Andrew Zuckerman
Encyclopedia
Andrew Zuckerman is an American filmmaker and photographer. He is best known for creating hyper-real images set against stark white backgrounds. His subjects have included birds, endangered species of animals, politicians, humanitarians, artists, and entertainers.
Zuckerman received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts
in 1999. He began his career as a commercial still life photographer, before releasing the book, Creature, a portrait series of animals, in 2007. He has since published three additional volumes: Wisdom'' (2008), Bird (2009), and Music (2010) . Wisdom and Music were also realized as feature length, interview-format documentary films. In 2006, Zuckerman co-founded the company, Late Night and Weekends, through which he released the acclaimed documentary, Still Bill
, about the life of Blues musician, Bill Withers
, and created campaigns for brands including Puma and Gap. He produced and directed his first short narrative film, High Falls, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal
and Peter Sarsgaard
, in 2007. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
and received the award for best short narrative at the Woodstock Film Festival
the same year. Writing for The New York Times
, David Carr called the project "a pretty film, and a pretty smart film." His recent brand work includes an ongoing collaboration with Apple
, producing and directing the launch films for the iPad
, iPhone
, MacBook Air
, and iPad 2
. Despite widespread Internet speculation that Sam Mendes directed the iPhone 4's FaceTime
camapaign, it was actually Zuckerman who was responsible for the ads.
Zuckerman began exploring his signature approach in Creature. By dispensing with the environmental framework of conventional nature photography, the images focus on the form and character of a specific animal in a specific space, rather than its behavior in a habitat or evolutionary purpose. Zuckerman has said that he drew inspiration from the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History and was interested in creating a kind of two-dimensional taxidermy. The book includes a taxonimical index for each of the species photographed.
Zuckerman applied the same visual language – intimate, close-up portraits against a bright white background – to the Wisdom project, for which he filmed, photographed, and interviewed 60 politicians, artists, entertainers, designers and religious and business leaders over the age of 65, including Chuck Close
, Frank Gehry
, Judi Dench
, Clint Eastwood
, Jane Goodall
, Desmond Tutu
, and Ted Kennedy
.
During the making of Wisdom, Zuckerman became interested in the idea of the dynamic portrait, one that incorporates voice, physical presence, and written word. Interviewing subjects around the common themes of love, work, conflict resolution, and the environment, and utilizing a mobile studio, Zuckerman aimed to place his contributors in the same virtual space and conversation, creating what he refers to as a “group of global elders to speak to our global village”. The Wisdom traveling exhibit, which premiered at The Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, incorporates text, video, and images from the project, and continues to tour internationally today.
Following the release of Wisdom, Zuckerman began work on Bird. His hyper-detailed photographs of over seventy species nod at John James Audubon’s
ornithological
drawings. In order to capture physical qualities and flight activity rarely visible to the viewer, Zuckerman instituted a variety of techniques, including a custom-built delay system, in which the bird’s movement triggered the exposure]. The Bird website features a short accompanying film, and incorporates additional data such as wingspan and audio files of each species’ call. Both Creature and Bird are informed by a conservationist element, and include portraits of many rare or endangered animals.
His most recent project, Music, was released as a book, film, and iPad application in 2010, and features portraits of and interviews with musicians from disparate genres, including Lenny Kravitz
, Ozzy Osbourne
, Herbie Hancock
, and Philip Glass
. Following the footprint he laid out in Wisdom, Zuckerman touched upon similar themes in interviews with each of his contributors, and the documentary intersects footage of the artists as they discuss performance, collaboration, inspiration, and success.
Zuckerman has expressed his interest in exploring singular subjects from a multitude of perspectives and engaging his audience across a variety of platforms. In addition to books, film, and the internet, his approach incorporates making-of and behind-the-scenes footage, which is accessible on each of the microsites that accompany his major projects. Though he’s received criticism for exposing his technique, he has said he’s concerned with lifting the veil on the artistic process, and exposing solutions to creative problems.
