Night Reels comprises a body of work combining paper collage, animation, and sculpture by the artist Stacey Steers (American, b. 1954). Working in the great surrealist tradition, Steers creates stories that follow unpredictable paths within ornate nocturnal dream worlds. Each of Steers’s meticulously crafted animated collage films excise characters from early film history. Phantom Canyon (2006) follows human figures from the pre-cinema motion studies of Eadweard Muybridge as they come into contact with monstrous insects. Night Hunter (2011) features a mesmerizing new performance from an appropriated version of silent cinema star Lillian Gish. In The Edge of Alchemy (2017), images of Hollywood icons Janet Gaynor and Mary Pickford are brought together to perform a surprising new twist on the Frankenstein myth. 

Every scene in each of Steers’s films is composed as an intricate paper collage assembled from fragments of nineteenth-century printed engravings and book illustrations. Steers places her characters into familiar yet fantastic surroundings which she then animates using a 35mm motion picture camera. Working with great precision, Steers develops approximately eight distinct collages for every second of screen time. This extreme devotion to detail, along with an exquisite mastery of the craft of animation, results in each film taking at least five years to produce. 

While Steers’s films can be fully enjoyed when seen projected on a large screen, they take on a new life when viewed within her collaboratively fabricated sculptural works. From a foreboding Victorian dollhouse to a precarious stack of bed frames, each fascinating 3D object has been designed as a perfect theater to set the mood for Steers’s films to be experienced in a gallery space. This exhibition, which brings together all of the Night Reels works will be the first presentation of its kind in the eastern United States.

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Stacey Steers: Night Reels Audio Tour

This audio tour features excerpts of interviews with Carl Chiarenza, with introductions provided by Curator William Green.

Carl Chiarenza: Journey into the Unknown

Dining Room

Conservatory

Side Hall

Billiard Room

Entrance Hall

George Eastman Museum - Advanced Studies Workshop, 1967: Robert Frank [Part I]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Frank Borzage Interview (1958)

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo courtesy Universal Studios Company, Inc./Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: William Daniels Interview (1958) [Part 1]

Photo by Ruth Harriet Louise. Courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

00:00:00 Early Career – Transition from Theatre to Film 

00:03:24 Early Career – CARMEN (1915)

00:05:36 Early Career – THE CHEAT (1915), Sessue Hayakawa and technique with actors 

00:08:00 Early Career – JOAN THE WOMAN (1916) and comparisons to D.W. Griffith

00:13:07 Early Career – THE LITTLE AMERICAN (1917), working with Mary Pickford and Jack Holt

00:17:50 Early Career – THE WHISPERING CHORUS (1918), MALE AND FEMALE (1919)

00:24:10 Career – Representations of marriage, OLD WIVES FOR NEW (1918) and tensions with Paramount



The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Cecil B. DeMille Interview (1958) [Part 1]

Interview conducted by James McQuaid, February 1, 1977.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo: Abraham Aronow (American, b. 1940). "Brett Weston," ca. 1988. Courtesy of Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum. Gift of the photographer.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Brett Weston Interview (Feb. 2, 1977)[Part 2]

Interview conducted by James McQuaid, December 8, 1976.

Photo: Nancy Newhall (American, 1908–1974). "[Beaumont Newhall]," negative, ca. 1942. Courtesy of Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum. Gift of Christi Newhall.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Beaumont Newhall Interview (1976)

Interview conducted by James McQuaid, Sept. 9, 1977.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Walter Clark Interview (1977)[Part 2]

Silver Voices: Walter Clark Interview (1977)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by Steven Lewis, December 12, 1976.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Photo: Peter Gasser (Swiss, b. 1947). "Ansel Adams, Carmel," 1979. Courtesy of Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum. Gift of the photographer.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Ansel Adams Interview (1976)[Part 2]

Silver Voices: Ansel Adams Interview (1976)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by Steven Lewis, December 12, 1976.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Donald Ross Interview (1976)[Part 2]

Silver Voices: Donald Ross Interview (1976)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by Steven Lewis, April 17-21, 1978.

Photo: Ansel Adams (American, 1902–1984). "Dody," ca. 1950. Courtesy of Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Dody W. Thompson Interview (1976)[Part 2]

Silver Voices: Dody W. Thompson Interview (1976)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Witzel Studios, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences.

Silver Voices: Harold Lloyd Interview (1958)

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Apeda Studio, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum.

