Photography in motion

Tuesday July 13th, 2010

PhotoJojo has a list of the top 50 Photography movies that “Photo Fans Need to See.” They make a reference to the classic Muybridge zoopraxiscope and its galloping horse, though that was a photographic update of a much older machine called the zoetrope, which used cutting-edge Magic Lantern technology for its images. (Hey, oil lamps were seriously cutting-edge in the 17th and 18th centuries, what with all the innovation in central draft burner technology.)

Our favorites on the list include the pre-Psycho creepfest Peeping Tom, the famously perplexing Blow-Up, and the groundbreaking La Jetée—which is composed entirely (except for a single shot) of stills!

Some of our photographers have also had the moving picture on their minds. Just to give you a small sample, here are some recent video adventures you’ll find on the blogs of Wonderful Machine members.

Claudio Beier was Director of Photography on this entry for Canon’s Beyond the Still competition, part of a team composed entirely of still photographers:

Another burgeoning DP is Peter Hoffman, whose camerawork can be seen on Doug Seok’s film Found:

Those two are short narrative films, but we also have two forays into different genres. The first is a stop-motion animation by Ben van Hook; Ben put 40,000 still photos together to make this video! (Keep an eye out for the tilt-a-whirl. And bring your 3-D glasses.)

Finally we have a music video, made by Douglas Sonders for Stacy Clark’s song “Touch and Go.” (Wicked Halo tells us that photographers doing music video is a trend these days.) It’s even got a photography theme; you may want to pull out the Kleenex in preparation for some Polaroid nostalgia.

How many of PhotoJojo’s top 50 movies have you seen? And photographers, have you experimented with video?

-Asad Haider