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photo.net Interview: Elsa Dorfman
In June of 1965 Elsa was working at what is now called
Educational Development Corporation (EDC)
developing teaching materials for elementary school
science teachers. There, Elsa met George Cope, the
photographer who took all the photographs for the books
EDC turned out. George handed the camera to Elsa and
taught her how to use it, making photography seem
accessible to her. She's been recording the lives of people
since. Elsa photographs her clients with the Polaroid
20x24 (pictured on top left with Elsa), one of only six in
existence. The camera weighs about 200 pounds, and is
25.2" wide, 40.94" long, and 59.06" high. The camera is
essentially a box with a hole in the front for the lens. The
box has a Polaroid film processor built into the back
door. Elsa loves her Polariod 20x24 because of its history
and due to the fact that so many people who worked with
camera are still devoted to it. She loves the camera's
quirkiness and unpredictability - it seems to have its own
soul. Elsa also uses the Polaroid Polacolor ER instant
color film ASA 80. She usually lets the film develop for 70 seconds before peeling it apart. Elsa also
uses Broncolor strobes because she finds it very good for non-technical people.
In addition to taking portraits, Elsa has written a book Elsa's Housebook: A Woman's Photojournal and
her work can be found in En Famille, a poem by Robert Creeley (the entire book is on the web.) Leslie
Sills' new book, In Real Life: Six Women Photographers features a chapter on Elsa and her work.
The Interview
Photo.net met up with Elsa and asked her a few questions.
1. What drove you to make the transition from teacher to photographer?
It wasn't exactly a transition from choice. I was a failure as a teacher. I was a good teacher in the
opinion of the kids, but the administration was sure I was a failure. I couldn't get the kids to
salute the flag by 8:05 or read the bible. And I didn't always wear high heels. Sometimes I wore
knee socks and saddle shoes, let alone sneakers. I wasn't that organized, and I didn't decorate my
classroom, at least not to the schools standards. I was a teacher by default. I had no idea what TO
BE.
In those days, the early sixties, there were no role models - at least I didn't see any around me. I
had been in New York City and had been a groupie. I was just middle class enough to know that
that lifestyle (the word didn't exist until around 1974) wasn't really for me. I never liked drugs. I
liked to know what was happening. I liked to be in control. So I went from teacher to
experimental teacher at Educational Services Inc. (now called EDC). While at EDC, I was
photographed by their photographer George Cope. And so there was a lineage, and I guess the
http://www.photo.net/interviews/elsadorfman/ (2 of 5)7/3/2005 2:19:48 AM