The Film Photography Documentary List
Asked to choose my favourite five online photography documentaries I simply had too many favourites. And several of my best choices were no longer available to view. So I put together a fast list from my bookmarks list. I’ve tried to keep only the longer and more value packed video documentaries. You may also enjoy the BBC Master Photographer series from 1983, The Genius of Photography series, the Vogue Masters series, Visions and Images with Barbaralee Diamonstein and The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn from 2007 and the Contacts (Vol 1-3) series. Ted Forbes also covers a lot of notable photographers on The Art of Photography. So, here goes… these documentaries should keep you going for a month or two of film entertainment.
- Edward Weston: The Photographer (1948) – 27 mins
- Remembering Brett Weston (Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3) – 79 mins
- The Weston Story – 33 mins
- Kim Weston Painted Photographs Lecture – 14 mins
- The Woodmans – 82 mins
- Francesca Woodman – 39 mins
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: Just Plain Love – 71 mins
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: Pen, Brush & Camera – 49 mins
- Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Decisive Moment – 18 mins
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye – 70 mins- Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye (1999) – 83 mins
- J H Lartique (part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4) – 29 mins
- What Remains: The Life & Work of Sally Mann – 80 mins
David Bailey: Four Beats to the Bar and no Cheating– 52 mins- The Real Blow Up: Fame, Fashion & Photography (Part 1, Part 2 & part 3) – 122 mins
- Duffy: The Man who shot the Sixties – 54 mins
- Robert Capa: In Love and War – 84 mins
- Bob Capa Tells of Photographic Experiences Abroad (audio 1947) – 23 mins
- W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5a, part 5b, part 6, part 7, part 8 & part 9) – 90 mins
- The Lost Pictures of Eugene Smith – 38 mins
- The Life & Work of W. Eugene Smith – 79 mins
- Shooting War: World War II Combat Cameramen (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8 & part 9) – 90 mins
- Sebastio Salgado: Looking Back at You (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 & part 6) – 50 mins
- Salgado: Spectre of Hope – 51 mins
- Tina Modotti: Without Walls (part 1, part 2, part 3 & part 4 – 52 mins
Man Ray: The man who invented himself– 39 mins- Man Ray – 52 mins
- Bob Robinson: Capturing the Norwegians – 10 mins
- Meet Robert A Robinson: Photographer – 29 mins
- Don McCullin: Images of War – 24 mins
- Don McCulllin: Redundant Warrior – 24 mins
- Don McCullin: Seeking the Light – 27 mins
- McCullin (2012) – 91 mins
- Vietnam’s Unseen War – 53 mins
- Elliott Erwitt: Personal Best – 10 mins
- At Home with Elliott Erwitt – 10 mins
- Elliott Erwitt: Photographer – 22 mins
- Searching for Vivian Maier (part 1, part 2 & part 3) – 33 mins
- Vivian Maier: Who took nanny’s pictures? – 68 mins
- Vivian Maier – 12 mins
- Bruce Gilden: Coney Island – 11 mins
- The Greatest Photojournalist: Alfred Eisenstadt – 28 mins
- Harold Feinstein: Photographer, artist, teacher, human being (part 1 & part 2) – 15 mins
- Ansel Adams: Photographer (1958) – 21 mins
- Ansel Adams: Photographer (1981) (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 & part 5) – 59 mins
- Ansel Adams (2002) – 82 mins
- “Mad Photographer” Frank Hurley – 42 mins
- Paul Strand: Under the Dark Cloth (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 & part 6) – 80 mins
- Richard Avedon: Darkness & Light – 86 mins
- Helmut Newton: Frames from the Edge – 100 mins
Fire in the East: A Portrait of Robert Frank – 28 mins- Leaving Home, Coming Home: A Portrait of Robert Frank (2005) – 49 mins
- Arnold Newman – 40 mins
- The Many Lives of William Klein (2012) – 59 mins
- In Conversation: William Klein – 111 mins
- Moriyama Daido: Near Equal – 84 mins
- Nobuyoshi Araki: Arakimentari – 75 mins
- Naked States – 74 mins
