American Photography

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Starring: Leonard Nimoy
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Ellen Hovde
Studio: PBS (Direct)
Release Date: 2003-10-21
Running Time: 160 minutes
Time travel at its best! American Photography: A Century of Images is a remarkably complete, high-caliber PBS presentation of who Americans were and are, using 20th-century images that capture everything from the everyday to the once-in-a-lifetime. While of course you'll see many photographs, some familiar and some new, you'll also learn about the history of our relationship with photography and the ways pictures are used. See the progression from posed to unposed photographs and from picture postcards to digitally enhanced photos that show what a missing child might look like today. Learn about the importance of photography for social causes such as abolishing child labor, the civil rights movement in America, and the way we feel about everything from what we buy and how we dress to how we get the news. Especially interesting is the discussion of how Native Americans have been portrayed--including the photographer who brought a trunk of costumes with him to dress Native Americans the way he wanted them to look in his pictures.

The three episodes, The Developing Image 1900-1934, The Photographic Age 1935-1959, and Photography Transformed 1960-1999, are educational and entertaining. Whether you've enjoyed National Geographic or Life magazine, or are interested in photography or 20th-century history, this will make a great addition to your video collection. --Tara Chace

American History through a camera lens
This PBS series shows 100 years of American History and how photography influenced society. Photography makes the unseen visible and brings things isolated to public view. Child labor is abolished, civil rights violations announced to the world, the truth about war is all shown via photography.
This can be used in a photography classroom as well as a history class.
I am a baby boomer and there are many things I didn't understand as a teenager about the civil rights movement and Vietnam that become clear through this excellent documentary. Many experts are interviewed. Not dry, but you will want to view it in "chunks" so you can process it all. I've seen this now at least four times.

"A Century of Images" gets to the heart of America's photographic obsessions
The folks at PBS deserve the gratitude of photography teachers and students everywhere. Taking on subject matter as impossibly broad as photography in 20th Century America? This documentary covers-- sometimes comprehensively, sometimes briefly-- virtually every important topic germane to the field of study, from Pictorialism to Straight Photography, from fashion to the scientific. Along the way, we are introduced (or reintroduced) to what has been the medium's most important uses: journalism and documentary. "A Century of Images" is as instructive for the novice as it may be reaffirming to those already familiar with much of the material. Underlying a wealth of historical examples and anecdotes are the two twin themes that raise this effort above the mundane: concern over the ethical issues photographs present, and the effects of mechanically produced images in the post-industrial age on the psyche of our nation. These themes manifest themselves in ways that are often revelatory and moving. One memorable example: the way Edward Curtis's images of Native Americans are placed into context by a woman who appreciates them, yet yearns for more images that show her people the way they "really were." Sections on war photography cover WWI, WWII, Vietnam and the Gulf War with compassion, and work as excellent visual aids to discussions on todays situation in Iraq. Another bonus: the section on the transition to a digital age has not yet outlived its usefulness.

Until I was able to buy this fabulous history on DVD, my biggest complaint was that while using the VHS version, I had all kinds of problems locating the various scenes I wanted to pull out to show my photography and visual communication courses at the university where I teach. Now that I can happily locate scenes at will using the DVD menu, I can direct my ire at its few but significant omissions and shortcomings. More on Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus please . . . . they were pretty damned influential.