Greenwich Entertainment revealed the official trailer for Uncropped, the documentary film chronicling the five-decade career of legendary New York photojournalist James Hamilton who created iconic images of almost everyone – from Patti Smith, Liza Minnelli, Lou Reed, Hitchcock, George Romero, to Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson.

Release Date

Directed by D.W. Young and Executive Produced by Wes Anderson, Uncropped world premiered at the 2023 DOC NYC festival, as the Centerpiece film, and opens in theaters on April 26, 2024, then on VOD on May 7, 2024.

Synopsis

Uncropped rediscovers the work of New York photographer James Hamilton, one of the great chroniclers of the cultural history of America. For over four decades working as a staff photographer at publications such as Harper’s Bazaar, The New York Observer and, most notably, The Village Voice, Hamilton captured some of the most remarkable people and stories of the last half century.

A New York legend himself, Hamilton created iconic images of musicians like Charles Mingus, Patti Smith and Lou Reed, took intimate portraits of everyone from Liza Minnelli to Alfred Hitchcock, broke off to do set photography for George Romero, Noah Baumbach and Wes Anderson, and pursued powerful and controversial assignments across the U.S. and the world. All the while he never stopped amassing a stunning visual chronicle of his beloved New York City in all its grit and glory.

In particular, Uncropped explores the unique position The Village Voice held in New York life, and the way in which Hamilton’s remarkable body of work exemplified the paper’s provocative merging of art and journalism. His story and vast archive offer a singular window into the heyday of alternative print media.

Reviews

The Moveable Fest review described the film as captivating, writing, ““Uncropped” is continually surprising, dropping in bits and pieces of Hamilton’s remarkable life as they might come up in spontaneous conversation, whether it was joining Bill Paxton for his early morning rounds delivering newspapers to sustain himself in the days before establishing himself as an actor or hanging out at home with Craig Clairborne to take pictures of all the chefs who came to visit him. With the photographer describing how he fashioned such a rewarding way to live in relation to his professional pursuit, gaining full control over his photographs when he insisted on processing and printing them himself and taking gigs only where he knew he’d have freedom, the film itself finds itself liberated from traditional form when the extraordinary all feels like happenstance and by the time Hamilton retreats to his dark room to see what’s developed from his day at the park, an entire life has come into focus brilliantly.”

Official Trailer

Watch the official trailer for Uncropped