00:00:00 Introduction 

00:01:00 Early Life – Family and performing Vaudeville  

00:03:30 Early Career – Meeting Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle and start in pictures  

00:09:34 Early Career -- THE GARAGE (1920)  

00:11:05 Early Career – Buster Keaton Productions and distribution with Metro  

00:18:30 Early Career  – Pivot from shorts to features, OUR HOSPITALITY (1923), THE NAVIGATOR (1924) and THE GENERAL (1926)

00:24:43 Early Career – Short films with Edward F. Cline: HARD LUCK (1921), THE BOAT (1921), THE PLAYHOUSE (1921)

00:32:10 Early Career – THE FROZEN NORTH (1922), THE ELECTRIC HOUSE (1922)

00:39:20 Early Life – Movie-going experiences at vaudeville shows, BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and Mack Sennett productions

00:42:00 Early Career – THREE AGES (1923), SHERLOCK JR. (1924) and trick photography  

00:54:10 Career – SEVEN CHANCES (1925), GO WEST (1925)

00:59:30 Career – THE GENERAL (1926)

01:05:00 Career – COLLEGE (1927)  

01:07:00 Career – STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. (1928)

01:09:35 Career – THE CAMERAMAN (1928)

01:17:00 Career – Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract, working with director Edward Sedgwick

01:22:19 Late Career – LIMELIGHT (1952) 

01:31:45 Reflections – Favorite films from career


The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices

Silver Voices: Buster Keaton Interview (1958)

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Introduction by Nancy Kauffman, Archivist for Stills, Posters and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum. Recorded October 2020.

Photo by Apeda Studio, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introduction provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Buster Keaton Interview (1958), Introduction by Nancy Kauffman

Interview conducted by James McQuaid and David Tait, January 28-30, 1977.

Photo: Arnold Newman (American, 1918–2006). "Lisette Model, New York City," 1980. Courtesy Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Silver Voices: Lisette Model Interview (1977)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by James McQuaid and David Tait, January 28-30, 1977.

Introduction by Lisa Hostetler, Curator in Charge, Department of Photography, George Eastman Museum. Recorded October, 2020.

Photo: Arnold Newman (American, 1918–2006). "Lisette Model, New York City," 1980. Courtesy Department of Photography/George Eastman Museum.

This interview was produced as part of an oral history project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Generous support for the introduction provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Silver Voices: Lisette Model Interview (1977), Introduction by Lisa Hostetler

Silver Voices: Lisette Model Interview (1977)[Part 2]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Irving Chidnoff, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.

00:00:00 Career – THE WHITE SISTER (1923)

00:03:00 Career – LA BOHÈME (1926)

00:07:00 Career – BROKEN BLOSSOMS OR THE YELLOW MAN AND THE GIRL (1919)

00:09:00 Career – Consulting with Griffith on finances 

00:18:00 Career – End of Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer contract and public image

00:25:20 Career – THE WIND (1928)

00:27:00 Reflections – Experiencing audience reactions 


The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Lillian Gish Interview (1958)[Part 3]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Irving Chidnoff, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.


00:00:00 Early Career – Reception and impact of INTOLERANCE (1916)

00:17:10 Career – Wars films: THE HEARTS OF THE WORLD (1918), THE GREAT LOVE (1918), THE GREATEST THING IN LIFE (1918)

00:25:00 Career – Working with cinematographer Hendrick Sartov and introduction to panchromatic film stock on ROMOLA (1924)

00:27:33 Career – THE WHITE SISTER (1923) 


The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Lillian Gish Interview (1958)[Part 2]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Irving Chidnoff, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.


00:00:00 Introduction 

00:00:30 Early Life – Early Filmgoing, introduction to D.W. Griffith by childhood friend Mary Pickford

00:03:30 Early Career – Making AN UNSEEN ENEMY (1912), start at The Biography Company, the impact of D.W. Griffith on cinema 

00:10:00 Early Career – THE MOTHERING HEART (1913), D.W. Griffith’s style directing actors 

00:18:20 Early Career – Working with Billy Bitzer

00:23:00 Early Career – Contributions to editing for THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915), INTOLERANCE (1916)

00:25:30 Early Career – Making THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915)


The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Lillian Gish Interview (1958)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Introduction by Peter Bagrov, Senior Curator, Moving Image Department, George Eastman Museum. Recorded October 2020.

