The photographer, film maker and historian of photography - and BPH member - Noel Chanan died on 7 March 2026 aged 86 years. Chanan studied photography at college, but initially worked as a documentary film maker at the BBC between 1962-1966 and then on a freelance basis for 35 years as both a director and an editor.
In the 1960s he worked as editor on Tonight, Doctor Who, in the 1970s on Not the Nine O-Clock News, the 1980s on Real Lives and The World Around Us, and in the 1990s on Troubleshooter, amongst many other programmes. Mark Haworth-Booth, former curator of photography at the V&A, described the Chanan directed television film on the photographer David Goldblatt (Channel 4, 1986) as 'the best I have ever seen on a photographer'. He also directed in 1979 three episodes of the series Camera: Early Photography.
When Chanan retired from film making he returned to photography full time and, between 1998 and 2003, had three solo exhibitions. Three of his photographic portraits, Ted Hughes (1979) and one of Isaiah Berlin (1971) are held in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in London. A collection of 105 of his photographic prints, the majority of the sculptor Leonard Baskin, are in the Bodleian libraries.
For the past year Noel had been well cared for in Mountbatten Care Home in Windsor. He will be buried with his wife, June, in Taunton. The funeral will be on Tuesday, 7 April at 1320 at Somerset West and Taunton Cemetery and Crematorium, Wellington New Road, Taunton TA1 5NE. It will be followed by a buffet lunch at the Stonegallows Inn, Stonegallows TA1 5JP, which is five mins walk from the cemetery. No flowers. If you wish to make a donation in Noel’s memory please donate to Thames Hospice via: thameshospice.org.uk/donate
He leaves brothers Gabriel and Michael.
See: https://archives.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/repositories/2/resources/9969
https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp60282/noel-chanan
Image: (top) William, 2nd Earl of Craven (1809-1866), Tree study, 1854-55, albumen print; (left) Noel Chanan at the launch of his book on JDJ, South Wales Post, 11 May, 2013, uploaded by Noel to BPH. Noel is In the foreground and in the background is Richard Morris who was married to a descendant of JDL.
Comments
Noel and June were such a great photography couple, its sad that Noel has gone but lovely that he will be reunited with June.
He was a fountain of knowledge on photography.
A couple of other things I'd like to add: 1) I worked as a film editor for a few years in the 1980s (before spending most of my career as a director) and at that time Noel C had a great reputation among my peers as an editor par excellence. Sadly, I never met him, though... 2) I acquired some of his collection of early cinema books at auction a year ago. And this was another side of Noel that should be mentioned, for he was a formidable collector of cinema writings - this was perhaps not widely known, though the collection was put to very fruitful use in a fine book written by his brother Michael, The Dream that Kicks.
Rest in peace Noel.
I first met Noel when working on the Llewelyn daguerreotypes prior to the publication of The Photographer of Penllergare, A Life of John Dillwyn Llewelyn. It was a wonderful project.