Kickstarter

                         George Tice, American Photographer:

                                 Seeing Beyond the Moment

"It takes the passage of time before an image of a commonplace subject can be assessed.  The great difficulty of what I attempt is seeing beyond the moment; the everydayness of life gets in the way of the eternal."

George Tice is a tenth-generation New Jerseyan, and proud of it.  Raised by a single mother, he left school in the 10th grade to take a job as a darkroom assistant for a Newark portrait studio.  Tice's commitment and perseverance to his photographic vision has become yet another symbol of the great American experiment.  His photographs are an affirmation of humanity. George's images speak a quiet visual poetry, rendered in his unique monochromatic palette, gray.

George began taking photographs sixty years ago at the age of 14.  By age 20 his photograph, Explosion Aboard the U.S.S. Wasp, 1959, was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art for their collection at the request of Edward Steichen, Director of the Department of Photography.  George Tice has published 17 photography books and his work is in numerous art museums around the world.  His documentation of the urban landscape of New Jersey has secured him a place among the pantheon of America's great photographers.  He produces elegant and understated images that reflect the pursuit and realization of the American dream.  His book Hometowns: An American Pilgrimage is one such example where he photographed the hometowns of James Dean, Ronald Reagan, and Mark Twain, three iconic figures from America's heartland.  He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Media Museum (UK), and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

The George Tice film project has been two years in the making.  We follow George from photographing in the field with his 8X10 view camera to making prints in his darkroom.  He still creates photographs the "old-fashioned way" - with film and chemistry.  A particularly exciting part of the project was listening to George talk about some of his signature images where the photographs were taken, in some cases nearly 40 years later.  Tice takes the filmmakers on the road to photograph five new images for future publication. Tice is always working on one or two new book projects.  In addition, there are interviews with knowledgeable people in the field of art and photography that provide insight into Tice's extraordinary photography.

Our intention is to produce a film worthy of the legacy that is George Tice. We have completed filming and most of the editing work.  Your help with funding will be used to do final color correction, sound mixing and promotion.

In conjunction with the Newark Museum's George Tice 75th birthday show, "Seeing Beyond the Moment: The Photographic Legacy and Gifts of George Tice", open to the public September 18, 2013, the film will premiere at the Newark Museum on October 13, 2013.  Following its premiere, our goal is to air the project on PBS and have it screened at major film festivals.