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Matinee: 'Cambridge Faces: Elsa Dorfman'
9 November 2024
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 577th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Cambridge Faces: Elsa Dorfman.
This 6:18 video produced by JP DiSciscio, EastonSmith and Lloyd Smith is an interview in 2010 with photographer Else Dorfman at her studio in Cambridge. Dorfman died in 2020 after a long love affair with one of the half dozen 200 lb., 20x24 Polaroids the company built, which she leased.
"Can you really say why you fell in love with someone or why your marriage lasts?" she asked. "You can say why your marriage didn't last, but if someone asked me why did your marriage last? I don't know I could never put my finger on it."
In the interview, she tells the story of her unconventional life. Not only did she get her hands on a camera in a roundabout way but she ended up with these enormous Polaroids, each of which was a little different.
We do actually watch her make a portrait even though there was, by then, no one to repair the things or even make the film they used.
But little things like that never stood in her way.