Then he’s getting geared up, biking to his studio, doing his yoga, setting up lights for a portrait. He narrates: “How do you become a photographer? …. The first thing you have to know is, who are you, what defines you and your values as a person.…” The subject of his portrait appears, he gives direction. This portrait, and many others documented in this film, was part of a series for an exhibition Perceptions and Recognitions: African Americans of Eastern North Carolina, a project commissioned by the Greenville Museum of Art in 2017. This series of portrait sessions weaves through the film, unifying it and providing context for his narration; Uzzle is the sole narrator, and he brings us into his story seamlessly.
We next see him setting up his darkroom to reprint a photo from the assassination of Reverend Martin Luther King; he shows his contact sheets, which includes images of Jackie Kennedy and Robert Kennedy and wife Ethel. He chokes up. “You could see that he was going to die. And two weeks later I was photographing his funeral.”
Cut to him photographing outside, photographing a highway billboard, Welcome to Harrison. At the bottom, Diversity is a code word for #whitegenocide. This transitions to a Life Magazine assignment of a Klu Klux Klan rally, chilling yet oddly respectful of his subjects, including a devastating portrait of Grand Wizard Robert Shelton. We see that Uzzle brings high craft, a deep sensitivity, and a profound respect for all of his subjects, even those with whom he disagrees.
This OVID.tv Film Also Uses Animation
Uzzle’s early career is shown mostly through animation. He picked up a camera as a kid and was hired as a Life Magazine photographer at 23.
