Target: $20,000 Pledged: $105,042
This is an amazing story, and obviously captured lots of people's imagination considering the huge investment. The short version is that a man bought a large collection of photo negatives at an auction, which then turned out to be of a world-class standard. The now deceased photographer was an equally mysterious character. The project was to create a documentary film about the whole thing.
I nearly pulled out of this one because, to be frank, the person that found the photos seemed a bit dickish. Imagine you were promoting a photographer, for whom you owned 100,000 negatives; is there a reward that seems an obvious choice? Not one print was on offer. If you pledged $5,000 you got tickets to the premier, a DVD, and a published book - all of which could be bought for far less - with the only non-purchasable reward being your name in the credits. Also, despite being inspired by her work, he didn't bother trying to contact her until a year after buying the negatives - only to find that her obituary had been placed the day before. It just seems like he's found himself on the gravy train and wants to maintain a strangle hold on it.
It's likely that I'm being over-judgemental. He did (and continues to) post images from Vivian's collection on a blog. He's also in a complicated position - finding himself as the custodian of an artist's complete works. That's a lot of responsibility.
I'll reserve judgement until I see the film (as if my judgement would matter), and see whether it's a celebration of Maier's work, or an ego trip for film's creator.
I opted for the only reward that met my criteria, which happened to be the entry-level one. I'll hopefully be receiving a spindle from one of the developed film rolls. It's a non-de-script piece of plastic, but will be accompanied by a certificate of authenticity. It should be ready to go, and so might be the first reward to arrive.
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