Alfred Stieglitz: The Eloquent Eye (1999) / VIDEO
The span of Alfred Stieglitz’s life, 1864 to 1946, saw some of the most rapid and radical transformations ever to occur in the landscape of American society and culture. Stieglitz witnessed New York transform from a sleeping giant of cobblestone streets and horse-drawn trolleys to a vibrant symbol of the modern metropolis, with soaring skyscrapers becoming visible emblems of a new age. Alfred Stieglitz’s seminal role as artist and art impresario at a time when American culture was redefining its fundamental ways of seeing, thinking and experiencing the world is the subject of the first full-length film biography of the photographer “Alfred Stieglitz – The Eloquent Eye.” (read more)
Read an interview with the filmmaker, Perry Miller Adato, here.
Constantine Manos - Personal Documentary | Leica & Magnum / VIDEO
Constantine Manos was born in 1934 in South Carolina to Greek immigrant parents. He went on to attend the University of South Carolina, from which he graduated in 1955. Joining Magnum Photos in 1963, he then became a full Member in 1965.
This video is a personal documentary of Manos’ wide-ranging subjects - from desegregation in the American South to life in Greece and his later work throughout America which he shot in color.
Find an interesting interview with Manos here.
» find more videos HERE « | » find more of Magnum Photos here «
Half Past Autumn: The Life and Work of Gordon Parks / VIDEO
A true twentieth century Renaissance man, Gordon Parks is one of the most prolific and diverse artists in America today. A preeminent photographer, poet, novelist, composer and filmmaker, Parks’s artisitc vision knows no boundaries. This candid portrait of the artist is a journey throught the watershed moments on America’s social history, punctuated by Parks’ seminal works and his unique ability to follow his instincts to the most fascinating and challenging places in the world.
If you have 90 minutes of free time: sit back and watch this wonderful documentary about one of the most amazing American photographers of all time. Here’s a small excerpt:
“I was born dead. Our family doctor (…) had pronounced me dead and wrapped me up in a sheet and put me aside. He had a young assistant by the name of Gordon - he asked the doctor if he could try something. So he called my sisters, and they got a tub of water, and he asked them to get a chunk of ice out of the ice box, and he dunked me into the cold water and rubbed me against the ice, and I began to holler. And I’ve been hollering ever since…” (Gordon Parks)
(thanks to / via: devivre)
Ed Kashi - Trailer ‘Photojournalisms’ / VIDEO
The notion of ‘home’ has shifting significance for Ed Kashi, a photojournalist who travels the world documenting social and political issues. For the past 30 years, Kashi has lived a life of intense engagement mixed with danger, anticipation, and loneliness.
Encompassing nearly 20 years of photographs and journal entries to his wife, Julie, ‘Photojournalisms’ (a supplement to Ed Kashi’s new book by the same title) is a short, experimental film that provides a glimpse into the life and mind of an intrepid photographer. It is a complex collage defined by sensation, tension and passion.
The book ‘Photojournalisms’ is available for pre-order here.
Elliott Erwitt on the art of photographic sequencing, BBC / VIDEO
The book Sequentially Yours collects a series of vignettes by legendary photographer Elliott Erwitt.
Each photo is taken just moments apart with the sequence telling a story that is surprising, moving or simply funny.
The Paris-born photographer, whose Russian-Jewish family emigrated to the US in the late 1930s, got the idea when he was looking through the contact sheets of all his work.
He realised that “sometimes a story is better told by more pictures rather than one”.
The short stories about life and lovers, pets and children were shot all over the world during the past 60 years.
In his studio and apartment facing New York’s Central Park Erwitt told the BBC how patience is the key to getting a good sequence of photographs. (+)
» find more of Magnum Photos here « | » find more videos HERE «
Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light / VIDEO
A 90 minutes documentary about Richard Avedon / from the 1995 American Masters Series.
Lise Sarfati / Magnum Photos - ‘I choose people for their energy and aura’ / VIDEO
French photographer Lise Sarfati talks to Sean O’Hagan about her latest exhibition, She, featuring images taken between 2005 and 2009 of four American women – two sisters, their mother and her sister. The photographs work with each other, she says, to form a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.
(check this similar post; thanks to / via: timelightbox)
» find more videos HERE « | » find more of Magnum Photos here «
William Klein reveals the secrets behind his images / VIDEO
“Six strips of six photographs, taken one after the other. You read them from left to right, like a text. It’s the diary of a photographer - you see what he sees through the viewfinder, his hesitations, his hits, his misses, his choices. He chooses one moment, one angle, another moment, another angle…”
William Eugene Smith - Photography made difficult / VIDEO
“W. Eugene Smith: Photography Made Difficult” is a ninety-minute documentary produced for the Public Broadcasting System’s American Masters television series. It was written by Jan Hartman and is based on the letters and journals of this internationally respected photojournalist.
