Perpignan

 Marcus, Mattias and fellow visitor.
 
Now that the cuts and bruises that I got at Visa Pour L'Image are starting to go away, I thought I'd briefly take you through the trip to Perpignan in Aug/Sep. I stayed with my friend Mattias Johansson and his mate Marcus Funke in a swanky new hotel, much closer to the town centre than in previous years, meaning that we managed to walk a lot less and drink a lot more than usual. Bad tings.

Perpignan street.

Anyway, the streets of Perpignan are beautiful and in previous years my go-to-camera has always been the LX3 but it now sits in the most-boring-camera-ever category and therefore most of these are iPhone pictures using mainly Hipstamatic (Nick Turpin is excused from looking at this post*).

Mmm, wine.

This being my third year, I was determined to actually see ALL the exhibitions on show, something we hadn't managed previously. You'd think in a small town like Perpignan it isn't a big problem, but when you factor in 1) we're on holiday, 2) its south of France and full of restaurants and cafes and 3) phojofatigue** and 4) all the free drinks, etc, it becomes a problem. In theory you can probably see all the exhibitions in one day, but for the above stated reasons, we paced ourselves and tried to make the most of it.

Dedicated photojournalists as we are, we always start the week with a champagne breakfast and this year was no different. I flew straight from London to Perpignan while the rest of the 100 or so Scandinavian PJ's flew to Barcelona and then caught a bus to Perpignan, leaving me to do the shopping for my room mates, below.

The traditional champagne breakfast.

When it comes to the exhibitions, the one that really stuck with me was Martina Bacigalupo's 'My Name Is Filda Adoch'. An essay about one woman's daily experiences of life in the Ugandan civil war. Heartbreaking yet tender, not to mention humbling, but what set this work apart from everything else on show was the handwritten captions on the frames, direct quotes from Filda herself, with short succinct sentences about her daily struggle, making an immediate impact and giving a strong voice to the person depicted, something that felt distinctly lacking in almost every other exhibition; the voice of the subject/s.

My Name Is Filda Adoch exhibition.

My second favourite was LA Times Barbara Davidson and her work of Los Angeles residents who have been caught in the crossfire of gang warfare. Again, low key and intimate photography with lots of voices from the people affected by stray bullets.

It comes as no surprise that the two best exhibitions are by female photographers with stories away from breaking news, instead focusing on long-term projects, Davidson spending over four years on hers, initially in her own time, then having to nag her editors to let her continue.

Caught In The Crossfire exhibition.

We of course wanted more of the same and, against better reasoning, got up early one morning to see Brian Storm and hear more about the multimedia converts in our business. It wasn't until about 50 minutes of watching slide show after slide show that we realised that we had misread the schedule, today was only a showcase of MediaStorm's work, yesterday was the actual talk. Brian was only in the room to cue up the projects, one after the other. Photojournalism 0 - 1 Alcohol. :(

Some of the drinkers.

Also worth a mention was Joceylyn Bain Hogg and his work about the London underworld families who are now slowly fading away, a continuation of his work The Firm from 2001.

Again, we never made it to Campo Santo, the place where they do amazing outdoor screenings, but the screen in the main square; Place de la Republique, where you have the added benefit of eating and drinking at the same time, is just as good. Its even better if you can view it from a rooftop overlooking the square, with some champagne and nibbles. Thank you Christina!

The view from Christina's  rooftop.

My friend Maciej Dakowicz also had his 'Cardiff After Dark' series shown at the big screen (the day before we arrived) and when we bumped into each other outside Cafe de la Poste where he told me that it had gone down really well. Last week The Daily Mail decided to run a series of the pictures with bad crops (their own, not Maciej's crops), misleading caption information and of course the word 'foreign' in the headline, cue a shit storm. To date there are over 2200 comments from 'outraged' readers, and Maciej apparently saw a spike of more than 500.000 hits in one day on his flickr pages. His work is great, just sad to see the Daily Fail use it for its own scaremongering purposes. Luckily The New York Times and The Guardian took a more measured approach.

