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The History of Dread: A Guide for the Perplexed
Hand-pulled photogravure
8 ½ x 7 inches (21.5 x 17.7 cm) image
15 x 13 inches (38 x 33 cm) paper
Stephen Berkman takes the things that fascinate him - cinema, literature, history, and performance art - and gives them new
form through the ambrotype and tintype (the former was in use through the 1850s, the latter until 1900). He creates elaborate
hoaxes, mostly furnished with tropes from the 19th century that challenge and provoke us. But, like early silent films, they also
entertain and amuse. He is also a consummate illusionist and avid antiquarian who, in his mischievous play, forces us to re-examine
larger issues such as the relationship between the past and present, photography, reality, and the way in which history, or 'truth,'
gets told through the camera lens. His visual inquiries burrow into the recesses of man's historical conscience. Through inventive
narratives, he prods this conscience forward by looking backward at the costs of its achievements, its pride, and folly in the
pursuit and control of knowledge often shaped in its own likeness -- an approach author Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, 1818) would
have delighted in.
Stephen Berkman was hired by director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient; The Talented Mr. Ripley) to create tintypes for
Cold Mountain (Miramax, 2003), a film about the American Civil War based on Charles Frazier’s novel of the same name. The
tintypes appear throughout the film as civilizing touchstones in a world thrown into chaos and barbarity. Few photographers could
be as well-suited to work on such a film as Berkman. Brought to Romania (where the film was partially shot), he set up his view
camera, and, not unlike 19th century itinerant photographers, a makeshift studio complete
with backdrop and props. With his significant knowledge of photo history, he began photographing Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Jack
White, Kathy Baker, Renée Zellweger, Brendan Gleeson, and other cast members, in poses and among props that evoke the same
texture and mood of Civil War tintypes.
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