The program introduces the viewer to hundreds of Mr. Smith’s photographs through a dramatic recreation of the photographer’s life. Peter Riegart portrays the artist, starting with his assignment covering the South Pacific war experiences of the 1940’s. Through his photographs for Life Magazine, Mr. Smith wanted to “carry some message against the greed, stupidity and intolerance that causes war”. If it were not for just a “simple accident of birth, the fate of a particular country of origin, we could be considered as the enemy”.
» find more videos HERE « | » find more of Magnum Photos here «
Debbie Fleming Caffery - Facing Change: Documenting America / VIDEO
Documenting America, a non-profit collective of prominent photographers and writers who have come together to explore the United States during one of the most enduring times in the nation’s history. The work of Debbie Fleming Caffery, one of the FCDA photographers, focuses on the death of community life in the small towns surrounding the Mississippi Delta. You can read more about Facing Change: Documenting America and Debbie Fleming Caffery on the Leica blog.
“There’s a bunch of lazy-ass photographers out there not doing anything. They’re just driving by, taking a picture, walking out in the middle of the street, taking a picture and they think they have a masterpiece. (…) My advice to them is to really get into a project and spend a lot of time in it and, if it’s people: get to know the people, if it’s a landscape: understand the landscape - just get emotionally involved in some kind of way. (…) I can’t imagine life without photography - no, I’ll be shooting until the day I die…”
Photo Souvenir - A Film by Paul Cohen & Martijn van Haalen / VIDEO
Philippe Koudjina’s illuminating photographs of the early days of independence in Niger contrast starkly with its impoverished reality 50 years on. The documentary “Photo Souvenir” explores ideas of the value of art and the legacy of colonialism; a rare glimpse at one of Niger’s great forgotten talents.
Today Koudjina has fallen on hard times. He is no longer able to take photos because he is slowly losing his sight to glaucoma. After being hit by a car, he must use crutches to get around, and he can’t afford the medical care he requires. His cameras, photographic equipment and a disorganized collection of negatives gather dust in a decaying cupboard, while he begs on the street in order to survive.
While the film documents the effort by two French photo connoisseurs to organize an exhibition of Koudjina’s work in Paris, Photo Souvenir reveals the fickle cultural process by which one-time “photo souvenirs” become “photographic art,” and whether or not an artistic reputation is made in the Western world.
© Philippe Koudjina, undated, Self portrait
Bruce Gilden - ‘The Spirit Lives Here’ - Leica & Magnum / VIDEO
Bruce Gilden first traveled to Haiti in 1984 and made 19 trips over the course of 10 years, culminating in his book titled, quite simply, “Haiti”.
In February and March 2010, he went back to Port-au-Prince to witness firsthand what had happened in the wake of the earthquake. What he found was a city destroyed and people who are poor of everything but grace, pride and a distinctive soul.
During his most recent trip this past September, he went back to document a refugee camp that has sprung up across the street from the half-destroyed presidential palace in downtown Port-au-Prince. In this video, Gilden shares his audio, video and photo captures of this neighborhood of decorated huts built out of scavenged corrugated tin and cardboard, recreated with all the elements of Haitian life as if the people knew right away that this temporary settlement would be their long term home.
You can also read the interview with Bruce Gilden on the Leica blog.
» find more videos HERE « | » find more of Magnum Photos here «
Weegee (aka Arthur Fellig) tells how - About News Photography / VIDEO
Arthur Fellig, better known as Weegee, was a New York city freelance news photographer from the 1930s to the 1950s. Here he talks about his career and gives advice to those wanting to become news photographers.
I can’t wait to see the exhibition ‘Weegee - Retrospective 1932-1960 (Auer Ory Photo Collection)’ at Westlicht in Vienna (Nov 22., 2011 - Feb. 2, 2012).
Joel Meyerowitz - 1981 Street Photography Program / VIDEO
Filmed in 1981 and never before made public, the film follows Joel Meyerowitz on the streets of New York accompanied by the curator and writer Colin Westerbeck. The film gives an insight in to Joel’s approach to the street and a glimpse of his working methods including the small 35mm Leica and the large plate camera.
Created by Robert Gilberg, the film was intended to be the first of a series about ‘American Photographers’ but was never taken up by a TV network at the time. The original tapes reemerged after Gilberg’s death 30 years later. Great video, great beards.
James Nachtwey - TED Prize wish 2007: Share a vital story with the world / VIDEO
Accepting his 2007 TED Prize, war photographer James Nachtwey shows his lifes work and asks TED to help him continue telling the story with innovative, exciting uses of news photography in the digital era.
Nachtwey is perhaps the greatest war photographer alive. Adapting Raleigh’s famous judgment on Henry VIII, one might even say that “if all the patterns and pictures of war photographers were lost to the world, they might be painted to the life from James Nachtwey.”
» find more videos HERE « | » find more war & conflict photography here «
