This Cultural Life BBC Radio 4

Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado is best known for his captivating black and white photographs. He has documented scenes of hardship and desperation in times of war and famine; he has explored global labour and migration; and he has captured the wonders of the natural world. Salgado has worked in more than 120 countries over the last 50 years, and is now regarded as one of the all time greats of photography. His images are in the collections of museums and galleries around the world, he won the prestigious Premium Imperiale arts prize in 2021 and was the 2024 recipient of the Sony World Photography Award for outstanding achievement.
Raised on this a cattle farm in eastern Minas Gerais state, an early formative experience was leaving home for the city of Vitória in 1960. It was here, watching ships dock from all around the world, that he first felt the desire to travel. It's also where he met his wife Lélia who is his curator and editor. He began a promising career as an economist but switched to photography in the early 1970s, after he and Lélia bought their first camera on holiday. Joining the Magnum agency, the international cooperative of photographers, in 1979 allowed him to refine his craft with the help and advice of photography greats such as Robert Capa and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
Salgado tells John Wilson about some of his most famous photo series, including those on the theme of manual labour which he called Workers; and Exodus, the stories of global migration. Covering the Rwandan genocide in 1994 as well as years of photographing refugees from wars, natural disasters and poverty finally took its toll on Salgado's health. He stopped photographing and returned to Brazil, where he and Lélia began reforesting his father's farm, now transformed into a National Park of lush vegetation called Instituto Terra. The success of this venture led to Salgado returning to photography, this time seeking out beauty and landscapes in series called Genesis, his love letter to the planet.
Producer: Edwina Pitman

For over forty years, the sculptor Sir Antony Gormley has been using his own body as the basis for his artistic work, and is known for creating cast iron human figures that stand on high streets, rooftops and beaches, as well as in museums and galleries around the world. He won the Turner Prize in 1994 and the prestigious Premium Imperiale in 2013. Antony Gormley is best known for the Angel Of The North, a monumental winged figure on a hill in Gateshead which, overlooking the motorway and a mainline railway, is one of the most viewed pieces of modern art in the world.
He talks to John Wilson about his Catholic childhood and the influence that his former art teacher, the sculptor John Bunting had on him while he was at boarding school. Being taken by his father to the British Museum and seeing the colossal human-headed winged bulls, which once guarded an entrance to the citadel of the Assyrian king Sargon II (721-705 BC) captured his creative imagination. Gormley also chooses the life-changing experience of learning Vipassana meditation in India under the teacher S N Goenka, as one that has deeply informed his work.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Archive:
The Shock of the New : The Future That Was, BBC 2, 1980
Nightwaves, BBC Radio 3, 1994
BBC News, 1998
Five Sculptors : Antony Gormley, BBC2, 1988

As part of the so-called Britart generation of the early 1990’s, artist Sam Taylor-Wood, as she was then known, made her name with photographic and video pieces. Diagnosed with colon cancer in 1997, and then breast cancer three years later, she addressed her treatment and recovery in artworks she made at the time. She moved into filmmaking with her first feature Nowhere Boy, about the life of the young John Lennon in 2009. Other cinematic projects have included adaptations of the E L James novel 50 Shades Of Gray, the James Frey memoir A Million Little Pieces and, most recently, the Amy Winehouse biopic Back To Black.
Sam tells John Wilson about the experience of first seeing the Rothko Seagram paintings at the Tate gallery when she was nine years old, and the impact that they had on her in her creative imagination. Being introduced to Andy Warhol films such as Chelsea Girls and Empire made her realise that art and cinema are deeply intertwined and went on to influence her style as a director. John Cassavetes' A Woman Under the Influence was the first film that made Sam want to be a cinematic filmmaker and she also reveals how Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella encouraged her to make her debut short film Love You More.
Producer: Edwina Pitman

