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SPOTLIGHT
Katie & Jill
(click to enlarge)
Still going...
"I first met Katie at the Chicago City Pound," says Jill of her terrier mix. "I went intending to get a different dog, and my roommate called to me and said she thought I should take a look at a different one - and that was Katie. She was thinner and less grey, but had those same fabulous fluffy ears and that sweet face. She was sitting way back in the corner of the cage, ears up, tail thumping. That was 13 years ago!"
Jill came to the studio for two reasons: Katie and mom. She says, "I've wanted good pictures of Herself," meaning Katie, "for a while, and when my mother started nagging me for a decent picture of me, it seemed like it was time to do something."
Jill says Katie was full of energy at her photo shoot, and barely sat still.
Fortunately, all it takes is a sixtieth of a second.
Our framing partners
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REFLECTION & REFRACTION
Two Movies, No Color
At the end of January I had the flu (yes, that flu) so I had the opportunity to revisit a couple of my favorite films, La Jetée by Chris Marker and Don't Look Back by D. A. Pennebaker. The two films haven't much in common, but both of them offer pleasures to fans of classic black and white.
La Jetée
Most of my earlier childhood memories could be described as foggy at best, but I distinctly remember seeing La Jetée when I was in elementary school. It says a lot about this movie that I not only recalled the film but also its French title well over thirty years later. I'm not sure what it says about public education in South Bend, Indiana in the sixties - the film seems like a strangely dark and disturbing choice for showing in elementary school.
I was thinking about the film about two years ago, so I tracked it down in a collection of short films called Short 2: Dreams. It has also been released with another Chris Marker film, Sans Soleil, by Criterion.
I found La Jetée as compelling as I had remembered it to be. Set in a post-nuclear-apocalypse future, La Jetée is a sometimes dreamy, sometimes nightmarish account of scientists who send a man back into the past in an attempt to straighten out their present. If the premise sounds familiar, that's because La Jetée inspired director Terry Gilliam to make the film The Twelve Monkeys.
The movie has always stood out for me because director Chris Marker crafted nearly all its 28 minutes of narrative from still photographs.
Making a compelling thirty-minute film entirely from stills would challenge a 21st century filmmaker using all digital technology, but this film was made in 1962. I can't watch the film now without thinking I smell fixer, imaging director Marker (or an assistant) first processing hundreds of rolls of film and then standing in the dark, painstakingly hand printing the hundreds of grainy, high-contrast black and white prints Marker would stitch together to make this film.
Don't Look Back
This verité documentary follows Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England. If you like - or have ever liked - The Bob, you really must see this film.
The filmmaker, D. A. Pennebaker (who was born in Evanston), came to filmmaking by way of a background in engineering. Don't Look Back broke new ground in part because Pennebaker re-engineered his 16mm movie cameras to expand their battery life, increase their portability, and to separate the sound recording from the filming.
I first saw this film around 1980 at the Fox Venice, at the time a popular revival house in Venice Beach, California. I'd been a Bob Dylan fan since I was nine years old but had rarely if ever seen a recording of him speaking until I saw this movie. Pennebaker captured many hours of the young Dylan sparring with reporters, clowning with friends and singing to packed auditoria and theaters. Soon Bob Dylan would become much more difficult to gain access to, but Don't Look Back provides a rare, insiders' glimpse into his life at the time.
I remember a lot of hoopla around this showing - the release of a brand new print from the original negative. The hoopla was well deserved. Shot on high-speed black and white film, the movie had a glistening quality. It literally sparkled.
If you've seen black and white photographs made from a high-speed film (such as the venerable Tri-X), then you know what I mean by grain. This documentary was shot with high-speed, 16mm, black-and-white film (grainy to begin with), which was probably push-processed, further increasing its graininess. The 16mm negative had been blown up to a 35mm print for theatrical release and this magnified the grain still more.
Imagine seeing a beautiful black and white print in which you can see the distinct grain pattern. Now imagine that distinctive pattern or texture changing twenty-four times each second. That's what happens when you watch a film. Subtly, almost imperceptibly, the imagery seems to glisten and sparkle.
I can't recommend the flu, but if you have a chance to see either of these magnificent films in all their black-and-white glory, by all means do.
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COMMUNITY FOCUS
 Humanity: As We See It
Click on any photograph to enlarge.
We're pleased to announce a one-day-only exhibition of a unique kind of dog photography - images captured by the dogs themselves.
Humanity: As We See It features portraits and still-lifes taken by some of our canine clients. These groundbreaking, dog's point-of-view pieces bring a previously undocumented perspective to fine-art photography.
 Rosie, a labradoodle and featured artist in the show, found her photographic muse when her people brought her to Sutton Studios for a portrait sitting.
She begged to return.
Camera in paw, she captured these photos in her now-famous Liver Treat-ise.
 Clive, a shih tzu and an icon in the dog-photography community, made his mark presenting the small dog's point-of-view for human audiences.
Art critic Robert Muttley describes Clive's work as, "audaciously enlarging a tiny world for a proportionally gargantuan audience with panache and incisive wit." Often controversial - Clive is known for not always portraying homo sapiens in the most flattering light - his exhibitions always draw a large crowd.
 The work of both photographers can only be seen at Sutton Studios on Tuesday, April 1.
It's an unfortunately brief engagement, but the show is very much in demand, and constantly on the move. Curator Sandy Whitewash explains, "With such an extraordinary and improbable exhibition, we just have to go where the people are."
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