SNAP UNHAPPY
David Taylor really doesn ’ t want to be a photographer in the movies …
Photographers truly are an odd bunch , aren ’ t they ? Or rather , you could be forgiven for thinking that after watching any film that features one . The movie photographer is usually either slightly unhinged , a compulsive voyeur , or – more often than not ! – an unholy combination of the two . A good example is Seymour ‘ Sy ’ Parrish , the antagonist of One Hour Photo ( 2002 ). Robin Williams plays a creepily obsessive photo technician who discovers that family man Will Yorkin ( Michael Vartan ) is having an affair . He then starts to intimidate Yorkin ’ s family : shooting his daughter paparazzistyle with a long lens and forcing Yorkin at knife-point to pose naked with his lover . Fortunately for the sanity of the family , Parrish is eventually arrested . ‘ I just took pictures ’ is his unusual defence .
And then there ’ s Harlen Maguire in Road to Perdition ( 2002 ), played by Jude Law . Maguire is a crime-scene forensic photographer who suffers from a ghostly pale complexion thanks to far too much time spent in the darkroom . To his credit , Maguire is dedicated to his craft . Unfortunately this does mean that if his subjects aren ’ t quite
Grace Kelly and James Stewart publicising Rear Window in 1954 ( Wikimedia Commons ) dead he ’ ll happily finish them off to meet a deadline . Worse , as a lucrative sideline , he ’ s a paid assassin for the mob .
Even when a photographer is the hero there ' s usually something oddly disturbing about his or her behaviour . In Hitchcock ' s Rear Window ( 1954 ) James Stewart plays L . B . ‘ Jeff ’ Jefferies , a professional photographer stuck at home after carelessly breaking a leg on assignment . To wile away the time he watches – through the titular rear window of his apartment - the comings and goings of the people in the building opposite . Even though his observations eventually unmasks a murderer ( and demonstrates a use for flash not covered in any photography how-to book ) there ' s something very troubling about his obsessional need to watch and record . Though , as many critics have cheerfully pointed out since , Hitchcock points an accusing finger at the audience too . Watch Rear
Window and you are complicit in Jefferies ' ( rather too keen ) interest in his neighbours ’ messy lives .
Of course movies aren ' t real life and not every photographer is a creepy , disturbed voyeur . ( Your experience may differ .) However , just once in a while it would be refreshing to see a well-balanced and happy snapper on the silver screen .
outdoor focus / autumn 2023 3