Why is it that in movies and tv Photographers are allways losers?

michiel fokkema · Jul 7, 2009

Are you sure?
"Under fire" with Nick Nolte and "Bridges of Madison" with Clint Eastwood aren't that bad.

Cheers,
Michiel Fokkema

Mark Antony · Jul 7, 2009

Ian Leake said:
My plumber is visiting in a few minutes: I hope he's neither a serial killer nor a porn star - just a good washing machine fixer.

Lets hope not, have you got a leak that needs fixing? If he has a curly 1970's perm, mustache and dungarees down tools and head for the hills...

Joe Lipka · Jul 7, 2009

Deep in the APUG secret archives, isnt' there a thread where we developed (giggle) a list of movies with photographer protagonists?

Jim Chinn · Jul 7, 2009

Jimmy Stewart's character in Rear Window would be an exception to the rule.

Snapper · Jul 7, 2009

Hero Plumbers in Films;
Mario (Bob Hoskins) in 'Super Mario Brothers'

erm....

Andy K · Jul 7, 2009

2F/2F said:
I happened to see an episode of Law and Order the other night in which they pull out a Speed at the end. Pretty fun episode that I just happened to catch. (Being on trips are some of the only times I watch TV.) Also, an important part of the story concerns the many different ways in which the a negative can be printed. Some writer for the show must be a photo nerd. The photographers in the story are both pretty wretched guys.

TV must be getting bad if you have to be tripping to watch it...

darkosaric · Jul 7, 2009

Peter Parker, Spiderman is photographer

benjiboy · Jul 7, 2009

darkosaric said:
Peter Parker, Spiderman is photographer

Very strange, I used to know a Peter Parker who was a medical photographer at a local hospital, but I doubt very much that he was Spiderman in his spare time.

bsdunek · Jul 7, 2009

Last good TV show about photography was 'Man with a Camera' starring Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac. He could get the good photos no matter what the conditions. Had a nice little darkroom, and processed photos so fast he must have had special chemicals. He did mention D-72 one time - that's pretty standard.
Jus IMHO

Jim Chinn · Jul 7, 2009

There was the character "Animal" (IIRC correctly) on the Lou Grant show. I barely remember it but he was the stereotype of the good photographer out of the post watergate era.

Jim Chinn · Jul 7, 2009

The creepiest bad guy photographer was the character portrayed by Jude Law in the movie Road to Perdition. he was a hit man hired to kill Tom Hanks character and his son. His "hobby" was to photograph his victims with a crown graphic.

Leighgion · Jul 7, 2009

Jim Chinn said:
Jimmy Stewart's character in Rear Window would be an exception to the rule.

I'd disagree.

If you look objectively at the character, he's got a creepy streak to him. Other people with broken legs during that era would've spent their days reading books. He spends his days spying on his neighbors with a long lens. It's just that since he was Jimmy Stewart, the audience "knew" he was a good guy and forgot about that part. Hitchcock liked exploiting that.

Snapper · Jul 7, 2009

David Warner in the 1976 film The Omen plays a photographer, who quite literally was a loser, when a large pane of glass slid off a truck and severs his head.

Anscojohn · Jul 7, 2009

bsdunek said:
Last good TV show about photography was 'Man with a Camera' starring Charles Bronson as Mike Kovac. He could get the good photos no matter what the conditions. Had a nice little darkroom, and processed photos so fast he must have had special chemicals. He did mention D-72 one time - that's pretty standard.
Jus IMHO

*******
Man, Bruce; you are dating yourself with that program. And about the same time, there was a kind of sitcome with Bob Cummings, called "Love that Bob." He was a photgrapher by trade. His office assistant, Schultzie, had a crush on him, but he was always dallying with the models.

Andy K · Jul 7, 2009

I still recall the scene in Jaws where Police Chief Brody develops the film found in the diver's camera, and is pictured hanging up prints of a shark's eye/bubbles in a safe-lit room... and, if I recall correctly, not an enlarger in sight...