Photo by Irving Chidnoff, courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introduction provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Lillian Gish Interview (1958), Introduction by Peter Bagrov

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:29 Looking at Stills – Discussion of photo subjects: Ralph Barton, Emmett Flynn, John Ford, Peter Lorre, Alla Nazimova, Rudolph Valentino, Irving Thalberg

00:05:30 Career – THE GREAT DIVIDE (1925): negotiating her salary with MGM and working with Reginald Barker

00:09:45 Early Career – Meeting husband, filmmaker Rex Ingram

00:12:25 Early Career – THE FOUR HORSEMAN OF THE APOCALYPSE (1921) and working with Rudolph Valentino,

00:17:20 Early Career – THE CONQUERING POWER (1921) and passing up role in THE SHEIK (1921)

00:21:10  Early Career – THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922): working with Ramon Novarro and marrying Ingram during production

00:23:45 Ingram’s Career -- TRIFLING WOMEN (1922), stories of production and Ingram working with Barbara La Marr

00:28:50 Career --  WHERE THE PAVEMENT END (1923)

00:32:58 Career -- SCARAMOUCHE (1923)

00:38:30 Career -- THE ARAB (1924), Dark hair, filming in North Africa with Ingram

00:42:00 Career – MARE NOSTRUM (1926), filming of aquarium scene

00:51:20 Career – THE MAGICIAN (1926), THE GARDEN OF ALLAH (1927), Ingram’s production style

00:59:50 Late Career – Co-directing BAROUD (1932)  with Ingram

01:04:00 Ingram’s Career – Early days at Universal Studios and anecdotes from their working life together



The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Alice Terry Interview (1958)

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Introduction by Nancy Kauffman, Archivist for Stills, Posters and Paper Collections, George Eastman Museum. Recorded October 2020.

Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introduction provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Alice Terry Interview (1958), Introduction by Nancy Kauffman

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Apeda Studio. Courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.

00:00:00 Introduction 

00:00:40 Early Career – Move to America and early uncredited extra roles in Hollywood

00:08:36 Early Career – Working with Victor Shertzinger and first credited role in MR. BARNES OF NEW YORK (1922)

00:14:14 Early Career – Discovery by Rex Ingram, working on THE PRISONER OF ZENDA (1922), TRIFLING WOMEN (1922)

00:28:30 Early Career – Developing screen persona, WHERE THE PAVEMENT ENDS (1923),

00:32:10 Early Career – SCARAMOUCHE (1923)

00:36:28 Early Career – Working with Fred Niblo on THY NAME IS WOMAN (1924) and THE RED LILY (1924). 

00:38:13 Early Career – THE ARAB (1924)

00:40:50 Early Career – BEN-HUR (1925)

00:51:58 Early Career – A LOVER’S OATH (1925), A CERTAIN YOUNG MAN (1928)

00:57:30 Personal Life – Friendship with F.W. Murnau  

01:08:12 Early Career – Working with Ernst Lubitsch 

01:10:04 Career – ACROSS TO SINGAPORE (1928), working with a young Joan Crawford 

01:11:42 Career – Relationship with Jacques Feyder, shooting DAYBREAK (1931), SON OF INDIA (1931) 

01:13:42 Career – MATA HARI (1931), relationship with Greta Garbo 

01:23:53 Career – End of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer contract

01:26:32 Reflections — Gratitude for career

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Ramon Novarro Interview (1958)

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Introduction by Caroline Yeager, Associate Curator, Moving Image Department, ·George Eastman Museum. Recorded October 2020.

Photo by Apeda Studio. Courtesy Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer/Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introduction provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ramon Novarro Interview (1958), Introduction by Caroline Yeager

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Hartsook Studio. Courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

00:00:00 Career – Difficulties producing project with Ernst Lubitsch, eventual collaboration on ROSITA (1923)

00:13:50 Career – DOROTHY VERDON OF HADDON HALL (1924), LITTLE ANNIE ROONEY (1925)

00:17:15 Late Career – SPARROW (1926), MY BEST GIRL (1927)

00:24:30 Late Career – COQUETTE (1929), transition to sound, dissolution of professional relationship with Charles Rosher

00:30:50 Late Career – THE TAMING OF THE SHREW (1929), SECRETS (1933)

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Mary Pickford at Pickfair Interview (1958)[Part 2]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo by Hartsook Photo. Courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:00 Early Career – working with Biograph studios

