Articles

At The Darkroom Rumour, our articles are more than just written content; they are extensions of our documentary films, offering deeper insights and fresh perspectives. Each piece is carefully crafted to complement and expand upon the stories and themes presented in our films, enriching your understanding of the art of photography. Whether they stand alone as compelling reads or serve as valuable companions to our documentaries, our articles are designed to engage, inform, and inspire.

Ian Berry, a photographer at two speeds
brian-ross-filmmaker-scotland-ian-berry-british-photographer-magnum-agency-film-photographs-south-africa-sharpeville-massacre by Brian Ross

Ian Berry, a photographer at two speeds

linked to Ian Berry, Lucky Number 13

In this interview, Brian Ross tells us about the birth of the documentary project on the work of Ian Berry and the difficulties that may have surrounded it. We discover a photographer at two speeds, whose work goes far beyond his testimony of the Sharpeville Massacre. 

Wolfgang Hastert : Being a "photographic carnivore"
wolfgang-hastert-photographer-filmmaker-film-the-queer-reveries-of-james-bidgood-lgbtqia-eroticism-gay by Wolfgang Hastert

Wolfgang Hastert : Being a "photographic carnivore"

linked to The Queer Reveries of James Bidgood

Wolfgang Hastert's love of the image has led him to experiment with photography and video, whether through his documentaries or more experimental works. The German artist and director talks to us about his special relationship with the image - still or moving, his discovery of James Bidgood and how he recognized himself in his works, as well as the subtle art of making films about artists who themselves experiment with the image. 

Diving into 'Harold Feinstein: Last Stop Coney Island' with Filmmaker Andy Dunn
andy-dunn-last-stop-coney-island-harold-feinstein-american-photographer-analogue-photography-reportage-portrait-a-documentary-film by Andy Dunn

Diving into 'Harold Feinstein: Last Stop Coney Island' with Filmmaker Andy Dunn

linked to Harold Feinstein | Last Stop Coney Island

Andy Dunn is a documentary filmmaker specializing in music. In this interview, he tells us about his side-step into photography, which enabled him to deliver an intimate portrait of the American photographer Harold Feinstein, revealing the richness of the work of this overlooked photographer, whose character was as rebellious as it was focused on the joys of life.

DOLORÈS... Through the Eyes of Christine Delory-Momberger
Christine Delory-Momberger by Christine Delory-Momberger

DOLORÈS... Through the Eyes of Christine Delory-Momberger

linked to Dolorès Marat | Dolorès

   Everything in Thomas Goupille's film dedicated to Dolores Marat is a surface of softness and delicacy. But how else could one approach and capture this photographer of the subtle, the elusive, the delicate—of all these little things that make up our inner geography and open us to the beauty of the world? Dolores Marat's images touch us, move us, and sometimes transport us far into an inner world we never suspected, revealing hidden folds of ourselves. They are more than what they depict; they slip into our intimacy, stir emotions, awaken dormant feelings, and make us better people.

Snapshots : An interview with Romy Alizée
Romy Alizée by Romy Alizée

Snapshots : An interview with Romy Alizée

linked to Romy Alizée | Snapshots

In this intimate interview, Emmanuel Bacquet explores with Romy Alizée behind the scenes of her creative process, from the reappropriation of eroticism to the exploration of the self-portrait. Alizée shares her perspectives on art, representation and the power of images in the context of her own artistic journey.

WR, A Day in Oradour: interview with Patrick Séraudie
Patrick Séraudie by Patrick Séraudie

WR, A Day in Oradour: interview with Patrick Séraudie

linked to Willy Ronis | A Day in Oradour

Patrick Séraudie, a filmmaker specializing in history subjects, and the Second World War in particular, made the documentary “WR, A Day in Oradour” with Willy Ronis. A conversation about the photographer’s memories and the international history of the “Peace Movement”. Patrick Séraudie first met the photographer while preparing the film Self-portrait of a Photographer, of which he was the producer.

Robert Frank: An interview with Gerald Fox
Gerald Fox by Gerald Fox

Robert Frank: An interview with Gerald Fox

linked to Robert Frank | Leaving Home, Coming Home

British film director Gerald Fox has produced many portraits of artists, photographers in particular. But Robert Frank, while being an artist who opens up about his own life through his work, was nonetheless a man of mystery, complicated, withdrawn from the world. Gerald Fox revisits the story of this film, just like Frank himself, with its ups and downs, but above all exciting and human.

Das Schloss : An Interview With Sara Imloul
Sara Imloul by Sara Imloul

Das Schloss : An Interview With Sara Imloul

linked to Sara Imloul | Das Schloss

In this interview, Sara Imloul shares with Emmanuel Bacquet her creative journey since the Das Schloss series. Exploring metaphysical and ancestral themes, she invites us into her artistic process, where calotype and large format reveal a profound visual poetry, rooted in a timeless attachment to photography.

