DESERT HEARTS MON AMOUR: A Documentary by Lydia Marcus
Photography (Digital, 35mm, Medium Format, Polaroid), L.A. architecture, Classic and Contemporary Cars, Travel, Museums, Hiking/Walking, Indie/Queer Cinema
Favorite cameras: Polaroid SX-70, Contax 137MD 35mm w/Carl Zeiss T lens, medium format Rolleicord from 1950's, Nikon D80 and D40 DSLR, Nikon Coolpix S2.
I'm a gadget/electronic lover - I'm no luddite! I eschew PC's - switched to Apple in 2002 and haven't looked back - currently use iMac G5 and iBook G3.
Love to travel especially on Road Trips & enjoy many National Parks. Thrive outdoors, taking hikes/natural walks, biking, swimming, tennis. Avid non-fiction reader. Enjoy museums, art, theater, photography exhibits, IMAX movies.
Music
Disco, New Wave, 70's/80's Rock. Garbage, The Sounds, Duran Duran, Annie Lennox/Eurythmics, ELO, Journey, Cars, and so much more.
Movies
Tootsie, Victor/Victoria, Grease, Xanadu, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, Desert Hearts, Aimee & Jaguar, The Hunger, Frances, Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars, Light Sleeper. And a gazillion more!
Favorite actors/actresses: Jessica Lange, Harrison Ford (of the 70's/80's), Willem Dafoe, Ralph Fiennes, Naomi Watts, Viggo Mortensen, Rachel Weisz, Colin Farrell, Annette Bening, and Julianne Moore to name a few.
Television
Lost, Project Runway, The View, Ugly Betty, anything on PBS, lots of reality and documentary programming.
Books
Photography - Photography - Photography! Many books on Andy Warhol (love his polaroid work) and many of Viggo Mortensen's photo books.
Heroes
Inspired in my youth and formative years by: my Mom, my Aunt Lisa Marcus Schiller, my Uncle Myles Burton, Barbara Walters back in the day, Tom Hatten and his "Family Film Festival" on KTLA, the early incarnations on PBS of "At the Movies," the work and persona of Alfred Hitchcock, Donna Deitch's "Desert Hearts," and Vito Russo's "The Celluloid Closet" (the book and his live traveling show).
Lydia Marcus's Details
Status:
Single
Here for:
Networking, Friends
Hometown:
Los Angeles
Body type:
5' 5" / More to love!
Ethnicity:
White / Caucasian
Religion:
Jewish
Zodiac Sign:
Pisces
Smoke / Drink:
No / No
Education:
College graduate
Occupation:
Writer/Photographer/Filmmaker
Lydia Marcus is in your extended network view more
Lydia Marcus spent 13 years working as an Entertainment Journalist and Film Critic. She began her career in 1994 as a bicoastal radio correspondent before quickly finding her niche covering queer and indie films for a variety of online, print, and radio outlets. She contributed many cover stories to: Frontiers (where she was Senior Film critic from 1995-2006); Girlfriends; GO!; and the LN (Lesbian News), where she was the “At The Movies” columnist. Her features and photographs have been published in numerous publications and websites including: The Los Angeles Times; AOL / AOL City Guide Los Angeles; The Advocate; Planetout; Gay.com; IN Los Angeles; indieWIRE; Windy City Times; Logoonline; and AfterEllen.com.
In 2007 she left Entertainment Journalism behind to pursue her lifelong passion for photography. In 2006/2007 she toured with Sandra Bernhard as an official photographer for Bernhard’s live show “Everything Bad and Beautiful.” Along with photography, Lydia is pursuing other avenues of "visual" storytelling including the filming of her first documentary, Desert Hearts Mon Amour about the cult status and social impact of Desert Hearts - cinema's first lesbian love story. And Lydia is still writing - you can find new work on her blog www.fotonomous.blogspot.com - where the focus is on photography and sharing personal essays.
