Photographers' close-up

Bruce Davidson and his work are part of a planned "Images of Man" series.

A little bit of history will be made Wednesday in Louisville with the screening of a trio of rare 1970s interviews with important photographers. The interviews were done by the late Sheila Turner-Seed as part of a planned "Images of Man" series with publisher Scholastic Inc. and the then-newly formed International Center of Photography in New York City.

The event at the Green Building, 732 E. Market St., presents the original format of slides with audiocassette tape interviews, all recently restored by Turner-Seed's daughter, Rachel Seed, of Louisville. She said her mother died of a brain aneurism in 1979 and her life's work has never really been seen, but has been stored for more than 30 years by Rachel's father, Illinois-based, British-born photographer Brian Seed.

"I'm a photographer, so I have a vested interest in it myself," said Rachel Seed. "I have boxes and boxes of my mother's tear sheets and her work. It just felt like such a shame to me that they would be sitting in a dark closet."

The screenings, which are being held to complement the citywide Louisville Visual Arts Festival on a photographic theme, are "The Decisive Moment" with Henri Cartier-Bresson, father of candid street photography; "Mornings of Creation" with Eliot Porter, who pioneered the use of color in nature photography; and "A Sense of Place" with National Geographic photographer William Albert Allard.

Seed and Bill Carner, photo wrangler at the University of Louisville Photographic Archives, will introduce the films. This event is sponsored by the Green Building, the Louisville Film Society and Rachel Seed Photography.

A $5 suggested donation will support restoration of more Turner-Seed interview films. "There are several more. It's a long and impressive list," said Rachel Seed.

Future restored films include interviews with Brian Lanker, whose "I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America" is in its 14th printing; Don McCullin, noted for coverage of street gangs, war, poverty and catastrophe for The Sunday Times in London; Cornell Capa, Life magazine photographer and member of Magnum Photos; Austrian-born American photographer Lisette Model; and Bruce Davidson, who spent two years documenting East 100th Street in Harlem for a 1970 book and exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.