January 15, 2014

Slow Film for Fast Times: Waiting for a Train

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Adam Magyar - Stainless, 42 Street (excerpt)

Instead of standing on a platform shooting passengers speeding past him, Magyar now positioned himself inside the moving subway car, recording stationary commuters on the platform as train and camera rolled into the station. Magyar shot the footage at 56 times normal speed, turning 12-second blurs into nearly 12-minute films of excruciating slowness. His commuters stand, together yet apart, with the studied, three-dimensional grace of statues—only the twitch of a lip or a finger drawn toward an iPhone indicating that these people were caught in hyper-slow motion, inhabiting an elongated moment.

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Posted by gerardvanderleun at January 15, 2014 8:28 AM
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"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

I counted two and a half smiles.

Posted by: arcs at January 15, 2014 1:21 PM

Is that Ligeti's Lux Aeterna ?

Posted by: Jake at January 15, 2014 1:56 PM

I understand that Boulder, Colorado has adopted this exposure time calculator photography as it’s official time zone.

Posted by: MOTUS at January 15, 2014 4:16 PM

Having worked close to 20 years in that city, and lived in its shadows for longer than that, visiting as one of those awful "bridge and tunnel people" from the time I was a child,I have to say that I truly appreciate this perspective. No doubt it could be done in any large city with an underground. I guess I'm just like everybody else in that I want other people to understand, on some level, my own experiences. That city is so loud, so packed with sensory overload, so full of humanity's best, worst and everything in between, that when somebody slows all of that shit down in such a lovely way, well...you gotta give it props. The subway platform for the 4,5,6 (green) lines under Grand Central Terminal is narrow enough to spit across. Concentration helps, wanting to get the f' out of there because it's jammed is normal and understandable. I sure don't miss the city. But I do get sentimental wondering if anyone in the distant future will appreciate its history and how such a stunning array of people kept it going for so long. Anyway...my two cents.

Posted by: Kerry at January 16, 2014 7:08 PM