Sophie Elgort: I really enjoyed the film. This must have been so much work. What are you most proud of in it?
Warren Elgort: I was inspired by the movie My Architect. I would have never known about Louis Kahn’s architecture without that film. The main thing about it was how his son Nathaniel guides the story. It was a special way for people to see and feel the love that his family has for him. To see Arthur Elgort through his son’s eyes versus more of an informational documentary about a famous photographer. I hope this one from my personal perspective adds an emotional layer to it, which hopefully will help the audience come to love or at least be intrigued by Dad’s character, not just by his photographs. They’ll definitely learn more about his photographs. I want them to get to know this guy as a father, as an artist, as a person.
Sophie Elgort: Dad, how did you feel when Warren told you he wanted to make a film about you?
Arthur Elgort: I felt great. I thought it was a good idea.
SE: What is it like that all three of [your children] have ended up in the industry?
AE: It was perfect for me. I remember, Sophie, I had to talk you into being a photographer because you wanted to be a medical doctor. I said don’t bother, you will never see your kids. You’ll be in the office all the time taking care of everything else but your own kids. So, please become a photographer. And I bought a lot of cameras.
SE: You had four Rolleiflexes, and you’ve given one to each of us and kept one for yourself.
AE: Exactly, and I felt very good about that.
SE: Warren, you shot this over several years up to the present day. Of course you’re showing all this amazing archival footage, but you’re also showing Dad in present-day phases of his life. How did you come up with that idea?
WE: It’s a lot of film, and he looks different in some of the scenes. Some of it is before his stroke, some of it is after. Some of it is before cancer, some of it is while he’s getting chemo. But I really wanted to encapsulate what it looks like behind the curtain of one of the geniuses of photography across all phases of his life. It’s a special thing that he has that sets him apart. When he was busiest, I mean how many people at the peak of fashion go home at 6 o’clock every day, and have dinner with their kids, and wake up at 6 in the morning and have breakfast with them? He goes home on the weekends and during his free time, he thinks about his art and he takes photographs of his kids, gorgeous photographs, which are in the film. He puts us in a book and we all become his muses. He’s almost like Renoir. Renoir’s kids became famous filmmakers and great artists themselves. Absolutely, he’s a mentor for all of us.
SE: Dad, what was it like to see your life and work together on-screen?
AE: I thought it was wonderful that they did that. I mean, 65 years of this, and I feel good about it because I’m still alive. I have my kids. They still have rooms in my house.
SE: Warren, did you learn anything about Dad while you were watching the footage?
WE: Absolutely. We could see how he got the models loosened up. A lot of the time it’s funny, too, because he’s dancing around them and he’s kicking his leg up into the air. Everybody is having so much fun in the footage. Movement is always a key part of it. And all of us kids were trained from birth to be fantastic subjects for photographs, because we became so comfortable with having our picture taken that we didn’t pose or react very much. It’s incredible to see some contact sheets of his where my birth is on the same contact sheet as the cover of Christy and Linda in French Vogue. We’re on the same contact sheet. Me coming out of the womb, and Christy on the swing in his studio in the polka dots. I mean that’s wild to run from the job to the hospital and then to come back to the job and finish it up.
SE: I love that story. In the film, it is so fabulous. I can’t remember who’s telling it. Is it Linda or Christy?
WE: It’s all three. It’s Linda, Christy and Sonia Kashuk, the makeup artist.
AE: They waited for me to get back from the hospital and then we still worked. But we finished at a reasonable time.
SE: In the film, you talk about how you don’t wait for the models to become big. You found them early, and then you stuck with them, You’re more looking at the person for who they are versus them being a big star.
AE: Yeah. I didn’t need another guy to teach me. I did it myself.
SE: You found your muses.
AE: Especially Christy and Linda Evangelista.
SE: You included her a lot in the film, which is very good.
AE: She’s a very good talker, too.
SE: I know the Hamptons for all of us is especially meaningful. How does it feel to have this premiere at the Hamptons International Film Festival?
AE: It’s wonderful. I like the country better than the city.
WE: Yeah, well Mom and Dad were married on the deck of their Southampton house, so it felt really fitting for it to go to the Hamptons Film Festival. Also, 10 years ago, I worked at the Hamptons Film Festival as just someone who would drive people around, some of the film critics.
SE: I remember that.
WE: I remember going to see the films and I thought to myself, one day I want to have my film play at the Hamptons Film Festival. A lot of the film was shot in Southampton, at least 50 percent of it. All the interviews with you, Sophie and [brother] Ansel and Dad and Mom, a lot of the ones with Dad. Some of them are in the studio in New York City, but most of the family interviews were done in Southampton. In the third act, after he’s no longer working in high fashion at Vogue, after his stroke and after cancer, Dad was photographing nudes in Southampton because he doesn’t have the clothing and he doesn’t have the crew. Those photographs are timeless, too, and that’s just in the backyard. He can’t stop taking pictures. It’s the thing that keeps him going.
SE: To both of you, what do you want this film to communicate not just about Dad and his photography, but about family?
AE: Stick with family.
WE: It really is a family affair. Sophie, you’re in the film, and we see you young on set for American Vogue with all the dancers and you were always part of his pictures. We see Ansel as a youngster as part of his pictures. I’m part of his pictures. We see Mom dancing around. We are all part of it. Even Aunt Joan is carrying his tripod. Uncle Bob, his brother, helped convince him to go from dance photography to fashion photography. It is amazing when you can work with family, and I hope the audience is seduced by the inspiring, romantic way my father sees the world.