“untitled at the moment”

Here is a listing of the photography films showing at the MFA through December 20th.  It compliments the two photography exhibitions currently on display.  Buy tickets (here)

Friday, November 28 (2:30pm) What Remains / Sally Mann
Saturday, November 29 (10:30am) The Eloquent Nude / Edward Weston
Sunday, November 30 (12:15) Shadow of the House / Abelardo Morell

Thursday, December 4 (2:30pm) City of Photos / Peppers and Nudes
Sunday, December 7 (10:30am) A Journey with William Eggleston
Wednesday, December 10 (6pm) Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind
Thursday, December 11 (4:30pm) Shadow of the House / Abelardo Morell
Saturday, December 13 (Noon) Harry Callahan and Aaron Siskind
Saturday, December 13 (2pm) Manufactured Landscapes / Burtynsky
Sunday, December 14 (1:30pm) Karsh: The Searching Eye

In the Real World documented the methodical workings of William Eggleston. Although I find many of his images thought provoking, well balanced and ripe with color, it was watching him meandering about that was very depressing. I don’t know if it was me thinking that this is what I’ll be like as a photographer later on in life or what, but watching this film bothered me.

Eggleston takes these mundane, vernacular items that his trained eye locks on to and converts them into extraordinary scenes. In the film, he was using some camera that I was not familiar with, but I’m sure my friend Erik,(big fan of Eggleston) will enlighten me on. One of the highlights of his career was when John Szarkowski gave him a solo exhibition of his work at MoMA, marking the acceptance of color photography.

William Eggleston’s The Guide is a must have for all photo book lovers/collectors.

(note: Eggleston and I share the same birthday - July 27th)

The first in The Sundance Channel films on photography this month was Tina Barney: Social Studies.  Barney sets up these narratives with affluent American and European subjects capitalizing on the culture that surrounded her since childhood.  One of the key statements she made in the film was that she began to make images because she felt or thought that “the American family was going to become extinct.”

This made me think about my own family.  Since the passing of both of my paternal grandparents, I see the structure of my extended family slowly moving apart.  We don’t all meet up at my grandparents house as we did every Sunday for dinner.  Holidays have become just another day.  Maybe it’s because we are getting older and we all have different lifestyles.  I also realized I have never taken any pictures of my parents since becoming a photographer.  I need to make more portraits.

I decided to attend a film screening at MIT last night for filmmaker Chris Marker.  The first film was a 1-minute short titled, Leila Attacks.  Leila was a rat that chases and terrorizes a cat in the house.  It was very humorous, but was the polar opposite for what was to come.

Three Cheers for the Whale was a history and document of the earth’s largest mammal and its ties to humans.  Most specifically this film graphically shows how we have slaughtered these animals for generations.  The gruesome images of the harpoon guns shooting the whales coupled with the dubbed sounds of whales crying left an echoing impression in my head.  The Japanese still believe it is part of their heritage to kill whales.  If they use the parts of the whale for so many things, what will happen when they are all gone.

The Embassy was one mans account of being holed up in a foreign embassy in what looked like Paris in a fictional account of a military coup.  The filmmaker provides the commentary while the people around him discuss, debate and wait out the situation.  The embassy looked more like a dumpy house and was unrealistic.  It looked more like the after effects of a holiday gathering.

The Sixth Side of the Pentagon retraces war protesters as they take a stand at the steps of the Pentagon during the Vietnam War.  Watching this film brought me back to the ‘Whale film’ in thinking that like the whale, it is an extinction of a race, and with war, we are in a sense watching our own extinction.

It has been said that Chris Marker does not grant interviews, uses aliases and is vague as to where he was born as well as his true age.

Seeing that the Impassioned Eye was already taken from Cartier-Bresson’s film, Stieglitz’ people had to settle with The Eloquent Eye.  Stieglitz began making images at the beginning of the 20th Century to document the New York that was in transition.  His goal was to make photography a work of art.  An early member of the Pictoralist movement, Stieglitz started the Photo Secession, a group of photographers who he felt were the best at that time.  Soon after came the publication of his magazine Camera Work and the opening of his gallery at 291 5th Ave.

