0:00:00 > 0:00:06One frustrated fan fumed "Christmas is ruined".
0:00:06 > 0:00:15Now on BBC News: Through the Lens.
0:00:15 > 0:00:21Welcome to Through the Lens, marking the anniversary of photos with me
0:00:21 > 0:00:26Rebecca Jones. I am in London and I'll be introducing you to six of
0:00:26 > 0:00:31the agency's greatest photographers who will be telling us how they
0:00:31 > 0:00:36recorded history in the making. We will hear from Chris Steele Perkins,
0:00:36 > 0:00:42whose pictures captured the highs and lows of Britain under Margaret
0:00:42 > 0:00:47Archer. Elliott Erwitt who photographed many of the Cold War
0:00:47 > 0:00:51leaders and Ruth Davidson whose images of the Civil Rights Movement
0:00:51 > 0:00:58in the US still resonate today. First, let's me David Hearn. As a
0:00:58 > 0:01:03young man he was in the heart of London in the 60s and captured the
0:01:03 > 0:01:11glamour and create of Britain in an era of liberation.For the first
0:01:11 > 0:01:18time in history, let's call it communication, everybody loves one
0:01:18 > 0:01:27medium. Suddenly everybody loves photography. My approach has always
0:01:27 > 0:01:34been that I really don't like set up teachers, I see myself just as as --
0:01:34 > 0:01:44as an of the act of the actresses is -- eccentricities of life. So I
0:01:44 > 0:01:48spend most of my time trying to get some kind of relationship between
0:01:48 > 0:01:54the extraordinary following of fans they had and The Beatles themselves
0:01:54 > 0:02:02and I think this is charming. There is Paul on the train and this
0:02:02 > 0:02:06delightful lady. It is obvious she is talking to somebody saying, look
0:02:06 > 0:02:14at this is! She has suddenly seeing this megastar and my guess is that
0:02:14 > 0:02:21it's a major thing in her life. I'm sure she would talk about this
0:02:21 > 0:02:26moment with great tenderness to her friends for ages when she met Paul,
0:02:26 > 0:02:36probably. I like memory, I like the motion, I like love, I like passion.
0:02:36 > 0:02:41This picture was taken on the Isle of Wight pop festival. Bob Dylan was
0:02:41 > 0:02:49there and Joni Mitchell and The Doors. People at those sorts of
0:02:49 > 0:02:53events seemed to lose their inhibitions in a way. Out of
0:02:53 > 0:03:02nowhere, somebody seemed to be able to get this sort of foreign thing
0:03:02 > 0:03:05and you just need somebody spraying foam around the everybody of the
0:03:05 > 0:03:09take their clothes off and all sort of hard each other amongst the
0:03:09 > 0:03:18phone. I love seeing people who like each other. -- foam. I don't care if
0:03:18 > 0:03:22they're really like each other for ten minutes. The sort of things I
0:03:22 > 0:03:28love photographing other things that quite a lot of other people to that
0:03:28 > 0:03:30I wouldn't under normal circumstances ever dream of doing.
0:03:30 > 0:03:36Queen Charlotte's ball, just absolutely fascinated me. There were
0:03:36 > 0:03:45all these young girls, almost like a cattle market, being shoved around
0:03:45 > 0:03:49for all blokes to look at. It was obviously all to do with meeting the
0:03:49 > 0:03:58right lobe et cetera. -- rate local. Here we have four people, two pairs
0:03:58 > 0:04:03and all they are doing as far as I can see is talking to each other,
0:04:03 > 0:04:07but they all have what I would think was an exaggerated gesture. If the
0:04:07 > 0:04:14gesture that comes from holding a cigarette and I think this is a nice
0:04:14 > 0:04:21picture. It has authorship, I think. I'm basically bizarrely a rather shy
0:04:21 > 0:04:28person, but the lovely thing about the camera is you hide behind it.
0:04:28 > 0:04:34Normally if you are shy and somebody talks to you... But if you have a
0:04:34 > 0:04:40camera you have an excuse to be there. God, it's been a fun life.
