Documentary Will Explore Oscar-Winning Actress Jessica Lange’s Photography
An upcoming documentary will celebrate American Horror Story actress Jessica Lange’s decades-long passion for photography.
While many fans will know Lange as a two-time Academy Award-winning actress, she has also been an avid photographer for the last twenty years.
According to a report by Deadline, production company Cinergistik has announced the making of a documentary about the actress’ photography career titled Jessica Lange: Something About the Light.
Jessica Lange: Something About the Light will begin filming this summer in Mexico, New York City, and along U.S. Highway 61, the north-south highway that extends into Minnesota where the Tootsie actress grew up.
Deadline reports that the documentary will invite viewers on “a deeply personal journey through the worlds Lange has captured with her Leica M6 camera during her more than twenty-year career in photography.”
Jessica Lange: Something About the Light will be directed by Benjamin Alfonsi who was behind the 2023 documentary Whitney Houston in Focus.
“There’s a cinematic quality to Jessica’s photographic work, so taking these images into the film realm feels natural,” Alfonsi says.
“I wasn’t interested in telling the stories behind the photos so much as delving into the themes they explore, the lives they reveal, and the feelings they compel.
“At the heart of the film is an emotionally powerful body of work. The common thread is the photographer herself, whose humanity is reflected in the evocative art she continues to create through her imagery.”
Before becoming an actress, Lange studied photography at the University of Minnesota after winning a scholarship to study the arts.
Lange took up photography again in the 1990s when her partner, late playwright and actor Sam Shepherd, gifted her a Leica camera as a gift. Since then, she has been an active photographer and released several photography books including Highway 61.
Highway 61 was a photographic tribute to the storied route that Lange has traveled numerous times since her childhood in Northern Minnesota.
“It’s a great counterpoint to filmmaking because it’s a private, solitary experience,” Lange says of photography.
“It’s like writing or painting; it’s something you can do on your own.
“Acting is a co-dependent art form, and the actor is not in control. And filmmaking definitely informs the decision to photograph something. I’m drawn to situations with a dramatic feel to them as far as lighting or backdrop or people’s presence, the way someone stands.”
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
