For the latest episode of the great ongoing NOWNESS Photographers in Focus series, German filmmaker Wim Wenders —who enjoys cult status for his prolific contribution to international cinema, including Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire —talks to NOWNESS about the elusive joy of capturing immediate and polaroids. Read more on NOWNESS.
“His photographs capture quintessentially American landscapes—from neon-bathed motels to empty desert highways”
In a love letter to Polaroid film, The genre-defying director explains the appeal of this inherently ephemeral photographic format, with his images capturing intimate, behind-the-scenes moments on set and archetypal American landscapes—from neon-bathed motels to empty desert highways. Watch below:
This film coincides with a retrospective on Wenders’ photography that is taking place at The Photographers’ Gallery until 11 February 2018.
More Photographers in Focus
Wolfgang Tillmans
Turner Prize-winning multidisciplinary artist Wolfgang Tillmans’ work covers everything from documenting the darkest corners of Europe’s club culture to abstract material images that exist in a place somewhere between photography and sculpture. With music being a strong influence on the artist’s entire career, a recent development saw Tillmans undertake a number of musical projects. Here, the artist talks to us from Berlin Atonal festival, which saw him perform with British producer Oscar Powell. Read more on NOWNESS
Gregory Crewdson
American photographer Gregory Crewdson’s cinematic, often haunting photographs tread a thin line between reality and fiction, inviting the viewer to guess the story behind the enigmatic figures featured. In the latest episode of our series Photographers in Focus, and on the occasion of Crewdson’s exhibition, Cathedral of the Pines, at The Photographers’ Gallery in London, the photographer talks about the purpose and intent behind his compelling, unsettling oeuvre. Read more on NOWNESS
Daniel Arnold
Known for his off-guard shots of the citizens of New York, Daniel Arnold captures the real experiences of American life. A passion that started off as a pastime, practised between his jobs as a journalist, Arnold’s photographic style—and perhaps the reason for his wide appeal—sees him get up-close to his subjects, capturing authentic moments that draw viewers in. Read more on NOWNESS
Mark Romanek
American filmmaker Mark Romanek has been behind the lens of some of the greatest music video of all time, including Nine Inch Nails’s grimy S&M-laden Closer, Michael Jackson’s iconic future vision in Scream and the touching portrait of singer Johnny Cash for his version of track Hurt. Though best known for his feature films One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go, and as one of the trailblazing directors leading the way during the heyday of MTV, Romanek has spent his career quietly photographing the A-list company he finds himself in each day. Unearthed recently for a recent exhibition at Paris concept store Colette, the images give an intimate view into the moments between takes, from time in the studio with Kanye West to bumping into Iggy Pop on the street.
Mustafah Abdulaziz
Berlin-based photographer Mustafah Abulaziz has spent the last five years in a singular exploration of the world’s relationship to water. Returning to his Brooklyn roots, an exhibition of his work has launched as an illuminating series of lightboxes in Brooklyn Bridge Park beside New York’s East River—as part of annual photography festival Photoville. A collaboration between NGOs Earthwatch, WaterAid, WWF and HSBC’s global water programme, Abulaziz’s Water Stories—a series that forms part of his wider project about water—sheds light on the human and environmental impacts of the earth’s most precious resource.
Issui Enomoto
Taxi driver-turned-photographer Issui Enomoto uses his time between picking up customers to document the streets of Yokohama city, Japan. Read the feature on NOWNESS.
Iwan Baan
Director Rasmus Daniel Taun turns the lens on Dutch photographer Iwan Baan as he undertakes the painstakingly precise process of documenting the breath-taking Harbin Opera House. Read the feature on NOWNESS
Daido Moriyama
Andrea Cossu’s documentary about iconic Japanese street photography Daido Moriyama’s color works taken between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Read the feature on NOWNESS
Cuba Raw
Photographer Robert Whitman captures the many faces of the Caribbean island For a number of years throughout the late 1990s, photographer Robert Whitman documented Cuba in a way that captured an up-close-and-personal vision of the country’s varied inhabitants and visitors. In Cuba Raw, a new short documentary by director Oriel Pe’er, the American lensman recounts his love affair with the Caribbean island nation.
Ethan Sprague
The players and ballers of New York’s West 4th Street courts.
“I like to work with nutcases, people who don’t conform,” says Milan-born filmmaker Alex Grazioli, who found the oddball photographer and subject of Ethan Sprague: The Camera and the Cage through yet another unorthodox character. Grazioli, who splits his time between New York City and London, was working on a feature documentary about Abel Ferrara, and after sharing a slice at Gotham’s famed Joe’s Pizza, Ferrara suggested they go watch some basketball down the street. Grazioli was struck by the in-your-face nature of the games at the courts on the corner of West 4th Street and 6th Avenue, where a fence barely separates players from passersby and onlookers. “[There was] this weird-looking older guy taking photographs, this geek amidst all these black guys with ripped bodies,” says Grazioli, describing Ethan Sprague.
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