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| From John Frankenheimer's Civil War docudrama "ANDERSONVILLE." A platoon of Georgia Civil War re-enactors |
I was reminded of a great photographic adventure in Georgia; photographing John Frankenheimer's Emmy winning, Civil War epic Andersonville; The story of the Union Army's notorious prison camp for Confederate soldiers. A challenging, period stylish project for my friend, legendary director John Frankenheimer; and commissioned by a creatively open minded Barbara Griffin, Director of Photography for TNT.
Everything was shot with Polaroid T55 pos/neg film to produce a Civil War era style photograph. The only possible camera had to be hand held because of all the action with horses and soldiers; that was when I became familiar with the Speed Grafix press camera, a 4x5" camera from the 1940s with range-finder focus. The Polaroid T55 was a pos/neg film developed by Ansel Adams and Dr. Land in the 1940s. This amazing film is no longer manufactured, causing much sadness to a distinct group of photographers. The negatives had to be pealed away and processed in a bucket immediately, on the spot. Producer Connie Conway kept our little photo train on track.
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| Director John Frankenheimer - T55 Polaroid, silver gelatin print |
The pictures looked so authentically period. Subsequently two large public exhibitions of the photographs were presented, one at the Director's Guild in Hollywood and another at TNT in Atlanta.
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| A Union company engaging - T55 Polaroid, silver gelatin print |
#photography #civilwar #Polaroid #film #Onassignment #fineartphotography #Branding #largeformat
