Living the Light – Robby Müller

For Dutch cameraman Robby Müller (1940 – 2018), light was his life. Even whilst shooting home video, he would get distracted capturing how beautifully the light reflected from the rivulets of a brook. Claire Pijman’s intimate portrait of Müller utilises these home videos, Polaroids and photographs – and also the message David Lynch left on Müller’s answering machine.

Alongside this wonderful personal archival material, Living the Light consists of simple yet beautiful images from the famous films he shot for Wim Wenders, Lars von Trier and Jim Jarmusch, among others, while the latter’s band Sqürl provides the music. All three of them, as well as others who are interviewed, speak lovingly of Müller, who hated major Hollywood productions that involved trucks full of lights. Fellow cameraman Theo Bierkens succinctly sums up Müller’s philosophy: “For Robby it was never about beautiful images. It was always about the feeling.”

With attention to the release of the album ‘Some Music for Robby Müller’ by SQÜRL (the band of Jim Jarmusch and Carter Logan). Also see Like Sunlight Coming Through the Clouds: 30 Years of Polaroid Photography by Robby Müller.

• 

• 

•