An Unlikely Weapon
“If it makes you laugh,
if it makes you cry,
if it rips out your heart,
that’s a good picture.” – Eddie Adams
The Eddie Adams Workshop is a big deal (see previous blogspot). It has been since it came into existence and it’s the dream of every young photographer to one day have the words on their resumes. And yet not until tonight did I really realize what it meant to be offered such an experience.
Justin and I saw the documentary film about Eddie Adams at the Starz Film Center in Downtown Denver called “An Unlikely Weapon.”
Talk about sending me for a ride. It sent shivers down my spine, made me sick to my stomach. It made me chuckle a little, and shed a tear or two. In the end, it was a documentary, but for us it felt like so much more. At the end of the movie, we sort of looked at each other and thought “Damn.” It was eye opening, to see and hear about the actual man behind the workshop that in a few short months we were attending — a workshop so prominent it was actually featured in the documentary itself.
Adams’ persistent dedication to the art of story-telling and the toll it took on him both fascinates me and scares me. Some folks I know in the business have told me they think I would be a good war photographer. I’ve seen enough documentaries about war photographers like Adams and James Nachtwey to know there is no possible way I could do it. Never.
I’m out of things to say. There isn’t much I can say about it, other than reiterate how powerful images can be. I only hope I can live up to the expectations and the opportunity that the Eddie Adams Workshop presents I feel I might be well on my way to making it in the world of photojournalism. It’s what Eddie wanted, and it’s why the workshop exists.
Taken on my iPhone 3G
~~ EDIT (7/11/09 1:42AM MDT) ~~
So I during the documentary they talked about how Eddie Adams shot a portrait session with one roll of film of Clint Eastwood, and how iconic that photograph had become, ending up on the poster for Eastwood’s movie “Unforgiven.” So when I got home I went to turn on the TV and saw an open DVD case on top of our DVD player and it caught my eye. It was that picture, on the cover of “Unforgiven.”
Random thought.
- B.I. 岩本龍夫
Japanese Word of the Day:
写真術 (Shashin Jutsu)
“Photography”
