We have seen two films which have made use of the photographs: Sokurov’s Elegy from Russia and Marker’s La Jet ” ee. These two films, however, differ in the way they employ photographs, in several ways. Photography constitutes only a part – though large – of Sokurov’s film whereas Marker’s film is based on still images (actually, La Jet ” ee is a “photo roman by Chris Marker”, as stated in the credits of the film).
Sokurov uses photographs as documents to depict the historical background in which the dying old man lived. On the other hand, Marker uses photographs as a narrative element.
I believe photographs are sometimes – if not most of the time – more effective motion pictures. In the continuous flow of moving images the audience is bound to miss certain details. However, photography, freezing a particular moment in time, is maybe all about details: a facial expression, something in the background invisible to the first glance etc. The spectator is a photograph is more interested in details and more alert for them.
Walter Benjamin, in his acclaimed article “The Work of Art in the Age of Reproduction”, says: .”.. in photography, process reproduction can bring out those aspects of the original that are unattainable to the naked eye yet accessible to the lens… .” (Film: Psychology, and Society, page 678).
What Sokurov and Marker do is something very similar to what Benjamin says. Instead of reproducing some other work of art using photographic techniques, they reproduce photographs with the help of a movie camera, which enables them, especially Sokurov, to catch even the most minor details in the photographs they use. Sokurov moves on the photograph with his camera as if he is moving on a real scenery, zooming on details “unattainable to the naked eye”, like the faces of three little boys in the background, who otherwise appear only the size of ants in the photograph.
The Essay on The Impact of Photography
The photographic "truth" Manipulating & questioning the photographic truth, then and now Photography as documentation Fixing identities Documenting the deviant The physical classi? cation of deviance How we read photographs: as particular, real, veridical, "objective" (What's left out: photography and art) 3 Photography Before The prettiest Landskip I ever saw was one drawn on the Walls of a ...
In terms of Plutonian philosophy the application of such a technique might seem to remove the spectator four times from the ‘truth’ of the world of ideas. However, setting aside the world of ideas, I believe, we get closer to the reality – as much as it is possible, as that moment in the photograph cannot be lived again and always keeping in mind that the chosen gaze is that of the director and thus it is a manipulative one – than we would if we merely looked at the photograph.
