Babette Mangolte’s The Camera: Je or La Camera: I (1977)
On a warm Sunday last September, at New York City’s Metrograph Theater, Babette Mangolte introduced her 1977 film, The Camera: Je or La Camera: I, noting that although she had once felt the film explored imaging translation, she no longer felt this way. This curious manoeuvre: drawing attention to a once-held, now released, conviction, would be emblematic of the film to follow. As the theatre darkened, we the audience puzzled over what might have shifted Mangolte’s perspective, and she re-joined us to view her film – a masterclass dissection of subjectivity and photography.
