James Ravilious on BBC Countryfile

James Ravilious, photographer son of the neo-romantic artist Eric Ravilious, was featured impressively in the first part of a BBC Countryside episode earlier this month. Ravilious’s work in recording the North Devon countryside has been well recognised, and the BBC’s documentary gives a rare insight into the man at work with his beloved Leica.

Ravilious took up photography shortly after moving to Devon in the 1970s when he was asked to contribute work to the Beaford Archive, a project devoted to documenting the lifestyle in a small area of North Devon. It began as a short-term project but turned into a 17-year association with Beaford Arts during which he took over 80,000 monochrome images and preserved some 5,000 old photographs of the area.

Countryfile

I am grateful to reader Mike Mallett for bring this to my attention, and he is right in believing that Macfilos regulars will enjoy the documentary. It is available on BBC iPlayer for the next three weeks (from 27 February 2019). If you cannot access this, or come to this article later, the video is also on YouTube, below, if you can cope with the advertisements (or, maybe, have a YouTube premium subscription to ease the pain).

If you would like to read more about James Ravilious you should get this book, “James Ravilious: A Life”, written by his wife, Robin. You can find it here on Amazon.

More from North Devon

3 COMMENTS

  1. James Ravilious’s work is an ongoing source of inspiration for me. Aside from the biography mentioned above, I also have (and treasure) ‘An English Eye – The Photographs of James Ravilious’ (Bardwell Press), ‘The Heart of the Country’ (Scolar Press) and a newer publication ‘The Recent Past’ (Wilmington Square Books).

    The DVD ‘James Ravilious – A world in photographs’ narrated by Alan Bennett is available from Banyak Films (banyak.co.uk) – highly recommended!

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