For more than 30 years and on dozens of film sets, Jeff Bridges has been perfecting his own personal style of photography. For the first time throughout his career, this collection of Jeff Bridges’ photographs will be on exhibition in the Midwest.

Shooting between film takes, with a Widelux F8 panoramic camera, Bridges shows us the sometimes chaotic, sometimes casual, intimate moments on movie sets. The Widelux camera, with a lens that swings in an arc, takes pictures so wide they can capture nearly as many characters, action and moods as a movie. The effect leaves the viewer surrounded by the image. Bridges says that the camera is “sort of a missing link between still photography and moving pictures.”

The work in this exhibition documents the evolution in movie-making over the decades, from 35mm film to digital cinematography, as well as the evolution of lighting techniques. Bridges allows the viewer a glimpse behind the camera with him, peeking into the intimacy and the wonderment of movie making. If you take away Bridges’ celebrity status, the work stands on its own as strong, dramatic and sophisticated photography, that has been featured in Premiere and Aperture magazines, as well as in gallery exhibitions in New York (at the George Eastman House), Los Angeles, London, Italy and the Museum of Photographic Arts in San Diego. In 2013, he received an Infinity Award from the International Center of Photography.

Jeff Bridges One of Hollywood’s most successful actors, Jeff Bridges garnered his first Oscar® for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role for his performance in Crazy Heart —as Bad Blake, a down-on-his-luck, alcoholic country music singer. Since earning his initial Academy Award® nomination in 1971 for The Last Picture Show, he has been honored with seven nominations, most recently for Hell or High Water (2016). In a career spanning 50 years, he has appeared in more than 70 films, among them Seabiscuit, The Big Lebowski, True Grit, The Fabulous Baker Boys, Starman, and the most recent, Bad Times at the El Royale.

Through his company, ASIS Productions, he has also produced films and television movies, including the documentary Living in the Future’s Past, as well as The Giver, American Heart, The Only Living Boy in New York, and Hidden in America. In 2019, he received the Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his remarkable career.

Today, Bridges has come full circle in his acting career, which began with a cameo on Lloyd Bridges’ classic TV series Sea Hunt in 1960. Now he has his own starring role in a TV series, The Old Man, a new hit on FX. In it, he plays a former CIA agent off the grid and on the run from his past. The cast includes John Lithgow and Amy Brenneman. Season 2 is in the works. The series is based on a best-selling thriller by Thomas Perry.

Throughout his career, while on the set of his movies, Bridges used a Widelux camera to take behind-the-scenes pictures of the actors, crew, and locations; he later compiled the black-and-white images into books for everyone involved. In recent years, he shared portions of that work in two photography books, Pictures, Volume One and Two. Proceeds from these books go to the Motion Picture & Television Fund, a charitable organization offering assistance and care to people in Southern California in the movie and television industries with limited or no resources.

In 2014, he released the album Jeff Bridges & The Abiders Live. His self-titled major label album for Blue Note Records debuted in 2011, with Grammy Award–winner T Bone Burnett as producer. That critically acclaimed album was a follow-up to his first solo effort, Be Here Soon.

Currently, he is the national spokesperson for the Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry campaign that is fighting to end childhood hunger in America. In 2015, Jeff released a spoken word/ambient album titled Sleeping Tapes. Through T Bone Burnett, he met musician Keefus Ciancia, who co-produced their collaboration and supplied the music. The soothing sounds of Bridges’s voice and the dreamy music help listeners relax. All proceeds from the album sales go to the No Kid Hungry campaign.

Jeff and his wife, Susan, divide their time between their home in Santa Barbara, California, and their ranch in Montana.

Additional events:

Zoom Workshop: Bones of Songwriting with John Goodwin, Wednesday, January 11 at 7 p.m.
Engage with Grammy Award winning John Goodwin, songwriter and visual artist, in a lively discussion about the art of songwriting via ZOOM. Learn from Goodwin the structure he implements to create a commercial song. Hear his personal thoughts on the art of collaboration over the years with countless people, including with his lifelong friend, Jeff Bridges, and how inspiration is the priority in his creative process.

Big Lebowski Bash: Fundraiser Event, Friday, November 4, 2022 at 6 p.m.
Join us for a Big Lebowski Gallery Fundraiser celebrating the work of Jeff Bridges with a costume party, screening of The Big Lebowski, snacks, large scale bowling and more!

Sleeping Tapes Yoga: Saturday, October 29, 2022 at 10 a.m. – Registration is closed.
Join us for yoga while listening to Jeff Bridges’ Sleeping Tapes. “The world is filled with too many restless people in need of rest – that’s why I filled my sleeping tapes with intriguing sounds, noises and other things to help you get a good night’s rest.” – Jeff