March 28, 2018 at 4:15pm
Film Screen Room, Level C
Crossing the Lines
New York-based photographer Stephanie Berger has photographed many of the most important works by contemporary and recent choreographers, including Merce Cunningham, Pina Bausch, Bill T. Jones, Trisha Brown, Mark Morris, among many others. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Artforum, and the Wall Street Journal. Stephanie’s photography has been exhibited at The Pitts River Museum at Oxford University, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center, The New York State Theater Gallery, The Walter Reade Gallery at the Film Society, John Jay College Gallery, Endicott College, and the Curtis Gallery at New Canaan Public Library. She has also exhibited her work out of doors as part of the LOOK3 Photo Festival in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2013. Stephanie was the staff photographer for the Lincoln Center Festival from 1996 to 2017. Damiani Press published her book Merce Cunningham: Beyond the Perfect Stage in 2016, celebrating the final performances of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.
In this presentation, Stephanie begins with a roundup video that showcases her work from 2017. In discussing her older work, she pinpoints the method she uses in shooting bodies and objects on stage and discusses approaches toward locating the “singular moment” in dance, using still photography to depict both stillness and motion. Additionally, Stephanie explains how the transition to digital photography has influenced her process.
This talk is part of the course Movement and Dance in Film and Video. It is supported by the Film Studies Certificate Program.