Gjon Mili
È stato tra i primi esploratori di una nuova tecnica fotografica che ha rivoluzionato il mondo dell’arte fotografica, ma anche il mondo scientifico, permettendoci di vedere sequenze di movimenti del corpo umano impossibili da percepire ad occhio nudo.
Lui è il fotografo Gjon Mili (1904 – 1984). Molti dei suoi scatti rivoluzionari e sorprendenti sono stati pubblicati da Life, per cui ha collaborato dal 1939 fino alla morte.
Per realizzare le sue foto sequenziali in un unico scatto, Mili utilizzava la tecnica fotografica stroboscopica. Il fotografo fu un pioniere di questa tecnica e dell’utilizzo del flash elettronico, grazie al quale riusciva a creare intensi e rapidi lampi di luce, ottenendo nello stesso scatto una sequenza di fotogrammi in cui il movimento umano appare nitido e isolato.
Durante la sua lunga carriera ha fotografato artisti, ballerini, musicisti, pattinatori e celebrità.
Gjon Mili (November 28, 1904 – February 14, 1984) was an Albanian-American photographer best known for his work published in LIFE which he photographed artists such as Pablo Picasso .
Biography
Born to Vasil Mili and Viktori Cekani in Korçë, in the Manastir Vilayet of the Ottoman Empire (present-day Albania). Mili spent his childhood in Romania, attending Gheorghe Lazăr National College in Bucharest, later he migrated to United States in 1923. In 1939, Mili started to work as a photographer for Life (a position he held until his death in 1984). Over the years his assignments took him to the Riviera (Picasso); to Prades, France (Pablo Casals in exile); to Israel (Adolf Eichmann in captivity); to Florence, Athens, Dublin, Berlin, Venice, Rome, and to Hollywood to photograph celebrities and artists, sports events, concerts, sculptures and architecture.Working with Harold Eugene Edgerton of MIT, Gjon Mili was a pioneer in the use of stroboscopic instruments to capture a sequence of actions in one photograph. Trained as an engineer and self-taught in photography, Gjon Mili was one of the first to use electronic flash and stroboscopic light to create photographs that had more than scientific interest.[citation needed] Many of his notable images revealed the beautiful intricacy and graceful flow of movement too rapid or complex for the naked eye to discern. In the mid-1940s he was an assistant to the photographer Edward Weston.
In 1944, he directed the short film Jammin' the Blues, which was made at Warner Bros., and features performances by Lester Young, Red Callender, Harry Edison, "Big" Sid Catlett, Illinois Jacquet, Barney Kessel, Jo Jones and Marie Bryant. Mili did not serve as cinematographer for the film (Robert Burks did) but the film used multiplied images that in many ways recall the multi-image still-frames done with the strobe. The imaginative use of the camera makes this film a minor landmark in the way that musicians have been filmed.
Over the course of more than four decades, thousands of his pictures were published by Life as well as other publications.[citation needed] He died in Stamford, Connecticut on February 14, 1984, of pneumonia at the age of 79.
Gjon Mili. Stroboscopic image of dancer Ethel Butler of the Martha Graham Dance Group, 1941
Gjon Mili. Stroboscopic image of dancer Ethel Butler of the Martha Graham Dance Group, 1941
Artist Pablo Picasso painting with light in a long exposure photo. Vallauris, France, 1949. Photo by Gjon Mili. Life Photo Archive.
Foto di Gjon Mili via LIFE
Figure Skater Carol Lynne
1947 strobe shot of Nora Kaye dancing on pointe
Nude Descending Staircase
FBI Agent Del Bryce
Figure Skater Carol Lynne
Leon James and Willa Mae Ricker - Lindy Hop.
PearlPrimus 1939
PearlPrimus 1939
PearlPrimus 1939
Martha Graham, 1941
Paris Ballet 1949
Figure skater Carol Lynne's movements are charted by flashlights
imbedded in each boot while stroboscopic light "stops" her in mid-leap.
Picasso_Lights
Triple Exposure of Sono Osato 1941
Duke Ellington playing piano amidst two trombonists during an after-hours jam session, New York 1941,
Duke Ellington playing piano amidst two trombonists during an after-hours jam session, New York 1941,
Photo Gjon Mili
Billie Holiday (C) singing Fine &
Mellow accompanied by Cozy Cole on drums, James P. Johnson at piano
& other unident. musicians during jam session in studio of LIFE
photographer Gjon Mili.
Photo Gjon Mili 1941
1941. Un giocatore ungherese di ping-pong nello studio di Mili.
1941. Il batterista Gene Krupa suona i piatti nello studio di Mili.
1941. Il campione di pentathlon John Borican mentre lancia il giavellotto.
1942. Alfred Hitchcock sul set di Shadow of a Doubt.
Jam Session, Pearl Primus performing to "Honeysuckle Rose" played by
Teddy Wilson at piano, Lou McGarity on trombone, Bobby Hackett on
trumpet, Sidney Catlett on drums & John Simons on bass during jam
session at Gjon Mili's studio.
New York, NY, USA - 1943 - 1280x988 pixels
Jam session at Gjon Mili’s studio
loft. Duke Ellington at the piano surrounded by other jazz musicians,
including Dizzy Gillespie (fore, 2L) on trumpet and behind him Mezz
Mezzrow on clarine 1943
Photo Gjon Mili
Photographer Gjon Mili (L) w. bassist
Red Callender & saxophonist Lester Young on set of the film Jammin’
the Blues, directed by Mili 1944
Photo Gjon Mili
1945. Una modella di lingerie mentre si tira su le calze.
1945
1945. Il direttore d’orchestra russo Efrem Kurtz.
Singer Nellie Letcher 1947
Photo Gjon Mili
1948. Willie Mosconi in azione
1958. Sammy Davis jr. in Porgy and Bess.
Sidney Poitier ca 1960’s
Sidney Poitier ca 1960’s
Photo Gijon Mili
Lindy Hop - Willa Mae Ricker
and Leon James
Katherine Dunham
Flamenco
Jo Jones - For the film "Jammin' The Blues" shot and directed by Gjon Mili
Lester Young in Mili's film "Jammin' the Blues"
Lindy Hop Record cover - silkscreen by Mili
Stroboscopic image of girl riding bicycle 1945
Photo Gjon Mili © Pleasurephoto
Jo Jones - For the film "Jammin' The Blues" shot and directed by Gjon MiliLester Young in Mili's film "Jammin' the Blues"
Stroboscopic image of girl riding bicycle 1945
Gjon Mili working. This is a Speed Graphic with the focal-plane shutter
wide open so he can use the mid-lens shutter with a special flash synch
arrangement. Note the flash bracket and battery holder on top, without a
flash head or flash-bulb reflector on top. That is because he is using
the electric trigger on the battery holder which is connected to
electronic flashes by wire.
Artist Pablo Picasso painting with light in a long exposure photo. Vallauris, France, 1949. Photo by Gjon Mili. Life Photo Archive.
Gjon Mili
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento