Picture Stories

2020, 30 minutes

Picture Post and the photography of ordinary life. Explores the impact of Picture Post magazine, which was set up in 1938 and quickly became Britain's most popular weekly.

During its heyday from the late 1930s to early 1950s, Picture Post magazine revolutionised the way photographers portrayed the lives of ordinary British people: at home, on the street, off-guard - not in posed portraits. The Picture Post photographers pioneered a completely new approach to photography, and in doing so created the photo-journalism, documentary and street photography, that we know today. We'll be exploring that revolution through the eyes and voices of some of Britain's leading modern-day documentary and street photographers. They share their perspectives on great Picture Post photographers who have inspired and influenced them, where they see points of connection with their own work, and their thinking on what makes great photography The magazine was not only a pioneer of photojournalism (and paved the way for what we now know as street photography), but also changed British culture and social attitudes - notably, in highlighting the horrors of Nazi Germany and the need for Britain to bring in the welfare state and national health service. So, in addition to getting the film screened, we are planning to develop an outreach educational programme to highlight the role of 1930s/40s Jewish emigres in shaping British society.

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