0:04:40 > 0:04:50It's been fun life. I've loved every minute of it, you know?David Hearn
0:04:50 > 0:04:55who witnessed the eccentricities of Britain in the 60s. America in the
0:04:55 > 0:05:001960s was dominated by the issue of race. Bruce Davidson chronicles the
0:05:00 > 0:05:04Civil Rights Movement and accompanied black protesters on the
0:05:04 > 0:05:13walk between Selma and Montgomery in Alabama.The thing for me that makes
0:05:13 > 0:05:19meaningful photographs, that's what I did. I was doing high fashion
0:05:19 > 0:05:25pictures for Vogue magazine. I came to feel that I could no longer do
0:05:25 > 0:05:29fashion. That was not Weather World was for me at that time. It was
0:05:29 > 0:05:35important -- that was not where the world was for me at that time. It
0:05:35 > 0:05:38was important to me that someone document what was happening in the
0:05:38 > 0:05:42south. When I heard there was a marked happening in Birmingham I
0:05:42 > 0:05:46would jump on a plane and be down there. I wasn't sponsored by
0:05:46 > 0:05:53anybody. I didn't have a motor scooter or anything. When I lifted
0:05:53 > 0:06:00the camera to take a picture, I lost maybe 15 or 20 feet, maybe more, and
0:06:00 > 0:06:07I would have to run to catch up, but I was in good shape that time. This
0:06:07 > 0:06:14picture shows two hefty cops from Birmingham arresting a young woman.
0:06:14 > 0:06:25You can see they are twisting her arm. In the background, that sign,
0:06:25 > 0:06:30but I didn't focus on that. But was just happenstance. That young man
0:06:30 > 0:06:37who I haven't been able to find, it was his idea to put vote on his head
0:06:37 > 0:06:44and it was a very powerful image. It was also a very dangerous image from
0:06:44 > 0:06:48him because the National Guard was alongside, waiting in the woods for
0:06:48 > 0:06:50anything to happen, and they couldn't be trusted. The police
0:06:50 > 0:06:59couldn't we trusted. So he was showing off what the hallmark was
0:06:59 > 0:07:07about and he survived. I was privileged enough to photographed
0:07:07 > 0:07:14John Lewis when he stepped into the bus to ride the Mississippi from
0:07:14 > 0:07:19Montgomery Alabama. A famous civil rights leader and congressman now.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23This is an important picture in a way because it was the beginning of
0:07:23 > 0:07:301961, freedom bus ride. The previous bus was burned and people were
0:07:30 > 0:07:34arrested and beaten and they set the bus on fire. I photographed people
0:07:34 > 0:07:38who voted for the first time in their life and they were in their
0:07:38 > 0:07:4470s and that was very moving. Towards the end of the Selma march,
0:07:44 > 0:07:49people could vote. They could vote and get a good education. If you get
0:07:49 > 0:07:53a good education you can get a good job and a good life, so that was the
0:07:53 > 0:08:03beginning of opening the door to the new world. I'm an outsider on the
0:08:03 > 0:08:12inside, you can make an attempt to see and be part of another life.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17Many of the issues Bruce Davidson documented are still making the
0:08:17 > 0:08:21headlines today. As are those captured in the photos of Elliott
0:08:21 > 0:08:26Erwitt, the child of Russian parents who emigrated to the US. In the
0:08:26 > 0:08:311950s and 60s he travelled to the soviet union and to Cuba. The
0:08:31 > 0:08:34pictures he took their revealed the personalities and the tensions of
0:08:34 > 0:08:45the Cold War.The picture was taken in 1959. I was in Moscow. Nixon, who
0:08:45 > 0:08:51was the vice president at the time, was on a state visit to the soviet
0:08:51 > 0:08:55union and so I took the opportunity of joining the press corps and
0:08:55 > 0:09:03followed him around. They were grandstanding, they were just sort
0:09:03 > 0:09:10of playing for their audience. Nixon was saying that we Americans it meet
0:09:10 > 0:09:17while you Russians eat cabbage. It was just a way of Nixon saying that
0:09:17 > 0:09:26we are well off and rich and you are miserable and poor. The Russians
0:09:26 > 0:09:30have days in the year where they display their might may date, which
0:09:30 > 0:09:38is the worker's day, and the revolution. I happened to be there
0:09:38 > 0:09:43for the latter one. I was well positioned by virtue of going
0:09:43 > 0:09:47through three rings of security, together with a soviet TV group.
