Above: Meryl Streep,
Tragedia/Comedia,
The Giver, 2014.Below: Jack Nation,
Crazy Heart, 2009.a second with ISO 3,200; sometimes I’ll push that
to 6,400 because the light in a studio is usually so
dim. The movie sets get dimmer and dimmer with the
sensitivity of the [movie] cameras they’re using now.
I find that you get a little bit more [in a frame] than
what you see in the viewfinder, that kind of thing.
Is everything you shoot in black and white?
I’ve shot in colour, but I think I really enjoy black-and-
white, especially when you get the kind of richness
that Dual Graphics got [Dual Graphics scanned and
printed Jeff’s images]. I’m really happy with the way
the printing of the images came out [in the book].
I think they’re just great. I think it’s [my use of black-
and-white] from my youth to being in the darkroom,
and being more familiar with that. Then I think it calls
upon the viewer to add their layer of reality, and colour
kind of distracts in a way – well, sometimes it can.
There’s beautiful colour photography as well but
it certainly isn’t as meaningful as black-and-white.
There’s something about black-and-white, man, that
I love, even in the movies. If you look at a [Stanley]
Kubrick movie – Doctor Strangelove or any of those
- and you see those rich blacks... wow, I love that.
When preparing the book, were you hands-on
in the edit – picking the pictures and going
through your archive?
Yeah, very much so.
You must have built up quite a big archive...
Oh, man, I’ll say. This [the book] is the tip of the
iceberg of this stuff. It was fun to go through... But
the edit, as you know, is the tough part. It takes a lot
of time to figure out. I thought Jana Anderson did
a great job of the book’s design and how it feels
looking through it. I’m pretty pleased with it.
Was there anything you were surprised by when
you went through the archives? Was there
something you’d forgotten about, or a shot that
popped out that you’d forgotten you’d taken?
I’m trying to think. There were a couple of shots that
Jana brought to my attention and I’m trying to think
which they are. I don’t have the entire book in front
of me but I said, “Oh I like that, Jana. Cool.”Out of all the movie sets you’ve been on, was
there one that was the most fun to shoot on?
Hmmm. None really pops out in that way. I wouldn’t
say there’s one. They’re all kind of the same in that
way as far as enjoyment and images. There are
always such interesting images on sets.Your images all seem to be very intimate –
do you have a feeling that that’s the case?
Yeah, very much so. Yeah. I like to do that and bring
who’s looking at it in and really feel that intimacy.http://www.digitalcameraworld.com APRIL 2020 DIGITAL CAMERA^139
Jeff Bridges
“ I think black-and-white calls upon the
viewer to add their layer of reality, and
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Jeff^Bridges