ANDERSONVILLE - Photographing the Civil War in Georgia

 

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.  

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. 

A Union company engaging - T55 Polaroid, silver gelatin print

 #photography #civilwar #Polaroid #film #Onassignment #fineartphotography #Branding #largeformat

Summer of 2010- Aspen and California's HWY 1

"The Hills Ranch" Aspen, Colorado - © 2010 Jim McHugh

    It's been an exciting time this summer photographing and printing a variety of new pictures.  While in Colorado for an August exhibit in Aspen I was fortunate to spent several days photographing mountain landscapes with my Speed Graphic and Polaroid. My first challenge was how to approach this subject matter with my camera in a fresh way? 

"Maroon Lake" Aspen, Colorado   © 2010 Jim McHugh

   I will forever be moved and influenced by 19th. century pictoralist photography. I can almost feel the photographer at work. Because of the primitive materials and technologies available at the time, photographic results were completely unpredictable.  Polaroid is very similar, every image has a slightly different different quality.  The pictures of photographer Edweard Muybridge and landscape painter Albert Bierstadt  always fascinate me. There is so much emotion in the imagery. Muybridge is often defined by his “motion” studies, but to me his landscapes are the most stunningly. They are dark and powerfully compelling! Bierstadt’s canvases of Yosemite Valley are filled with vision! So much color and imagination. More than most contemporary photography can produce.

 With Muybridge  and other Pictoralist's work there is such a sense of struggle and triumph in the imagery. Not only must the photographer have the  "Eye" to see; but the prints themselves are so precious, difficult to make! They look three dimensional, like charcoal drawings.

"Lighthouse at Pigeon Point #1" © Jim McHugh

By merging older analog systems and digital technologies I am trying  to create in my prints a slight confusion, an uncertainty. I hope the viewer’s eye will  linger longer on the surface. More like a radio drama than a film; the listener is allowed to supply the unseen. I will be heading back to Colorado this week.

"Skeleton at Scotts Creek - Highway 1" © 2010 Jim McHugh

  

"Pigeon Point" © 2010 Jim McHugh

             

354 N. Bedford Drive- Beverly Hills, CA. 90210 -310 278 4400

"Let's Get Lost" Ghosts of Hollywood

Jim McHugh: Polaroid Photographs

Los Angeles Art Show

January 20 through 24, 2010

Los Angeles Convention Center

Directions and Info for the LA Art Show

Timothy Yarger Fine Art -

Booth G190 - on-site mobile: 310 259 1118
www.yargerfineart.com

"The Du Barry Arms" 30" x 40" © 2007 Jim McHugh -Archival Pigment Print and "The Cocoanut Grove" 20" x 24" © 2001 Jim McHugh -Silver Gelatin Prints

As the grandson of a golden-era Hollywood songwriter, acclaimed photographer Jim McHugh is heir to a particular experience and vision of Los Angeles that's all romance, noir, silhouetted buildings, and casual luxury. With his knack for photographing buildings in the intimate style of a portraitist, and in such a way as to erase all traces of intervening history, McHugh's photographs capture the ghost of what was — and might be again — LA's promise of beauty and the sunny, shadowy, glittering character of America in its vintage red-carpet regalia.

– Shana Nys Dambrot Flavor Pill- New York • December, 2009