0:09:47 > 0:09:54Somehow I blended in. I must have been badly dressed or something.
0:09:54 > 0:09:59This was one of the pictures taken there. At the beginning of the
0:09:59 > 0:10:04parade they have... They display their military might and then they
0:10:04 > 0:10:10have the workers parade... The spontaneous parade, generally less
0:10:10 > 0:10:21than five hours. Nothing spontaneous about it of course. In 1964, I went
0:10:21 > 0:10:28to Cuba for about a week or ten days and I spent it in Havana. I spent it
0:10:28 > 0:10:36with Fidel Castro and shaker there are. -- check there are. It was
0:10:36 > 0:10:42fascinating. Fidel Castro like to be photographed, like any celebrity. I
0:10:42 > 0:10:48can sort of compared them to cowboys. They were affable,
0:10:48 > 0:10:54pleasant, interesting and very photogenic, as you will see.
0:10:54 > 0:11:03Especially Che. He was the Marilyn Munro of the period. He seemed to be
0:11:03 > 0:11:11in a good mood, as I remember. He even gave me a box of cigars, which
0:11:11 > 0:11:15I did not bring into the United States because it was prohibited. I
0:11:15 > 0:11:24regret the box office -- box of cigars. He was a charming man, apart
0:11:24 > 0:11:31from what he did or didn't do. Many people have doubtful backgrounds and
0:11:31 > 0:11:36doubtful histories. Face-to-face they can be quite charming and
0:11:36 > 0:11:43accessible. And interesting. I didn't speak so much. I listened
0:11:43 > 0:11:52more. Photographers shouldn't get in the way of things. I hope that I was
0:11:52 > 0:11:58an observer rather than a participant.Elliott Erwitt
0:11:58 > 0:12:02remembering the Cold War. Don't forget you can catch up on the whole
0:12:02 > 0:12:08series at the BBC website. Can you imagine taking pictures of
0:12:08 > 0:12:14one of the most charismatic figures of the 20th century? Well, one
0:12:14 > 0:12:17photographer did just that when he was assigned to photographed
0:12:17 > 0:12:24Muhammad Ali in 1966.You have days where nothing happens and days that
0:12:24 > 0:12:34are full of surprises. I was working at the magazine in Germany. One day
0:12:34 > 0:12:39the editor in chief came here and ask us, would you like to meet a
0:12:39 > 0:12:46very interesting person in the USA? His name is Muhammad Ali and he is a
0:12:46 > 0:12:52fantastic boxer. We had no idea about boxing. It was almost
0:12:52 > 0:12:56impossible to do interviews with him. Sometimes we went in the
0:12:56 > 0:13:02morning but he did not show up. You could not anticipate anything. He
0:13:02 > 0:13:09was a surprise every day. We flew over to Louisville that he was in
0:13:09 > 0:13:16the gym and we went to the gym, it was dark and finally he saw as
0:13:16 > 0:13:28standing there. You're fair. And he did this to the camera and the gong
0:13:28 > 0:13:35comes on for the second round and he went back and punched the ball. So I
0:13:35 > 0:13:38only clicked twice and I had two pictures and these were the best
0:13:38 > 0:13:43pictures I ever took. You have to be very ready for surprises with him.
0:13:43 > 0:13:47He could be a different person from one moment to the other. One day he
0:13:47 > 0:13:53said, OK, I'll show you the city. And then we came to the Chicago
0:13:53 > 0:14:01river and there was a little bridge and I said, could you go up there
0:14:01 > 0:14:06and without telling him he just took off his shirt and then I said to
0:14:06 > 0:14:14him, jump. And he jumped from the bridge down and click, another
0:14:14 > 0:14:23click, only one. Then, OK, let's go somewhere else -- and have something
0:14:23 > 0:14:27to eat. We drove around again in Chicago and suddenly he said, let's
0:14:27 > 0:14:31stop here, I want to go to the bakery, they have wonderful cookies.
