Helena Christensen & Portrait Photographer Mary Ellen Mark | Capture™ Ep. 7 Full | Reserve Channel

you when I started to really kind of watch moviemaking I remember seeing this picture in Apocalypse Now takes a brain to be a good photographer with Brando you didn't know what you would you were facing but Dennis Hopper was easy because he made pictures for he really would give you the picture but brandi was more tricky you couldn't really ask him because you could say no like that you have to understand what makes a picture my 20 years plus and this business has been a bit of a photographer education for me your eyes in the camera and just experiencing the world in a way I'd never had before I hitchhiked around the world when I was about 18 19 years old and I think my interest and passion for photography probably started on that trip and then almost immediately after that's remanded my modeling career started and so then I got to see the world [Music] I've had the rare opportunity to meet many amazing photographers who move through the different landscapes to create powerful images I'm always inspired by how these images transform the way we see people and understand the world a great photograph needs no explanation but on capture these incredible people tell the story of creating their most memorable images I'm Mark Seliger and this is captured hi I'm Mark Seliger and welcome to capture I'm here with Mary Ellen mark photojournalist and portrait photographer his work has changed I think the the scope of modern photography also many Christians supermodel photographer entrepreneur creative director of nylon a CO phone nylon yeah it's great to have you two here and two of you who have a relationship as teacher and student and friends and friends to see your work grow from the inspiration that Mary Ellen has given our world in photography Mary Ellen you start being a cheerleader right remind me that you were a huge head cheerleader yeah Dickey later to you when your career as a cheerleader stopped and then I came to New York I started to work my first experience the evening your work was your mother Teresa work it was very compelling to me because it was photojournalism but there was also this very soulful and creative way that the images were presented I've never really thought of myself as a photojournalist more of a documentary photographer I was trying to make each image stand on tone when I did those pictures I mean it was at a time when magazines were really open to give you that opportunity magazines were like grants for me they gave me these amazing opportunities to do my own work Halina you've been probably the most photographed woman in the last muck last couple of don't know maybe in the world [Music] how did you be in front of the camera influence your being behind can't run I do think that as a model you give something that has to come naturally when I'm behind the camera I seem to stop breathing because I get so captivated by the moment it's almost like everything just comes to a standstill anytime I take photographs I definitely think of all the photographers I work with and wonder what would they do in this moment Mary Ellen being one of them Mary Ellen is there a story behind these two images that's something in Oaxaca that we got access to Bach is a beautiful place is very mysterious we started getting the more there I never show those images I could sort of look at anything after that experience the guy that ran the morgue we called him dr. death it's creepy well he was actually really nice but I'm sorry little animal it was just amazing there it has a lot of mystery and beauty as a principal poetic it is filler that's why I went as a student one of Mary Ellen's workshops when I found out that she was even having workshops it was like are you kidding me the thought of like you can go and work with her and learn from her that was just such an amazing thing for me that I'd was like okay I'm gonna sign up send in my photographs and see if it you know happens in a ditch this picture oh my god was that Oaxaca no it was not Oaxaca you know what's the strange about that photo I don't even know where I took it and the negative was glued together with a piece of paper so when I pulled it apart obviously all that white stuff which looks like ice on a window that's just from the process huh yeah and here's another beautiful picture is going my troop I gotta get a car yes yes I got think we got trade yeah this strange way this looks like you but with brown eyes it actually does look good man I was just thinking that it does the speed of what you don't really see here there's a roll of stretch goldfish yeah that was his lying there next to it but she looked so like she was somewhere completely different in her head in her mind she's thinking she's seeing you she sees something of herself in you definitely was that the circus in your body of work Indian circus did that intimacy and also the gypsy quality of a circus I almost make it more photogenic and romantic well Indian circus was perfect for me I mean it was an amazing experience of just looking at great things to photograph constantly and you know it's just walking in front of your camera you didn't have to do anything they just appeared with the Indians like that how long did you spend on the project I spent six months on it I made two trips but then I went back so more than six months we did 18 different circuses and were they all very similar in terms of the size and what they can offer there's some are very small and some were quite large I went to Mexico made some photographs there but it wasn't the same thing I mean nothing quite matched the great imagination of India everything was so beautiful there it was just amazing it was amazing time I feel it it just was right there in front of me I don't know how much I did it's just you know appeared each circus was more visual than the next it's just I couldn't believe it I mean it was just so beautiful when does volume to come out to go back out of it that's how they changed it's more difficult now because they don't have animals in the circus is there anymore we don't want you to give us a little bit of a background about your relationship with these photographs I saw her walking with Oxfam about three four years ago my first trip was to Peru which is a very personal and emotionally beautiful experience to me my mother's from Peru a lot of these pictures are from some of