00:09:30 Early Career – Discovering Mabel Normand

00:15:10 Early Career – Move to Famous Players Lasky, making TESS OF THE STORM COUNTRY (1914)

00:23:30 Career – Fire at Famous Players Lasky Studios in 1915

00:27:30 Career – ESMERALDA (1915), working with James Kirkwood

00:30:00 Early Career – Return to Biograph, second exit, last picture at Biograph The New York Hat (1912)

00:44:30 Career – Working with Maurice Tourneur, POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL (1917)

00:48:30 Career – THE LITTLE AMERICAN (1917), STELLA MARIS (1918), REBECCA OF SUNNYBROOK FARM (1917), M’LISS (1918)

00:56:00 Career – Producing and starring in DADDY-LONG-LEGS (1919)

01:10:20 Career – Start with United Artists, POLLYANNA (1920)

01:13:50 Reflections – Financials of the film industry, personal taxes

01:21:20 Reflections – Admiration for Cecil B DeMille

01:24:00 Career – THROUGH THE BACK DOOR (1921), acting, producing, and working with Gertrude Par

1:28:00 Career – LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY (1921), ROSITA (1923)

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: Mary Pickford at Pickfair Interview (1958)[Part 1]

Interview conducted by George Pratt.

Photo courtesy Stills, Posters, and Paper Collections/George Eastman Museum.

00:00:00 - Introduction

00:00:40 Early Life — Early movie-going; seeing THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1903)

00:06:00 Early Career — Hired by Famous Players-Lasky, first on-set job as a camera assistant for Cecil B DeMille on FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE (1919)

00:11:00 Early Career — Shooting MALE AND FEMALE (1919) on location on Santa Cruz Island, on-set duties

00:21:00 Early Career — Working late at the studio and secretly sleeping on set

00:24:05 Early Career — Beginning of work as a second assistant camera, working with Japanese cinematographer Henry Kotani on PUPPY LOVE (1919), and TOLD IN THE HILLS (1919)

00:38:00 Early Career — Portrait photography, meeting Mary Miles Minter, promotion at Minter’s request and beginning of career as a lead cinematographer

00:50:50 Early Career — Making PETER PAN (1924), Tinker Bell special effects

1:09:20 Career — Working with Lon Chaney on LAUGH, CLOWN, LAUGH (1928)

1:11:29 Career — Being on set with Joan Crawford

1:13:38 Career — Visit to China in the late 1920s and U.S. Citizenship

1:17:30 Career — Beginning of the sound film era and working on TRANSATLANTIC (1931)

1:21:06 Career — Production difficulties on HELLO, SISTER! (1933) and working with director Erich Von Stroheim

The Silver Voices Project, which allowed for digitization and sharing of this archival audio, was made possible by a grant from the U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services, grant number MA-30-19-0681-19.

Generous support for the introductions provided by Art Bridges, and made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio do not necessarily represent those of the Institute of Library Sciences or the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Silver Voices: James Wong Howe Interview (1958)[Part 1]

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Transcript

For the final film in the trilogy, Edge of Alchemy, I wanted to develop a relationship between two women. I decided to work with the silent-era actresses Mary Pickford and Janet Gaynor, both of whom project a sense of interiority and psychological complexity in their portrayals, which is something I’m always looking for. It occurred to me that it might be interesting to present a version of the Frankenstein story but with a gender reversal that would illuminate the classic story in a new way. I’m an avid gardener and I had been thinking about bees and hive decline, and I decided that that crisis could present an entry point for the film and help define the characters. Mary Pickford plays the “scientist” and Janet Gaynor the “creature’ she creates. I took elements from over a dozen films to create collages for Edge of Alchemy. I again used fragments from the work of 19th century illustrators to create the backgrounds. 

Much of the action in Edge of Alchemy takes place in an arcane laboratory adrift in a world outside time. To accompany Edge of Alchemy, I worked with Michael Schliske to create several proto-scientific instruments that give the appearance of some sort of functionality while serving as miniature screening “rooms” for the re-scaled film material. I like to play with impact of scale and contrast the intimacy of the miniature with the physically encompassing experience of the big screen.  Each instrument features lenses that in various ways distort the images on the screens embedded in them. I am interested in perspective and how our preconceptions alter our experience of what we see. The lenses play with and alter the images from Edge of Alchemy and I hope encourage the viewer to reflect on the subjective nature of interpretation and point of view.

