How colour works

Time was when little was written about colour in film, or colour in the arts generally, except for technical studies. You could read about how a dye or a pigment was made, or how a colour film projector operated, but little about the significance of colours, be that culturally, socially or even aesthetically. Michael Pastoureau,Read More

Radio times

The BBC has just celebrated its ninetieth anniversary (November 14th to be precise), though the current storm clouds hanging over the Corporation have possibly dampened the fervour. Nevertheless the BBC has marked ninety years of radio broadcasts (BBC television did not begin officially until 1936) in a number of ways, including Radio Reunited, a simultaneousRead More

The newsreel man

A recent article by Andrew O’Hagan in the London Review of Books has caused quite a stir. Written in the aftermatch of the Jimmy Savile scandal, it exposes a culture of child abuse from past decades perpetrated by various BBC personalities. One of these was the commentator and producer Lionel Gamlin. As a historian ofRead More

My studio

Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum has long been distinguished for combining bold and stylish web design with a strong commitment to public access. The museum, which is famous for its works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals and others from the golden age of Dutch art, has now excelled itself with its new Rijksstudio initiative. Rijksstudio makes available 125,000 high-resolutionRead More