Actor Jeff Bridges is best known for his work in front of the camera, his legendary cinema career spans almost seventy years. Now, he’s letting us all in on what Hollywood is like between takes in his new photo book, Jeff Bridges: Pictures Volume 2.
Jeff Bridges began taking photos on film sets back in 1984. Since then, he has documented the behind the scenes world of every film he has been a part of. As part of his process, Bridges collates his favourite images together in a personalised book that he shares with cast and crew. And now it’s our turn to see what we’ve been missing behind the lens with his follow-up to 2003’s Pictures.
Bridges shoots on a Widelux camera, a mechanical analogue camera that produces rich panoramic images. Speaking to Dazed, Bridges describes it as “a bridge from still photography to motion picture photography. It’s a combination of those two things, and capturing time in one instant, on one negative”. The edges of the negatives are retained in the finished images, embuing them with an old-Hollywood feel.
Bridges says that taking photos can help him reset between takes,
“Taking pictures can serve me that way. You’re not overworking the task, and you come into it in a fresh way. But sometimes I stay in character. I mix it up.”
The photos include shots from the set of Tron: Legacy, one showing a glowingly happy Olivia Wilde standing between the lit-up floor and ceiling of the set. Bridges also got a shot of Daft Punk when they visited the set, but only when the helmets were up, to preserve their anonymity.
Two shots of Jodelle Ferland and George Clooney show them doing the traditional Greek Tragedia/Comedia poses. He sees the images as a modern version of the masks, which highlights the playfulness of actors and their willingness to be silly for the camera. He also sees the photos as expressing the range of human emotions that actors represent in a role.
The actor was even allowed to infiltrate the extreme secrecy of the Iron Man set to capture a striking image of the Iron Man suit, glowing in front of a dark screen.
The photos allow Bridges to remember moments in his career that he might otherwise have forgotten,
“That’s the other thing I love about these photographs: they help remind me of the times.”
Source: Dazed Digital
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