- Joel Meyerowitz: Street Photography (1981) – 57 mins
- Nan Golden: In My Life – 28 mins
- Imagine: The Colourful Mr Eggleston – 47 mins
- William Eggleston in the Real World – 85 mins
- Cindy Sherman: Nobody’s Here but Me (1994) – 55 mins
- Annie Leibovitz (1993) – 50 mins
Jan Saudek– 91 mins- The World according to Martin Parr – 44 mins
- Half Past Autumn: The Life & Work of Gordon Parkes – 90 mins
- Remembering LIFE – 57 mins
- America in Pictures: The Story of LIFE Magazine – 60 mins
- James Nachtwey: War Photographer – 96 mins
- Yousuf Karsh (part 1, part 2 & part 3) – 26 mins
- The Real Weegee – 56 mins
- Six Photographs: Rennie Burri – 11 mins
- George Eastman: The Wizard of Photography (part 1, part 2 & part 3) – 50 mins
- Picture Perfect: George Eastman House – 27 minutes
- The History of Photography: Beaumont Newhall – 25 mins
- Laura Gilpin: The Enduring Photographer – 25 mins
- Eliot Porter: A Look Back (part 1 & part 2) – 25 mins
- Military Police Photography (1965) – 25 mins
- Eugene and Berenice – 52 mins
- The Lives of Lee Miller – 56 mins
- The Weird World of Eadweard Muybridge – 58 mins
- Eve and Marilyn (part 1, part 2 & part 3) – 31 mins
- Tony Vaccaro: World War II Photographer – 17 mins
- George Rose, Stereographs and the Russo Japanese War – 20 mins
- The Lomo Camera: Shoot from the Hip – 59 mins
- Trent Park: Dreamlives (2002) – 25 mins
- Chester Higgins Jr: Capturing the Spirit – 27 mins
- National Geographic: The Last Roll of Kodachrome – 31 mins
- Born into Brothels (2004) – 83 mins
- A Great Day in Harlam: The Photograph (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 & Part 7) – 59 mins
- Rankin: Shooting the Hollywood Stars – 66 mins
- South Africa in Pictures – 60 mins
Gregory Crewdson: Brief Encounters– 77 mins- Gregory Crewdson: Capturing a Movie Frame – 27 mins
Legends in Light: George Hurrell– 56 mins- Gursky World – 23 mins
- The History & Science of Color Film – 21 mins
- Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman – 80 mins
Edward Burtynsky: Manufactured Landscapes– 86 mins- The Wonderful Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl – 189 mins
- Who Shot Rock and Roll: Akron Art Museum – 27 mins
- The Photography of Bob Gruen (part 1 & part 2)- 56 mins
- Magnum Photos:The Changing of the Myth – 58 mins
- Long Live Film – 47 mins
- Geoff Davies: Photographer – 61 mins
- The Death of Kevin Carter – 27 mins
- Alexander Gardner: War Photographer – 44 mins
- Bob Marley: Giant – 18 mins
- Bert Stern: Original Madman – 88 mins
- Dorothea Lange: An American Odyssey – 38 mins
- The People in the Pictures: Stories from the Wettach Farm Photos – 55 mins
- Eye Candy: The Crazy World of David LaChapelle – 53 mins
- Line of Beauty & Grace: A documentary about Jock Sturges – 57 mins
- One Roll of Film – 18 mins
- BBC Pioneers of Photography (1974) Early Colour – 24 mins
- BBC Pioneers of Photography (1974) The Moving Image – 24 mins
- The REAL BLOW UP (part 1 & part 2) – 92 mins
- Horst Wackerbarth: The Red Couch A Gallery Of Mankind – 45 mins
- Mario Testino: Diana’s favourite photographer – 48 mins
- Get the Picture – 69 minutes
- Anders Petersen at Fine Art Print – 20 mins
- Geoff Davies: Photographer – 61 mins
- Duane Michals talks about his Career – 81 mins
- Self Portrait: Max Vadukul – 51 mins
- Self Portrait: Isabel Ellsen – 49 mins
- Self Portrait: Tomasz Tomaszewski – 52 mins
- John Cato: Between Sunshine and Shadow – 18 mins
- Mark Seliger: State of the Portrait – 102 mins
- Through a Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People – 92 mins
- Photoprofiles: Arthur Tress (part 1 & part 2) – 30 mins
- The Fall of Phnom Penh 1975. A documentary about French photographer Roland Neveu – [37 mins]
- That Man: Peter Berlin – 80 mins
- The Story of Dickey Chappelle, Combat Photojournalist – 56 mins
- Fotograf – 130 mins
- Holy Terror Presents: Joel Peter Witkin [49 mins]
- Holy Terror Presents: Joel Peter Witkin II ‘Vile Bodies’ [17 mins]
- Portrait of Nature – Myriads of Gods on Platinum Palladium Prints [30 mins]