Rose Hartman was the first — and maybe the only female photographer of her time — to take her camera out of the studio and into the real-life scenarios of the world’s rich and famous. She shot the biggest celebrities, socialites and fashion models of the 1970s, documenting intimate moments at Studio 54, behind-the-scenes images of Fashion Week and all the A-list parties of the New York social scene.
Hartman, now 80 years old, along with first-time director Otis Mass, will appear in-person after a showing of the documentary “The Incomparable Rose Hartman” at the Malibu Film Society on July 5.
“It’s a view into a time,” Mass said in a phone interview, “A time capsule of sorts.”
The documentary includes hundreds of Hartman’s best-known photographs, featuring a number of current and former Malibu residents: There’s one with Mel Gibson talking to Sophia Loren, and also Cher, Diana Ross, Demi Moore and Lauren Hutton — not to mention other celebrities like Woody Allen, Gwyneth Paltrow, Johnny Depp, David Bowie, Donald Trump, Mick Jagger, Andy Warhol, Liza Minelli, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jackie O., JFK, Jr., Liberace and Richard Burton, just to name a few.
At least 30 people on the New York arts and social scene who knew Hartman either personally or professionally were interviewed in the film. Several said she couldn’t really be described as paparazzi, yet she was known to “push and elbow” her way to the front of a scene to get a shot. “You really want to strangle her,” said one photographer in the film.
“This is not a puff piece,” Mass said of the documentary. “Rose was humanized instead of glamorized — it’s a character study … She is tough and compelling.”
Mass said he was inspired to make a feature film about Hartman’s work after attending a lecture she gave.
“There were all these blow-ups of her photos there and it overwhelmed me,” he said. “I felt these photos should be memorialized in our pop culture forever. These are images that get audible reactions during our film screenings. I felt transported to the Studio 54 era.”
Otis feels strongly that, “Some of these images will be indelible into the next century. They were taken before the cell phone and digital cameras, and before photos became so disposable.”
While speaking with The Malibu Times, Hartman said she never asked for permission to take photos at Studio 54 or any of the parties she went to.
“I was usually invited in by the owner,” Hartman said.
When asked if she ever became friends with the celebrities she photographed, she said, “Yes, but not intimately. I’d never use the word ‘friend.’ They respect my work, but they’re not calling me to have dinner.”
She had a reputation for being pushy yet discreet.
“If someone famous was falling down on the floor from being high on drugs, I didn’t ‘see’ that … The owner [of Studio 54] knew I would never take an embarrassing photo,” Hartman described.
Mass backs that up.
“In reviewing over 16,000 photos, there was never a ‘gotcha’ moment,” he said. “She always made people look their best.”
One of the people interviewed in the film raises a question about whether Hartman is a true artist or just an observer. Hartman’s opinion is that she’s an artist.
“I’m very interested in composition and image. I’m always trying to show interesting postures and facial expressions,” she explained.
Hartman, a native New Yorker who did nearly all of her work in New York, is looking forward to spending time in the LA area, not only to promote her film, but to spend time working on her fourth book of photography.
“I’m very excited about all of this,” she said. “It’s the first time I’m going to experience the way the West Coast perceives me.”
The documentary has been an official selection at over a dozen film festivals and has been reviewed by several major newspapers. The New York Times said, “Pushy, judgmental, tart-tongued and self-obsessed, the photographer at the heart of Otis Mass’s penetrating documentary, ‘The Incomparable Rose Hartman,’ is, like her snapshots, a piece of work.”
The Malibu Film Society will show a sneak preview of “The Incomparable Rose Hartman” on Wednesday, July 5, at 8 p.m. at the Malibu Screening Room, MJCS, 24855 Pacific Coast Highway, followed by a Q&A with Hartman and Mass. The film has its West Coast opening at the Laemmle Theater in Santa Monica for one week, beginning July 7.
