In 1976, William Bearden was in the car with a friend who was on his way to shoot a film. Bearden tagged along to haul the equipment, but little did he know, Bearden would make a life changing choice when he chose to look through his friend's 16 millimeter camera.
"Something happened to me at that moment," Bearden said. "I couldn't believe how the world looked through that lens. I was instantly hooked."
University of Memphis students will be able to view images by Bearden at Ned R. McWherter Library starting Wednesday.
That decision in 1976 eventually led to Bearden being known as one of Memphis' greatest documentary filmmakers.
"We have to capture the history now," he said. "Anyone can do what I do."
Soon after Bearden's first experience with a camera, he walked into Motion Picture Lab, which was located on Main Street, and asked for a job.
"I went in and told them I wanted to work there," he said. "I told them I had no experience, but if they hired me, I would work harder than anyone else. I was with them for nine years."
There he worked the film processing machine, color correction and went on the road as an account executive.
"Being an account exec. was perfect for me because I had to put on a coat, a tie and actually talk to people," Bearden said.
Bearden spent seven years traveling, visiting 20 states. While many people seem to find life on the road tedious and tiring, Bearden learned how to better his skill.
"I was always working with filmmakers who were on location," he said. "I would watch how they would shoot and decide if that's how I would have done it myself."
Realizing his desire to pursue his own creative work, Bearden left MPL in 1988 and started his own company, the William Bearden Company.
It would be difficult to label Bearden with one job title, as he is a photographer, editor, composer, author, director and filmmaker.
Some call Bearden, well-known for his historical documentaries, a historian, but he is quick to say he is far from one.
"I am not a historian," he said. "I go to the historians and I learn as much as I can about a subject so that I myself become an expert on that one area. But they are the ones who know the history. I get it from them and turn it into a 30-minute piece the average person can understand."
Bearden's projects include the books "Cotton: From Southern Fields to the Memphis Market" and "Memphis Blues: Birthplace of a Musical Tradition." His films include "Horn Island Journal" and "Elmwood Cemetery."
His latest project entitled, "Memphis' Legacy," is a photo project he is donating to The U of M libraries.
The photos are of homes in the Victorian Villages, located in downtown Memphis and known for being the first suburb of Memphis. The pictures range from shots of cracks in the floorboards to sunlight coming in from a window.
"I wanted to shoot everything," Bearden said. "I wanted to shoot every still in every room of every house. There is nothing we did not shoot because I don't know what a writer or producer is going to want in 50 years. So I am going to give them everything."
Knowing how short-handed libraries can sometimes be, Bearden is donating thumbnail shots of the several thousand photos he took in a cataloged binder that is ready for display, making The U of M library staff very excited.
"He is a very significant filmmaker and author," Tom Mendina, assistant professor and staff member of The University libraries said. "He's very important to the entire country but he lives here in Memphis and he enjoys being an assistance to the community here."
One of Bearden's projects was the Memphis Cotton Museum, where he did the audio visuals. "We were just on the same page," Calvin Turley, president of the Cotton Museum board, said. "He gets it. He's creative. He gets to the point, and he understands the angle of the story by getting to the meat of the matter."
Currently, Bearden has about 10 projects he is working on. Soon, Bearden plans to begin work on a documentary about the Victorian Villages and a photo collection of major intersections in Memphis.
"Everything I have done is because someone else took a picture, and that picture was available in a free public archive," Bearden said. "It's our job to keep the story alive. You know, I could go outside this building right now and take a picture. In five years, someone would say, 'Oh yeah, I remember that car.' In 20, someone would say, 'Wow, I think I may have been there.' But in 50, someone would say, 'Oh my God ... This is how it really looked back then.' And in 50 years, someone will want to know how it looked, how we lived. We have to capture that."
Bearden will be presenting the photos Wednesday at noon in the Ned R. McWherter Library.
