The US director, documentary filmmaker and author Errol Morris released a documentary film about the photographer Elsa Dorfman (1937-2020) in 2016, which Netflix is currently making available. In The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography, Morris takes art enthusiasts on a journey through the life, work and studio of the US artist, who is best known for her large-format Polaroid images. While the film explores her life and work as a portrait photographer, it can also be seen as a tribute to photography itself.
Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on 26 April 1937, Elsa Dorfman graduated from Tufts University in 1959 with a degree in French literature and later studied elementary education at Boston College. While employed by EDC Publishing, Dorfman befriended the company's photographer, who introduced her to the world of photography. Dorfman later became best known for her Polaroid photographs taken with a large format camera. Her portrait subjects included friends and family as well as famous people, among them Andrea Dworkin, Allen Ginsberg, Charles Olson, Jonathan Richman and Steven Tyler.
