Good photography and good cinema are cousins. So a new documentary about legendary Austin photographer Dan Winters has a built-in advantage. It can weave Winters’ own striking pictures into the telling of his backstory; it can show us a master of the form arranging and taking a shot, then reveal the photo itself, braiding the moving with the still and exposing the gulf between—where the magic happens.
Part of a National Geographic series, the hour-long documentary titled “Life Is Once. Forever.” premiered earlier this month in Austin at South by Southwest (SXSW) and is available March 19 on Disney+/Hulu and March 25 on the National Geographic channel. Part biopic, part behind-the-scenes explainer, part visual candy, the documentary explores a familiar but moving theme: the luminary, beset by certain demons, consumed by his work, reckons with himself.
“Life Is Once” begins with footage of Iceland from the sky. The 61-year-old Winters, with white beard and glasses, camera on his lap, speeds along a remote road in the passenger seat of a vehicle driven by an assistant. “Photography has just been this search for magic, this search for wonder, and there’s a masterpiece everywhere,” Winters narrates. The mountainous fingers of the Westfjords peninsula jut into what must be the Denmark Strait. As the car rounds a bend, a beached ship—hulking and rusted-out—comes into view. “Oh my God,” Winters exclaims.