those tiny little villages that we went to visit you know we don't live in these areas so we're not affected the same way is it when you're in it you feel it in a way that's inexplicable they now don't wear the traditional costumes anymore we're losing some of the most beautiful cultures [Music] he's so happy you're taking his fiction it was very strange I walked down a little street and you know you look into windows and into doors like we would always do you know and I see this guy standing on a table brooming the table and he's brooming it with that smile on his face and all those paintings and photographs hanging in the back and he never changed he just stood like that brooming smiling and it was just one of those moments where you're like the adrenaline just you know kicks in because you're like oh this is one of those you'll never like see this again ever in your life and now you have it on a piece of paper for the rest of your life I feel like the photographs that you have in your house or the photographs that inspire you every day one of my coveted photographs that I keep close to my heart and my apartment is this one which I have always loved that was it in in Barcelona in a gypsy camp but it was done in one of those day-in-the-life projects which used to be great cuz you've got to go to all over the world and just take pictures so this was a day in the life of Spain I have a friend who's a doctor and he was working in this camp so he got me access to this gypsy camp in Barcelona and they have his masks on and they just had a great sense of fantasy and beauty I mean it's something that like I guess I look for in pictures this is something that has a sense of other worldliness and it was just incredible but when I did those pictures it was a totally different time in the world of photography I mean it was before cable television before the internet one was able to get much more access and I have a series I think it's easier being a woman to go out on the street and approach people much easier I cannot gonna go and walk in the house I think it's harder for a man especially when it comes to children you know definitely more and more so you gave me one of the best advice in photographing children you need to get down in the height with them you need to lower down so that you are in their world in their height so that they see you so you create a contact directly between you and the child [Applause] it's harder now access is harder because of the internet too and it's something you have to think about you find that people since you have a public persona do you think people are willing to give you time to work with them and be photographed it's very hard like Mary Ellen was saying um people are very guarded more and more I don't feel comfortable when people walk up to you in the street and just stick a camera in your face I don't think anyone does and I still it's still that sense of that you're guiding something that's you know that's very it's a personal it's like you soul that's kind of what I feel you do with your portraits you get the raw essence of these people no matter how they dress up no matter how they're made up you go right through to the core of them I try and do that it's a little heart more difficult to do that with famous people it was easier to do that with famous people in the beginning you get to watch great people work but it's like taking photographs in a museum because it's not your word it's an incredible moment with Fellini you know I think working on a sunset if the director really loves and appreciates photography you are able to get the pictures you get to see the best people work I learned a lot about how to direct people when you do direct you know when you're working with an actor you have to take control and a great actor will help you and Johnny Depp helps you [Music] [Applause] do you also integrate yourself with your subject you became very close to them and made them trust you and sometimes I feel like that is what you need to get an amazing photograph portrait of anyone I just a shot Kate as Kate Bosworth and I've known her for many years was then to photograph someone that you know is the first time I photographed her it's harder do you think actually with Kate it was just a really beautiful experience because she just got in front of the camera and went into this zone it was a completely silent shoot between us we never even said anything just you know she just got into this headspace and I just followed her in there I love this photograph you know I've never understood why people like this picture I think I have so much stronger pictures [Music] for some reason that picture became an iconic picture I think it's your body language I think it's the combination of you know that trust and the composition it's the way she's styled so why she's dressed and you know often in a foam you if we don't think about this but what even was you see on the street someone and you take their picture how their how their dress helps make the picture I think fashion is really hard to the I bet you're great at it do something you have to understand about fashion when you do it it's not just taking a picture of a like a beautiful woman in clothes Lee Lewis photographs from the 50s and surrounds the robbery ranked photos and you're like oh I can't people just dress like that yesterday one of my first cameras was a Polaroid and still is I kind of hide them everywhere in my apartment so that I don't access them very easily yes and then when I find them I am so excited and thrilled but you know they're so out of date now I only use it for very special occasions because they don't make the film anymore I always found with portraits and Polaroid that the Polaroid was always the best yeah they're beautiful I have I've collected my polaroid to a four by five yeah and then you think I why didn't I get that I mean we think about film being such a long way ways from from where we are now but it really wasn't that long ago you've been very vocal and very strong-willed towards being in well again staying analog you're not allowing that to change right I know and I've suffered from it I've suffered for it because like um camera companies like they don't want to know you anymore like would like I mean I still work looking like it but I like us 25 years old and it takes fantastic pictures still but like II used to love me and you know give me all kinds of equipment they don't