Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
At one point in this documentary, made by Annie Leibovitz’s sister, Leibovitz recalls a cover shoot for Rolling Stone that she did with a group of musicians that included Bruce Springsteen and Jackson Browne. She lined them up against a white wall and took photos. When Leibovitz’s mentor, Bea Feitler, saw the photos she berated her, telling the photographer that she could have done so much more with that group of people. How often is that the case—that we could have made so much more out of what we had? One other thing I noticed in this film is that Leibovitz uses her Leica M6 for almost all of her personal and family photos. I recall having seen a retrospective of her work a few years ago at the Legion of Honor in San Francisco. In it, there was a photograph of Susan Sontag in Seattle, on her way back to New York to die. It’s reproduced here in this documentary, and it’s still one of the saddest photographs I’ve ever seen.
Watch the trailer here.
Alamar
Can you make a compelling, feature length film entirely from brilliantly beautiful, well-composed shots? Alamar, which means to the sea in Spanish, answers that question with an emphatic Yes. It’s incredible how much this film by Pedro González Rubio-Rubio does with so little plot and dialogue—how it keeps your attention, how it fascinates and moves you.
See the trailer here
Nylon Canvas Field Bag by Jack Spade
I’ve gone through many bags over the years, and I continue to keep an embarrassingly large supply, but this is the one that I always find myself using the most frequently. It’s clean, simple, water-resistent, and perfectly-sized.
Gordy’s Camera Wrist Straps
If you’re looking for a wrist strap for your camera, look no further than those made by Gordy. They’re simple, well-made, and strong, and they age well. What more could you want? Oh yes, they’re reasonably priced too. They tend to work best with lighter cameras like rangefinders and micro four-thirds cameras.