Lydia loves to take lots of photographs with an assortment of film, digital, and Polaroid cameras. She shoots primarily with a digital Nikon D80 and many Polaroid cameras including a Polaroid SX-70 Alpha (using a dwindling stash of discontinued Time Zero Film), and a Polaroid SLR 680 SE. She’s always been the lone family shooter, but it wasn’t until she took a basic photography class in high school that she began to develop her “eye” and interests in automotive and architectural photography. Since then, no classic car, neon sign, funky old building, cute dog, or spectacular landscape is safe from her gaze. This color shooter’s palette ranges from warm tones with a vintage feel to saturated images that absolutely pop.
In 2007/2008, Lydia's photography was featured in three Los Angeles group shows at Shotgun Space, Julia Dean Gallery, Bel-Air Camera, and Untitled Gallery. Recently her photos have been published in JPG Magazine, Light Leaks Magazine, the Baltimore Sun newspaper, Jet Magazine, and 311 Magazine.
Her lifelong fascination and appreciation of cars is shared through her “Curious Transport” series capturing abstract pinstripes, distressed paint, and super glossy customization. This native Los Angeleno’s “Sign Language” series reveals quintessential L.A. scenery – places that are thriving and much that is rapidly disappearing.
Lydia’s artistic nature comes from her Mom, Beverly Burton Marcus (1931-2002), a medium and spiritualist. Her love of cars and dogs comes from her Dad, Fred Marcus (1921-), an Austrian Holocaust survivor and former Urguayan swimming and diving champion.
I did stills for the vampire themed indie short "In Twilight's Shadow" and the filmmaker's website liquidfilmworks.com and myspace page (myspace.com/intwilightsshadow ) has tons of my images up. Very exciting. I wasn't the only still photographer used for the entire shoot, but it looks like more of my images were used over the other photographers. The day I was on set we were shooting at a real castle in the Hollywood Hills with views of the Hollywood Sign, Griffith Observatory, and the famous "Batcave." The writer/director Tina Scorzafava is pretty awesome and talented and can't wait to see the final cut.
My photos made it into another gallery show! This is a one night only show called Night of The Witches on Oct. 31, 2007 Halloween at SHOTGUN SPACE. The gallery is located located at 2121 San Fernando Road, Suite 11, Los Angeles, CA 90065 in Capitol Studios, alongside DRKRM Gallery and Another Year in LA, in the heart of Los Angeles' Cypress Park, just south of Eagle Rock, north of Dodger Stadium, west of Highland Park, and northeast of Silver Lake. So definitely put on a costume and come have some fun and check out the photos! For more info on the work I submitted check out my blog fotonomous.blogspot.com
well after writing professionally for all these years, i finally started my own personal blog fotonomous to feature more of my photography and musings. check it out :-)
Part I: A nice lady with a dog: Why are you taking a picture of the side of a bus? Me: Well, umm, I take these pictures of stripes and things... Nice lady: Why? Me: I scan them and put them on a website. Lots of people seem to like them. Nice lady: They do?"
Part II: A famous photographer mentoring a workshop in Tuscany: Does anyone have some photos they'd like to discuss? Me: I have a few. Famous photographer: I see. What is it? Me: It's the side of a van I spotted in Orvieto. Famous photographer: It's...interesting. Do you have anything else? Me: Well, I like this one a lot too. It is a sign on the side of the road that was near the abandoned building everyone else was photographing. I was pretty pleased that I got the tip of the arrow to exactly touch the edge of the frame. Famous photographer: Yes, it is quite symmetric. Did you shoot any of the abandoned building? Me: No. But I got a good one of the side of our bus! Hold on, let me find it..."
I'm a huge fan of Grant's Polaroids - check out his work at: flickr and jpg and on his own site sxseventy.com
Exciting news - my photography will be featured in a group gallery show at the Julia Dean Photo Gallery in a showed called Photography Now. The opening night party is October 19 from 7-10pm. The show ends on November 30 (my Mom's birthday - kind of a nice connection for me).