Sir Antonio Pappano is one of the world’s most acclaimed conductors. He started work at the age of ten as an accompanist for his father, who worked as a singing teacher. After leading orchestras in Brussels and Oslo, Pappano was appointed as musical director of the Royal Opera House in 2002. Stepping down after 22 years leading Covent Garden, he has joined the London Symphony Orchestra as chief conductor. Antonio Pappano was knighted in 2012 and conducted the orchestra at the coronation of King Charles III in 2023. An award winning recording artist, he has conducted on over 70 live and studio albums.
Antonio Pappano tells John Wilson about his upbringing in a central London council flat, the son of Italian immigrants, and his love of music from an early age. He recalls the significance of receiving his grade 5 piano examination result by post, "a lightbulb moment” in which he realised what he wanted to do with his life. He also describes his parents' grief after the death of his baby sister, which led to the Pappano family moving to Connecticut, where Antonio continued his musical tuition under a local piano teacher called Norma Verrilli and composer Arnold Franchetti. His professional career was nurtured by conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim who employed Pappano as his assistant for six years, a period in which he learned the art of conducting. He also looks back at his 22 years leading the Royal Opera at Covent Garden and talks candidly of his concerns about the funding and championing of opera in the UK.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Music and archive:
Puccini, Turandot, Act 1 Ah! per l’ultima volta!
Liszt, Consolations S.172 for piano no.3 in D flat major; Lento placid
Monteverdi, Dolci miei sospiri
Gershwin, The Man I love
Prokofiev, Symphony No.1 in D Major, Op.25 for two pianos
Mozart, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor, K. 466 I. Allegro
Wagner, Das Rheingold, Act 1, Rheingold, Rheingold!
Wagner, Tristan und Isolde, WWV 90, Act 3 Scene 2 O diese Sonne!
Götterdämmerung, Act 3 Siegfrieds Trauermarsch
Following Pappano, BBC Radio 4, September 2017
Puccini, La_Boheme, Act 1, Che gelida manina
Strauss, Ariadne auf Naxos, Opera
Handel, Zadok the Priest, HWV 258
Mozart, Le Nozze di Figaro, Act 3 Sull’aria che soave zeffiretto
Vaughan Williams, Fantasia_on_a_Theme_by_Thomas_Tallis
Ades, Three-piece Suite from Powder Her Face - Suite No.1

John Wilson talks to actor, comedian, broadcaster and writer Sir Michael Palin. A founding member of the hugely influential comedy troupe Monty Python’s Flying Circus, he wrote and performed in its five television series and three feature films including The Life Of Brian. Other big screen credits include A Fish Called Wanda, Brazil, The Missionary and The Death of Stalin. Michael is also a globetrotting documentary presenter and bestselling author.
Michael recalls the early influence of listening to radio comedy as a child, especially the absurdist humour of The Goon Show devised by Spike Milligan. Meeting Terry Jones at Oxford University in 1962 proved to be a life-changing event as the two soon started working on sketches together and after graduating were hired for David Frost's satirical television show The Frost Report. It was on this programme that the duo first worked with future Python members John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle.
Starring in Alan Bleasdale's 1991 ground breaking television drama GBH allowed Michael a departure from comedy but also set the bar high for future acting roles which he increasingly forwent in favour of writing and presenting documentaries, including a particular favourite about the Danish Painter Vilhelm Hammershøi.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Archive :
A Fish Called Wanda, Charles Crichton, 1988
Take It From Here, BBC Light Programme, 1954
The Goon Show, The Man Who Never Was, BBC Light Programme, 1958
Comic Roots, BBC1, 1983
That Was The Week That Was, BBC, 1963
The Frost Report, BBC1, 1966
Do Not Adjust Your Set, ITV, 1967
Monty Python’s Flying Circus, BBC1, 1969-1970
The Meaning of Life, Terry Jones, 1983
Friday Night, Saturday Morning, BBC2, 1979
The Life of Brian, Terry Jones, 1979
GBH, Alan Bleasdale, Channel 4, 1991
The Death of Stalin, Armando Iannucci, 2017
Michael Palin and the Mystery of Hammershøi, BBC4, 2008

Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos first emerged as part the so-called ‘weird wave’ of Greek cinema, and is known for unsettling themes and absurdist humour of his films. He made his mark internationally in 2009 with Dogtooth, which won a Cannes film festival prize and was nominated for an Oscar. Shifting into English language cinema with The Lobster, starring Colin Farrell and Olivia Colman, he continued to win awards and acclaim with The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and his historical comedy drama The Favourite. His most recent film Poor Things, starring Emma Stone, has been nominated for eleven Academy awards, including best film and best director.
Yorgos Lanthimos tells John Wilson about his upbringing in Athens, the son of a professional basketball player who was part of the Greek national team, and how, after graduating from film school, he began making commercials and pop videos. He reveals why the work of the American photographer Diane Arbus, renowned for the underlying psychological tension of her portraits, was a major inspiration on the mood of his films. He also cites the influences of the German choreographer Pina Bausch on visual elements in his films, including dance routines seen in The Favourite and Poor Things. The plays of the British writer Sarah Kane, including Blasted and Crave, were also influential on the tone of his darkly humorous films.
Producer: Edwina Pitman
Diane Arbus' quote is from the documentary film Going Where I've Never Been: The Photography of Diane Arbus (1972), voiced by Mariclare Costello.