THE CAMERA : JE or LA CAMERA : I, 1977, 16mm Color/B&W, 88 min. The film is in English and French

With numerous performers.

“A subjective account of the act of making still photographs.”
“Going back and forth between observation and sentiment or imagination, the film is a self-portrait of the photographer-filmmaker during the years 1976-1977.” – BM

“The film is about the relations of vision and power arising from the act of producing images. The first section of THE CAMERA: JE is terrifying even though it is the most straightforwardly didactic part of the film. The spectator stares at photo models as they have their pictures taken and are given instructions about how to pose. The anxiety we see on the face and body of the model (mirroring our role as spectator) exemplifies this fear of not being held in our position of spectator. It is as if we were watching ourselves being photographed, as if the screen we’re watching is photographing us.” 
– Constance Penley

The film is in two parts about 42 minutes each and one epilogue. The first half is about shooting portraits and the second half is moving through the city overwhelmed by the traffic noise and finding difficulty in concentrating about what to look at.For the publicity of the film, I combine in printing in my darkroom dual images that showed a portrait from the first half and a shot from the city from the second part in composite prints. I also use key images of my friend John Erdmann looking at the work in progress.

Permanent Collection:
Museum of Modern Art, New York

Major Festivals and shows:
“Cineprobe”, Museum of Modern Art, New York, October 1978
Edinburgh Film Festival, Scotland, 1978
Hyères Film Festival, France, 1978
Pacific Film Archives, San Francisco, California
French Television, TF1, August 1978
The National Gallery, Washington, DC 1994
Screening Manhattan, Vienna 2000
Fate of Aliens Modes, Vienna 2003, ZDK Karlruhe, 2004