Every time I think I'm starting to get the most tenuous grasp on editing and sequencing, I see something like this which seems to knock down my carefully constructed house of cards. Gregory has a video somewhere on youtube where he talks about his process - he makes contact prints from his 6x6 camera and puts them on little shelves to play around with the edit. I thought it was fascinating. Anyway, interesting book! Thanks for the share!
I'm sharing the same feeling with his work, that was the reason I bought this book. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the (American style) portrait+landscape, "one image on the right page of the spread" kind of books but Halpern is hitting a sweet spot, that interesting no-mans land of documentary and surrealism, (subjectively) better than in his other books. Looking back, I always find my sequences too...obvious? affected? Too much focus on moving from one spread to the other but eventually leaving less space for the viewer. I think within the spread, I can generate some interesting content but it's hard to extend it to surrounding pages, let alone to the broader sequence of 50-60 images. Also, I found that after spending 20+ years in the film industry and looking at countless storyboards and animatics, I cannot get away from the narrative aspect, even if the overall structure of the book is not following the traditional 3-stage structure. But one thing I'm sure of. After a few years, he's not happy with his sequencing either! :D You hear this from people who are almost entirely defined by photobooks, spend years making one and the best they can hope for is that they can get it "right" at that moment...and then we all move on and (hopefully) develop. Some, like Renato D'Agostin, are willing to openly admit it, and some just release a second edition :) If someone else is reading this, I can recommend his Magnum workshop called _Documentary sur/realism_ and some TH-cam videos: ARTIST TALKS - GREGORY HALPERN-ygp2rYoA5Qs In Conversation - Gregory Halpern and Michael Mack-6HhqJMDDkOg On Sequence - Gregory Halpern & Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa-M7_giEBdiHg
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/9miVG2xT5jY/mqdefault.jpg)
Every time I think I'm starting to get the most tenuous grasp on editing and sequencing, I see something like this which seems to knock down my carefully constructed house of cards. Gregory has a video somewhere on youtube where he talks about his process - he makes contact prints from his 6x6 camera and puts them on little shelves to play around with the edit. I thought it was fascinating. Anyway, interesting book! Thanks for the share!
I'm sharing the same feeling with his work, that was the reason I bought this book. Normally I'm not a huge fan of the (American style) portrait+landscape, "one image on the right page of the spread" kind of books but Halpern is hitting a sweet spot, that interesting no-mans land of documentary and surrealism, (subjectively) better than in his other books. Looking back, I always find my sequences too...obvious? affected? Too much focus on moving from one spread to the other but eventually leaving less space for the viewer. I think within the spread, I can generate some interesting content but it's hard to extend it to surrounding pages, let alone to the broader sequence of 50-60 images. Also, I found that after spending 20+ years in the film industry and looking at countless storyboards and animatics, I cannot get away from the narrative aspect, even if the overall structure of the book is not following the traditional 3-stage structure.
But one thing I'm sure of. After a few years, he's not happy with his sequencing either! :D You hear this from people who are almost entirely defined by photobooks, spend years making one and the best they can hope for is that they can get it "right" at that moment...and then we all move on and (hopefully) develop. Some, like Renato D'Agostin, are willing to openly admit it, and some just release a second edition :)
If someone else is reading this, I can recommend his Magnum workshop called _Documentary sur/realism_ and some TH-cam videos:
ARTIST TALKS - GREGORY HALPERN-ygp2rYoA5Qs
In Conversation - Gregory Halpern and Michael Mack-6HhqJMDDkOg
On Sequence - Gregory Halpern & Stanley Wolukau-Wanambwa-M7_giEBdiHg
Yeah it's the one in conversation with Mack Books. Great to hear more behind the process