204. Edge of Alchemy

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Transcript

The second film in the trilogy is Night Hunter. After I completed Phantom Canyon I knew I wanted to continue working with collages, but I was looking for a way to add psychological complexity to the characterizations. I had admired a performance by Lillian Gish in the D.W. Griffith film Broken Blossoms from 1919. Her portrayal of an abused child is quite staggering and vividly emotional. I thought I might be able to lift her from the scenes in that film and bring her into my own world. I began to cut her out of printed film frames and collage her into a mysterious house with a snake and confounding eggs where she is very much alone. I used fragments of 19th century Pre-Raphaelite illustrations to construct the collages. I ended up incorporating images from 4 of her silent-era films. Night Hunter explores a loss of control, heightened emotions, and maternal impulses. Gish expresses all of those magnificently. I create my films intuitively and don’t plan ahead. I’m inspired by Surrealist techniques, particularly those employed by women like Remedios Vara, Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo. Like them, my working process is organic and allows the unconscious to play a role. I am looking for a poetic alignment of elements, not a rational one. My films bring incongruous or unexpected objects into a pre-existing film frame or a newly assembled collage. Overtime, I’ve learned that these unanticipated conjunctions of actors and print elements create a kind of visual, energetic charge. 

I decided to create Night Hunter House following on an opportunity to premiere the film Night Hunter at the Denver Art Museum. While I was constructing the film, I had the idea that it would be interesting to try to create a sculptural facsimile of the house where the film is set, with its many mysterious rooms. I worked with an architect friend, Mark Sofield , and we designed a 10 room miniature house with a video screen in each room. Michael Schliske finalized and fabricated the piece. As you move around the house and look into the windows, you can watch nearly all of the film in discreet loops. Along with the media, each room contains an assortment of miniature objects I placed there that parallel the action in the loop. I love using miniatures and I think the enactment of voyeurism as we gaze through the windows opens up the scope of film. I find the intersection of sculptural object and media help draw the viewer into the fantasy realm of the film and place the two elements in conversation with one another.

203. Night Hunter

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Transcript

The first of the trilogy films is called Phantom Canyon.  For this film I had the idea of incorporating the subjects from Eadweard Muybridge’s human motion studies from 1883. I was familiar with them from my years studying the figure, they are a resource for many artists since they show multiple images of bodies in motion performing various activities. I thought their stop-motion quality made them a natural fit with animation, and also that the male and female figures could become characters in a film that was a metaphorical examination of a relationship. I combined the figures with images from clip-art books which are collections of copy-right free images often used by artists. The bold contrast in the black and white images seemed to work well with the themes of passion and dismay that the film explored. From the very beginning the technique excited me. 

I began to create 3D sculptural installation objects in collaboration with other artisans after I finished my second trilogy film Night Hunter and created Night Hunter House. The excited response to that work made me think about returning to Phantom Canyon and thinking of a way to incorporate a key element of the film with a small scale projection built into a sculptural object. Stack of Beds emerged from that process. The falling beds are part of a seminal scene in Phantom Canyon and creating a physical representation of that scene seemed like a fertile choice. My friend, the fine woodworker Michael Schliske and I designed the piece together, and he fabricated it using various antique beds and other elements he built. I like the way Stack of Beds plays with filmic scale and extends the metaphoric power of the film by placing the viewer inside the filmic space in a certain sense.

202. Phantom Canyon

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Transcript

Star Chart features work from a current ongoing project with the working title Deep Space. I consider the three completed films in Night Reels a trilogy and Deep Space is both similar and moving in a new direction. I try to build on the techniques I employ as I address a new project and in this case I will be adding text to the film in a collaboration with the poet Mary Szybist. What you see here is still silent, however. The landscape for the film is outer space and the film will feature Lillian Gish and Janet Gaynor. I plan to have a subtext involving aging, since Lillian Gish had a long cinematic career and she ages on the silver screen. She made her final film The Whales of August in 1989 when she was 92 years old. The images of her here are from a very early Biograph film called The Mothering Heart that she made as a teenager. I’m exploring contemporary feelings of uncertainty and peril. The film Deep Space is an internal exploration of the power of beauty and imagination alongside the specter of annihilation. For the Star Chart I made 3 loops from the work I have completed and placed them in this wooden disc that features a reproduction of a 19th century star chart. My collaborator Michael Schliske constructed the frame and put the piece together. I like the way the disc gives context to the loops and that there are screens occupying the surface like blinking solar systems in the vastness.

