DULUTH — Walter Griffin, Dudley Edmondson and I were preparing to wrap up a video call last week. First, though, I had an admission to make. I like cherries, I told Griffin, but the pits frustrate me.

“You could always get a cherry pitter,” said Griffin. “They are available even in hardware stores.” He went on to detail the year’s two cherry seasons, and offered to introduce me to golden-yellow Rainier cherries.

Technically speaking, cherries have nothing to do with Griffin’s profession: photography. For Griffin, though, sharing his love of cherries is a way of building relationships, and relationships are at the core of his work.

“With people, I love to communicate with them,” he explained. “After you’ve communicated with them for a while, then their guard’s let down, and so that’s when you get your best photographs, because then the person is not thinking about you so much, because we have had this interaction.”

A new documentary about Griffin, a short film premiering Thursday at the Zeitgeist Zinema, is titled “The Cherry Man.” It’s a collaboration between Edmondson — a Duluth photographer and filmmaker — and Griffin.

“I don’t know anybody like him, in terms of who’s had as much life experience and being in the right place at the right time,” said Edmondson. “I sometimes jokingly call him ‘Black Forrest Gump,’ in that he just seemed to be right in the right place to capture images and meet people.”

Griffin, 75, and Edmondson, 61, have known each other for about 20 years, said Griffin. Both avid cyclists, they bonded during a drive to Ohio for a bike conference. “We got a lot of time to talk and learn about each other, and listen to some music and (have) a lot of conversation,” Griffin remembered.

“We both enjoy bikes, we both enjoy jazz, we’re both photographers, both Black men, so we had a lot of common ground,” said Edmondson.

As photographers, though, the two have different specialties. Griffin’s work, as seen in “The Cherry Man,” often focuses on human subjects — whether in ordinary moments of contemplation or joy, or in historic moments like U.S. Rep. John Lewis’ return to Selma, Alabama, for the 25th anniversary of the first Selma to Montgomery march.

Edmondson, on the other hand, is best known for his nature photography. It was nature that brought the avid birder to Duluth in 1989; his Northland nature photos have been seen in numerous galleries and dozens of publications. He’s also active as a filmmaker, and travels frequently to guide birding trips and to advocate for outdoors inclusivity.

“With decades and decades, and thousands and thousands of clicks of the shutter and viewing images, you just get to the point where it’s like breathing,” said Edmondson. “You pick up a camera and you just do what you know how to do. Your muscles and brain already know what’s going on.”

“I moved to Minneapolis to work as a photographer” in 1986, said Griffin. “I opened a studio when I got here, and I got entrenched in the fabric of the community. One of the things that I did early on is, I wanted to connect with other Black photographers in the Twin Cities.” He became a mentor and community connector, while continuing his wide-ranging work behind the lens.

“The Cherry Man” highlights Griffin’s longstanding love of jazz. In the film, the photographer shares stories from years when he worked as a concert producer in Indianapolis, booking the likes of Freddie Hubbard and Miles Davis. Other music legends photographed by Griffin include Betty Carter and Eddie Harris, a former bandmate of the photographer’s musician brother.

“My whole life has been about photographing people and seeing music,” said Griffin. Lately, though, he’s been spending more time outdoors.

“I’m learning more about nature,” said Griffin. “Now I’m beginning to snowshoe.”

Edmondson went to Minneapolis to interview Griffin on camera for the 18-minute documentary. “The original idea was just to have Walter telling stories and then use cover footage of him making coffee or walking down the street or fiddling around in a dark room,” explained Edmondson.

Because Griffin’s stories were “so visual,” Edmondson realized, “I felt they needed to be illustrated in some way beyond just images of Walter living his life.” The filmmaker turned to historical footage to help establish the context for Griffin’s recollections.

One day-in-the-life sequence did make it into the film, though: We see Griffin shopping for cherries. “I always ask” about a store’s cherry stock, said Griffin, if he doesn’t see the fruit readily available in a produce section. “I know it’s time for cherries, because I know what time of the season the cherries are here.”

Film viewers learn that Griffin first developed his taste for cherries as a boy growing up in Chicago, where his first job was to bag and carry groceries for shoppers who would reward him with perhaps 25 or 50 cents. The young Griffin learned all the produce prices, and knew that cherries were just 7 cents a pound.

Both Griffin and Edmondson are currently working on book projects. “I’m trying to finish up my fourth book,” said Edmondson. “This one is on people of color around the country who are doing environmental things as scientists, as environmental activists and social justice activists, and combining them all in one book.”

For his part, Griffin is working on a career retrospective volume spanning a half-century of his work. But first, he’s coming to Duluth to join Edmondson at Thursday’s screening of “The Cherry Man.”

“It’s Walter’s history, it’s American history, it’s Black history,” said Edmondson about the film. “It’s a combination of all kinds of things through Walter’s eyes and through his stories, and I think that it’s hopefully a film people will enjoy.”

“The Cherry Man” screens Thursday, Aug. 10, at 6 p.m. at Zeitgeist Zinema. The screening is free and open to the public.