Watching movies is almost a casual way that everyone likes, but I like documentaries very much, documentaries that take real life as the creative material, take real people and real events as the object of expression, and process and display their art, to show the truth as the essence, and use the real to cause people to think about the film or TV art form is very my taste, maybe I like documentary photography! Here are a few documentaries on photography: Netflix and Photography: Contacts, War Photographer, Arakimentari, Near Equal Moriyama Daido, The Adventure of Photography, Manufactured Landscapes, La Ciudad De Los Fotógrafos (Photographer's City) and Ashes and Snow.
Netflix and Photography: Contacts
A collection of dozens of photographic masters, 3 DVDs, more than 6 hours of video collections, accompanied by vocals, reading the creative heart sutra written by the photographer. Every photograph will not touch every viewer exactly the same.
I don't have too many recommended words about this, we all know that whether it is practicing calligraphy or painting, copying is the most basic way of learning, photography is the same, but the difference is that we do not copy the works of the master, because the photographic works cannot be imitated, and in the history of that moment is a recurrence of reproduction. The imitation of photography is to watch the classic works of the masters, to understand the meaning and ideological realm they want to express, which is the photographic copying I understand.
War Photographer
James Natchwey, who joined Magnum Pictures in 1985 at the age of 36, has won various photography awards over the past 20 years and created a photojournalism record: interviewing all the wars and conflicts that have taken place around the world over the past 20 years, and has been hailed as "the bravest and most important war photographer of the past 20 years." At the end of 2001, due to the disagreement with the photo agency in terms of the share of picture sales, he bid farewell to Magnum and organized a new small picture club with 6 other colleagues- VII., which set a precedent for photographers to shoot, manage and operate on their own. This is the second time that after Salgado's withdrawal, Magnum is facing embarrassment due to the departure of the famous photographer, which has aroused a lot of discussion in the international press photo community.
From June 1999 to June 2001, Frey followed and interviewed Natchevi for two years to shoot the 96-minute documentary, leaving their footprints in Kosovo, Jakarta, Ramallah, East Java, New York and Hamburg. The shooting method is also very special: Frey hung a special ultra-small camera on Natchevey's camera, which not only allowed the audience to see how the famous photographer observed and how to shoot, but even let us hear his every breath and every shutter press, which was very live. The film begins with a monologue by Natchevi: "Every minute of the scene, I was trying to escape, I didn't want to see what was happening. But I'm a camera guy, should I just push the shutter and dodge it, or should I take on the responsibilities of a photojournalist?
The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, the first time a cinematographer-themed film has won an Academy Award.
"If your picture isn't good enough, it's because you're not close enough." This is the famous war photographer Robert E. Lee during World War II. A word that Capa said. When I watched this movie, this sentence kept coming to my head. War photographers may be a profession that many people aspire to, and I have had this idea since I watched Tang Shizeng's "I Return from the Battlefield" in the early years, but when I watched Susan Sontag's "About the Pain of Others", I was confused. I am reminded of Kappa's sentence, which is a paradox, the first half of which states that the photographer himself is a spectator, and the second half of which states that the photographer must be a participant. Since I was involved, there was subjectivity, and the photos I took became a guiding vision with my subjectivity. After watching this film, I was thinking about it for a long time, and now the thinking continues.
Arakimentari (camouflage)
I think a lover of some independent thought would not be unaware of the name Araki Keisuke, a controversial Japanese photographer. He never shy away from visualizing sex in his works, and as a result he was criticized and criticized by apologists. His behavior is obedient, his clothes are exaggerated and casual, and in the eyes of many people, he is clearly a colored old man who can eat female model tofu at any time, but he has also launched the famous film album "Sentimental Journey" with great affection, which records the bits and pieces of Araki and his beloved wife Yoko's honeymoon journey. Satoshi has passed away, and the moments in the film series have become forever, and Naoto Takenaka's film "Tokyo Hiwa" based on the couple has felt countless people. Gentle Araki, unruly Araki, which one is more real? Director Travis Klose, through a large number of interviews and records, may be able to show a more authentic Araki Sutra like you and me...
The film won best documentary and best score at the 2004 Brooklyn International Film Festival.
Araki is a photographer I like very much, not entirely because his photos can make you so addicted to watch, I like this old man in part because of his attitude to photography and life, in "Arakimentari", Bjork said: "The pictures of the sky and clouds convey Araki's thoughts about his dead wife." "I think no matter what you do, the hardest thing is to do it, not what to do. It's easy to take pictures of the person you love the most and watch her die, but Araki didn't do that, probably because he wanted to take back everything in his life, including the favorites. "Loving someone must be spoken out, it's a good feeling of self, but as a man, sadness is preserved."
Near Equal Moriyama Daido (near Moriyama Avenue)
The standard-bearer of Moriyama Avenue Provocation (PROVOKE), he is currently an important photographer who has gained worldwide recognition. His strong visual style is especially popular with contemporary Japanese youth, which makes him a little overwhelmed. But the sensibility and vitality of youth presented in his works made him deserve the applause of young people.
I didn't say a word of recommendation about this documentary, because I haven't fully seen it, and many downloads on the Internet have failed! The name Moriyama Avenue alone is worth recommending, and if anyone finds a valid download link, remember to notify the little brother.