0:14:31 > 0:14:38So he went outside and it took quite a while, then one hour later said,
0:14:38 > 0:14:43close to the bakery, let me get a couple more. So he went inside and
0:14:43 > 0:14:45this time I said
0:14:45 > 0:14:46couple more. So he went inside and this time I said, something is
0:14:46 > 0:14:51strange here. The way went into the bakery and I saw him in their and
0:14:51 > 0:14:56then I understood because there was the baker's daughter. He was
0:14:56 > 0:15:02flirting very heavily, so it was not the cookies, it was the young very
0:15:02 > 0:15:09pretty lady. The funny thing is that I visited him four years later, so I
0:15:09 > 0:15:15came to his house and we sat down and I took the pictures of him and
0:15:15 > 0:15:22suddenly the door opened and his wife came in and who was the wife?
0:15:22 > 0:15:26She was the baker's daughter, who I had photographed a couple of years
0:15:26 > 0:15:35before.
0:15:35 > 0:15:40unforgettable world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali. In the same
0:15:40 > 0:15:44year that a young American soldier was killed in Vietnam.One of the
0:15:44 > 0:15:49photographs he took went off to become a poster and an emblem of the
0:15:49 > 0:15:57anti-war movement.To be a good photographer you have to know what
0:15:57 > 0:16:03you are looking for. The year was 1966, I was travelling around the
0:16:03 > 0:16:08South on an assignment for a Japanese magazine to photograph
0:16:08 > 0:16:11southern landscapes, that was my assignment. I am out in the
0:16:11 > 0:16:14countryside and in the south there are these flat fields that are
0:16:14 > 0:16:20cotton fields, and I look and there is this church, a wooden church,
0:16:20 > 0:16:24unpainted, what was different was that there was a brown army bus
0:16:24 > 0:16:31parked in front of it. I drive up to the church car park behind a bus and
0:16:31 > 0:16:35go back, and they were going to have a funeral there. All the people were
0:16:35 > 0:16:39there and they were waiting for the body of this soldier who was killed
0:16:39 > 0:16:43in Vietnam to be brought to the church for the funeral. I talk to
0:16:43 > 0:16:47the boy's grandmother, and I said, is it OK to take pictures? She said
0:16:47 > 0:16:54sure, sure. This was a moment when the bus carrying the honour guard,
0:16:54 > 0:16:58which was the soldiers who are carrying McCaughan and a cough and
0:16:58 > 0:17:03in the ambulance, that the hearse, they brought the cotton from the
0:17:03 > 0:17:11hearse to the burial site. That is a symbolic picture, -- Coffin. Showing
0:17:11 > 0:17:15the soldiers, who were the honour guard, and they've wrought the boy's
0:17:15 > 0:17:23Wadi to the church cemetery. -- boy's body. The picture of the lady
0:17:23 > 0:17:29crying became iconic. It became an anti-war poster in Europe, and it
0:17:29 > 0:17:34was a big poster that was all over Europe. That was a time when people
0:17:34 > 0:17:37were protesting against the war and it just became a real progress
0:17:37 > 0:17:41picture, it is a historical picture because it is a specific moment in
0:17:41 > 0:17:51that war that shows how it touched ordinary people. I don't know who
0:17:51 > 0:17:56the little boy is, to be honest with you, he was never identified in the
0:17:56 > 0:18:01article. I assume that he is either a cousin or a close friend who knew
0:18:01 > 0:18:08this boy, who was killed, and that is the way it affected him. That is
0:18:08 > 0:18:12what I saw and I photographed what I saw, and the pictures speak for
0:18:12 > 0:18:17themselves I think. It was all over in about half an hour, they came
0:18:17 > 0:18:25with the casket, they had a service this is a moment that happened once
0:18:25 > 0:18:28and never happened before, will never happen again, and that is that
0:18:28 > 0:18:33kind of picture I think. And a very touching story to appear at that
0:18:33 > 0:18:37time when people were tired of the Vietnam War, all these boys had been
0:18:37 > 0:18:48killed.Constantine Manos on his heartbreaking images of grief. Chris
0:18:48 > 0:18:52Steele Perkins is truly best known for his documentary pictures of life
0:18:52 > 0:18:56in Britain. In the 1980s he produced a range of photographs which
0:18:56 > 0:18:59captured the nation under the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret
0:18:59 > 0:19:04Thatcher. Pointing his camera at every section of society.
