The Genius Of Photography.

I've had the pleasure of studying Photography in St John's Central College Cork for the last year or so.

Having only really picked up a camera at about 18/19 years of age, and my love for cars, my initial approach to photography was of course mainly Cars and Landscapes. All that has slowly changed.

Last year i had applied for a refresher course in already mentioned College and even though at the time to me it was just "a something to do course" "******* Recession, No jobs like" sort of thing. It sparked a little something that i needed to pursue a bit further.

Being advised by the tutor of the refresher course (a fantastic local photographer in Cork by the name of Damian Drohan) that i should follow it up and apply for the course in which i am doing now. I took his advice and duly indulged. Glad i have, because it has really opened my eyes.

The course is mainly Documentary (Photojournalism) based. Studying the History of Photography, shooting mainly in B&W Film, with the pleasure of Darkroom Practice, Printing, Studio Work and even down to the little things, like Editing Contact Sheets, and all it's quirks has been a cracking few months.

Anyway! The reason for the thread. During the refresher course, Damian had shown us some videos form a documentary series of Photographers from Henri Cartier Bresson to Robert Capa (some will know, some won't) the first being a French Photographer regarded largely as the Father of Documentary Photography and founder of Magnum Photos and the later being regarded as possibly the greatest War Photographer.

Only getting to see various snippets from that very same documentary series, the hunt was on to find the full length series. Not having the slightest clue what it was called, or who it was by. I was stuck in a dead end. But thanks to the great invention that is the Internet, i finally found it, on Youpube! Good old Youpube ha?

So here it is, for anyone that has even the slightest interest in any sort of photography, this **** will blow you away. There are six episodes, each one a hour long.

The Genius Of Photography

Ta for taking the time to read, and hope you find it as entertaining as i do.

Nick!

Seriously? No-one?

I can see the appeal, but afraid I am a point & click type and usually happy with whatever comes out.

Looks intriguing, ta for the link. Will go through those when time permits

Unfortunately I can't access youtube, but I shall definitely be having a watch when I go home. Sounds rather interesting!

Thanks for taking the time to post it up!

Thanks for taking the trouble to post this. Decent British documentaries are as rare as hens teeth in my part of the world, so when someone points out a series that's on a subject I'm pretty passionate about, then I'm on to it like a flash.

If you don't want to stream it via YouTube, but would prefer to download the series, it seems to be readily available for download via TPB and suchlike. I would post a link, but am not sure that's allowed on this site. Easily found though...

No problem at all whatsoever. I, like you, am pretty passionate about photography and i will make sure i keep this thread updated with any other interesting documentaries i happen to come across.

As a matter of fact, while i'm at it, i may aswell recommend "War Photographer" (

) a documentary on the work of James Nachtwey. You can find some clips within youtube, but i will try and track down the full length version. It is pretty rare in the shops these days!

The Genius of Photography documentary is about three years old now. I saw it on TV here in Australia over 12 months ago.

It's a great series for anybody interested in photography but more so in the history of photography rather than any "how to" type information. Unfortunately photography is one of those areas that is so huge that no documentary or book or database will ever cover more than a small section of the field and to me whilst I thoroughly enjoyed the series there were imo some omissions and also some photographers featured who I'm not entirely sure deserved to be there.

I endorse the OP's recommendation though. If you are interested in photography as a subject it's well worth spending 6 hours of your life watching.

Clicky Interesting Body of work there

"The main entrance to the Skoda car factory. Czech car producer Skoda Auto is subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group (VAG).

Mlada Boleslav, 16.03.2007"

"New Skoda Fabia vehicles prepared for transportation on trailer-train at Skoda car factory.

Mlada Boleslav, 19.03.2007"

"New Skoda Fabia vehicles prepared for transportation on trailer-train at Skoda car factory in Mlada Boleslav. Czech car producer Skoda Auto is subsidiary of the German Volkswagen Group (VAG).

Mlada Boleslav, 19.03.2007"

I saw the series when it first came out, and I thought it was brilliant. I've been taking pictures for years and years now, but it taught me a huge amount. It makes you realize the effort that people had to make to get the images that we take for granted.

Phil

Ooh, thanks for the reminder, I've been meaning to catch up on this ever since it came out, I just don't watch TV, er, ever

I remembered it had been released on DVD, too, for anyone interested in a more permanent copy: http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Genius-of-Photography-DVD/dp/B001VIR81E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1299171407&sr=8-1. I'm pretty sure there was an official accompaniment book, too.

Edited 3 March, 201115 yr by RobinSLXi