201. Star Chart

This audio tour has been made possible in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities: NEH CARES. 

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this audio, do not necessarily represent those of the NEH.

Transcript

My name is Stacey Steers and I am the multi-disciplinary artist behind the work in Night Reels. Over the trajectory of my career the focus of my art practice has been experimental animation. I create my films by hand, like many artisans, in a way that harkens back to the early history of animation. For years I drew my animated films, but around 2000 I began to feel that the expressive quality of my drawing style was too confining and I began to search for a more neutral way to work with images. I decided to try my hand at collage animation, a form I was familiar with through the work of Larry Jordan and others. I decided to try creating collages by combining antique photographic materials or film stills with fragments of 19th century engravings and illustrations. Each collage is small, usually 4 x 5.5 inches, and I photograph them in sequence on an old animation stand using 35mm film. I have to make huge numbers of these works on paper to create a film, usually 8 unique images for each second of screen time. It’s a very obsessive, labor-intensive process. As an experimental filmmaker, I’m always looking beyond the conventions of narrative filmmaking and I try to explore a different sort of cinematic language. I like to try to leave room for the audience to have their own relationship to the images and ideas.

Night Reels

200. Introduction

Carl Chiarenza began working in the studio in 1979. His decision to move his artistic practice indoors was prompted by a chance invitation from the Polaroid Corporation to experiment with their massive 20 x 24-inch studio camera. In a 2008 interview with LensWork magazine editor Brooks Jensen, Chiarenza explains the circumstances behind this important transition:

The thing that happened in 1979 which caused me to change from outdoors to indoors—or from using things that existed in the world to making things that had not existed before—was because of Polaroid. When I, along with a half a dozen other people, were invited to test the new 20x24 camera, I was thrilled with the idea, but I had no idea what to do because I’d never brought things to the camera before. I spent a week using up a lot of their film (and therefore a lot of money that wasn’t mine) making pictures which I thought were pretty terrible because I had no idea how to do that. I was trying to do still lifes, but abstract still lifes. And it wasn’t working, and furthermore, they were in color because color was the only material they had in the first years of that camera. And since I can’t really work in color, that was the problem. But the major problem was how in the hell do you bring something to the camera—unless it’s a portrait and you do an ad or a regular still life. So that was the beginning of making collages. As I said, the stuff I made there in that first week with that camera were pretty horrible—and two things emerged from that: One, I shouldn’t try to do color. Two, I had to figure out how to make something that was related to what I wanted to see in a picture. 

Source: LensWork Interview (2008)

Into the Studio

During his early years, Carl Chiarenza started moving closer and closer to his subjects, resulting in photographs that looked more and more abstract. Here he is discussing that transition with LensWork magazine editor Brooks Jensen in 2000:

Well, when I started making serious photographs, after I got through with the photojournalism stuff and got back on some kind of track, I was really trying to work in the tradition of Minor [White] and Edward [Weston] and Ansel [Adams]. And I used to go out daily with Paul Caponigro—we lived together for a while—and we would go out to various parts of New England and photograph. He would always come back with wonderful landscape pictures and I would always come back with mosquito bites… and halfway decent pictures. But, you know, it took a long time for me to understand that that was not where I was going to be able to function, in terms of expressing what I needed to express. Because I didn't know any other way, there was no other way open to me but that tradition I inherited. So until I found myself getting smaller and smaller and smaller in terms of the parts of the world that I was looking at and closer and closer and closer that I began to understand that I wasn’t really interested in this landscape as a picture. Though I loved the landscape, it wasn’t that that was my picture. So I began making pictures that were smaller and smaller, more and more abstract

Source: LensWork Interview (2000)

Early Landscape Details

Carl Chiarenza was a member of the second class to graduate from the newly-established bachelor of fine arts program in photography at Rochester Institute of Technology. His classmates included well-known photographers Bruce Davidson, Kenneth Josephson, Pete Turner, and Jerry Uelsmann. In an interview with LensWork magazine editor Brooks Jensen from 2000, Chiarenza discusses the dual influences of Minor White and Ralph Hattersley, two prominent faculty members at RIT during the mid 1950s:

