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Am I the only one who's been dismayed by the choice of photographers for the BBC Digital Picture of Britain series (with the exception of Joe Cornish and one or two others)?
With so many excellent photographers around I can't believe they couldn't get people who were:
a) more charismatic
b) better known
c) better photographers
I've turned the last two programmes off I was so bored and uninspired. I mean one guy last night was supposed to be photographing the rural landscape and decided to go to a racing circuit! He justified it by saying there were a few trees there!!! That's like someone photographing the Cairngorms and saying it's an urban landscape because there's a house in the picture.
What are others' thoughts on this disappointment of a programme?
Kevan
Its hard to believe that photographers exist at all, who havent at least dabbled in digital.
You have to be living on top a mountain in tibet or somewhere to have missed it, and even then, some climber probably would have snapped you with his phone.
Must agree about Mary's pictures, the snapping of that white horse, was rather painful to watch............
Quote: Its hard to believe that photographers exist at all, who havent at least dabbled in digital.
You have to be living on top a mountain in tibet or somewhere to have missed it, and even then, some climber probably would have snapped you with his phone.
or you have to have made a concious decision not to "go digital" despite all the arrogant fools who seem to insist it's the only choice.
I agree with Kaven. I was looking forward to this series thinking that I would be inspired/impresed with proffessionals useing digital and pick up some tips as to how they see through their lenz. What I did find is that most of the time I have been left feeling bemused at their results.....even more so when the TV camera has managed to pick up such fantastic atmosphere standing next to them!
I appreciate that they were new to digital and that the phone camera must have left a lot to be desired, but many of the photographers diden't seem to have 'the eye' for an image despite the equipment.
I'm not for one moment pretending that I myself am a great photographer (before everyone jumps on my back) which is why I was hoping for some better results from the featured photographers.
Having been in art circles most of my life and now photographic circles, I have come to observe that a number of artists/photographers get attention because of how well they can talk up their work rather than because it has quality.
I think the BBC could have done worse than comming to EPZ members for their photographers, a lot of the work on here is outstanding.
I've only seen two of the programmes (last night and a couple of weeks ago), and I rather enjoy them. It's interesting to see how the photographers work, what their vision is, and how they try and get it into a photo.
It's also fun to laugh and cringe at the really rubbish photos. It's saying a lot that the best photos in last night's programme (which isn't saying much) were from the guy with the camera phone when in the Space Centre.
I agree it's a shame that they can't find photographers with at least an ounce of charisma - the guy with the Hasselblad should have been punched for being so boring and miserable (and for the horrendous crime of wasting such a nice camera by taking such utterly crap photos).
Who is Tom Ang, by the way? Is he well known / any good? Or was he chosen just for his horrendous dress sense?
Maybe they should get the guy behind the camera filming this program as everyweek 2 or 3 times in the show the camera man picks out a nice shot while the so called photographers just miss it compleatly, not saying I would do any better probably worse but I really expected better than this, funny the guys with the camera-phones always seem to do a better job.
Quote: Who is Tom Ang, by the way? Is he well known / any good?
One of the first books I bought on digital photography was one of his - and I learnt a fair bit from it.
Kris.
Quote: I have come to observe that a number of artists/photographers get attention because of how well they can talk up their work rather than because it has quality
A good point. Having seen one of last night's photographers' work at an exhibition, you could be right. Mind you, he came across as a particularly dull personality last night but maybe that's seen as mysterious and arty in certain circles!
I think the premise of the programme is somewhat flawed. All the photographers would normally use at least a 35mm film camera so what is the point of comparing one photographer's use of a camera phone with another's use of a Hasselblad or EOS1Ds mkII that probably isn't too far removed from their normal tool?
Surely it would have been better to get dedicated film users to try a potential digital alternative to their normal camera and let them have a quick play with the consumer-level camera and phone to look at the relative merits.
Kevan
Whatever you use and how well you can or can't use it,surely the magic ingrdients will always be the photographer's imagination and vision ?
I agree to a level. They did all seem a bit boring, and I wondered how someone could go to dudley zoo and not get mugged with a 14k camera round his neck! ... maybe the locals just didn't know that it was worth more than their house!
But I have to say that most people on this site would probably not understand to concepts behind the photos of the guy using the mobile phone ... the way he composes photos is different to many people here and his work is more about conceptual art, wit and social comment than just astheticly pleasing images. I once tried to post some more artistic, conceptual work on ephotozine, and got no comments at all , so I now stick to what people seem to react to , at least on here anyway.
But - saying all that I actually find the programme inspiring in a funny way ... because, if so called professionals are generally coming up with such boring photos then surely that proves that many people on here are actually closer than they think to producing professional quality images.
Quote: the guy with the Hasselblad should have been punched for being so boring and miserable (and for the horrendous crime of wasting such a nice camera by taking such utterly crap photos).
That's the guy whose exhibition I saw (a former Citibank Photography prize winner apparently)
Kevan
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