A unique picture book.

The other day I read about a book of photographs published by the author Jeff Bridges, titled simply Pictures.* I am a sucker for photography books, and I have always thought Jeff Bridges was a smokin' hottie, so I checked the book out from the library.

I was not disappointed. Evidently Bridges has a habit of putting together small books of photographs from the films on which he works, and giving them out to fellow cast and crew members as gifts when the production concludes. As a result, many of the photographs in this book offer a real "behind the scenes" look at the magic that is movie-making. Shots of actors and actresses include all the microphones, booms, dollies, ladders, and other pieces of movie detritus along the sides of sets that movie watchers never see. Because Bridges uses something called a Widelux camera (you'll just have to get this book for the explanation of how it works--as is typical with me and technical information, I just skimmed it to get the basic idea of how the camera uses a slower exposure time to capture a broader panoramic view of the subject) his frames include all sorts of wonderful extraneous sights.

It's a big old coffee table book, so you get to enjoy the photographs in oversized glory. I enjoyed it for its broader take on the film world, for Bridges's explanatory notes, and for the reminder that I really, really need to watch The Fabulous Baker Boys one of these days. In all, I haven't been so charmed by a photography book by a movie star since Leonard Nimoy's title The Full Body Project, which featured photography of full-figured women wearing very few clothes.

*Unfortunately, I have forgotten where I first read about this book, because my memory is just laughably bad.

Comments

[Ruthiella]

Oh CR, I agree with you. Jeff is smokin' hot. And the fact that he is not a tabloid fixture makes him that much more endearing to me. Plus, I loved his Dad, especially in "Airplane". I often quote the line, "I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue". Rent "The Fabulous Baker Boys". It is a good film.

[Venta]

Jeff Bridges was featured on t.v.'s Biography channel a few weeks back, and I caught the episode. It talked about his photography. The guy has had such a varied film career. He said that when people see him, they still shout, "the dude," from The Big Lebowski. I'll have to watch Baker Boys, too. According to the show, it was Jeff's idea to cast his older brother in the film. There wasn't much excitement about the idea until filming started.

"Airplane" - what a classic. How about the guy who kept tripping over the wires that lit up the runway.

[Citizen Reader]

Ruthiella,
Not only is he a smokin' hottie, he's got a great voice too. And I always liked Lloyd and Beau too. Now I have to re-watch "Airplane"!

Venta,
Hmm, I may have to hunt that Biography down on YouTube. I can well imagine people still shout "the dude"--that was the role of a lifetime, really (although I also enjoyed John Turturro's super-bowler Jesus in the same movie). Why wouldn't they have wanted to cast Beau in TFBB, I wonder? It had to bring interesting dynamics, as true-life brothers playing brothers had to be quite the mind-twister.

And stop calling me Shirley! :) Definitely time to re-watch "Airplane."

[Levinson Axelrod]

Very talented photographer. He brings a lot of new angles and aspects into photos and really knows how to capture rare moments.