Film, Stills, and Albert Maysles

As Dave Schonauer writes in his recent blog, Nubar Alexanian has photographed on the sets of many of Errol Morris's documentaries, work collected in a new book called Nonfiction. If you've never seen Morris's 1980 Gates of Heaven, do: I remember it as a brilliant series of talking still photographs. Another great documentary filmmaker, Albert Maysles, actually took his own pictures as he created such classics as Gimme Shelter and Grey Gardens. (Those earlier films were produced with Albert's brother and sound man David, who died in 1987.) Albert was in fact a photographer first, and you can catch his vintage black-and-white prints from the 1950s and 1960s, color stills from the filming of Grey Gardens, and his recent "cinemagraphs" at New York City's Steven Kasher Gallery, where they're on display through March 15. The cinemagraphs (below) are printed directly from frames of actual Maysles films.

 

The Kasher show coincides with the release of A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents (Steidl/Kasher, $60), the first full monograph about the pioneering Maysles brothers. The contents of the book, which has a foreword by Martin Scorcese, come in part from a previously unknown stash of original negatives, prints, film outtakes, and production notes. Not surprisingly, as we learned when were putting together our "Photography and the Movies" issue (out now), Albert Maysles had a great eye for the still image too. (See the early examples below.)

 

In yet another instance of what goes around comes around, Grey Gardens has been made into a fictionalized feature film due out this year, with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore playing Jackie O's eccentric aunt and cousin, the stars of the original Maysles documentary. (Below, Albert Maysles' color still from the filming of Grey Gardens.)

--Russell Hart

Comments

[Michal Daniel]

Hello Russell, long time no talk -- since my FOMA USA film days, in fact -- hope you're well!!

A thought crossed my mind: since you did a "Photography and the Movies" issue, how about "Photography and the Theatre" issue, sometime in the future. Needless to say, I'd not suggest it, if I didn't have the largest personal on-line depository of theatre photography on the planet.

Best,

Michal