Creature, Forma International Center of Photography, Milan, Italy
2008
Wisdom, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2009
Bird Film, High Line, New York City, NY
Bird, Colette, Paris, France
2010
Bird Film, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Bird Film, International Film Festival Breda, Breda, The Netherlands
Wisdom Exhibit, World Financial Center, Winter Garden, New York City, NY
Wisdom Exhibit, Siamsa Tire Gallery, Dingle, Ireland
2011
Wisdom, Bank of America Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Wisdom, Brookfield Place Adam Lambert Galleria, Toronto, CA
Wisdom, Bay Adelaide Center, Toronto, CA
SVA mentor show
2003
Young Guns Show
2007
SUNY ULSTER
Muroff Kotler Gallery, Stone Ridge New York, USA
2008
Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
2011
Obstacle, Invisible Dog Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Getxphoto Festival, Bilbao, Spain
Art Directors Club, Young Guns
2005
Broadcast Design Award
2006
D&AD Yellow Pencil For Photography
2007
High Falls, Woodstock Film Festival, Best Short Film
High Falls, Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection"
American Photography Annual
Communication Arts Annual
2005
Communication Arts Photography Annual
PDN Photography Annual
PDN 30
2006
Communication Arts Annual
PDN Photography Annual
2007
PDN Digital_Personal
PDN Digital_Music
Graphis Advertising Annual
Graphis Photography Annual
PDN Photography Annual
2008
Communication Arts Annual
PDN Photo Annual
Graphis Photography Annual
2009
American Photography 25
Communication Arts Annual
2010
Graphis Photography Annual
American Photography 26
PDN Photo Annual
Communication Arts
D&AD Annual
2011
Graphis Photography Annual
Zuckerman received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts
School of Visual Arts
The School of Visual Arts , is a proprietary art school located in Manhattan, New York City, and is widely considered to be one of the leading art schools in the United States. It was established in 1947 by co-founders Silas H. Rhodes and Burne Hogarth as the Cartoonists and Illustrators School and...
in 1999. He began his career as a commercial still life photographer, before releasing the book, Creature, a portrait series of animals, in 2007. He has since published three additional volumes: Wisdom'' (2008), Bird (2009), and Music (2010) . Wisdom and Music were also realized as feature length, interview-format documentary films. In 2006, Zuckerman co-founded the company, Late Night and Weekends, through which he released the acclaimed documentary, Still Bill
Still Bill
Still Bill is the second studio album by American soul musician Bill Withers, released in 1972 by Sussex Records. It includes two hit singles: "Lean on Me", which is number 205 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time and went to number 1 on the Billboard pop and R&B charts in summer of...
, about the life of Blues musician, Bill Withers
Bill Withers
William Harrison "Bill" Withers, Jr. is an American singer-songwriter and musician who performed and recorded from 1970 until 1985. Some of his best-known songs are "Lean on Me", "Ain't No Sunshine", "Use Me", "Just the Two of Us", "Lovely Day", and "Grandma's Hands"...
, and created campaigns for brands including Puma and Gap. He produced and directed his first short narrative film, High Falls, starring Maggie Gyllenhaal
Maggie Gyllenhaal
Margaret Ruth "Maggie" Gyllenhaal born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal and the older sister of actor Jake Gyllenhaal. She made her screen debut when she began to appear in her father's films...
and Peter Sarsgaard
Peter Sarsgaard
John Peter Sarsgaard is an American film and stage actor. He landed his first feature role in the movie Dead Man Walking in 1995. He then appeared in the 1998 independent films Another Day in Paradise and Desert Blue. That same year, Sarsgaard received a substantial role in The Man in the Iron...
, in 2007. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and received the award for best short narrative at the Woodstock Film Festival
Woodstock Film Festival
The Woodstock Film Festival is an American film festival that was begun in 1999. The festival was first conceived as a part of the Woodstock '99 Music and Arts Festival, with movies being screened as part of that event.-History:...
the same year. Writing for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, David Carr called the project "a pretty film, and a pretty smart film." His recent brand work includes an ongoing collaboration with Apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...
