Jason Tag Photography

The other night I got a little red envelope in the mail.  The kind of “red” envelope that contains a “dvd”  I don’t wanna mention any names or anything(since they’re not paying me for the ad!)  but it starts with an “N” and ends in a “etflix”!

Anyway I’ve been on a photography kick in a really big way.  The first movie in the series of photographer documentaries I got was a PBS film called “Ansel Adams: American Experience“.  which just blew me away.  I thought I knew all about Ansel Adams and his contribution to the art of photography… but what I didn’t know was anything about Ansel except for his love of the wilderness and his work to preserve it.  If you get a chance to watch it I highly reccomend this little jewel of a film.  They don’t go too much into photography…ok, about as much as you would have to since they are talking about Ansel Adams!  But they really delve into his life and how he lived, where he lived, and the things he did during his life.  I was shocked at how much time they spent talking about his life outside of photography.  But for me, that information seemed just as important as his art.  Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

The next film in my queue of documentaries about photographers was “William Eggleston in the Real World“.  This film really kinda grabbed me in an interesting way.  I found it extremely hard to watch.  The filmmaker decided to more or less just follow William Eggleston on a few photo trips.  so there is not a lot of talking in the begining of the film.  it’s like you’re just watching a guy walk down the street and take pictures.  but as they started talking and showing some of his images.  I was amazed at how interesting the images were and his process as well.  Whether I liked the images or not they made me think.  and they made me think about photography in a really different way.  I’m always worried about not getting the whole picture and here is a guy who seems to be only shooting 10% of it sometimes.  but it’s interesting.  I can’t really say that I like or dislike his work.  Only that it changed how I think about photographs now.  And even the filmmaker acknowledges this power of Mr. Egglestons work.  But definitely watch this one as well.  If for no other reason to expand your mind…  without any hallucinogens!

And third film in my roundup of photographer documentaries… “Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye“.  I just got it in the mail today and so I’m just about to pop it in the player and sit back and watch.  I don’t know anything about Henri Cartier Bresson, but soon I will.

J

P.S. as of the time of writing this, I am still wating for my plastic Diana medium format camera to arrive… hopefully soon!