So back in 2008 a home fire burned much of my archive. My lifelong collection of photographs, engravings and paintings that I loved plus much of my 16mm film and video archive – the work I had done after 60 years of filmmaking. The fire was nine days before the Ted Conference in Monterey and they asked me to talk about it and I told the folks there that I would make something good out of something bad.

Among other things, I made this documentary (   • How He Overcame A Horrible Fire - Hel...  ) so that my sons & daughter would have some idea of what was in my collection. It’s a powerful film and a motivational film that I made for people who have similar experiences with fires, or floods, or hurricanes, earthquakes or some other ungodly disaster. In a minute, the fire takes away the things they have owned and lived with and loved – and now they are gone. I learned that I could make something good out of something bad and it is philosophy that runs very deep in me.

One of my student apprentices took a hard drive where I had stored some of my favorite images and made this video for me as a gift. It doesn’t exactly tell a story but it gives a sense of how precise I was in the photographs and engravings and images that I collected. He included some personal photos of me and my wife that got burned but not destroyed. If you take a look, I hope that you will find that each photograph in its own way, attracts you and fascinates you.

I believe that good photographs, although physically two-dimensional, become three-dimensional. If you look into the photograph and beyond the moment in time that has been snapped, you may see something more that is there that is the story behind the story. That was one of the values that I looked for when viewing literally millions of images and picking the ones that spoke to me.

If you find this entertainment value or meaning, please click the Super Thanks button below the video screen to the right side. It will help support my future efforts.
David Hoffman