Jerry Schatzberg, the cool grandfather
Fidel Castro, a carpenter with his wife or even Geoffrey Holder. They all passed in front of the lens of Jerry Schatzberg, whose photos are currently on display at the Galerie Paris Cinéma Club.
Renowned American photographer, Schatzberg was born in the Bronx in 1927. After studying in Miami, he specialized in fashion photography, selling his photos to legendary magazines like Vogue or LIFE and makes advertising films. He is filming his first feature film, Portrait of a Fallen Childin 1970. Schatzberg subsequently directed Al Pacino in Panic in Needle Park (1971), or even Gene Hackman in The Scarecrow (1973), which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Now 98 years old, Jerry Schatzberg, with his sentimental work, continues to fascinate. We find him more recently in the documentary Jerry Schatzberg, Portrait Landscape (2022), directed by Pierre Filmon.
An intimate and humorous look
Whether in cinema or photography, Jerry Schatzberg has an intimate relationship with his subject. You just have to look at his photos of Warhol or his long series on Bob Dylan to realize this. Rather than artifice and appearance, Schatzberg chooses the simplicity of everyday life to enhance the intimate. By putting his subject at ease, Schatzberg manages to capture melancholy and innocent awkwardness in subjects who are nevertheless sometimes real rockstars. Thus, Schatzberg’s photos, most of them in black and white, freeze in time figures who touch us with their revealed humanity. Alongside the portraits of celebrities sit anonymous individuals, whose emphasis is just as carefully crafted.
The series on the beginnings of Yves Saint Laurent surprises with its inventiveness and holds the visitor’s attention. The work of assembling several photos, taken during a Beatles concert, underlines a derision without mockery then present in Schatzberg’s eye. Discreet humor that is also found in several street scenes. In short, Jerry Schatzberg manages very cleverly to make us laugh by exposing the slight absurdity of everyday life. And this, to make us better love reality.
A sensitive and avant-garde cinema
Schatzberg’s cinema is particularly interesting to explore. In line with his work as a photographer, Schatzberg questions human complexity in a refined style. Panic in Needle Park (1971) traces the lives of heroin users, while The Scarecrow (1973) follows the daily lives of two misfits. Far from special effects and blockbusters of the time, Schatzberg favored a human cinema which today appears to be a precursor.
A retrospective of three of his films accompanies the exhibition. Panic in Needle Park (1971), The Scarecrow (1973) et The Found Friend (1989) will be broadcast at the Christine Cinéma Club, from January 21. It is an opportunity to discover a cinema that is sometimes ostracized, sensitive, and which highlights actors known in their early days. Panic in Needle Park (1971) even turned out to be Al Pacino’s first starring role.
The Deauville Festival highlighted the films of Jerry Schatzberg in 2023.
