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What did the arrival of cinema do for photography? How did the moving image change our relation to the still image? Why have cinema and photography been so drawn to each other? Close-ups, freeze frames and the countless portrayals of photographers on screen are signs of cinema’s enduring attraction to the still image. Photo-stories, sequences and staged tableaux speak of the deep influence of cinema on photography. Photography and Cinema a considers the importance of the still image for filmmakers such as the Lumi?re brothers, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Mark Lewis, Agn?s Varda, Peter Weir, Christopher Nolan and many others. In parallel it looks at the cinematic in the work of photographers and artists that include Germaine Krull, William Klein, John Baldessari, Jeff Wall, Victor Burgin and Cindy Sherman. From film stills and flipbooks to slide shows and digital imaging, hybrid visual forms have established an ambiguous realm between motion and stillness. David Campany assembles a missing history in which photography and cinema have been each other’s muse and inspiration for over a century.
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Photography and Cinema David Campany Photography and Cinema EXPOSURES is a series of books on photography designed to explore the rich history of the medium from thematic perspectives. Each title presents a striking collection of approximately 80 images and an engaging, accessible text that offers intriguing insights into a specific theme or subject. Series editors: Mark Haworth-Booth and Peter Hamilton Also published Photography and Australia Helen Ennis Photography and Spirit John Harvey Photography and Cinema David Campany reaktion books For Polly Published by Reaktion Books Ltd 33 Great Sutton Street London ec1v 0dx www.reaktionbooks.co.uk First published 2008 Copyright © David Campany 2008 All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers. Printed and bound in China by C&C Offset Printing Co., Ltd British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Campany, David Photography and cinema. – (Exposures) 1. Photography – History 2. Motion pictures – History I. Title 770.9 isbn–13: 978 1 86189 351 2 Contents Introduction 7 one Stillness 22 two Paper Cinema 60 three Photography in Film 94 four Art and the Film Still 119 Afterword 146 References 148 Select Bibliography 154 Acknowledgements 156 Photo Acknowledgements 157 Index 158 ‘ . . . everything starts in the middle . . . ’ Graham Lee, 1967 Introduction Opening Movement On 11 June 1895 the French Congress of Photographic Societies (Congrès des sociétés photographiques de France) was gathered in Lyon. Photography had been in existence for about sixty years, but cinema was a new invention. Louis and Auguste Lumière had just been granted a patent for their Cinématographe, the first movie camera and projection system. Louis, who worked for the family’s photography business, was there to demonstrate it. A boat trip to Neuville-sur-Saône had been arranged for the photographers and Louis set up his camera to record them. He filmed as they came down the narrow gangway onto the quayside. The Lumières made several films of people filing past their camera, including one of workers leaving their factory, the first film to be screened publicly.1 The subject matter was ideal: endlessly different figures passing through a fixed frame express so much so simply, about photographs in motion. The photographers had heard of the Cinématographe and were keen to see it. In the film, which is less than a m