really want to know me anymore it has a blur house what loved me all these companies because I'm shooting analog but what they don't realize it's not what you shoot with this a picture shouldn't work that's six inches behind the camera well right swoosh it's what you take a picture of it's nothing to do with the technology and people use cell cameras to are gonna say oh that's great cuz it was shot digitally oh that's great cuz it was shot out like it doesn't matter it's the picture you take [Music] anything is really important to learn how to it's very important that I feel with contact sheets which we're now losing because no one ever gets contact sheets back anymore and sits with the 24 or 36 images but now that I look back at my old contact sheets I see something completely different in some other photographs that I would have never even you know been the least excited about maybe 15 years ago I'm now why didn't I blow this up but you should blow it up and then oh yeah I blow them up and now I'm like what that is so interesting that this photo did nothing to me back then you know and meanwhile I paid a fortune to like prints images that are like so dull and so boring and I would literally just tear them up right now it's exciting that it something happened something must have happened in between the major Lucas things differently which is a good thing missing this yes this is your twin book which i think is fantastic that picture in particularly I convinced since we finally got their pants off and at the same time I it took me the whole time I was there to convince these two Mennonite women to be photographed so I finally agreed and just when I was photographing these guys in their underpants the two Mennonite women walked in it looked at what I was doing looked at me and then ran out it was kind of the same way we worked with with prom and we're prom was much more complex took four years to do the book this picture was a pregnant girl was taken at my own high school at your own high school yes Cheltenham high school where you were at where your dentures head cheerleader please right when I was taking that picture the principals of high school walked in Safa he was gonna like throw me out but he didn't when you look at your photos you've taken over time there is a bit of a red line going through them something that connects them all people have said to me that there's some kind of silence to my photography a quiet feeling tell me about your exhibition a quiet story that was also a very small exhibition but personal um exhibition and way of exhibitions are strange um I feel you work very hard to make it happen and then you see them up there the moment that you see your images hanging you suddenly wonder where they could enough to even make this bacon frame and hang on a wall and force people to come see and that's when you add a little more alcohol to the opening night but anyway you're solver to the people around both georgette fishbowl Marie Ellen I have a question okay I didn't do the fishbowl what's the best way to discover new photographers today that's what's this firing about teaching us to see new people whose work is really really powerful and it's hard because you don't know now because the outlets for work or so are limited with magazines or so guests are so changed and um you know what to say to them almost just a gun you know do your work I say be an artist even if you have to do something that else take photographs because you love to take them that's what you should do and I've seen some really young people whose work is really amazing uh-huh Mary Ellen asked Lena a question you one of these out and you ask her the question I hate to squish do everything here you wouldn't lie that's all that question I want to answer that okay what what photographers inspired you the most the three photographers that I've had the most impact on me that I can see now after taking photographs for 20 years would definitely be Robert Frank Salomon so then this for Diane Arbus and Mary Ellen mark it's so amazing to be here and to have a conversation with one of the photographer's that I so admire I I don't think there's anyone else who's taking portraits and shown them to me in a way that almost feels like it's the only way that you can take portraits of people it feels so right and they're so mind-blowing and I there's no other photographer who has done that with portrait photography and affected me that way you know it gives you goosebumps I feel it's really nice of you to say that I felt deserve it but it's really nicely well thank you guys so much for coming today Mary Ellen mark my my hero in my new hero Helena Christensen thank you so much for thank you for sharing all your your wonderful stories and being a part of the show capture both you thanks again thank you thanks for having us hi I'm Mark Seliger on the set of capture and with me are the exceptional photographers Mary Ellen mark and Helena Christensen make sure you don't miss a single episode of the show and how do you do that click the subscribe button and leave a comment if you'd like and of course share this with your friends for our Williams here hi I'm joy Bryant I'm Eric Philippe I'm talk--i likio I'm dr. Frank Lippmann they're all stopped on the table the host of across the board host of artists I'm host of hooked up host of the show be well week be well weekend on the reserved channel it's only on reserve did you know that you can follow my show on social media sites like Facebook Follow us on Twitter if you're a fan of my show hit the like button all of the above share me with your friends treat yourself go check out a new episode of my show hooked up and if you want to leave comments feedbacks ideas whatever love to hear from you leave a comment and you don't want to miss the show be sure to subscribe the one is like down here where is it here that somewhere down here thanks for watching the reserve of color only on YouTube throw caution to the wind and ask yourself what rules [Music] you you

Channel: Reserve Channel

Views: 592,670

Keywords: Reserve, Channel, Reserve Channel, Uncommon, Content, UCP, extraordinary people, culture, celebrities, non-fiction, non fiction, original, mark seliger, helena christensen, mary ellen mark, johnny depp, peru, oxfam, india, twins, prom, CAP007

Id: S3eSMVsRqww

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 20 2013

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