December 2021: This Good Earth news/new workshops/photographing theatre
THIS GOOD EARTH
Robert’s 90 minute film, THIS GOOD EARTH, which had a limited showing in the UK in January 2021,
has now been contracted for a worldwide premier: April 2022 by Random Media, LA.
Reactions to the film:
“An exquisitely shot film, which is both an urgent message and love letter to the world we wish to see.
Watch The Good Earth, and then watch it again”
Shane Holland, Executive Chairman Slow Food in the UK
“Excellent. Really good feel, emotions, rhythm. Content is excellent too.
The inequality theme is very well made – the neoliberal project will come to a crashing end, soon – but it is biting hard.
I do like the monochrome images of talking heads – they are very powerful.”
Jules Pretty: Author and Professor of Environment and Society, University of Essex
“I love it…the sheer beauty of the film and its clear and carefully crafted mixture of personal experiences with expert science, strike me as exceptionally powerful. It sends a strong message while avoiding being preachy,
and it’s really informative, triggering all kinds of associations in my mind
as I suspect it will for others.”
Richard Harvey – Human Rights lawyer
COMING WORKSHOPS
I just finished a course of 6 workshops, with people from 4 countries attending.
As always, it teaches me as I teach others…what a pleasure.
Early in 2022 I will be offering 2 more sets of workshops:
1. HOW I MAKE DOCUMENTARIES
2. HOW TO CHANGE THE WORLD, PHOTOGRAPH BY PHOTOGRAPH.
There will be more news soon. If you know anyone who may be interested,
please alert them to the possibilities now. They can contact me for more information.
robert@robertgoldenpictures.com
COMMENTS FROM MOST RECENT WORKSHOPS
“I first crossed paths with Robert about seven years ago, at a time when I was feeling unsatisfied with my photography. I was disillusioned with the constant wallpaper of technically perfect but soulless imagery that I was surrounded by … and with myself for merely trying to ape it … taking that first course was instrumental in me first beginning to ‘see’, and then being able to translate that into a visual language that helped me win the Amateur Section of the Documentary Photographer of the Year.” C. Hilton, UK
“I have participated in a couple of projects held by Robert Golden, and I think his way of teaching is very inspiring, because it gives young people a chance to learn things they’ll never encounter in school or college. You will learn what the world needs, that is pure you, liberated of ego and expectations, with empathy and love for the humankind, but also a tendency to find naked and heavy truth. Only if you are willing to take a path to discover some things about yourself and your environment, your result from these projects will be the best thing that ever happened to you in your life. Of course, you must be honest with yourself and hardworking to take out the best, but if this happens, you will experience a transformation. It is all up to how far you are willing to go, and Robert will help you discover the beauty of that journey.”
B. Hodzic, Bosnia
PHOTOGRAPHING THEATRE
Over the years I have photographed and filmed a substantial amount of theatre work.
It brings me nothing but pleasure. Much of that work has been with two English based companies, OPERA CIRCUS and various works created by David Glass. David’s work is hugely inventive, extraordinarily alive, beautiful, often vulgar and both very funny and very moving. This past year I have had the opportunity to film his new two-hander called SILENCE and a second piece called Gilded Splinters. The image above and those below are a few of my stills from them and following that a short essay about the relationship between photojournalism and photographing for theatre.
STREETS AS THEATRE and THE THEATRE OF THE STREET
Over the years I have photographed and filmed a substantial amount of theatre work.
It brings me nothing but pleasure. Much of that work has been with two English based companies, OPERA CIRCUS and various works created by David Glass. David’s work is hugely inventive, extraordinarily alive, beautiful, often vulgar and both very funny and very moving. This past year I have had the opportunity to film his new two hander called SILENCE and a second piece called Gilded Splinters. Below are a few of my stills from them and following that a short essay about the relationship between photojournalism and photographing for theatre.
Photographers, have made a living photographing newsworthy, often huge historical events, and also, photographing on film sets and theatre productions. There is a natural relationship between the two. The practice on the street hones the ability to release the shutter at the decisive moment. Skilled photographers come to understand that it is not the event they are photographing, but people’s emotional responses within the event. The photographer is capturing the meaning expressed by bodies and faces at the highest moments of encounters.
In the theatre the audience witness human stories and often high drama played out as though real. The narrow context of street or auditorium is different, but the broad context of society is similar. Playwrights, directors and actors re-create the struggles of human history condensed in time and space; events which previously played out on the streets, in homes and in the seats of power across days, months or years.
For the documentarist it is a gift of culture. It is an inspiring re-representation or mimesis of real-world concerns about what it means to be human, while seeking communication through narrative and form using similar skills to determine when to release the shutter.
These different but similar engagements raise many questions. What is realism and how does it differ from naturalism? Where exactly is to be found the extraordinary moments of human excess which lead to change? What is the role of art, aesthetics, morality and truth in the on-going human tragedy? How do the Apollonian and Dionysian concepts of culture play out? How do aspiring artists find a place in society when they understand that the lived reality of those working in a hamburger joint is vastly different that an artist in a studio?
