17Next, on Britain In Focus...
0:58:17 > 0:58:21from the explosion of colour photography in the 1960s,
0:58:21 > 0:58:23to the digital revolution of today,
0:58:23 > 0:58:27I'll see how photographers like Martin Parr
0:58:27 > 0:58:31have used their cameras to explore the zeitgeist of modern Britain.