I have just been sent a link to this website re the Duffy Documentary. Our server did indeed crash twice last weekend due to excessive traffic and in fact we had over 4,000 people trying to download the video over two days, which on a shared server was far too much to handle. I couldn't figure out why we had such a spike in viewing figures but all is clear now as this site obviously pointed gazillions of people to the documentary on the Duffy Website. We have now ported the video over to link from the VIMEO Server so hopefully the problem is solved. Thanks to all who have watched the film and apologies for any inconvenience to those who could not get it. It's working again, so give it a try...!
www.duffyphotographer.com > exhibits & links > BBC DOCUMENTARY
—Chris Duffy
-
Mike adds: Thanks for letting us know, Chris. For those who might not have been following along, Chris is the son of Brian Duffy. Chris is the one who has quietly done so much to revive interest in his father's groundbreaking work from the 1960s and provide a belated epilogue to the arc of his father's vivid and fascinating life story. We linked to the BBC video on duffyphotographer in a post last Saturday—with some trepidation on my part, because I know very well how "The TOP Effect" can crash servers—and many readers were frustrated because they couldn't get the video to load or download.
I'll repeat my recommendation—it's about an hour long but repays the time it takes to watch—a touching, irreverent, sometimes funny story.
Chris, I'd also just like to offer kudos to you for all your work on behalf of your Dad. A nice thing you've done.
Send this post to a friend
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
I was unable to download the vid last week when you made the post but I got to see it all last night. It's a keeper.
He really did produce some great work. One of most interesting parts for me was seeing how he interacts with his models. There was no "Yeah bay-bee" stuff. He did it by constantly maintaining eye contact and adding a twitch or a raised eyebrow here and there. Fascinating to watch. I'm planning on trying it out at my next shoot.
Posted by: Bernie | Saturday, 06 February 2010 at 12:34 PM
Great stuff! Thanks Michael for the link and Chris for providing a working host.
Posted by: Richard Ripley | Saturday, 06 February 2010 at 03:04 PM
Chris. Thank you. You are the son every father yearns for. One day it would be nice to think mine would sort through all my negs and digitals and set up an exhibit with them.
Posted by: Rufus Upshaw | Sunday, 07 February 2010 at 05:53 AM
Very interesting Doc... Most interesting still is the Olympus PEN showned at 27:07. 3 classics in one moment? I love when "old timers" embrace the novelty in this case the digital. The whole workflow and studio managed by the son is just inspiring...
Thank you Mike, this was a precious gift from T.O.P indeed.
Regards
João
Posted by: João Medeiros | Sunday, 07 February 2010 at 10:50 AM
Mike
Being an Englishman living abroad I was back in the UK I was home for the holidays and discovered this documentary on BBC4 late one evening (I think I saw it twice, at 1am and 3am). My wife is from the US and we both agreed that it is this sort of show that the BBC does much better than most broadcasters around the world. 'Duffy' was a great story told with much affection. I particularly liked the tale of the smoking model who was reminded by Duffy about the need to smoke only where permitted!
In passing I would add that this was only one of a few great shows I caught up with; Simon Schama on Mark Rothko was also superb, as was seeing again Christopher Nupen's Sibelius documentary.
Posted by: thom uhlmann | Sunday, 07 February 2010 at 10:51 AM
Damn, that video is loading fast now! It's served by Vimeo, yes? If I understand that sentence correctly.
Posted by: Eolake Stobblehouse | Monday, 08 February 2010 at 03:03 AM
An interesting doc. It never answered the question I had 'what does Duffy' think of the photos now'. Apart from the crap he described his burnt negs as.
Had he sorted the negs and kept the ones for the exhibition?
He certainly shifted the style of photography.
A burning question is 'If the photos were NOT of celebs' then would they be of interest?
I go to every exhibition I can get to and I feel cheated when I find that it is basically a selection of celeb photos taken by a 'name'.
Too often I suspect that the real value in the photos is not the photographers skill but the face of a celeb. I wonder does that annoy the hell out of Duffy.
Posted by: Louis McCullagh | Monday, 08 February 2010 at 07:50 AM