Photo: A History from Behind the Lens
Photo: A History from Behind the Lens
Photo: A History from Behind the Lens
Documentary
70
Watch TV Show
Download TV Show
Overview
Explores the development of photography from its beginnings to more recent times.
Status: Ended
First Air Date: 2009-12-13
Runtime: 0h 26m
Director: Juliette Garcias
Writer: Juliette Garcias, Stan Neumann
Episodes - Season 1
Surrealist Photography
Surrealist Photography
Episode 1
They include names such as Man Ray, Dora Maar, Alvarez Bravo, Brassaï, André Kertész and Henri Cartier-Bresson, who gure among the greatest names in photography of the 20th century. In the 1930s, their images embodied the epitome of Surrealism.
The Primitives of Photography, 1850-1860
The Primitives of Photography, 1850-1860
Episode 2
In the middle of the 19th century, 25 years after its invention, photography is still considered as a simple scientific curiosity. But between 1850 and 1860 a dozen of photographers, in France and in England, will get in a struggle to get photography acknowledged as an art. It will be the decade of Nadar, Le Gray, Baldus, Robison, Rejlander, Fenton. They will be the first ones to explore all posibilities of photographical creation and of its relations to reality.
The New German Objectivity
The New German Objectivity
Episode 3
This episode recounts the New Objectivity evolution in photographic practice, the symbol of which is the Dusseldorf school. For the Bechers, photography was documentary in nature.
Staged Photography
Staged Photography
Episode 4
For almost the entire 20th century, photography was mainly realist. But from the 1960s, "staged photography" was no longer considered naïve or passé, and made a major comeback, enriched by the external influences of film, theatre, performance and sculpture. This photography that was "infused" by other mediums played on the ambiguity of photographic realism.
Pictorialism
Pictorialism
Episode 5
50 years after it was invented, photography once again sought to rival painting. The debate was as old as photography itself: is photography merely a simple, mechanical "imitation" of reality, or can it interpret reality subjectively, as drawing and painting can?
New Vision: Experimental Photography of the 1920s
New Vision: Experimental Photography of the 1920s
Episode 6
Criticism of the 1920s heralded the arrival of "The New Photographer", which was a typically European phenomenon. This photographic avant-garde, often politically located on the far-left, was embodied by Moholy-Nagy, Umbo, El Lissitzky and Rodtchenko.
Photographing Intimacy
Photographing Intimacy
Episode 7
Photography would appear to be extravert in nature, done to show us reality, the world at large and the “other”. But in the eighties, a movement appeared that sought to escape this “objective” vocation, and to transform the camera into a daily logbook, an apparatus of introspection, a personal diary.
The Inventors
The Inventors
Episode 8
1839 marked the "official" birth of photography. Some seek to reduce the invention of photography to an obstacle course from which the shrewd Daguerre emerged triumphant, once the good-natured Niepce had abandoned his pursuit, and thanks to the slowness of the perfectionist Talbot and the discreet Bayard. Photography, which featured myriad technical and artistic possibilities, was multi-faceted and progressive. It revolutionised our perspective and transformed our relationship to reality.
Found Images
Found Images
Episode 9
From the 19th Century, painters have collected documentary photographs using them as models for their own works. The artistic avant-garde of the 20th Century takes hold the principle. During the 1920’s and 1930’s, a lot of artists are widely using the scrapbooking . These collections regularly leave the private circle and become a work base.
Press Usage
Press Usage
Episode 10
The alliance of signature photography and mainstream press led photography to become the popular image of the 20th century. The magazines that started appearing in the 1920s - such as BIZ in Germany, Vu in France, the Weekly Illustrated and Picture Post in England, and Life in the United States - broke away from the routine of the first illustrated magazines that used photography merely as an accompaniment for text. With these new magazines, photographs became primary vehicles of information.
Conceptual Photography
Conceptual Photography
Episode 11
Instead of criticising photography in the name of painting, as had been done in the past, painters (from Andy Warhol to Ed Rucha and Bruce Nauman) used photography to criticise painting, engaging in an outright attack on the notion of “fine-arts” and the elitist character of artistic creation.
After the Photo
After the Photo
Episode 12
Will photography survive the 21st century? With the progressive but inevitable disappearance of traditional photography, the question has been asked since the 1980s.
Recommendations

The Mandalorian
84
Drama
The Mandalorian
Chernobyl
86
Drama
Chernobyl
Breaking Bad
89
Drama
Breaking Bad
Stranger Things
85
Drama
Stranger Things
True Detective
82
Drama
True Detective
You
80
You
The Witcher
80
Drama
The Witcher
Peaky Blinders
85
Drama
Peaky Blinders
Friends
84
Comedy
Friends
Rick and Morty
86
Animation
Comedy
Rick and Morty
Westworld
80
Westworld
Game of Thrones
84
Drama
Game of Thrones
The Simpsons
80
Animation
Comedy
The Simpsons
Grimm
82
Drama
Grimm
Baby Reindeer
76
Drama
Baby Reindeer
The Big Bang Theory
79
Comedy
The Big Bang Theory
The Boys
84
The Boys
Monty Python's Flying Circus
82
Comedy
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Our Planet
85
Our Planet
INVINCIBLE
86
Animation
INVINCIBLE