TCF Ep. 487 - Elliott Kaufman

The Candid Frame: Conversations on Photography

Ibarionex R. Perello

Cameras, Art, Photoshop, Visual Arts, Career, Interviews, Photographers, Arts, Photography, Photo, Digital

4.8 • 749 Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2019

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Elliott Kaufman's career path is unique but has always revolved around architectural motives. When he began shooting in the mid 70s his orientation was toward the fine arts. Kaufman developed ideas for site-specific photomurals and wall art much before this concept became a mainstream art venue. He was able to work in this capacity with corporate industrial clients such as Westinghouse, General Electric, Warner Brothers and The Walt Disney Company. He then exhibited this work in such venues as in The Philadelphia Museum of Art, the American Institute of Architects, The Light Gallery in New York, and the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art. He won a competition jointly sponsored by the Port Authority of New York and The New York Public Art Fund, where he was awarded the commission to create a 35' x 45' public art mural outside of the Holland Tunnel. He has recently re-issued his first book American Diner, which captured the culture of the diners during the late seventies. Photographer Links: Education Resources: Candid Frame Resources Download the free Candid Frame app for your favorite smart device. Click here to download for iOS. Click here to download Support the work we do at The Candid Frame with contributing to our Patreon effort. You can do this by visiting or visiting the website and clicking on the Patreon button. You can also provide a one-time donation via . You can follow Ibarionex on and .

Transcript

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0:00.0	Here in the U.S., we have exported many things to the world, not least of which has been culture.
0:16.0	Whether it's music, film, television, or imagery, we have made the way we experience our lives in the
0:22.7	States its own commodity. And there are certain things that are inherently American and could
0:29.6	only be fully experienced here in the States. One of those things was and is the American
0:36.7	diner. Begun around the turn of the century is the American diner.
0:38.3	Begin around the turn of the century, the original diners were actually converted rail cars
0:44.3	that were drawn by horses to serve blue-collar workers, largely immigrants, a quick and affordable bite to eat.
0:52.3	After World War II, diners appeared across the country, especially with
0:56.3	the blossoming of car culture and newly built American highways. In the early 70s, Elliot Kaufman,
1:03.3	then a young photographer, began a personal project, documenting some of the classic diners
1:09.0	that had yet to be supplanted by fast food chains.
1:13.2	The five-year project resulted in a book and an exhibit, which helped to launch his career
1:19.2	as a commercial photographer. However, to the frequenters of those diners during that time,
1:24.9	he likely appeared to be just a boy with a camera and a big idea.
1:29.7	I kept going back, and I kept going back, and they knew that I was serious.
1:34.7	Oh, yeah, I want to do a book on diners, you know, and they go, oh, yeah, who's this kid?
1:38.9	You know, but I was a kid at that stage in time, but I kept coming back.
1:45.2	And I would come back and I would give them a print of what I had taken of them or of the
1:51.2	diner.
1:52.1	And they put it up on the sandwich board, you know, the way they would put different
1:56.4	pictures of the family on the sandwich board.
1:58.2	They put my photo of the diner up there.
	...

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