, producing and directing the launch films for the iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, MacBook Air
MacBook Air
The MacBook Air family is a line of Apple ultraportable Macintosh notebook computers.The first-generation MacBook Air was a 13.3"-only model, previously promoted as the World's Thinnest Notebook, introduced at the Macworld Conference & Expo on January 15, 2008. It featured a custom Intel Merom CPU...
, and iPad 2
IPad 2
The iPad 2 is the second and current generation of the iPad, a tablet computer designed, developed and marketed by Apple. It serves primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, presentations and web content, and is available in black or white...
. Despite widespread Internet speculation that Sam Mendes directed the iPhone 4's FaceTime
FaceTime
FaceTime is a video calling software application and related protocol developed by Apple for supported mobile devices running the iOS, in addition to Macintosh computers running Mac OS X 10.6.6 and higher...
camapaign, it was actually Zuckerman who was responsible for the ads.
Works and Technique
Zuckerman has spoken extensively about his interest in systematically collecting and organizing data to create multiple entry points into work that is conceptual in nature. One such system is a comprehensive mobile studio, consisting of fourteen cases of equipment, with which Zuckerman has traveled the world in order to situate all of his subjects in the same space. In addition to photographers including Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, he cites designers like Massimo and Lella Vignelli and Buckminster Fuller as influences, and has said that his minimalist style is “a function of what I was after conceptually with the work I was creating [and] a solution to a series of desires I have for what I want my work to communicate” rather than an aesthetic choice. He has discussed his use of white as a transportational device that allows him to draw out the essential nature of his subjects.Zuckerman began exploring his signature approach in Creature. By dispensing with the environmental framework of conventional nature photography, the images focus on the form and character of a specific animal in a specific space, rather than its behavior in a habitat or evolutionary purpose. Zuckerman has said that he drew inspiration from the dioramas at the Museum of Natural History and was interested in creating a kind of two-dimensional taxidermy. The book includes a taxonimical index for each of the species photographed.
Zuckerman applied the same visual language – intimate, close-up portraits against a bright white background – to the Wisdom project, for which he filmed, photographed, and interviewed 60 politicians, artists, entertainers, designers and religious and business leaders over the age of 65, including Chuck Close
Chuck Close
Charles Thomas "Chuck" Close is an American painter and photographer who achieved fame as a photorealist, through his massive-scale portraits...
, Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
, Judi Dench
Judi Dench
Dame Judith Olivia "Judi" Dench, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English film, stage and television actress.Dench made her professional debut in 1957 with the Old Vic Company. Over the following few years she played in several of William Shakespeare's plays in such roles as Ophelia in Hamlet, Juliet in Romeo...
, Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood
Clinton "Clint" Eastwood, Jr. is an American film actor, director, producer, composer and politician. Eastwood first came to prominence as a supporting cast member in the TV series Rawhide...
, Jane Goodall
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...
, Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, and Ted Kennedy
Ted Kennedy
Edward Moore "Ted" Kennedy was a United States Senator from Massachusetts and a member of the Democratic Party. Serving almost 47 years, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died and is the fourth-longest-serving senator in United States history...
.
During the making of Wisdom, Zuckerman became interested in the idea of the dynamic portrait, one that incorporates voice, physical presence, and written word. Interviewing subjects around the common themes of love, work, conflict resolution, and the environment, and utilizing a mobile studio, Zuckerman aimed to place his contributors in the same virtual space and conversation, creating what he refers to as a “group of global elders to speak to our global village”. The Wisdom traveling exhibit, which premiered at The Library of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, incorporates text, video, and images from the project, and continues to tour internationally today.
