If the guy wasn't already talented enough, now Brad Pitt is showing off his ability to shoot photos of his gorgeous "wife" and family using black and white film. The photos are quite spectacular and give us all an interesting insight into his life behind closed doors. You will want to see these.
The photos originally went public in the November 2008 issue of W Magazine. Surprisingly though I had not see them till they recently surfaced again on Reddit. According to Lomography.com "W’s Creative Director Dennis Freedman wanted a different perspective for their next feature of Angelina Jolie, revealing an angle yet unseen of one of the most photographed women in the world. The answer couldn’t have been more obvious and ambitious. “I was surprised that Brad accepted the challenge,” said Freedman as Brad Pitt showed interest and enthusiasm in shooting the portraits himself."
To produce the photos for the assignment from W Magazine, Pitt requested rolls of Kodak Tech Pan - a film that had been discontinued back in 2004. The magazine's photo editor however located 40 rolls of the film to send to Pitt to use as requested. Tech Pan was popular with photographers in the fashion industry for it's high contrast black and white results.
While looking over the images I was highly impressed with Pitt's ability to capture images that went far beyond just snapshots around the house. The lighting is beautiful in many of the shots and the composition is fantastic. His subject is of course absolutely stunning and those lips, wow! But who knew that Pitt had such a great eye for capturing photos.
Surprisingly, I also really enjoyed all the grain in the images. I realize this will be something some might complain about in the images, but I actually really found it almost refreshing and reminded me of my days shooting high ISO black and white film in school.
I was glad these images have resurfaced since I missed them on the first go around back in 2008. So what do you think about them? I for one am a bit perturbed that here all this time I thought I had Pitt beat in at least one area (photography) and come to find out now that he is actually quite the contender to beat me there as well. You got my respect Pitt. Now I just need to make sure my wife doesn't see these photos.
[Via Reddit, Via Lomography]
"how many of us turned in something this good as our first assignment?"
Plenty, and they turned in MUCH better.
Too bad people actually fall for the PR these two put out about themselves. Saving the world and being "beautiful" must be so tiring...
btw, why am I not surprised to see this showing up on Fstoppers?
"If the guy wasn’t already talented enough, now Brad Pitt is showing off his ability to shoot photos of his gorgeous “wife” and family using black and white film."... AND using black and white film, WHAT A GUY. Who writes this drivel anyways, I'm betting they "Like" Pitt on FB too...
"Plenty, and they turned in MUCH better."
well point me in the right direction..like i said a bunch of cranky old timers bitching and complaining
So you want someone to "well point me in the right direction"...
First you need to develop the ability to tell the difference between "good" photography and "Pitt's" photography.
If you truly are unable to tell this difference (and there are more than enough good photographers to compare) then perhaps you should take a course or two at your local college.
Take away Pitt's name from these pics, and all that's left is mediocre, generic black and white shots that wouldn't be given a second look.
The cult of "street photography" is saturated with this kind of stuff, take a bunch of pictures and pick out the "edgy" ones to proclaim your "vision". The trouble is, thousands of others have the same shots as you have, all without anything other than blind luck as to the result.
Yes the old guard of shooting street, Atget, Cartier-Bresson, Frank or even Maisel started the genre of this type of shooting (they actually are simple street style portraits) but unfortunately, Pitt exhibits no actual talent in comparison, and is simply using his and her name to attract "devoted admirers" of all they touch.
Good grief, I wish we could all get over the idea that poorly exposed, out of focus and badly lit and composed photos are art. But it seems the Emperor's New Clothes phenomenon continues.
It's sad we're nof famous. We could have grabbed the same amount of recognition for an average shot.
Complete agreement. How hard would it be to photograph Angelina, she is a freakn' knock out.
Its Interesting reading this article because even before my interested in photography I purchased the magazine and I put it away and never read it till now that I see this pictures.
Oh wow... The commented assumptions and hater rationalizations put forth in response to this article are hilarious.
These days everything is Impressive. Photos are just ok and they look like a party of filters.
I like the pics. He did a good job catching the natural light. But i would love to be a superfamous person too for a while, just for beeing photographed by the best photographers in the world, and having the chance to study how they work.
I hate how lots of people are saying "this effect could be achieved in post blah blah blah" surely the whole point of shooting in film is the graft of doing it that way.
Something tells me these look best in print and not on a screen.
Honestly...what makes these photos great or okay or even bad? Everyone is viewing them differently. It is sort of like when you go to an art gallery, some pieces speak to you and others don't. He is catching this sort of heat for these photos from a lot of you because of who he is. Almost as if you don't want a big name holding a camera because photography isn't to be shared or something. I appreciate his photos. I do not think they are all that great but who cares?
Fstoppers is a site for sharing things photography. Thats it. Good, bad and the ugly. Stop always thinking technical and finding reasons to bash articles and photographers. Including Brad Pitt. Hes a guy with an over priced camera. Any other film camera would have had these results. Maybe he isn't that great with a camera. YET. You weren't either at one time.
As for Jolie... Would these photos be as interesting if she weren't who she is now? Probably not. But that isn't important. Brad Pitt took photos of Angelina. Look at them. Say "Oh that was interesting" and move on to the next article.
There's a level of grain that is artistic and then there's grain that is just a mess. In my book, the one with her chin in her hand, falls into the latter category, and the one directly above it, the former.
ohhh haters gonna hate...This IS a very cool serie! Stop all that crappy talk you unsuccessful photographers down there...the haters are just disgusting...
wow really like it especially the last of Angelina with lips - like a duck! :)
So many haters. These are a really nice set of images.
Sadly, the Instagram generation will accept mediocrity as something good.
Smartphones, Instagram, Wikipedia and Google, The instant culture has destroyed true creativity and replaced it with "close enough".
All the comments of "hater" is a perfect illustration of this decline, as is the defence of Pitt's "photographs" as "wow, great".
Sorry kiddies, these are bad.
IF the people involved were not who they are, no one would care
.
sorry but I have to say the ONLY reason I checked out these photos was because Brad took them. otherwise, have I seen them elsewhere and with a different subject, I wouldn't even give it a single glance. photosharing sites have better B&W than these.
These photos have no relevance other than the fact that they are Brad Pitt's photos of Angelina Jolie and, likely, are resurfacing due to her recent revelation about her preventative mastectomy. Should we be enthralled by Brad's photography or Angelina's beauty? If we take the über duo out of the equation, we are left with some crappy black and white images of some lady and her kids and there is absolutely interesting or relevant to that.
What other examples of Brad's photography have we seen? Does this make him a pro photographer, he was published in W Magazine, after all? How much was Brad paid to take these crappy snapshots anyway?
Was this just another cute idea that some Hollywood publicist thought up in the middle of the night? Or was it the brain child of some cheap and lazy photo editor who decided it would be cheaper and easier than paying an actual photographer?
i like brad pitt and angelina, but really did not like the photos...
I've actually had these images in my inspiration folder for awhile. I love that he did it!
I think that Brad Pitts has amazing eyes for photography. The pictures are amazing and very intimate. It is not about the equipment but rather what you can do with it. He has it and I respect that.