The way we watch television nowadays has never been better. Almost all of us are watching TV online rather on actual television. TV shows have become more accessible, and we can all watch them anytime we want. One of the best shows to binge-watch is photography documentaries. These types of shows astoundingly capture the beauty of nature and reality. With that in mind, we have gathered a short list of top photography documentaries.
Harry Benson: Shoot First
This documentary is all about the photography career of a Scottish photographer, Harry Benson. He has been associated with famous personalities throughout his career by taking candid shots of them. These famous personalities include Michael Jackson, Muhammad Ali, The Beatles, and many more.
Nevertheless, his documentary is not all about fame and glamour. He has also covered the most notorious events in history such as snapping shots of Mark Chapman who is the infamous killer of John Lennon and the events of the civil rights movement era against the Ku Klux Klan. Therefore, watching Harry Benson’s life and career documentary is just as intriguing as the people and events in front of his camera lens.
Wild Photo Adventures
This documentary show follows Doug Gardner, a professional nature and wildlife photographer and the host of the show. Throughout its five seasons, it has won numerous awards due to its stunning scenery and educational content.
In the show, Gardner snaps marvelous imageries of the God-made wonders across America. He has captured images such as white-tailed deer in Tennessee, humungous walruses, bears and moose in the Alaskan wilderness, and many more. As the show goes, viewers will be educated about the wonders of the American wilderness and techniques on how to capture wild animals perfectly with a camera lens.
Jim: The James Foley Story
As its title implies, this documentary show is all about the US photojournalist James Foley. This documentary partially revolves around Foley’s cover of the Syrian conflict. During this endeavor by Foley, he was captured and inhumanely beheaded by the Islamic State. The footage of his murder was released online by the killers, but the documentary did not include it (for good reason). This wasn’t the only time Foley’s life was on the line; years before, he was also kidnapped in Libya.
However, this documentary is not just all about the horrors of war and conflict. It also highlights how Foley garnered faith and will in his loved ones to pursue his daunting photojournalism career.
Chasing Ice
Chasing Ice is an eye-opener documentary by James Balog, a National Geographic photographer. In this documentary, viewers get the chance to see how fast glaciers are being torn apart by the rising temperatures caused by Climate Change. Balog captured the changing glaciers using a state-of-the-art time-lapse camera. His monitoring of the glaciers is part of the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), a project he founded.
This documentary also serves as a reminder to all of us that the threat of Climate Change is imminent and we should all take action now to counteract it.
Indeed, photography documentary shows are just as engaging as our favorite shows such as Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Brooklyn 99 and many more. After all, it’s all about reality. Reality should intrigue us as much as fiction does.