The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

In THE B-SIDE: ELSA DORFMAN’S PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHY, Errol Morris explores the life and work of gifted portrait photographer, Elsa Dorfman. Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20×24 camera. For the next thirty-five years she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her Cambridge, Massachusetts studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. With whimsical charm and wit, Dorfman gives Morris, her longtime friend, a tour of her backyard archive. As photographs begin to fade and Dorfman’s retirement looms, Morris’s film reminds us of a bygone era of analog photography and the extraordinary life of one of its champions.

• Rating NR
• Year 2017
• Running Time 76 minutes
• Director Errol Morris

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