The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography is a thought-provoking documentary that offers an enchanting and intimate insight into the life and work of Elsa Dorfman, an American portrait photographer also known as the polaroid photographer. The film is supported by noted director Errol Morris released in 2016, creatively, chronicling Dorfman's exceptional career and down-to-earth personality.

The B-Side primarily centers around Elsa Dorfman, who over her career gained significant recognition for her large-format Polaroid portraits. Morris beautifully showcases Dorfman's unconventional journey, her medium— and explores her remarkable eye for capturing her subjects in a way that's warm, genuine, and candid. Although she is widely renowned for her Polaroid portraits, the title of the documentary, "The B-Side," refers to Dorfman’s practice of keeping "reject" photos— the less perfect, complementary images to her clients' chosen shots.

The carefully crafted narrative uncovers her beginning in the 1960s, where she established a considerable career in New York City before relocating to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Strikingly, Dorfman didn't pick up a camera until she was in her late twenties, but once she did, her work proved to be remarkable. The film explores how she was introduced to the medium-format Polaroid Land camera in the 1980s, which ultimately came to symbolize her career. The massive camera, weighing as much as a young child, produced images that were 20 x 24 inches, a size that allowed for a tremendous amount of personal detail and brought a genuine intimacy to her work. Her larger-than-life black and white photos documented a wide range of personalities, becoming the go-to photographer for those wishing to have personalized, intimate portraits in the Boston area.

However, the documentary is not just an exploration of Dorfman’s artistic journey. It also offers a glimpse into the changing landscape of photography itself, exploring the nuances of lifestyle, art, and technology. By following the featured artist, we venture into the modern age where the need for immediate gratification has resulted in a decline in the physical and tactile aesthetic of photography. Still, Dorfman remains loyal to her traditional technique; she is seen carefully taking pictures, peeling apart the chemicals, and preserving the "moment of surprise" that has now been lost in the digital world.

The film is punctuated with various fascinating characters – friends of Dorfman, other artists, and even famous faces such as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg and musician Bob Dylan, Albuquerque native with international recognition. Elsa's lighthearted attitude and dynamic personality create a comforting contrast to the serious, often esoteric world of professional photography. This demonstrates that her life is not just about her work, but also about the relationships she has nurtured over the years. Sequences of Elsa's pictorial storytelling are wonderfully explained by the thoughtful commentary from Errol Morris that add an extra dimension to the picture stories.

While this is a film about an artist and her work, it is also a film about friendship, memories, mortality, and the inherent beauty of a moment captured in time. In The B-Side, Errol Morris managed to create a self-contained tribute, not just to Dorfman but to the many lives and times she’s captured through her photography. It's a tender, genuine, and affectionate profile of Dorfman as well as a fascinating exploration of the interplay between her life and her work.

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography is a marvel for not just photography enthusiasts but also the casual viewer. It's a whimsical celebration of an artist's life, viewed through the lens of her unique perspective, encapsulating the ebbs and flows of her journey and sharing the joy and discovering the 'real' inside each one of us through photography. This cinematic gem, built meticulously and with a passion equal to Dorfman’s own, is indeed a testament to the power of keeping those 'B-Side' moments alive and cherishing the uniquely human charm they hold.