Rishikesh

Peshawar

Hungry Eye

Issue 4

We talk with film director Andrea Arnold about her career and the making of her recent ‘Wuthering Heights’, award winning actor John Hurt about the importance of acting in short films and Montana based photographer Kurt Markus about the importance of documenting the landscape and people that surround you.

We also look back at the golden age of cine filmmaking, look forward to the future of filmmaking with the Riot Cinema Collective and find out how the cool aesthetic of the television drama series ‘Wallander’ was created.

Documentary photographer and filmmaker Ross McDonnell tells us about his desire to tell stories with the moving and still image, whilst photographer and filmmaker Richard Dunkley explains why his latest film focuses on the art of traditional black and white printmaking. Whilst Hungry Eye Technical Editor explains how to choose the right camera to shoot and deliver moving image whatever the context it is to be seen in.

All of this plus a look at recent books published featuring the work of legendary photographers Diane Arbus, Patrick Litchfield, Bert Stern and Lamsweerde Matadin, as well as the graphic icon of cinema titles Saul Bass.

And last but not least we catch up on the life of a sometime working pro with the award winning photo journalist Peter Dench and the Dench Diaries.

When a Whale Meets a Dolphin

You get a Wholphin. It's also the name of good people at McSweeney's DVD label whose new issue has more great short films than you can shake a stick at.

The newly released 'Wholphin: Issue 15' features a short meditation on La Santa Muerte, shot on my second day ever in Mexico City at the Altar de la Santa Muerte in Tepito and cut by the maestro Carter Gunn. It won't give you nightmares I swear.

The DVD is packed with pedigree and also features films by Sean Durkin (Martha Martha May Marlene), The Love Competition by Brent Hoff and a film by the Duplass brothers featuring the ever smoking Selma Blair who we don't see enough of on our screens anymore.

Get yours here

Many thanks to Malcolm for making it happen.

Kamra-e-Faoree

Well played to Lightbox for featuring the work of the guys over at Afghan Box Camera whose anthropological study of the now disappearing Kamra-e-Faoree is as fun as it is an essential piece of photo history from Afghanistan.

Above is a photo of the actual Kamra-e-Faroee that I bought from Rohullah in Kabul and shipped home for $35 courtesy of the US military - despite it weighing some seventy kilos.

I wonder now whether the decline in these magic boxes is perhaps as much due to foreign photographers becoming obsessed with their beauty and the otherworldly photos they take, rather than the onslaught of the digital revolution. I wonder also whether I too should feel guilty for my part in stripping Afghanistan of yet another layer of it's unique culture.

On my first visit to Kabul there were dozens of these street photographers working their trade downtown including Qalam Nabi (above) who is mentioned in the article. When I returned he was one of only a handful left. Here's one of my favorite portraits, taken by Nabi from my days of obsessive spending on Kamra-e-foree pictures...

Wish I Was Here

Culto A La Sta. Muerte - Tultitlan

Dollhouse: Berlinale. JDIFF. SXSW

Only moments to go before the legend Kirsten Sheridan unveils her latest feature Dollhouse in the Panorama section of the Berlinale. Yeah!

Heartfelt congratulations to Kirsten, Producer John Wallace and the talented young crew Seana, Johnny, Ciaran, Kate and Shane for all their hard work during the maddest film shoot ever. If you're a Berliner get down there and see 'Das Puppenhaus' now!

The film will also screen at JDIFF in Dublin this month and at SXSW in Austin so plenty chances to see what the inside of drug-addled young minds look like on screen.

Shane Curry in Dollhouse

Utah

Nova Scotia

Crack is Whack