Following the release of Wisdom, Zuckerman began work on Bird. His hyper-detailed photographs of over seventy species nod at John James Audubon’s
John James Audubon
John James Audubon was a French-American ornithologist, naturalist, and painter. He was notable for his expansive studies to document all types of American birds and for his detailed illustrations that depicted the birds in their natural habitats...
ornithological
Ornithology
Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...
drawings. In order to capture physical qualities and flight activity rarely visible to the viewer, Zuckerman instituted a variety of techniques, including a custom-built delay system, in which the bird’s movement triggered the exposure]. The Bird website features a short accompanying film, and incorporates additional data such as wingspan and audio files of each species’ call. Both Creature and Bird are informed by a conservationist element, and include portraits of many rare or endangered animals.
His most recent project, Music, was released as a book, film, and iPad application in 2010, and features portraits of and interviews with musicians from disparate genres, including Lenny Kravitz
Lenny Kravitz
Leonard Albert "Lenny" Kravitz is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer and arranger, whose "retro" style incorporates elements of rock, soul, R&B, funk, reggae, hard rock, psychedelic, folk and ballads...
, Ozzy Osbourne
Ozzy Osbourne
John Michael "Ozzy" Osbourne is an English vocalist, whose musical career has spanned over 40 years. Osbourne rose to prominence as lead singer of the pioneering English heavy metal band Black Sabbath, whose radically different, intentionally dark, harder sound helped spawn the heavy metal...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, and Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...
. Following the footprint he laid out in Wisdom, Zuckerman touched upon similar themes in interviews with each of his contributors, and the documentary intersects footage of the artists as they discuss performance, collaboration, inspiration, and success.
Zuckerman has expressed his interest in exploring singular subjects from a multitude of perspectives and engaging his audience across a variety of platforms. In addition to books, film, and the internet, his approach incorporates making-of and behind-the-scenes footage, which is accessible on each of the microsites that accompany his major projects. Though he’s received criticism for exposing his technique, he has said he’s concerned with lifting the veil on the artistic process, and exposing solutions to creative problems.
Films
- High Falls (2007), Director, Producer
- Wisdom (2008), Director, Producer, Executive Producer
- Still BIll (2009), Executive Producer
- Music (2010), Director, Producer, Executive Producer
Solo exhibitions
2007Creature, Forma International Center of Photography, Milan, Italy
2008
Wisdom, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
2009
Bird Film, High Line, New York City, NY
Bird, Colette, Paris, France
2010
Bird Film, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA
Bird Film, International Film Festival Breda, Breda, The Netherlands
Wisdom Exhibit, World Financial Center, Winter Garden, New York City, NY
Wisdom Exhibit, Siamsa Tire Gallery, Dingle, Ireland
2011
Wisdom, Bank of America Plaza, Los Angeles, CA
Wisdom, Brookfield Place Adam Lambert Galleria, Toronto, CA
Wisdom, Bay Adelaide Center, Toronto, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
1999SVA mentor show
2003
Young Guns Show
2007
SUNY ULSTER
Muroff Kotler Gallery, Stone Ridge New York, USA
2008
Paris Photo, Carrousel du Louvre, Paris, France
2011
Obstacle, Invisible Dog Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
Getxphoto Festival, Bilbao, Spain
Honors/Awards
2003Art Directors Club, Young Guns
2005
Broadcast Design Award
2006
D&AD Yellow Pencil For Photography
2007
High Falls, Woodstock Film Festival, Best Short Film
High Falls, Sundance Film Festival, Official Selection"
Annuals
2003American Photography Annual
Communication Arts Annual
2005
Communication Arts Photography Annual
PDN Photography Annual
PDN 30
2006
Communication Arts Annual
PDN Photography Annual
2007
PDN Digital_Personal
PDN Digital_Music
Graphis Advertising Annual
Graphis Photography Annual
PDN Photography Annual
2008
Communication Arts Annual
PDN Photo Annual
Graphis Photography Annual
2009
American Photography 25
Communication Arts Annual
2010
Graphis Photography Annual
American Photography 26
PDN Photo Annual
Communication Arts
D&AD Annual
2011
Graphis Photography Annual
External links
- andrewzuckerman.com
- creaturebook.com
- wisdombook.org
- http://www.birdbook.org/
- http://musicthebook.com/
- latenightandweekends.com
- Interview with Andrew Zuckerman