The gallery originally showcased work from European painters and artists.  Picasso was awarded his first US show there.  Soon, the gallery focus solely on American artists and within that group only one photographer, Paul Strand.  A new face emerged in the group, a face of a woman by the name of Georgia O’Keefe.  Stieglitz fell for O’Keefe and eventually they married.

Stieglitz picked his camera up again and began making pictures of O’Keefe.  Through the images of O’Keefe, Stieglitz’ goal was to make a composite portrait of one person…every mood…every body part.

The production value of the documentary Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye rivaled the previous documentary I watched on Kertesz.  This 72 minute story explores the life of one of the most influential photographers  who helped shape the world of documentary and photojournalistic photography.  Using the camera and his eye to capture the ‘decisive moment’, Cartier-Bresson was able to tell stories with a single image.  He stated that the foundation of many of these images were based on geometry and structure.  When flipping through stacks of prints on his desk he then said, “I’ve never been able to enlarge a photo…I’m just interested in the shot.”

For someone who traveled the globe roaming the streets in the name of photography, Cartier-Bresson was a private person and looked rather camera-shy as he spoke.  One thing I noticed in the film was when he would play classical music in his apartment, his eyes would follow the beats and rhythm of the music and it seemed to bring a pulse of energy into his body.

Later in life, he put down his camera and began to draw again.  This is what he would do until his death in 2004.

“Photos are like a stab of the knife…paintings are meditation.” - Henri Cartier-Bresson

This morning I watched, Master’s of Photography: Andre Kertesz, a documentary about The Father of 35mm Photography.  Hungarian born, then re-born in the artistic scenes of Paris, Kertesz began making pictures of his brother and his friends in the countrysides of Hungary as a young man.  After serving in World War I, he decided to follow his passion into photography.  Dubbed The Photographer’s Photographer, he began to capture the human condition of Paris and its surroundings.  Eventually he migrated to New York where he freelanced for some of the popular fashion magazines but had trouble capturing New York as he saw Paris.  He said, “often I would bring my Leica with me to take the photos I wanted to see.”

A meaningful quote that I took from this documentary was when he said, “have respect for yourself and then the material and subject you are shooting.”

Just checked out the film I Am Legend starring Will Smith today.  Based on an apocalyptic view from the effects of a man-made virus, this story tracks one mans mission to find the cure and revive the infected.  I’m well aware that there are viruses in the world that kill off millions of people every year.  Have you ever stopped to think what if something like this happened for real.

 

I was thinking recently back to the Thomas Roma lecture when he told everyone that after a bad car accident he was confined to his house and that is when he started making pictures out his window.  I couldn’t imagine staying home all day…I think I’d go stir crazy.  Although one noted photographer, Josef Sudek, who had one arm often made many successful still life images and photographs from his window.

In Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, James Stewart plays a photographer with a broken leg, confined to his apartment. The Mise en scene began with the camera panning the interior courtyard of an apartment complex, stopping at various windows to watch the scenes that were taking place inside.  Eventually you see the broken leg, then the framed photographs on the wall, then the broken camera on the table.

From his wheelchair, Stewart along with his girlfriend played by Grace Kelley become sleuths from afar, watching one specific apartment where he believes that a husband has murdered his wife.  Various clues key him in to this theory.  Smaller stories are acting out in other windows of this apartment complex that helps to carry the plot along.  Often times these voyeuristic ideas lead to preconceived notions that are created by your imagination, when they are usually the farthest from the truth.  If someone was peering into your window, do you think they would understand your whole story?

I won’t spoil the ending in case someone reading this hasn’t seen the film.

My wife and I are heading to Paris this week. In preparation, I ordered up Paris Je T’aime, this great DVD that has 20 short vignettes roughly 5 minutes long each. It’s nice to see how a variety of directors, from the well known to the obscure present shorts.

In one of the episodes, Steve Buscemi plays a tourist getting harassed while sitting in the Tuileries Metro station. It’s what he doesn’t say that makes this short the most entertaining in this collection.