The Genius of Photography - consultant on a six-part series for BBCTV4 from Wall to Wall Media Ltd

Mark Haworth-Booth was the series consultant and made twenty six appearances as a photographic historian in a six part series on the history of photography, each one hour in duration.

The Genius of Photography (Wall to Wall Media, BBC 4, and BBC2) is the first major television series on the history of photography to appear on British television for almost twenty years. It takes the viewer, though not in a strict chronological order (and thereby facilitating a degree of connecting things technically, aesthetically or socially), from photography’s very first transitory moments to modern digital techniques.

Haworth-Booth was involved in the early stages of the series development and advised on a number of matters including the scoping of the individual episodes (Fixing the Shadows, Documents for Artists, Right Place, Right Time? Paper Movies, We are Family and Snap Judgements). He was also a consultant on the selection of some of the images and on the choice of a number of experts who could appear in the series to add commentary and opinion. He also appeared in the series giving his own commentary and opinions on particular photographers, for instance Man Ray, and on a variety of topics such as the differences between Samuel Palmer’s watercolour paintings of a river scene in Wales and a Roger Fenton photograph taken in the same location. He also demonstrated the importance of formal arrangements in many early photographs.

Drawing from a range of primary sources such as an early reference in The Times to photography’s Lilliputian draftsmanship, Haworth-Booth described photography in terms of its fine, gossamer delineations and simultaneous swiftness. He also spoke about the way in which photography registers everything indiscriminatingly, with “no hierarchy of psychological interest” (episode 1).

Mark Haworth-Booth is visiting professor of photography, University of the Arts, London, and honorary research fellow at the Victoria & Albert Museum, where he was curator of photographs for thirty-five years. He is the author of numerous books including Photography: An Independent Art (1997).

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