The Polaroid Photographer Who Captures 'The B-Side' Of Her Subjects' Lives

Among the photographs featured in the voluminous archive of photographer Elsa Dorfman, there's a joyful selfie — taken in 1988 before either the word or the practice became a thing — of Dorfman and her frequent subject, Beat poet Allen Ginsberg. Arms linked and holding hands, the two friends stand side by side, grinning broadly in unself-conscious camaraderie. Ginsberg is less known for his chipper outlook than for his sonorous meditations on lost America, and that goes double for filmmaker, ). But once you've seen , Morris's charming portrait of the portraitist, you'll see that that photo tells us all we need to know about Dorfman's approach to art and life. It has nothing to do with finding Ginsberg's inner essence, or anyone else's in her collection of luminaries and just plain folks. Dorfman is interested in surfaces, though not in a surface way.