Magnum

Summary:

In this interview with FotoTV, documentary photographer Jim Goldberg talks about his early career, as well as his latest book and exhibition project entitled “Open See”, a multi-media exhibit displayed at the Henri Cartier-Bresson Foundation in Paris, France.

Goldberg also discusses what his plans for the future are and shares some interesting facts about several of his earlier works including, “Rich and Poor”, Raised by Wolves”, “Hospice”, and “Nursing Home”.

Open See was a project that took over six years to complete and is a photographic documentation of the lives and experiences of illegal immigrants, refugees, displaced people and asylum seekers who are trying to make new beginnings and a better future in Europe. In particular Goldberg has focused on Greece, since illegal workers and immigrants make up about twenty percent of the population.

It is clear that Goldberg has a desire to make a difference in the world today, and it is through his humane photographs that he wishes to inform the viewer, expose social injustice and therefore, encourage change. His subjects reveal where they are now in life and other relevant personal facts and information by writing over Polaroid’s, which Goldberg has shot, and provided to them, creating a personal connection with a real person, not just another photograph of a nameless subject.

Although his passion is documentary work, Goldberg’s eclectic strategy is to use as many mediums as possible to create a diverse palette of information. Immigration issues in Europe in general are very complex and by creating poetic and metaphorical situations, his photographs seem to simplify the unknown and raise questions, engaging the heart and mind, giving a sense of underlying hope for the many displaced individuals.

Summary:

In this film, acclaimed photojournalist Eli Reed, Reed, the first black photographer for Magnum, reflects on his early beginnings as a photographer and discusses his poignant work.

Documenting his mother in front of the Christmas tree, Reed took his first photograph at age ten. After his mother passed away two years later, the photo became a visual memento he frequently reminisced throughout the years. As Reed shares, “It was not until the photos of Magnum Agency caught my eye did I consider being a professional photographer.” Since Magnum photographers were known for their great sense of composition and attention to detail, Reed could relate to the photos he saw, he describes the photos as being both real and artistic.

Reed’s provocative photographs of people and events are portrayed with emotion and sensitivity. While on a photo essay assignment, he documents the story of a small family by getting close to his subjects, underlining the emotional connection between the individuals. Not only does Reed tell an amazing story with his photos, each scene framed by a great sense of composition, it is his incredible insight and true sense empathy for the people he sees through his lens that tells us much more about the photographer and his subjects.

Reed notes, “Of deep heartfelt and personal value is my book project ‘“Black in America”’, a succession of photographs documenting the broader picture of black life in America, embedded into an historical context. With his photographs, Reed does not merely want document a moment in time, but more so, make someone want to “go there”.

Summary:

In this film, “Unseen” we visit photographer and filmmaker Elliott Erwitt during his exhibition at the “Flo Peters Gallery” in Hamburg, Germany. Erwitt takes us on a visually stimulating journey through time as he walks and talks us through the gallery, commenting on several pieces of his finest work. He eclectically shares with us a humanistic, witty, and personal side of himself that enthralls, surprises, and entertains.

Erwitt discuss in detail some of his early advertising work and divulges a little trick he used that can actually be seen in an end shot. In addition, Erwitt shows us other “once in a lifetime moment” photos, like the funeral of John F. Kennedy and the photograph of JFK’s grieving widow Jackie Kennedy.

Other images stand out due to their placement, just as Erwitt himself stands out in this interview. He wears a plastic “sunny-side up” egg pinned to his lapel, which therefore, one might think he is a comedian or an odd fellow. But it’s exactly this transcending quirkiness that makes us so fond of Erwitt and his work. He himself says in this interview, “a picture is worth a thousand words” and the plastic egg on his lapel befits this phrase absolutely. He goes on to show us his shootings with Marilyn Monroe, pointing out that he placed her portrait next to a portrait of a dog in the gallery. Was there a connection to be discovered? No, it’s just simply that Erwitt is the opposite of mundane and has a multifarious approach to his work, and it is this approach that holds our interest at apex levels.

Erwitt third book, “Unseen”, hence the movie title, is a book of rediscovered, overlooked, and never before seen photos from his archives. He describes the process in making the book as depressing and interesting; depressing because he comes across old mistakes he made in photography, and interesting because he comes across rare gems of unusual photos, some more than fifty years old.

Erwitt was born in Paris in 1928 to Russian parents. In 1939 he emigrated to the United States, together with his family. And as a teenager living in Hollywood, he discovered his interest in photography while working in a commercial darkroom before taking photography classes at Los Angeles City College. In 1948 he moved to New York and began studying film at the New School for Social Research.

In 1953 Erwitt joined Magnum Photos and worked as a freelance photographer and in the late 1960s he served as Magnum's president for three years. Erwitt became known for kind irony, and for a well-proportioned sensibility, which was traditional to the spirit of Magnum. In the 1970s he then turned to film. At first documentaries, then in the 1980s he produced eighteen comedy films for Home Box Office, (HBO) in the United States.

Erwitt’s work is centered primarily on the observation of people, his pictures capturing life's most intense moments. One of the most accomplished photographers of his generation, Erwitt describes himself as a professional photographer by trade and an amateur photographer by vocation.

What led to his fame and longevity can be accredited to a single image and being at the right place at the right time; the kitchen debate photograph, taken in 1959 of Krushchev and Nixon arguing and grandstanding in front of a refrigerator. With his signature style and wit, his images tell the viewers, stories of the famous and the ordinary, the strange and the prosaic.

He was quoted having said, “It's about reacting to what you see, hopefully without preconception. You can find pictures anywhere. It's simply a matter of noticing things and organizing them. You just have to care about what's around you and have a concern with humanity and the human comedy."