Did you ever see the Robin Williams movie, “One Hour Photo”? It’s about a mentally unstable photo developer who becomes fixated on the family of one of his clients. He obsessively collects and studies extra prints of the family’s photos and basically ends up going crazy at the end of the movie in a way that’s very unfortunate for everyone invloved. It was a well-done movie --- it got rave reviews --- but it didn’t do much for the reputations of all the relatively normal, emotionally healthy folks who actually do the job of developing our snapshots every day. One such professional at a photo lab in Pikesville, Maryland, has thought a lot about the implications of his daily work...
(This piece is slated to air on WYPR's weekly arts program, The Signal, on 12.10.04)
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Piece Description
Did you ever see the Robin Williams movie, “One Hour Photo”? It’s about a mentally unstable photo developer who becomes fixated on the family of one of his clients. He obsessively collects and studies extra prints of the family’s photos and basically ends up going crazy at the end of the movie in a way that’s very unfortunate for everyone invloved. It was a well-done movie --- it got rave reviews --- but it didn’t do much for the reputations of all the relatively normal, emotionally healthy folks who actually do the job of developing our snapshots every day. One such professional at a photo lab in Pikesville, Maryland, has thought a lot about the implications of his daily work... (This piece is slated to air on WYPR's weekly arts program, The Signal, on 12.10.04)
4 Comments
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Review of We see it all: life through the eyes of a photo developerThis is a really well put together piece. The phot lab technician turned philosopher is a provocative subject. I thought the part about photography as a ritual was particularly resonant and actually quiet brilliant. Great job! |
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Review of We see it all: life through the eyes of a photo developerThe subject of this piece - a one hour film lab developer and part time wedding photographer - has obviously thought long and hard about 'snapshots' and offers a whole whack of world weary opinions and near misanthropic ideas on the matter in this piece. Very well put together. Voyeurism, photography as faux art, contextualism, albums as self-delusion. It's all here. Loaded for bear. I really enjoyed listening to this.
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Broadcast History
This piece is slated to air on WYPR's weekly arts program, The Signal, on 12.10.04
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Kari Chapin
Posted on January 21, 2005 at 02:02 AM | Permalink
Review of We see it all: life through the eyes of a photo developer
I am having a hard time really putting what I thought about this piece into words. The photo developer, who is also a photographer himself, is not someone that I really liked. I felt like this piece was sort of trying to justify who this guy is, and why he feels the way he does about processing pictures. He seemed mildly judgmental about the pictures he develops everyday and I am not sure I like that perspective. The listener is taken back to his childhood, when he was first given a camera, yet I never really felt the connection the piece was trying to make. We also get a glimpse into why he did not like his photography program in college and how that has skewed his vision and philosophy of photos in general today. But again, I didn’t make a connection. This piece was something I would continue to listen too if it was on, but I am not sure I would be happy about the time spent when it was over. I think the idea is a good one, but something about the guy who was interviewed just didn’t sit right with me.