Interview with the retoucher

New Generation: Fashion retoucher Felice Fawn and student photographer Merry Philips interviewed for NewPhotoDigest by Simon Towler. (Video)

Accidents will happen

How do you make a name for yourself in an over-subscribed profession like photography, where perfection is often just a minimum criterion for entry?

Well — as much as who you know, who and what you photograph — luck and accident seem to play a large part in it.

Simon Towler takes a look at the lucky strokes that have helped some photographers make their name.

Edward Weston: the photographer

A beautifully crafted 1948 documentary about “The Photographer”, featuring Edward Weston. This was to be the year Weston made his last photograph. For the remaining ten years of his life he struggled with Parkinson’s disease.

Robert Knight, rock’n roll photographer

Robert Knight was fortunate enough to build relationships with rock gods like Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Led Zeppelin. In the interview for the new documentary about his life, Rock Prophecies, he discuss some of his moments with these larger-than-life musicians.

Man Ray

Documentary on Man Ray by Jean-Paul Fargier. This documentary includes treatment of Man Ray’s commercial and editorial portraits, and fashion photography, and the techniques he brought to these.

“Thanks to income from his fashion work, his portraits of rich Americans and his photos for advertising, Man Ray was never short of money.” –Jean-Paul Fargier

Richard Avedon

Richard Avedon: Darkness and Light documentary.

“I am so grateful that I have the capacity and the ability to make a living, support my family — which is the definition of being a man for my generation — support my studios, support my special projects, by doing advertising.” –Richard Avedon

Rankin

“Rankin Exposed” a documentary profiling British fashion, advertising and editorial photographer Rankin. YouTube video in four parts.

Mario Testino

Mario Testino Revealed: a CNN Revealed profile of London-based international fashion photographer, Mario Testino.

Lartigue

“In 1962 Jacques Henri Lartigue, was travelling across America by Greyhound bus with his wife, Florette. With him he carried two albums of photographs that Florette had been repairing, to while-away the journey. In a chance encounter with a photographic agent at the end of the trip, these family snaps he’d taken as a child were uncovered. For Lartigue, this changed everything. Within a year he had his first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It captivated the world, and he was hailed a genius of 20th Century photography.”

J.H. Lartigue: The Boy Who Never Grew Up: documentary video.

Helmut Newton by June

“This film is about my husband, Helmut Newton. A few years ago I offered Helmut a video camera for Christmas. But he refused it. So I started using it myself. I looked through the lens and I knew exactly what I was going to do with it: film Helmut at work. This film represents extracts of certain assignments he worked on during this time.” – June Newton (writer and director of “Helmut by June”)