Thomas Wilson · Jul 7, 2009

In the sporadically aired "Mystery Woman," Kellie Martin portrays a proprietor of a quaint used book store. The character's expert knowledge of murder mysteries and skillful use of camera and darkroom, parlayed with her friend and shop keeper, Philby, an ex-spook, and her friend, Cassie, the A.D.A., will generally outsmart the myopic Chief Connors before the last commercial break.

It's refreshing to see a contemporary portrayal of a woman photographer who is just simply normal and attractive. Absent; the standard neon colored punk hair, body piercings, tattoos, artistically torn and studded jeans, white tee-shirts depicting some obscure but equally hip and tragic musician, and high-top sneakers. The uniform too many non-conformists share in their attempt to be different.

pauliej · Jul 7, 2009

No originality in movies anymore. I dont think they even have writers. Stars just get their friends together and say let's remake Oceans Eleven, or somesuch, and make it up (or copy it) as they go along. Any camera or photo is just a prop for the (lack of) plot, or give them something to look at that has their lines on it. Movies died with the Consent Decree of 1958, or whenever it was. Alas, poor Yorick...

paulie

WolfTales · Jul 7, 2009

Hey now...

I thought Robin Williams played a fine psychotic photographer in 1 Hour Photo. It really got my stomach churning!!

John Koehrer · Jul 7, 2009

benjiboy said:
Very strange, I used to know a Peter Parker who was a medical photographer at a local hospital, but I doubt very much that he was Spiderman in his spare time.

The disguise worked!

bsdunek · Jul 7, 2009

Anscojohn said:
*******
Man, Bruce; you are dating yourself with that program. And about the same time, there was a kind of sitcome with Bob Cummings, called "Love that Bob." He was a photgrapher by trade. His office assistant, Schultzie, had a crush on him, but he was always dallying with the models.

Wow, I forgot about that one!
Dating? - I'm married, I don't do that any more.

PeteZ8 · Jul 7, 2009

borisdeswan said:
My perception unless some of you people set me strait is that over the years the preponderance of instances has been to portray photographers in general ( in movies and tv) as losers, criminals who lure young beautifull women to their studios with obscure and perverse intentions etc.

I've noticed that too. I'm guessing it has something to do with the perverse Holywood sleeze that cannot resist the temptation to put a half naked women in every single movie, even if it has no relevance to the story.

In reality; their entire mission in life seems to be getting some female celebrity naked in front of their own camera so why would they ever be able to concieve anything different about photographers?

DLawson · Jul 7, 2009

Jim Chinn said:
There was the character "Animal" (IIRC correctly) on the Lou Grant show. I barely remember it but he was the stereotype of the good photographer out of the post watergate era.

Animal was my hero. But as I recall things, he was sort of the altruistic sociopath sort of character -- the Good Guy that you still didn't want to get stuck in an elevator with.

Hmm, come to think of it, most of my youthful heroes would be on watch-lists in today's world.

Domenico Foschi · Jul 7, 2009

Pecker, by John Waters.
Lovely movie,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-q73TLDrIw

Nicholas Lindan · Jul 7, 2009

It's the writers who are in charge of the real substance of a movie.

However, script writers don't portray themselves all that well, either: Sunset Boulevard, Barton Fink, The Player.

There is something sinister about photography: it steals a bit of the soul and locks it in a box; manipulates the captured spirit alone, in the dark, in the dim red light of Hades, revealing it with sulfurous alchemy; and then imprisons the spirit's form on a bit of paper and pins it to the wall.

Nicholas Lindan · Jul 7, 2009

Domenico Foschi said:
Pecker, by John Waters.
Lovely movie

Brought to you by John Waters, a man who could play the ultimate in a creepy photographer.

Why is it that in movies and tv Photographers are allways losers?

michiel fokkema

Mark Antony

Joe Lipka

Jim Chinn

Snapper

Andy K

darkosaric

benjiboy

bsdunek

Jim Chinn

Jim Chinn

Leighgion

Snapper

Anscojohn

Andy K

Thomas Wilson

pauliej

WolfTales

John Koehrer

bsdunek

PeteZ8

DLawson

Domenico Foschi

Nicholas Lindan

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Why is it that in movies and tv Photographers are allways losers?

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