Diane Keaton’s photography and unique vision revisited
The weekend brought the sad news of Diane Keaton’s death, but it provides a moment to reflect not only on her celebrated film career but also on her profound and personal contributions as an artist and photographer. Her last published book, Saved: My photo worldserves as a beautiful posthumous invitation into the unique landscape of her mind.
More than just a simple collection of photos, Save It is a visual biography told as only Keaton could. It is a treasury of strange preserved and found photographs, a scrapbook of her magic, a direct reflection of her distinctive magic.
The book offers a glimpse into her lifelong passion for images, which extends from the private to the deeply personal. The photo collection begins with a tribute to the film that reveals her lifelong love of the bizarre and surreal through rare and humorous takes on B-grade horror films.
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However, what is most revealing about her personality are her specific photographs, where she captures moments from life – such as taking a bath during a break from filming. Reds Or “The Greeters” on Hollywood Boulevard ignited her Rolleiflex—revealing a world she personally saw, lived, and cherished.
Keaton’s first photography book, Reservations (1980)captured a serene and evocative world that foreshadowed her deep interest in architecture and design. Using her Rolleiflex camera, Keaton explored the unloved interiors of classic American hotels across the country, documenting their lobbies, ballrooms, and lounges in stark, boxy black-and-white photographs.
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She often used live flash images to highlight the forgotten grandeur of these spaces – the patterned wallpaper, the velvet upholstery, the solitary pieces of furniture – giving the collection the distinct, sublime, and subtly unsettling aesthetic that characterized her work behind the lens.
In addition to her collections of personal photography, Keaton has extended her visual passion into the world of architecture and design. She published books that celebrated her aesthetic interests, including: The House That Pinterest Built (2017)which serves as a personal style guide chronicling the creation of her own home using inspiration gathered from the online platform. She also wrote California Romantica (2019)a volume dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of Southern California’s distinct architectural styles. Rich with numerous images, these books cemented her reputation as a great tastemaker and advocate of design history.
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It’s impossible to separate Keaton’s portrayal from her breakout role as Annie Hall, especially during the scene in which she shoots with a Nikon F2. When she turns her lens on Alvy Singer (Woody Allen), you can immediately hear him worrying, not about his pose, but about the nature of the art form itself: “Photography is interesting, because… it’s a new art form, and a set of aesthetic standards haven’t emerged yet.” Meanwhile, Keaton, with her wonderfully photorealistic eye, is closing the shutter.
“Aesthetic standards?” Annie says. “You mean, whether it’s a good photo or not?” Alfie, momentarily cringing at her practical honesty, can only say something about “the entry of the medium as a condition of the art form itself.” But Annie, channeling the real-life Keaton who saw the world with the eye of an instinctive art collector, simply shrugs: “Well, for me it’s all instinctive, you know. I mean, I just try to feel it and get a feel for it and not think about it too much.”
Keaton never stopped creating, and Saved: My photo world serves as the definitive and compelling proof of her profound and original visual talent. It’s not just a book to browse, but an invitation to dive deep into the wellsprings of one of the great creative talents of our time.
Scroll down to view photos and posters from her photo book.