logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2023
51m 43s

Amazing photographs and the people who t...

Bbc World Service
About this episode

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week’s Witness History stories.

We focus on some of the world’s best known photographs - and the photographers who took them.

We find out why Lee Miller was in Hitler’s bath in the dying days of World War Two; and historian Dr Pippa Oldfield discusses the women who were the pioneers of war photography.

Also, Sir Don McCullin tells the story behind one of his most famous images of the Vietnam War.

Plus, more on the party pictures that shone a light on an unseen Africa and how the biggest names in jazz came together for one immortal portrait.

Finally, the first African American woman to have her photographs snapped up by New York’s Museum of Modern Art.

Contributors: Antony Penrose, Lee Miller's son and biographer Sir Don McCullin, photographer Dr Pippa Oldfield, photo-historian Manthia Diawara, filmmaker Jonathan Kane, son of photographer Art Kane Ming Smith, photographer

(Photo: Grace Jones. Studio 54, New York, 1970s. Credit: Ming Smith)

Up next
Oct 4
India's nine day tea strike and the birth of the Excel spreadsheet
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes.Tea expert Sabita Banerji talks about the history of tea in India. We look back at how women teapickers in 2015 fought for justice - and improved the lives of thousands of tea plantation workers.We hear the ... Show More
59m 20s
Sep 27
The origins of Indian cinema and the start of Scouting
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes taking us from India to Texas. Professor Sunny Singh, author of A Bollywood State of Mind, discusses the origins of Indian cinema in 1912. And we celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of Bollywood ro ... Show More
1 h
Sep 20
The fight against sexual harassment in Egypt and Omar Sharif enters the world stage
Max Pearson presents a collection of the week’s Witness History episodes, all with an Egyptian theme.We find out more about the 2014 fight against sexual harassment. And we hear from Professor Nicola Pratt, an expert on Middle East feminism about the significance of that moment i ... Show More
59m 58s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2022
Malick Sidibé: Mali's superstar photographer
The Malian photographer, Malick Sidibé, is one of Africa’s most celebrated artists. His most famous photographs show black and white scenes of young people partying in the capital Bamako in the joyful, confident era after Mali got its independence from France in 1960. In the 1990 ... Show More
8m 59s
Jan 2009
Photo History Intersession – January 01
In the third History of Photography Intersession, we look at some interesting events from January first, as we commemorate the birth date of photographer William Klein, the anniversary of the death of Edward Weston, some facts about George Eastman and his inventions and the birth ... Show More
Jul 2016
The Invention of Photography
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development of photography in the 1830s, when techniques for 'drawing with light' evolved to the stage where, in 1839, both Louis Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot made claims for its invention. These followed the development of the camera ... Show More
48m 46s
Aug 2022
Quelle est la place des femmes dans l’histoire de la photographie ? [Table-ronde]
Si nous avons voulu dédier une saison du podcast Une Autre Histoire à cinq femmes photographes (Lee Miller, Gerda Taro, Francesca Woodman, Virginia de Castiglione et Berenice Abbott), c’est pour mettre en lumière le parcours de photographes influentes, qui ont parfois été oubliée ... Show More
39m 37s
Aug 2022
Weegee the Famous
Weegee is often cited as having been an influence on artists like Diane Arbus and Andy Warhol. He also influenced the world in how New York was viewed, because of his stark, black and white photos of the city. Research:  Smith, Roberta. “He Made Blood and Guts Familiar and Fabulo ... Show More
39m 3s
Nov 2023
Lee Miller: Combat Photographer, Fashion Model & Muse, with Antony Penrose
Lee Miller may have been best known in life as a beautiful muse of the legendary Surrealist Man Ray yet, shortly after her passing, a lucky accident led her family to an attic treasure trove, which made her a photography legend in her own right. During this week’s podcast, we unp ... Show More
1h 4m
Sep 2020
[Female gaze] Jodi Bieber, the South African photographer and World Press Photo of The Year winner discusses life, imagery and identity
Welcome to this 12th episode of the new Dior Talks series ‘The Female Gaze’. With the term developed in response to the writings of feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey, this podcast series will explore how the work of the female photographers and creatives collaborating with Dior ... Show More
31 m
Apr 2023
Hudson River: America's First Art Movement
English-born artist Thomas Cole emigrated to the United States in 1818. Six years later he set up the Hudson River School, which became America's first art movement. Betsy Jacks, director of the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, tells Don how these artists captured the country' ... Show More
27m 50s
Apr 2022
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures
In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and projector – a year before Thomas Edison announced that he had invented a motion picture camera – Le Prince stepped on a train in France – ... Show More
24m 34s
Nov 2018
Carleton Watkins and Photography’s Romance with the American West
Tyler Green may be best known as the journalist and art writer behind the Modern Art Notes podcast, but for the last six years, he’s also been working on a major book about a photographer who helped establish the sublime visual record of the American West for viewers around the w ... Show More
45m 32s