La jetée (1962, Chris Marker) as a Soundslide
This influential film has inspired many artists, film and video makers to explore the possibilities of still photography in a more cinematic mode. For better or worse, it even laid the groundwork for 12 Monkeys (1995, Terry Gilliam). Originally narrated in French, the 26-minute film exists in many languages so to facilitate the lowest common denominator, here is part 1/3 of the English version (which I have never seen).
If you want more, the film in its entirety can be found on Google Video. On June 26 of this year, Criterion Collection released it along with Chris Marker’s Sans soleil (1983) that, if you are so inclined, can be purchased at finer DVD retailers everywhere.
Now, where am I going with this? As much as I enjoy experimental cinema, sci-fi is rarely my bag. La Jetée, however, is pretty significant when we think of how print and photojournalists today are more frequently combining audio and still images into a single device meant to go deeper into a story.
As with many (but not all) things, Magnum has been doing well in this area with the In Motion section of its site. The In Motion podcast is probably among my faves.
Soundslides has been getting a lot of attention over the last year or so. If you’re interested in what I’ve been talking about so far but haven’t heard of this $40 program ($70 for the enhanced version), you should think about downloading the demo and giving it a try. Basically, what it does is give you a (relatively) simple apparatus to combine a folder of images and a single mp3 file that you can output as a pretty looking Flash file with its own play/pause button and optional volume control.
It’s actually quite remarkable. If you want, you can read more about the impact it has had on photojournalism and get more examples of what people have done with it by reading the article “Soundslides and the rise of the audio slideshow“.
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