The Many Sad Fates of Mr. Toledano, A Photographer's Short Film Evoking Reflection

The New York Times published a video about photographer Philip Toledano's fear of growing old. Philip decided to grow old as many times as possible. Joshua Seftel produced the short film by following Phillip's process of "seeing" himself ageing, and even dying.

It's amazing how the paranoia, the negative things in one's life can drive the creativity within. To go through the process of documenting himself having some of the diseases or human ailments his DNA was tested to be prone to. 

He's a well-known photographer in the advertising industry based in Manhattan, New York. What makes it different is that he's more an artist, using photography as a medium of his expression. When his father passed away it reinforced the fear of aging and death, and he had idea to get over it; to see himself in that part of his life before it happens. "I wanted to know what's going to happen to me in future."

He went through being obese, homeless, a criminal, suicidal; each conceptually brought together with set design and hours of make-up and styling. 

He goes to see a fortune teller, who makes him realize what he's doing is maybe great from an entertainment stand-point, but that this process of documenting him as an elderly man is quite crazy in reality. At the end of their meeting the fortune teller tells him that we create our own reality, which is most likely one of the powerful arcs of the documentary. 

What I get out of this is that photographers, have the power to create worlds and realities that's not really possible in any other way. How we do that is completely up to us. 

Wouter du Toit's picture

Wouter is a portrait and street photographer based in Paris, France. He's originally from Cape Town, South Africa. He does image retouching for clients in the beauty and fashion industry and enjoys how technology makes new ways of photography possible.

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1 Comment

Brilliant, thanks for sharing