Bettina Rheims (by Serge Bramly)
Serge Bramly by Serge Bramly

Bettina Rheims (by Serge Bramly)

linked to Bettina Rheims, My Life

   How to define what photography is, what distinguishes it from its elders, painting, engraving, drawing (to which it was for a long time subservient) or, if you'd rather, what constitutes this specific mode of representation? When Bettina Rheims began her career in the late 1970s, only a small number of books were devoted to photography and the question remained embryonic, possibly unformulated. A few studies were beginning to surface, such as Susan Sontag's; Barthes had not yet published Camera Lucida; rare were the monographs that allowed us to tackle a coherent set of works. In a way it was a new age of pioneers, both for artists and for galleries, and the public and private collections that were gradually emerging.

Fragments : an interview with Bettina Rheims
Bettina Rheims by Bettina Rheims

Fragments : an interview with Bettina Rheims

linked to Bettina Rheims, My Life

Bettina Rheims talks to Emmanuel Bacquet about her inspirations, her creative process and her artistic evolution. Learn how her projects, from the Gender Studies series to portraits of incarcerated women, reflect a growing commitment and an ongoing quest to capture the essence of her subjects, transcending the conventions of photography.

Interview with avec Nathalie Masduraud and Valérie Urréa
Nathalie Masduraud et Valerie Urrea by Nathalie Masduraud et Valérie Urréa

Interview with avec Nathalie Masduraud and Valérie Urréa

linked to Guy Tillim & Thandile Zwelibanzi |South Africa, Chromatic Existences

Nathalie Masduraud and Valérie Urréa are documentary filmmakers. Beyond their personal films (on autism and dance, among others, for Valérie, and on the occupation and the French colonies for Nathalie), they join forces to produce many societal and historical documentaries.
They have thus worked in particular on Iranian and South African photography. Their joint projects generally focus on the artistic and social recognition of women.

Violence
André Rouillé by André Rouillé

Violence

linked to Crime Scenes (How to become a forensic photographer)

   Violence is an infinitely diverse phenomenon in terms of its sectors, its actors, its victims, its forms, its practices and its intensities. Not all violence is the same. It can be private, public, and even legal (if not legitimate), like police violence.

Still Not There: Interview with Kimmo Koskela
Kimmo Koskela by Kimmo Koskela

Still Not There: Interview with Kimmo Koskela

linked to Still Not There, Arno Rafael Minkkinen

Kimmo Koskela is a director, visual artist and producer. His films blur the borders between documentary and film d’artiste, and demonstrate a very personal world. None of which rules out encounters: The film Still Not There, with Arno Rafael Minkkinen, attests to great creative complicity. Complicity and a relationship with photography that the director addresses for us...

Free!
Christine Delory-Momberger by Christine Delory-Momberger

Free!

linked to Jane Evelyn Atwood | Around Pigalle

   Jane Evelyn Atwood is an independent woman and photographer whose freedom has been forged both through her experiences and the struggles she wages in life to protect her creative space.  But this freedom is tenuous. It must be regained with each act, each decision, each gesture and it requires unfailing integrity and authenticity. Freedom is not easy. It is a constant vigil of the self and others in a relationship of otherness that must be reinvented with each event, each encounter and each commitment.

The Fresson process
André Rouillé by André Rouillé

The Fresson process

linked to The Workshop | The Fresson Process

   From the film's opening frames, Thomas Goupille plunges us into another world and another time: the workshop of the famous Fresson dynasty, master printers of photographs since 1899. The enlarger and the wooden frames from the nineteenth century, the Roberval balance, now only found at antique dealers, kitchen pans, as well as the machine that spreads gelatine on the paper, invented by great-grandfather along with the process: these are still working instruments. But by etching their era and their technical protocols in the printing process, they anchor the Fressons in the field of artistic craftsmanship, in the wake of a family tradition of quality, creativity and unique pieces, in contrast to a contemporary world sucked in by quantity, technological productivity and profit. 

Snapshots / Bernard Plossu: The Eye of Emmanuel Bacquet
Emmanuel Bacquet by Emmanuel Bacquet

Snapshots / Bernard Plossu: The Eye of Emmanuel Bacquet

linked to Bernard Plossu | Snapshots

   He's not keen on legends under photographs, pregnant with meaning. Nor is he keen on the "legendary photographer" tag. "Plo" doesn't stand on ceremony. He doesn't need to. He avoids interviews, because what matters is in his photos, and talking about the rest is of secondary importance. "Photography for photography's sake." Confidences and comments are reserved for friends and family. His words have the same accuracy as his photographic writing; lucid, direct. 

Locked Rooms
Emmanuel Bacquet by Emmanuel Bacquet

Locked Rooms

linked to Romy Alizée | Snapshots

   In general, things start in a room.  This is certainly true of the birth of photography. When Nicephore Niepce made his first attempts to capture an image, revealing to the world the famous view "from my window", the light must have crossed the room then the camera obscura.