Topic: The Genius of Snooze-ography

[Ed Wenn]

Doh! I fell asleep during the 2nd episode of the BBC?s new series, ?The Genius of Photography? - right at the start of the Weston section. I got through Rodchenko, Atche and Man Ray OK, but passed out on the sofa soon after. Up until then it was doing pretty well....what was the rest of the show like? Will have to check it out sometime via download or when they repeat it.

4 hours sleep the night before might have had more to do with my somnambulant reaction than my interest in the show?.but whatever the reason I didn?t go the distance. I have brought shame on all of us.

On a general note I'd be interested in hearing other people's reactions to the 1st 2 episodes. I've been generally impressed but disappointed by two things:

• They spend too much time panning and scanning across details of the photos rather than showing the whole photo on screen for long enough. This has been particulary irritating on a couple of occasions and ended up at one point with me shouting at the TV, "Show the whole f***ing picture you stupid b*stards!"...Jacqui just sat next to me tutting.
• The analysis of some of the photos is a bit extreme and kind of off-putting. I'm a big fan of making my own mind up when it comes to photos and I'm not sure I like the way ther BBC has decided to hold our hands by having some experts interpret the photos for us. By all means give us context, but please leave it at that.

(exhales)

Right, got that off my chest. Thanks.

[This-is-damion]

B*llocks -  I forgot all about it.

This is why i dont watch much telly -I cant for the life of me remember from one week to the next that there is something i want to watch.

I did however buy the book,  great it is

[Ailsa]

• They spend too much time panning and scanning across details of the photos rather than showing the whole photo on screen for long enough.

Couldn't agree more! I was thinking exactly the same thing myself last night.

I'm recording the whole series, so you and Damion (fight among yourselves) are welcome to borrow the DVD to catch up. Andrea has first dibs, however, so as long as you don't mind waiting a week or two I'd be happy to post it along.

[This-is-damion]

Ailsa! 

Magic,   very kind offer.    please add my name to your list!!

Also next week can you drop me an email next week to remind me to watch it!      

[Andrea.]

:-)

Got the Guardian thing at last too.

[LT]

I saw most of it .. well, I say most, my digi reception is terrible, so I get a kind of stop start, picture break up then silence, then max-headroom type stutter, then stop, then a bit of speech, then stop - it's like a bad impression of Norman Collier (remember him?) doing his bad impression of a faulty microphone, but with the equivalent for the eyes also.

I do remember one bit - a US photographer (didnt catch name) talking about an Atget street scene and babbling on about a fairly insignificant white line where a chimney used to be in the shot and saying that this is what makes the picture ... I just tried to find the shot on the eastman house collection but it's not there.  Anyway, I thought that was rubbish, the thing he was talking about was so small and insignificant compared tot he rest of the scene.

[sausage100uk]

Would it be possible to do a round robin with the DVD as I dont have digital at all

[eddie]

I quite enjoyed the show,  they paid much deserved homage to Atget,  the  portraits of Atget by  Berenice Abbott  were amazing.  It also mentioned how Man Ray and Atget met  and Man Ray bought 40 Atget prints.  I would love to have heard more about this.

It showed Donovan Wylie photographing the British Watchtowers in Northern Ireland.  The camera he was using looked more like a rocket launcher than a camera.  The pilots thought he was nuts, it was easy to see why as he hung out of a helicopter with a camera shouting lower higher !. Martin Parr was showing off his book collection.  All in all I thought it covered a lot in an hour. 

It's repeated on Mondays.
 

[gothamtomato]

I wish we could see that here. We get precious little BBC programing over here.

Sadly all we have is BBCAmerica, which is more revenge for the boston Tea Party than anything else.

[Phil Bebbington]

Bugger I'm in Greece....perhaps they will repeat!...Having said that I probably would have forgot to watch.

[Francois]

Sadly all we have is BBCAmerica

You lucky, all we get is the Beeb's World News... and a few soaps like Coronation Street on National Television

[seekingfocus]

Bugger I'm in Greece....perhaps they will repeat!...Having said that I probably would have forgot to watch.

Yeah, Phil.. And we all feel for bad for you- being in Greece and all. 

[RandomHamster]

Drat, I have missed it all so far as well, working away and all that malarky.  If someone does hear that it may get repeated could they post it up here?

[al]

Doh! I fell asleep during the 2nd episode of the BBC?s new series, ?The Genius of Photography? - right at the start of the Weston section. I got through Rodchenko, Atche and Man Ray OK, but passed out on the sofa soon after. Up until then it was doing pretty well....what was the rest of the show like? Will have to check it out sometime via download or when they repeat it.

4 hours sleep the night before might have had more to do with my somnambulant reaction than my interest in the show?.but whatever the reason I didn?t go the distance. I have brought shame on all of us.

On a general note I'd be interested in hearing other people's reactions to the 1st 2 episodes. I've been generally impressed but disappointed by two things:

• They spend too much time panning and scanning across details of the photos rather than showing the whole photo on screen for long enough. This has been particulary irritating on a couple of occasions and ended up at one point with me shouting at the TV, "Show the whole f***ing picture you stupid b*stards!"...Jacqui just sat next to me tutting.
• The analysis of some of the photos is a bit extreme and kind of off-putting. I'm a big fan of making my own mind up when it comes to photos and I'm not sure I like the way ther BBC has decided to hold our hands by having some experts interpret the photos for us. By all means give us context, but please leave it at that.

(exhales)

Right, got that off my chest. Thanks.

As someone who had any art interest beaten out of him as a teenager, and no real background or any education in art, photography or anything very interesting,  I've been finding it fascinating and very useful.  Lots of little things  have made me think more about what I might do and to be honest given me the only inspiration I've had for months to get the cameras out.  For instance, the bit in the last episode about documenting things after they'd happened....  well not quite so drastic as WWII but yesterday I went to the coast a little to late to catch the high tide that had threatened to match the devisation of 1953.   I might have just gone "bah, missed it!" and gone home, but remembering the programme I stayed around for a while to see what stories of the days' events were left to be captured.  I probably failed miserably (in fact I kicked myself on the way back after realising some of the things I should have snapped) but the thought was there and I had a great time with the camera where I actually felt inspired to take pictures for the first time in ages, it's good to be back! 

[Ed Wenn]

...and there's me thinking that no matter what my other gripes with it were, the programme would be a good motivator to drag new people into creative photography. I hadn't paused to think that it would also be an inspiration to a seasoned vet such as yourself, Al. Glad it gave you the much-needed kick up the Arsenal.