Chris Graythen

Photographer - New Orleans
Chris Graythen
Location:
New Orleans
Day job:
Professional photographer
Dream job:
Professional photographer
Film:
The Age of Stupid
Time on the job:
Two days helping rescue people after Katrina, taking pics as we went, plus one day taking portraits of Alvin
Jet, jeep, bus or bike:
Boat with Alvin
Original connection:
Helped Alvin DuVernay rescue more than 100 people after Katrina
Memorable moment:
Filming Franny riding on the back of Al's bike
Scared of:
Another Katrina
Guilty of:
Using lots of batteries

Biography:

Some of Chris' photos below:

Franny & Lizzie filming Al: Director Franny Armstrong filming New Orleans born and bred star of the film, Alvin DuVernay on his post-Katrina empty plot in New Orleans. The hurricane completely destroyed his property and the subsequent flooding marinated the remains of his possessions for two weeks. Producer Lizzie Gillett is recording the sound. Alvin DuVernay, is a paleontogolist helping Shell find more oil off the coast of New Orleans. He also rescued more than 100 people after Hurricane Katrina, which, by 2055, is well known as one of the first “major climate change events”. Date: December 2006Location: New OrleansCopyright: Spanner FilmsCredit: Chris Graythen / Spanner FilmsRestrictions: Free for use in Age of Stupid-related promotion. No resale.
Franny & Lizzie filming Al

Franny filming from boot of car: Director Franny Armstrong filming Al Duvernay from the boot of a car. This budget, but excellent, tracking method was developed by the team in New Orleans and used for many of the tracking shots in the final film. There was only one dangerous incident where Producer Lizzie Gillett forgot Franny was in the boot and stopped suddenly resulting in minor bruises on Franny's back. Date: December 2006Location: New OrleansCopyright: Spanner FilmsCredit: Chris Graythen / Spanner FilmsRestrictions: Free for use in Age of Stupid-related promotion. No resale.
Franny filming from boot of car

Franny filming from Al's bike: Director Franny Armstrong filming from the back of Alvin DuVernay's motorbike in New Orleans. During the three year production Franny filmed from boats, buses, trains, bikes, cars, planes, helicopters, and motorbikes. The entire film was shot on Sony's HDV Z1 camera. Date: December 2006Location: New OrleansCopyright: Spanner FilmsCredit: Chris Graythen / Spanner FilmsRestrictions: Free for use in Age of Stupid-related promotion. No resale.
Franny filming from Al's bike.

 

Al Duvarney on meeting Chris Graythen

A guy with black rubber boots and a formidable collection of cameras around his neck approached my boat. He introduced himself as Chris Graythen, a Getty Images Photographer, and asked if he could ride with me and get some pictures of the event. My initial reaction was ‘no way’ because I could afford neither space nor weight in the boat for a photographer. I further allowed that I could use some help, and if in the process he could get some shots that would be fine. He agreed. Chris proved to be an awesome first mate. He was casually competent in the ways of boating and rescuing, his compassion was inspirational and energizing, and he stayed with me the whole day. A word on this last point: as a professional photographer, Chris could have been traversing the city capturing Pulitzer Prize winning images. Chris chose humanity and me; for that I shall be forever grateful.

About midday Chris and I learned that FEMA was set up on the I-610 overpass so we started dropping off our people there. The cavalry had arrived. Say what you want about that organization’s rank and file but those folks on the ground were kicking butt. They had airboats, chainsaws, emergency medical, food, water, shelter, and busses. And they worked tirelessly.

http://allegianceanddutybetrayed.blogspot.com/2006/09/anatomy-of-storm.html

 

My involvement with Age of Stupid started the day after Hurricane Katrina, when I was walking through my flooded neighbourhood and came across a guy who was rescuing people in his boat. I volunteered to help and so Alvin DuVernay (I found out his name later) and I spent two days rescuing more than one hundred people. The Spanner crew actually found Alvin via one of my photos of the rescue, which was featured in National Geographic magazine. Obviously they were very happy to hear that someone had quality photographs of the whole rescue and you can see a whole bunch of my pictures in the "rescue montage" in the finished film.

I am now a staff photographer working for Getty Images - Sport, based out of New Orleans. I've been using this page more for pictures of people and 'behind the scenes' instead of my real work - as I can't post most of it here. But for those interested, check, www.gettyimages.com/editorial and search my name. Check out blogs.gettyimages.com/sport for my NASCAR blog. woot

I'm a professional photographer born and raised in New Orleans, and still currently living in the NOLA metro area. I've been working for mostly editorial clients since 2002, putting my degree in Art History to great use.

I've been covering sports, news and entertainment for a multitude of clients both locally, in the US and in Europe. My work has appeared in print, on the web, used on TV shows and recently in movies. For information about any of my photos, or for contact information please feel free to email me or check out some of my other work.

BTW, please don't steal my images - a lot of hard work goes into these photos. (All the photos on my website are registered copyright Chris Graythen, all rights reserved. If you like a pic, just tell me, we can work something out.) But you can help yourself to the promo ones I took for Age of Stupid, as they belong to the film and are free as long as you are using them to promote the film.

Websites: