Saturday Short

I don't like to take photographs of people who are sad.

I somehow have this misguided therapeutic idea that

it's my role in the universe to make people feel better.

~ Elsa Dorfman

Film Poster

Today's short is the trailer for Errol Morris's documentary The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography (2016). Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dorfman, who was most interested in "the surfaces of people", took photographs for 35 years, using an unwieldly, weighty (240 pounds) Polaroid 20"x24" camera. The subjects of her large-format portraits included families, Beat poets (e.g., Allen Ginsberg, Peter Orlovsky), folk and rock stars (e.g., Bob Dylan), and other notables. Before retiring, she invited Morris to her studio to share her memories and give him a look into her archives.

The 76-minute film was screened at the Toronto International Film Festival and Independent Film Festival Boston and officially opens June 9 in Boston.

The B-Side at Neonrated on FaceBook and Instagram

Elsa Dorfman Website (Dorfman describes her Website as her "obsession".)

Elsa Dorfman Photography on FaceBook

Read Mark Feeney's article "'The B-Side' Could Be Early Birthday Present for Photographer Elsa Dorfman", Boston Globe, April 21, 2017.

Also see Sara Cravatt's "Celebrated Portraitist Elsa Dorfman Takes Her Final Giant Polaroids" at American Photo. Included is an 8:54-minute radio segment with Dorfman.