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Private Notes
Photographer Annie Leibovitz has produced some of the most memorable and iconic images of the last 30 years, from her work with Rolling Stone magazine through to her Hollywood cover portraits at Vanity Fair. She has also recorded the horrors of war in Rwanda and Sarajevo and taken intimate shots her own friends and family, including Susan Sontag. This documentary, directed by her sister, is a fascinating portrait of a great talent, featuring vintage footage of Leibovitz in action during the 1960s and contributions from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton, Mick Jagger and George Clooney
If you're after a flattering photo to hang in the living room, David Lachapelle is not the man to go to. However, if you like pictures, fun, surreal and perhaps even a bit grotesque you've come to the right place. David Lachapelle is perhaps not a name you're familiar with but you're almost definitely aware of his work. He's a director and photographer, the man responsible for the Lost cast dancing in 1920s outfits, and the wickedly funny Boots campaign showing impossible glamorous ladies doing mundane Christmas tasks. He's also regarded as one of the ten best photographers in the world, his work drawing comparisons to Salvador Dali and Frederico Fellini. We think we can see some Andy Warhol in there too. This dynamic documentary follows David and his crew on a wild ride from a Vogue shoot of Alicia Keyes to an assignment with Elton John winding up with a major exhibition at Vienna's Kunsthaus Museum. Whether you find his work offensive or hilarious, art or trash, you certainly won't find it bland.
In 1973 Henri Cartier-Bresson spoke as part of a series organized by Cornell Capa. HIs observations on photography are paired here with many of his most well known images
Portrait of the late photographer, made when he was 93, for once persuaded to appear on the other side of the lens Henri Cartier-Bresson died on 3 Aug 2004 a legend. His highly individual street photographs - spontaneous yet incisive, everyday yet philosophical - are the centre of this film, made when he was 93. The veteran photojournalist, born in 1908 but then still looking at the world through his unique eyes, talks about his artistic evolution, and of the influence of painting and geometry on his work. He also takes us into the world of some of his artist friends whose works have been landmarks, influences or references for his own. Cartier-Bresson calls photography "instantaneous drawing". He believed that there was a specific moment in each of life's episodes in which all the elements came into alignment resulting in a geometric pattern that revealed all there was to tell about a single episode. Cartier-Bresson had an astounding ability to notice that moment, compose and snap, at the very instant it happened. Unusually, he published his prints with the border of the negative showing - a testament to his vision in the moment, composing the picture there and then, and not relying on cropping after the event. Cartier-Bresson stands as one of the 20th century's greatest photographers also cofounding the international photographic agency Magnum with Robert Capa and others.
Heinz Bütler interviews Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908-2004) late in life. Cartier-Bresson pulls out photographs, comments briefly, and holds them up to Bütler's camera. A few others share observations, including Isabelle Huppert, Arthur Miller, and Josef Koudelka. Cartier-Bresson talks about his travels, including Mexico in the 1930s, imprisonment during World War II, being with Gandhi moments before his assassination, and returning to sketching late in life. He shows us examples. He talks about becoming and being a photographer, about composition, and about some of his secrets to capture the moment.
National Geographic Photographer Tomasz Tomaszewski shares his life and his work in this diary of the making of a film.
Robert Capa, the world's preeminent documentarian of 20th century war, photographed five epic conflicts on three different continents. A handsome, dashing figure, Capa was also a life-long pacifist who wore military uniforms, rode in tanks, jumped out of planes, dodged bullets, and marched in the front lines. His images have affected the lives of those who may not even know his name. As John Steinbeck once said, "he could photograph thought…and capture worlds." With the full participation of his brother Cornell, access to IPC and Magnum, this is the first film devoted entirely to Robert Capa's mythic life. Told with the help of his vast legacy of photographs and writings, it is a testament to great art and to historical horror.
A video profile of avant-garde photographer and filmmaker Robert Frank. It includes selections from his films and interviews with some of his colleagues, including Allen Ginsberg, Jonas Mekas and Sid Kaplan.
It's easy to take for granted the images that provide us with a window on the world - the photographs that give form and color to imagination and help shape our understanding of the world and all that is in it. Some of the people behind the camera are every bit as fascinating as their subjects. The photographers whose work grace the pages of National Geographic magazine are the very best in their field, whether they specialize in nature, travel and adventure, sports or portrait. While profiling some of these preeminent shooters themselves, this series adds a special twist: inviting each photographer to choose his or her own "self portrait" location anywhere around the world. By filming the artists within a setting of their choice, the series provides viewers with a uniquely insightful rendering into the personalities behind the cameras. "Self-Portrait" also pays homage to the craft of photography in all its wonderful diversity. How does the work of the shooter who sits quietly in the bush for hours compare with that of the frenetic war photographer? How can a person photograph the horrors of war or catastrophe without being changed forever? And just who are the artists who capture images from seemingly impossible vantage points like the top of the world, bottom of the ocean - even inside the human body? Shot on film and DVC, this series will give audiences rare insights into the craft of photography as it introduces them to the men and women who, through their work, act as our eyes on the world.