The Adventure of Photography
The film reviews the history of photography techniques over the past 150 years since Daguerre invented photography. From early silver plate photography to wartime photographic journalism to renowned contemporary artists, this film includes 1,700 photographs and 300 artists, not only the history of photographic art, but also its century and a half experience. Led by famous photographers, this film will surely dazzle you and dazzle you.
Photography came into being in the middle of the nineteenth century, and due to the success of the Industrial Revolution, the development of the Western social market economy had matured by this period. With the decline of the aristocratic class and the rapid development of the city, the bourgeoisie and the civic class have sprung up in large numbers, the social atmosphere has changed, and the pursuit of fashion has become fashionable. Therefore, as soon as photography appeared on the stage of human society and culture, it immediately became a hot spot and a highlight. In the past decade alone (1849), in Paris, France alone, there are 100,000 people who have taken Daguerre's serollet portraits. By 1853, more than 10,000 people in the United States had taken more than three million photographs. The enthusiasm of photography at that time can be seen.
Due to the evolution of society, some intellectuals who were either born or attached to the decline of the former aristocracy were not accustomed to the new life, or did not understand the end, thus producing a confused and fatalistic world-weariness. The Pre-Raphaelites in the field of graphic arts originated from such social soil. As a result, by the end of the century, the entire European art scene was shrouded in aestheticism, decadence and symbolism with retro tendencies. It is not surprising that this style of styling has influenced the generation at this time from the beginning, and there is no traditional photographic art of its own.
This film can not only learn about the history of photography, but also learn about the world genre of photographic art. Let us know what we should shoot and then think about how to shoot.
Manufactured Landscapes
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky set foot in those developing countries known as the "world's factories", under his lens, there are workers working like workers ants in the assembly line of a factory in Fujian, there are mountains of electronic waste from all over the world in a village in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, there is a shipbreaking factory in Bangladesh that seems to be full of dead bodies, there is a coal mine base in Tianjin Tanggu Port that is like a black cloud rolling in the sky, and there is also a magnificent Three Gorges Dam project that seems to benefit all generations. Under the impact of the economic tide, human beings are chasing the negligible interests in front of them at the cost of the environment, but they do not know that they have already forced the environment and their own destiny to the end...
The film won the 2007 Canada Kinney Award for Best Documentary, the 2007 RiverRun International Film Festival for Best Documentary, and the 2006 Toronto Film Critics Association Best Canadian Film and Best Documentary Award.
A moving footage of more than five minutes, shot in a mega factory in Fujian Province, unveils a series of breathtaking landscapes from Jennifer Baichwal's documentary Manufactured Landscapes. Although I live in this country, I have never really experienced such a scene, and I would like more people to see this film and Edward Burtynsky's work. We used to do his articles, you can go and see it. Edward? Bertinski photographs China
La Ciudad De Los Fotógrafos (photographer's city)
This outstanding documentary recalls a group of Chilean photojournalists and photographers who took to the streets after Pinochet seized power by force in the 1970s to film the people's continued strikes, protests, bloody clashes and other important events. Although many people today are not famous and some have passed away, they risked their lives to record the real scenes of the city of Santiago during the Dark Ages, which provide evidence for future generations, "The City of photographers", the most important documentary film in Chile in recent years, which reviews the unforgettable painful memories of Latin America from the unique perspective of photographers, and is more professional and comprehensive than the ordinary people's narrative. （Highly Recommended!）
During Pinochet's long dictatorship, a group of professional and non-professional photographers traveled through the city of Santiago all year round, using their cameras to photograph the chilean people's resistance from all angles, and these fearless photographers witnessed blood and bullets countless times in the streets, in the middle of riots and protests. For them, photography used to be a path to freedom, a means of sustaining life, and a way to turn themselves from a bystander into a witness to an event. Dictators have power and guns, and these photographers have lenses and flashes, their cameras are the weapons of the people, and their negatives are the best indictment of the ugly times of the past.
There is a story behind every photograph, and the photographers have lived in danger and fear, but in their lifetime they need to tell the truth and find out: are they the heroes of the past dictatorship or the forgotten people who are still floating in the quiet of democracy? That's their story. A black-and-white story from a black-and-white era in which everyone had to choose between black and white, and the only difference between gray and shade was in their photographs...
I don't say much about this film, I'm afraid that if I say more, the political flavor will be stronger. Let's see for ourselves.
Ashes and Snow
Maybe you've read a lot of photographers' stories, maybe you've seen a lot of landscape photography, but like Gregory, you've traveled the world and photographed classics of the delicate relationship between people, wildlife and nature, and there aren't many photographers full of poetry and spirit.
The moment captured by the camera - the Indian girl playing with the elephant, the Burmese monk under the eagle spreading its wings, the grandson and grandson who hug the cheetah affectionately... These images are pure and immaculate, and have existed in the world for tens of millions of years. Nature photographer Gregory Koober succeeds in finding long-lost love and trust between people and wildlife, and we can't find fear or danger in the picture.
The film is divided into several parts, including elephants, whales, leopards, eagles, and bobcats... The film is extremely beautiful, each chapter, accompanied by music, like a poem, humans and animals do not speak, but the language of the body tells everything. Watching the film and quietly admiring the graceful interaction between animals and humans, the hypothetical thinking in my head is temporarily set aside.