Private Screening of Close Up: Photographers at Work

Photography is a most intimate visual form of storytelling, and at its best its narrator remains humbly anonymous while simultaneously captivating the viewer. So it was a rare honor to glimpse the genius behind the image at the private screening Thursday of Close Up: Photographers at Work. This extraordinary new documentary by director Rebecca Dreyfus is stunning in its balance, illuminating both art and craft equally through a series of probing, revelatory interviews with those that have lived their lives behind the lens.

Produced for Ovation TV by Maysles Films, the hour-long special will debut at 8pm on Nov. 18, kicking off a week of photo-focused programming on the acclaimed multi-platform arts and culture channel. Artistic greats Gregory Crewdson, Timothy Greenfield-Sanders, Albert Maysles, Andrew Moore and Sylvia Plachy reveal how the sometimes arduous process of picture taking can translate our ideals into a form of fervid visual communication both immediate and sublime.

Bonus: Attended by many of the interviewees, including portrait genius Greenfield-Sanders and the soulful talent Plachy, the screening was a celebration of art meets artful TV. Legendary documentarian Maysles and his daughters Rebekah and Sarah, famed gallery owner Steven Kasher, artist/musician and frequent Greenfield-Sanders subject Lou Reed and Ovation TV programming head Kris Slava also contributed to the night's considerable cultural wow-factor. Check out Ovation's photo-focused programming beginning Sunday, including specials on Cindy Sherman and David LaChappelle, as well as series The Genius of Photography. Also note Ovation TV's of-the-moment contest collaboration with Fotolog, the world's largest photoblogging community.