Anthony Jannelli - Artist Statement
During my years of teaching at the NYU Tisch Graduate Film School, I gave my students an assignment called Observation. Each student was to bring to class an original photograph demonstrating observational skills. This exercise was based on Robert Frank’s statement “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”
In 2020, I decided to take on the assignment myself, taking one photograph a day during my commute from Hoboken to Washington Square Park. I used an iPhone 8 SE, then an ideal camera for street photography. Before long I had a collection of photos to share with my students. That collection is represented here in MOMENTS, as well as many other images taken since I upgraded to the digital Leica Q2 and Leica D-Lux 8, which have become my every day cameras.
In the time since, I have embraced still photography of various genres including street style, fashion, travel, performance, and portraiture.
Many thanks go out to Alexandra Momin of Picture House NYC.
Anthony Jannelli Bio
After a four decade career as a cinematographer / first unit camera operator Anthony began teaching at the renow NYU Graduate Film Program, where he then became Head of the Department of Graduate Cinematography for 23 years.
As a cinematographer / first unit camera operator he worked on films such as Silence Of The Lambs, Something Wild, New York Stories, Billy Bathgate, Independence Day, Ghostbusters II, Three Men And A Baby, and Big, working with directors such as Jonathan Demme, Martin Scorcese, Robert Benton, and Penny Marshall. His first feature as a director of photography, Longtime Companion, won the 1991 Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Anthony filmed additional photography for the Neil Young concert film Heart of Gold (J. Demme) and joined a team world famous cinematographers on Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones documentary, Shine A Light. He served as director of photography on the feature documentary A Decade Under the Influence shown at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, and the Robyn Hitchcock concert film Storefront Hitchcock (J Demme). Additional documentary work includes My Cousin Bobby (J Demme) and Made in Milan (M Scorcese) a documentary on Giorgio Armani.
Second Unit feature work as cinematographer includes Eight Millimeter (Joel Schumacher), Beautiful Girls (Ted Demme), Little Man Tate (Jodie Foster), Scent of a Woman (Martin Brest), Wolf (Mike Nichols), Spider-Man (Sam Raimi), Maid in Manhattan (Wayne Wang), The Manchurian Candidate (J. Demme), and Angels in America (Mike Nichols).
Cinematography for television includes Blown Sideways Through Life (PBS American Playhouse), Men and Women II, Subway Stories (HBO), and Seven Deadly Sins (Showtime). He has served as director of photography for multiple episodes of Law and Order, NYPD Blue, Dellaventura, Philly, and Ed, and photographed the pilots of Pretender and Queens Supreme (Tim Robbins). He was the cinematographer for the pilot and first season of Law and Order Special Victims Unit, and for east coast location scenes for the Bruckheimer television series Without A Trace, Cold Case, and CSI NY.
Anthony has filmed music videos featuring Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones, Talking Heads, Bruce Springsteen, Aretha Franklin, and Laurie Anderson, as well as scores of television commercials.
In 2017 Anthony co-directed and co-produced the animated short film The Velvet Underground Played At My High School, which has been shown at over eighty film festivals internationally, and won over 12 “Best Of Festival” award. In 2008 he directed the short film Five Years of Forever, which won the Accolade Award for Excellence in Directio. Currently, Anthony is in pre-production on the Untitled Tom Wilson documentary project, about renown record producer Tom Wilson, being produced by Marshall Crenshaw.
Since 2020, he has focused still photography, including fashion, street style, travel, and portraiture. In 2021, he self-published COMMUTE book on his street photography.
A member of the International Cinematographers Guild and the Directors Guild of America, he has been an instructor at the Sundance Filmmakers Workshop and the Maine Photographic Workshops for Film and Television. Anthony’s love of teaching was inspired by his longtime mentor and friend, Nestor Almendros.
He has been a full time resident of Hoboken since 2002.