The Shifting Authority of Auntie: BBC4 Photography Season

It has been ten years since the BBC launched the six-part series, The Genius of Photography, described - in their own words - as “the first major television history of this ever more influential artform”. This article appraises recent contributions to photography on television in its analysis of BBC4's spring 2017’s Photography Season. The season comprised a sequence of newly-commissioned works including a three-part series on British photography, an hour-long exploration of family photography, a new edit of old material from the BBC archives, and a new instalment in the documentary series, What do Artists do all Day? featuring street photographer Dougie Wallace. The 1200-word commissioned article for Source: The Photographic Review examines the changing moral positions of the broadcaster in relation to the photographic form over the last sixty years. The review adds to a growing body of articles by Pollen for Source since 2012, covering photography in film and exhibition as well as in art and academic publications.