Now in the photo thing, as this program is developing, Hattersley was the person—of the teachers we had Hattersley was the person who was directly involved with putting the program together. Minor came into the program when he moved to Rochester and Eastman House, so he came in part-time. Anyway, as the classes got going over the two-year period, we would be bouncing back and forth between Minor and Ralph. So the wonderful thing about this was that we didn't get stuck with a single track. We were not under Minor White, we were not under Ralph Hattersley. We would go to minor and we would learn the Zone System—and how to stare at a picture for an hour and really digest that picture detail by detail, you might say silver halide by silver halide. At the time, we all sorta thought he was really nuts, I mean having us sit there for an hour looking at these pictures, but again, as we’ve all said in retrospect, that was a major part of our education—what a picture is and how you deal with that, particularly in photography, where photographers generally see a subject or an object and say, “Oh, that’s nice, I’m going to make a picture of that,” whether its people or a lamp or whatever it is, and don’t really think about what’s going on behind it, in front of it, to the left of it, to the right of it, and so on. So we really learned to understand that photography, like any other picture, is made up of everything that’s in it. And everything that’s in it is important. On the other hand we went to Ralph and Ralph would say, ‘Well, what’s in the darkroom trash this morning? Is there anything interesting that we can pull out and start with?’ These would be prints that had stains on them that could be developed further. I know this sounds extreme, but it happened! Or he would take us on field trips to New York. We went to New York and we spent a couple days at LIFE magazine meeting people like Eisenstaedt and Margaret Bourke-White and meeting people and going through the whole building, the labs and meeting the layout people and so on. And we would go back to RIT with negatives that he had gotten for us from LIFE magazine and we experimented with them to see if we could do something different from what LIFE did. Or we went to Chicago and we met the people at ID, Callahan and Siskind, and learned about an entirely different way of teaching photography. We walked into—I guess it was the Mees building or Gropius building, I can’t remember—and as we were walking up toward the photo department, up the stairway, and we heard this terrific jazz going on. We make it up a stairway, up a landing, and there’s Chico Hamilton quartet playing, live, in the middle of this space. It wasn’t a concert, it was just in the middle of the building. So it was experiences like that that really opened us up to all kinds of creative worlds. 

Source: LensWork Interview (2000)

Rochester Institute of Technology

Carl Chiarenza was born in Rochester, New York, on September 5th, 1935. He picked up his first camera around the age of eight, and throughout his adolescence, photography and music were his main passions. Here’s Chiarenza recalling a funny story about his early efforts in photography during an interview with his daughter, Gabriella, in 2019:

The playground master—in those days we had a person in the playground—had himself an interest in photography, so he encouraged us young people to play with cameras. And some of us would do that, and I did that, and then went home and eventually made a darkroom in the attic where I processed film and made prints. And when I was developing film one day, I had the tank in the sink in the bathroom on the second floor underneath the attic and I was running water to wash the film—and I got the faucet going in such a way that it would go into the tank, move out of the tank in a way that kept it flowing regularly. And I went across the street to make some more negatives in the playground. And when I came back one day I got into real trouble, because the moving water changed its course and overflowed the sink and went down to the first floor—which caused me to have some issues with my father!

Source: Gabriella Chiarenza Interview (December 20, 2019)

Early Work

Hi, my name’s Will Green, and I’m the curator of the exhibition Carl Chiarenza: Journey into the Unknown. 

I first came across Chiarenza’s work while studying at Rochester Institute of Technology, where a massive, 14-foot wide photograph by him is on permanent display in the lobby of the Frank E. Gannett Building. This photograph was different than any that I’d ever seen before. It didn’t depict a person, a place, or any other subject matter that I could easily recognize. At first glance, it appeared to be little more than a disorganized array of various textures, shapes, and tonal values. Yet as I passed by it each day on my way to class, this photograph began to make more sense. I started to notice the subtle ways Chiarenza repeated certain shapes and textures over the horizontal plane of the picture, and how he deftly balanced light and dark tonal values to construct a composition that was, the more I looked, surprisingly harmonious. In short, as I became more and more familiar with this particular photograph, it became more and more interesting to look at. 

I hope that you’ll be able to slow down and take time to explore the works on display in this exhibition. Follow along with this audio tour as we learn more about Carl Chiarenza, his photographs, and what makes them so special.

This audio is made up of clips from interviews Chiarenza did in 2000, 2008, and 2019. I’d like to thank Brooks Jensen of Lenswork magazine, Gabriella Chiarenza, and Steve Osemwenkhae for providing this audio.

Introduction by William Green

World's foremost museum of photography and cinema located on the historic estate of George Eastman, the pioneer of popular photography.

George Eastman Museum

Pinned to spotlight

Popular tracks