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Photographer Eamonn McCabe traces the story of British photography from the explosion of colour images in the late 1950s to the ongoing impact of the digital revolution.

In the final episode, Eamonn McCabe traces the story of British photography from the explosion of colour images in the late 1950s to the ongoing impact of the digital revolution.

Eamonn enters the colourful Britain of postcard producer John Hinde, whose postwar experiments with colour photography captured a new mood of optimism and leisure in the country. He sees how colour snaps began to replace black-and-white prints in the family album as cheaper cameras and new processing techniques allowed ordinary people to record the world around them in colour. Eamonn meets John Bulmer, who broke new ground by using colour for documentary photography in his striking images of the north of England for the Sunday Times colour magazine. And he finds out why Jane Bown refused to follow the trend by sticking to black and white for her striking portraits of the era's most memorable faces.

Eamonn explores how a new, independent movement in photography emerged in the 1970s, fostering talents like Peter Mitchell, who used colour photography to comment on a changing urban Britain. Eamonn sees how this new movement encouraged Fay Godwin to infuse her poetic landscapes with political and environmental concerns, and meets Birmingham-based photographer Vanley Burke, whose work chronicled the growing African-Caribbean community in Handsworth. And Eamonn joins one of today's best-known British photographers, Martin Parr, to find out how he has trained a satirical eye on modern society.

Assessing the impact of the 'big bang' of digital photography, Eamonn goes back to his roots as a sports photographer - covering boxing in the East End of London. He reflects on how technology has developed from when he started in the 1970s, with manual cameras and rolls of film, to the digital cameras of today. Eamonn then sees how the digital revolution has shaped a new generation of practitioners - in whose hands a thoroughly 21st-century British photography is being created.

1 hour

Last on

Tue 16 Apr 2024 02:30
大象传媒 Four

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    The Shadows

    Apache

  • 00:03

    The Yardbirds

    For Your Love

  • 00:07

    Johnny Kidd and the Pirates

    Shakin All Over

  • 00:14

    Humphrey Lyttelton

    Looking For Turner

  • 00:20

    Steel Pulse

    Handsworth Revolution

  • 00:25

    Joy Division

    Shadowplay

  • 00:27

    Eagulls

    My Life In Rewind

  • 00:39

    Tears for Fears

    Shout

  • 00:40

    Tears for Fears

    Mad World

  • 00:47

    Caribou

    Sun

  • 00:52

    Metronomy

    The Look

  • 00:56

    Boards of Canada

    Dayvan Cowboy

Credits

Presenter Eamonn McCabe
Executive Producer John Das
Series Producer Alastair Laurence
Producer Chloe Penman
Production Manager Nicole Larmour

Broadcasts

National Media Museum Exhibition

A 大象传媒 and National Media Museum partnership. Britain in Focus: A Photographic History.

Photographing the Heysel disaster

Britain in Focus presenter Eamonn McCabe on the football match where everything changed.

Photography season

Photography season

Explore the past, present and future of photography