0:19:04 > 0:19:12Photography is about history, demarcating a period and a time. The
0:19:12 > 0:19:17Wolverhampton set of pictures was done to the Sunday Times magazine,
0:19:17 > 0:19:23and the whole idea was to go back to Wolverhampton ten years after Enoch
0:19:23 > 0:19:29Powell had given his famous, as it was yet to be known, rivers of blood
0:19:29 > 0:19:36speech, and go look at the Asian and African Caribbean community up in
0:19:36 > 0:19:42Wolverhampton and see if they were actually drinking each other's blood
0:19:42 > 0:19:50or not. There was a church club which seemed seemed to cater quite
0:19:50 > 0:19:54well for local kids, they could go down there and play their own music,
0:19:54 > 0:19:58hang out, there was a kind of rhythm to the whole thing, and you kind of
0:19:58 > 0:20:05tuned into that, and that is what you're after. The exact sort of
0:20:05 > 0:20:09compositional elements and more importantly in the overall
0:20:09 > 0:20:13composition, rather than the small details. The idea was about trying
0:20:13 > 0:20:22to photograph the English, trying to have fun. Trying to sort of show the
0:20:22 > 0:20:27world that they kind of... Had a good life. Finding the oddities in
0:20:27 > 0:20:36people, it is almost like an act of Mars rather than -- act of high
0:20:36 > 0:20:43homage. I went to a lot of nightclubs, was hanging out, with
0:20:43 > 0:20:46couples who don't speak to each other for hours, and I was
0:20:46 > 0:20:51photographing in this way, and people were going, there there! I
0:20:51 > 0:20:56thought maybe this was a new dance, and a turnaround in this fight was
0:20:56 > 0:21:01going right behind me. They are all rather well dressed up for the sort
0:21:01 > 0:21:07of night out of being cool, and they end up on the floor sort of being
0:21:07 > 0:21:11punched in the mouth. Once again, that is a metaphor for the way we
0:21:11 > 0:21:19live. There was a sort of tail end of National front and people like
0:21:19 > 0:21:24this still sort of act if in street demonstrations. It like it needed to
0:21:24 > 0:21:30be covered, and to me that was about the posture and sort of posturing
0:21:30 > 0:21:39and expression, and projection that they wanted to give. It is hard to
0:21:39 > 0:21:43know what people really think any more. I mean, you know,
0:21:43 > 0:21:50methodologies kind of creep up and cover things in the new realities.
0:21:50 > 0:21:55That's shot of Thatcher is, I found quite ambiguous. Yes she kind of
0:21:55 > 0:21:59looks startled and kind of looks confused almost. But at the same
0:21:59 > 0:22:04time she is quite glamorous. And then obviously you have the parody
0:22:04 > 0:22:08of the people in the background who are all openmouthed and overcome by
0:22:08 > 0:22:15being in her presence. I feel like I got one picture that has kind of
0:22:15 > 0:22:19stood the test of time, and is still ambiguous which I like about
0:22:19 > 0:22:24photography, that it can be ambiguous, you can read it in ways.
0:22:24 > 0:22:33And they are all right.Chris Steele Perkins. And the ambiguity of
0:22:33 > 0:22:37photography as a historical record. And that is all from through the
0:22:37 > 0:22:41lens here at the Southbank Centre, see the rest of the series at our
0:22:41 > 0:22:42website.