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James Hamilton

Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine.

Patti Smith and Tom Verlaine, 1975.

The 2024 PhotoMidwest Biennial may be nearly wrapped (one exhibit, “In Search of Awe,” is still viewable through Nov. 17 at Overture), but a documentary film screening series from fest organizers and FlakPhoto will continue. Next up is Uncropped, a new film focusing on the life and work of James Hamilton, a photographer for The Village Voice and other publications. It’s free to attend.

media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory, PhotoMidwest Festival 2024 and FlakPhoto Projects present Uncropped, a documentary by D.W. Young on Thursday, November 14, 2024 at 7:00pm. Free admission.

Uncropped | D.W. Young | USA | 2023 | 111 minutes

Directed by D.W. Young (The Booksellers) and Executive Produced by Wes Anderson, Uncropped rediscovers the work of James Hamilton, one of the great chroniclers of the cultural history of America. For over four decades working as a staff photographer at publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Observer and, most notably, The Village Voice, Hamilton captured some of the most remarkable people and stories of the last half century.

A New York legend himself, Hamilton created iconic images of musicians like Charles Mingus, Patti Smith and Lou Reed, took intimate portraits of everyone from Liza Minnelli to Alfred Hitchcock, broke off to do set photography for George Romero, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, and pursued powerful and controversial assignments across the U.S. and the world. All the while he never stopped amassing a stunning visual chronicle of his beloved New York City in all its grit and glory.

In particular, Uncropped explores the unique position The Village Voice held in New York life, and the way in which Hamilton’s remarkable body of work exemplified the paper’s provocative merging of art and journalism. His story and vast archive offer a singular window into the heyday of alternative print media. (Greenwich Entertainment)