Filmmakers and photographers have often commented upon issues that concern them. Examples can be seen in the films of David Attenborough and in the photography of Fay Godwin and Sebastião Salgado. Research appropriate work and make a personal response to an issue that concerns you.
David Attenborough
Over the last 25 years he has established himself as the world's leading natural history programme maker with several landmark BBC series, including Life on Earth (1979), The Living Planet (1984), The Trials of Life (1990), The Private Life of Plants (1995), Life of Birds (1998), Life of Mammals (2002) and Life in the Undergrowth (2005). Sir David is a Trustee of the British Museum and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; an Honorary Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge; a Fellow of the Royal Society and was knighted in 1985. His documentary films have made a massive contribution to the general public's awareness of natural history, the importance of preserving biodiversity and, more recently, the threat of climate change. He is an innovator who supports the work of a wide range of artists and organisations. |
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Fay Godwin
In 1978 she received a major award from the Arts Council of Great Britain, which allowed her to continue and develop her landscape photography. More books followed, including Remains of Elmet (1979), which she co-authored with poet Ted Hughes. This book, with its often dark and dramatic interpretations of the Pennine landscape, was especially important in establishing her reputation. Godwin disliked purely picturesque views of the landscape and her work was never sentimental. 'I've been called a Romantic photographer and I hate it,' she said. 'It sounds slushy and my work is not slushy. I'm a documentary photographer, my work is about reality, but that shouldn't mean I can't be creative.' During this period she worked in black & white, using medium-format equipment, and her images were noted for their clarity, careful composition and expert control over tonal values. She was known for great tenacity and determination when creating an image. When someone once remarked to her that she had been lucky to catch the ideal cloud formations in a particular picture she quickly replied, 'I didn't “catch” it. I sat down and waited three days for it.' Her book Land, published in 1985, was the summation of her work in that period. It was a critical and commercial success. It showed Britain as a place of standing stones, ruined castles and industrial relics, a mysterious land of breathtaking vistas, moody skies and sometimes desolate and threatening landscapes. However, Godwin was also determined to show how the British countryside was changing for the worse. This aspect of her work came to the fore in her next book, Our Forbidden Land (1990). It showed how large areas of countryside were being torn up for development, how pollution was affecting rivers and forests, and the ways in which public rights of access to land was being denied by landowners. |
Sebastião SalgadoEducated as an economist, Salgado, 57, began his photography career in 1973. His first book, Other Americas, about the poor in Latin America, was published in 1986. This was followed by Sahel: Man in Distress (also published in 1986), the result of a 15 month long collaboration with Medecins San Frontières covering the drought in northern Africa. From 1986 to 1992 he documented manual labour world-wide, resulting in a book and exhibition called Workers, a monumental undertaking that confirmed his reputation as a photo documentarian of the first order. From 1993 to 1999, he turned his attention to the global phenomenon of mass displacement of people, resulting in the internationally acclaimed books Migrations and The Children published in 2000. In the introduction to Migrations, he wrote, "More than ever, I feel that the human race is one. There are differences of colour, language, culture and opportunities, but people's feelings and reactions are alike. People flee wars to escape death, they migrate to improve their fortunes, they build new lives in foreign lands, they adapt to extreme hardship…." Working entirely in a black-and-white format, Salgado's respect for his subjects and his determination to draw out the larger meaning of what is happening to them, has created an imagery that testifies to the fundamental dignity of all humanity while simultaneously protesting its violation by war, poverty and other injustices. |
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