The History of Image Gathering – Robin Hirsch

Robin Hirsch is one of the original founders of Imagecraft Productions. In 1984 he and his good friend and Co-Founder, Gar Smith started an owner/operator rental company out of a tiny office in Burbank, Ca. Over the years, the company grew and became the Imagecraft you know and love today.

Robin retired from the Television Production industry in 2012 and began pursuing his book, The History of Image Gathering.

“Honestly, my generation is getting old. I wanted to tell our story before we were all too old to remember it. The unique aspect to the story is the fact that I started shooting 16mm film, moved on to 3/4” video, then Betacam, then digital medium. Each one of those techniques required us to completely rethink the way we lit, shot, and edited. Each change of medium also opened up new vistas for cameramen such as myself. In fact, Imagecraft would not exist without the technological advancements that created the entire world of today’s production. Can you imagine trying to do what you do on 16mm film?“ – Robin Hirsch

Below is a brief description of Robin’s book.

The History of Image Gathering is an oral history. It traces the development of the art and technology of capturing real life images for TV News and “reality type” show production as described by the camera men and women who looked through their lenses from 1955-2015. The history is a first hand account of a generation’s incredible image gathering journey that began with 16mm film, evolved into three-quarter inch, then Betacam videotape, and finally hi-definition and digital formats.

This is an amazing story. Never before has an entire generation of skilled artists had to master a totally new technology every ten years or so over the entire span of their careers. Nor has there ever been a group that had to take on the challenge of a whole new way of doing things as image gathering evolved from TV News to Magazine Shows, to Prime Time reality type shows.

Today, as this same generation of image gatherers prepares to retire, the craft of image gathering has become a world wide omnipresent phenomenon. The History of Image Gathering is the story of how we got there.

If you’d like to pick up a copy for your self, you can purchase it here.