JEFF BRIDGES CRAZY HEART: Stephen Bruton Tribute

Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

Bruton Tribute Video

Stephen Bruton, with music collaborator and fellow Texan, T-Bone Burnett, created the original 'classics' for the film Crazy Heart.

JEFF BRIDGES won the Best Actor SAG Award and the Best Actor Golden Globe Award for his amazing performance in Crazy Heart...and he received lengthy standing ovations both nights! This week you can view Bridges must-see photographs he took while making Crazy Heart here. More about Crazy Heart's soundtrack and video's here. More about Jeff Bridges Wide-lux Camera here.

JEFF BRIDGES: The Widelux Camera

Peter Bogdanovich: Lining Up A Shot, Texasville 1990
Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

Sam Elliot and Jeff Bridges: 'The Stranger' and 'The Dude', The Big Lebowski 1998 Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

"The Wide-Lux is a fickle mistress; its viewfinder isn't accurate, and there's no manual focus, so it has an arbitrariness to it, a capricious quality. I like that. It's something I aspire to in all my work --- a lack of preciousness that makes things more human and honest, a willingness to receive what's there in the moment, and to let go of the result. Getting out of the way seems to be one of the main tasks for me as an artist." – Jeff Bridges, Intro to PICTURES

JEFF BRIDGES has one of the most creative and enjoyable WEBSITES to explore. Among his drawings, music, and film news, there are a couple of (not to missed) Photo Galleries of his behind-the-scenes photographs of Making Iron Man, The Amateurs, and Crazy Heart, taken with a Widelux camera given to him by his wife, photographer Susan Geston. Also posted on his site are useful tips on using the Widelux.

PICTURES is Jeff Bridges book of photographs taken over twenty years, on dozens of movie sets, published by powerHouse Books/Herter Studio. With a foreword by Peter Bogdanovich, the book includes handwritten captions and personal commentary throughout. The proceeds from the sale of the book go to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a non-profit organization that offers charitable care and support to film-industry workers.

JeffBridges.com
...And more about making of Crazy Heart
Great Interview: Jeff Bridges with Bernie Glassman here!

ALINE SMITHSON: Lenscratch Favorites

Shadows and Stains series
Hand painted silver gelatin print (c) Aline Smithson /All Rights Reserved

Shadows and Stains series
Hand painted silver gelatin print (c) Aline Smithson /All Rights Reserved

from "My favorites from the yearly vacation at the lake..."
Lenscratch (c) Aline Smithson /All Rights Reserved

from "My favorites from the yearly vacation at the lake..."
Lenscratch (c) Aline Smithson /All Rights Reserved

Henry from "My favorites from the yearly vacation at the lake..."
Lenscratch (c) Aline Smithson /All Rights Reserved

SHADOWS AND STAINS series: "Shot with a toy camera (Diana), I set out to deconstruct images, overlap or cut my negatives, add thoughts that never get said out loud, add text and texture through traditional methods in the darkroom, add washes of oil paint to the surface, and discard the idea of making the perfect print. I want the shadows and stains of my photographic fingerprints as evidence that I was there, in a dark room." –Aline Smithson

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In December, Photographer Aline Smithson posted the following message on her blog LENSCRATCH: "Send me your favorite photograph of 2009 (that you have taken) and I will post it on New Year's Day." Readers sent images from as far away as India, Burma, Ireland, and Hungary, as well as many from here at home. The following are only a few of the almost 100 images posted:

LENSCRATCH 1.1.10

Finokalia (Φινοκαλιά), Crete
Photograph (c) Phil Bebbinton /All Rights Reserved

Los Angeles, CA
Photograph (c) Maura Brennan /All Rights Reserved

http://www.alinesmithson.com
http://www.lenscratch.blogspot.com

SUSAN BURNSTINE: Homemade Cameras

The Approach © Susan Burnstine/All rights reserved

On The Crest © Susan Burnstine/All rights reserved

I was playing with a friend’s son and his vintage science kit and I saw this really interesting plastic magnifying glass. I looked through it and thought wow this is interesting. I knew I could make a lens out of it, so I stole it.

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SUSAN BURNSTINE was nominated for the 2009 Santa Fe Prize for Photography and winner of B&W Magazine’s 2008 Portfolio Spotlight Award. The images in her current series On Waking Dreams and Instinct are shot on film with homemade medium format cameras and homemade lenses that have cost less than $40 in parts. These cameras are primarily made out of plastic, rubber, molded plastic, a few vintage camera parts and random household objects including string, photo tape, garbage bags, Velcro, parts of toys and children’s science kits along with various materials she happens upon in hobby shops and hardware stores. Susan was one of 100 photographers invited to participate in Review Santa Fe 2009. You can read more about Burnstines work in one of the many articles here. PDN Interview

Susan Burnstine website