Garden #2″ documents JoAnn Elam, her second husband Joe Hendrix, and an unidentified man in the backyard garden of Elam’s Logan Square apartment in Chicago. The camera appears to be passed from person to person as it records them tending the garden, barbecuing, and drinking Old Style beer while playing with a cat. This film
Shot in 1980, Garden & Alley shows JoAnn Elam’s vegetable garden in her backyard in Chicago. As in other elements of this collection, the camera here pans over the plants and flowers springing from the earth and over the houses around and garage doors at the end. In that sense, Garden & Alley further reveals
In this footage, JoAnn Elam films the house of a college friend named Bonner in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, which she visited in 1983. The camera pans over the house and its surroundings covered in snow, before someone comes towards it and goes past. Elam then comes out of the house and films the
In a similar way to many other elements in this collection, Backyard Zooms illustrates JoAnn Elam’s experimentations with filmmaking and editing practices. In her backyard outside her house in Chicago, Elam first films the construction of a house using fast and slow motion, followed by the same house finished in a time-lapse fashion. The camera
V’s Dogs by JoAnn Elam shows three dogs playing and running outside and a woman petting them. Sometimes out of focus, this footage like many other elements in this collection featuring cats and dogs still creates a sense of intimacy with the dogs, through its many close-ups and tight framing. Although we cannot determine the
This footage by JoAnn Elam was probably shot in Michigan around 1976. It shows a man working on a farm and the nature, insects, and chickens around. Like many other titles in this collection, especially the ones from Elam’s trips to Monterey, MA, Michigan reveals Elam’s fascination for both natural beauty and farm labor.
This film from the JoAnn Elam collection was probably shot by JoAnn Elam’s second husband Joe Hendrix at their home in Chicago around 1985. But this does not diminish Elam’s authorial imprint. Almost certainly under Elam’s direction, Hendrix films her tending to her collards garden in a time-lapse fashion, from the moment she arranges the
This footage was most likely shot in 1984 in Monterey, MA, which JoAnn Elam visited several times in the early 1980s. Despite being underexposed, one sees the woods around Elam, a few people coming in and leaving the frame, and chickens on the farm. Like many other elements in this collection, mainly Monterey ’84, Monterey
In this footage, JoAnn Elam first films her surroundings from a fixed standpoint and out of focus. The cars, the house, the people, and the nature that one distinguishes look like the elements of an Impressionist painting seen from up close, where one is immersed in shapes and colors. Next, Elam becomes a voyeur inside
Shot around 1981, this footage shows JoAnn Elam watching a few men (including her second husband Joe Hendrix) inspect their sports car, followed by a few shots of the farm where the scene takes place (location unknown). When Elam appears on screen, Hendrix is probably the person behind the camera, although this should not weaken