When Mitsuaki Iwago films wildlife, the result is something special. He has achieved enormous success as both a still and video photographer. This program documents the photographic skills of Iwago and his philosophy on wildlife. What is Iwago's secret? "To take wonderful images of wildlife, you have to be trusted by them," is the way he explains it. In other words, you have to get close and literally get on the same level as the subjects. That is no easy matter when the subject is a ferocious lion! The program reveals Iwago's vast knowledge of wildlife, and the in-depth preparation necessary for his projects.
Under the Dark Cloth is a documentary that is "beautifully crafted, thoroughly researched and intimately recounted" (Variety) with generous amounts of Strand's most famous photographs, clips from his films and collaborators including Fred Zinnemann, Cesare Zavattini and Georgia O'Keeffe. It is a valuable and comprehensive introduction to the life and work of Paul Strand suitable for both art historians and general viewers alike.
The Story In the decade plus that he's been covering international news and events and winning a series of prestigious photo awards, 35-year-old Ron Haviv has ignored every mother's maxim: whatever you do, stay out of harms way. In recording some of the most brutal events of the end of the 20th century, he has been put on a Serb death camp list, captured by Iraqi soldiers and Serb militiamen, charged with being a spy, interrogated, imprisoned, and beaten. It's not that he courts danger, but as a photojournalist covering the best and- more often- worst of times, he is thrust into life threatening situations. Ron Haviv has documented many of the post cold war hot spots, including the near civil war in Moscow, the Gulf War and the Balkans War. Depicting both the urgency and the tragedy of war, his work has became internationally known through pages of Time, Newsweek, Paris Match and Stern.
Jennifer Baichwal's cameras follow Edward Burtynsky (1955- ) as he visits what he calls manufactured landscapes: slag heaps, e-waste dumps, huge factories in the Fujian and Zhejiang provinces of China, and a place in Bangladesh where ships are taken apart for recycling. In China, workers gather outside the factory, exhorted by their team leader to produce more and make fewer errors. A woman assembles a circuit breaker, and women and children are seen picking through debris or playing in it. Burtynsky concludes with a visit to Shanghai, the world's fastest growing city, where wealth and poverty, high-rises and old neighborhoods are side by side
Through the Lens is a documentary about the daring photographers who capture images for National Geographic. This program offers a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of ten of the most exciting pictures of the last decade, from icy mountains at immense heights to sweltering deserts below sea level. Features photographers Tom Campbell, Greg Child, Karen Davies, and more. This program originally aired on the
A group of elite conflict photographers have banded together under the photo agency, VII, in an effort to uncover the true meaning of the Iraq War. In the wake of September 11, the VII agency was formed by award-winning veteran photographer James Nachtwey and colleagues, and has since covered the site at Ground Zero, the invasion of Afghanistan and the Iraq War since America plunged headlong into its “War Against Terror. ” For Nachtwey, the accumulated experience of nearly a quarter century of war photography began crystallizing into a vision centered around Ground Zero. Come with us as we discover what this vision was, delve into respective war photographers’ thoughts and actions in the heat of battle, as well as how the face of war has changed since 9/11.
A film about the American photographer James Nachtwey, about his motivation, his fears and his daily routine as a war photographer. If we believe Hollywood pictures, war photographers are all hard-boiled and cynical old troopers. How can they think about ‘exposure time’ in the very moment of dread? Swiss author, director and producer Christian Frei followed James Nachtwey for two years into the wars in Indonesia, Kosovo, Palestine… Christian Frei used special micro-cameras attached to James Nachtwey’s photo-camera. We see a famous photographer looking for the decisive moment. We hear every breath of the photographer. For the first time in the history of movies about photographers, this technique allowed an authentic insight into the work of a concerned photo-journalist.
‘Magnum is, for better or worse, the result of a number of people getting together saying we believe in something which is to record the human condition as compassionately as we can.’ Philip Jones Griffith.
Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world's greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California's modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images
Admist the apparent growing prosperity of India, there is a dark underbelly of poverty of another side of the nation that is little known. This film is a chronicle of filmmakers Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman's efforts to show that world of Calcutta's red light district. To do that, they inspired a special group of children of the prostitutes of the area to photograph the most reluctant subjects of it. As the kids excel in their new found art, the filmmakers struggle to help them have a chance for a better life away from the miserable poverty that threatens to crush their dreams.
The programme looks at the life and work of former ‘Life’ magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. It largely concentrates on his portraits of celebrities from 1929 to the present.
In this rare insight, Bill Brandt shows some of his favourite photographs among them pictures of Paris in the 1920s, his compassionate scenes of Britain in the Depression, his nudes and many distinguished portraits.
This programme takes a fascinating look at the technical possibilities of creative photography and at Feininger’s firm belief that the camera can enrich people’s way of seeing.
The past has been preserved through the perceptions of a Frenchman whose sole aim was to capture the most enchanting moments of his life. Jacques-Henri Lartique speaks French, so most of the dialogue for this episode is in French with English subtitles.
Hungarian born Kertesz is considered a poet amongst photographers. In this film Kertesz talks explicitly about the influences on his work, his early life in Hungary, Paris in the 20s, his colleagues and his friends, Chagall, Mondrian and Colette, and his long and bitter battle for acceptance in the United States.
This programme contains interviews and field footage with landscape photographer Ansel Adams (the field footage was captured at a time when John Sexton was Ansel's assistant). America’s most distinguished landscape photographer, Ansel Adams also has a reputation as one of the world’s greatest printers of photographs.
