Hot on the Heels of Then and Now...

Just returned from an advanced screening of The Bang Bang Club, a film based on actual events that occurred in South Africa in the early 90's & one certain group of photographers who covered it, trailer here. Thanks to Heather over at Vancouver Photo Workshops for the pass. The film is based on the book written by Greg Marinovich and Joao Silva, 2 of the photographers who lived the story.

Plot: The real life story of a group of four young combat photographers. They risked their lives and used their camera lenses to tell the world of the brutality and violence associated with the first free elections in post Apartheid South Africa in the early 90s. This intense political period brought out their best work (two won Pulitzers during the period).

As a photographer watching this film the thought 'what would it be like to be there, to shoot the anger, pain, suffering and death of these people' trotted through my head almost constantly. The moral conflict would be as, if not more, difficult to deal with than the prospect of severe bodily harm. According to one of the photographers who spoke after the film (and photographed this same conflict at the same time), said film is pretty true to actual experiences he encountered with the rest of them.

In the story, and I suppose through the course of the actual events, one of the Pulitzer prize winning images (photographed by Kevin Carter) featured a young Sudanese girl out in the desert while mere feet away a vulture of roughly the same size as the girl stood and waited for the inevitable (image here). While the photographer was being interviewed, after the prize had been awarded, he was asked repeatedly, 'What happened to the girl?' and 'why didn't you help her?'. I think facing that sort of situation is as gut-wrenching as facing flying bullets.

I enjoyed the film. I'd suggest you photo types check it out.

Then & Now

While flipping channels on the 52 inch television I was sitting in front of out here in the 'burbs last night I came across a documentary on iconic photographs and their creators (The Knowledge Network; The Genius of Photography). The photographs and photographers discussed were/are of the photojournalism variety; Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, W. Eugene Smith, etc. Photographers who captured the essence of the world in front of them, photographers whose images recorded the life and times of their era. We've seen the images time and again, perhaps not always knowing who the photographer was behind them. Incredible images revealing other peoples and their cultures, the dejection, despair, pain and hope reflected in the faces of those directly and indirectly affected by the horrors of war, the brutality and beauty of humanity. Iconic images of those times.

While the program continued I began to wonder about this era, our era. What images would emerge as the defining images of the time? Which photographers are now recording images that will become the depiction of our society's reality, the history for the future? James Nachtwey's images popped to mind, as well as the work of Sebastiao Salgado.

My thought process began to ramble and skew a bit... What images that are of incredible sociological importance will never receive the viewership they deserve due to governmental/major corporation-influenced media censorship? This topic was touched upon in the documentary. One instance; images created by photographers in Nagasaki directly after the bomb fell were not released until years after the event, as if the Japanese government hoped to erase the event from their history. A second instance; photographer Joel Meyerowitz commented on an instance at ground zero soon after the WTC disaster. He pulled out his camera to record the aftermath and was immediately accosted by a police officer spewing, "NO PHOTOGRAPHY ALLOWED!".  Without photo documentation, is there history?

'Photographs never lie.' In this day and age of photo manipulation, can this statement stand today? Essentially, through the various forms of computer manipulation, every photo published is a twist of the reality that existed in front of the particular camera that recorded the image, a bastardization of that image's truth, if you will? Photojournalists shooting today would maintain that they capture the events as they unfold, no manipulation and for the most part I'd believe that. Who's to say what happens to the image once it's transferred to whatever publication has chosen to publish it? I guess trust in any of this comes down to individual choice. I think the ability to trust entirely in the complete and utter truth in any photograph died with the demise of Polaroid.

I'm thankful for the photographers and others who put themselves in harm's way in the name of telling the story. Imagine for a minute storming the beach in Normandy with the troops during D-Day as Capa did. This, by the way, is something that has been regulated out of existence due to media censorship. Photographers no longer shoot 'during' such events, only 'after' (as stated in the documentary I was watching). I'm sure I don't have the constitution to record events and history as these individuals do. Kudos to them all.

Photos speak volumes, always have. Always will. I can't wait to see which images emerge as those that will define this era.

A little something current; World Press Awards images. Not for the faint of heart. View link at your discretion.

F- you, pay me!

This short-ish video has been making the rounds recently, it's a presentation on contract negotiation for designers but as I'm sure you know, one could easily apply this to any of the creative freelance disciplines. It's great, check it out here.

It's a great presentation that receives a lot of 'damn straight's' and 'as it should be's' and 'like's' from the creative set. Thing is, it's one thing to say, 'Yeah, that's the way it should be!' and another entirely to incorporate this basic business practice into the day-to-day running of said business.

Creatives have to understand that they're running a 'business', not helping out their buddies, and businesses are created to make money. Why in the world do creatives let their clients dictate what the creative's Terms & Conditions should be, and what should be included in the creative's contract? Do vehicle insurance companies, credit cards or software creators let their clients/users dictate the T&D for their product/service?

"It won't/doesn't work here (market)..." and "That's not the way it's done, clients would never accept/sign that" are resultant of creatives being so afraid to lose work that they acquiesce to their clients. In other words, it happens/doesn't fly/won't work because we creatives LET IT HAPPEN. We creatives are running business. Businesses exist to make money. 'Profit' is not a dirty word, and neither is 'mark-up'. That's just business. Remember that clients come to us because they need our product/service to complete their projects. Believe in the value of what we as creatives provide, and charge accordingly!!


Once again, be the change you'd like to see.

Gettin' the Word Out

I wrapped another session of the Business of Photography seminar at Vancouver Photo Workshops last weekend. While the turnout wasn't huge, the attendees made up for it with their enthusiasm about the marketing, copyright and image licensing how-to material being presented, good on 'em.

Saturday afternoon was jam-packed with excitement as guest speakers Robert Karpa (of Venturi + Karpa fame) and Lisa Reddekopp (our insurance guru from Coast Capital) took over the big chair for their respective presentations; Robert on his approach to social media marketing and Lisa on, you guessed it, the ins and outs of insurance! Thanks again to both for their time & knowledge contribution.

As the seminar wound down I was presented with a Thank You card from the attendees, containing hand-written notes of appreciation from each attendee as well as a Starbuck's coffee card! I was a little touched, truth be told! What a great gesture, first time that's happened since the inception of this course over a year ago. Damn big of all of them!

Time to practice what I've been preaching. New promo imminent!

Stay tuned, it's gonna get interesting...