A lone musician on a corner on the last evening.

All in all a great week but slightly exhausting, luckily we made it to the beach on the last day for some much needed frolicking in the sea. A special thank you to the Scandinavian organisers Christina (SFF), Per (Canon Sweden) and Jamil (Canon Denmark) for pulling out all the stops, especially on the last dinner at L'Arago! :)

The beach.

* to be fair, Nick was talking about not sending Hipstamatic shots to his in-public mag, his tweet here
** the feeling of deja vu after each new image, and/or succumbing to depression of seeing too much photojournalism in one day.

Back to blogging

For those of you that have asked, no, I havent stopped blogging, I've just had a little break while the planning of my wedding was taking priority, but now that I'm a married man, I will start posting in earnest again.

At the end of this month we're returning to Visa Pour l'Image in Perpignan, and although it tends to be a very hectic week with talks, screenings, photography fatigue etc, some Mediterranean sun and food wont go amiss in the beautiful Catalan city. Here's some pictures from last year.

No news

Another face (painted kid) in the crowd, this time Jonathan, aged 6. © Magnus Andersson

Its August, the driest month of the year when it comes to news, and consequently there aren't that many interesting images being produced either. Many people are away on their holidays, the school kids are off for the summer and we struggle to fill the pages with interesting stories. For us photographers its an endless sea of face painted kids (like Jonathan above from earlier today) enjoying their well deserved break.

My little summer break comes up in a weeks time when I'm off to the grumble fest of photojournalism; Visa Pour l'image in Perpignan. There will be lots of grumbling of course, but also tonnes of rumbling. Bring it on.

Another blast from the past

A young and innocent Mattias sometime around 1993. © Martin Andersson

While scanning images from the previously mentioned book project, I came across this little gem of a picture of photographer & good friend Mattias Johansson. At first I didn't recognise him at all because this was on a roll of film which had the tail end of my book project on it, and I couldn't for the life of me remember taking this picture on that trip.

Then it dawned on me that I must have left the film in the camera, only for my brother to bring the camera on one of his and Mattias' trips, so my brother - Martin - is most likely the photographer in this case, because me and Mattias don't really hang out unless we are in the south of France.

I'd say that he is still a teenager there, about 18 years old and still unspoilt. Above we see him as an binocular-wearing young boy, but what I really want to know is: how did he become the bearded maniac photographer that he is today? Answers on a postcard, please.


Mattias wonders how he got here. Perpignan, 2009 © Magnus Andersson

Happy new year to photojournalism?

A large stuffed toy left is all that is left outside the home of a man who was evicted in November 2009. His former employers owed him £5000 when they went into liquidation. The landlord, rather than offering him a repayment plan, evicted him after five years of impeccable tenancy. The eviction notice is nailed to the door. © Magnus Andersson

2009 is almost over and I think it comes as a big relief for many in the industry. Newspaper titles and magazine budgets have been cut/slashed across the world, more and more photographers have found themselves unable to pay the rent using their cameras. Rights grabbing and abuse from the police have escalated beyond what is acceptable. Councils are launching their own free 'newspapers', funded by our council tax they are selling cheap advertising and their own council propaganda, which goes unchallenged by professional journalists, undermining the whole process of democracy and scrutiny, the list goes on.

I read a piece by now retired PJ Dick Kraus entitled 'Rest in Peace: Photojournalism Is Dead'. It doesn't sound very uplifting and trust me, it isn't. There is a huge irony to this piece though, because it wasn't written in 2009; it was written ten years earlier in 1999, and it was already bad back then, let alone now.

Dick Kraus has over 40 years of experience in the photojournalism business and he shares his views on a profession that more and more has been eroded, leaving us shooting mere 'head shots and real estate', as he puts it.

For sure, I am lucky to still be in a job, but I couldn't help feeling that his description from 10 years ago is very similar to my job today and, I'm sure, that of many other newspaper photographers still out there.

The Digital Journalist does us all a favour by a timely re-print for us all to see, a decade later after it was written. You can - no, you will - read it here.

Jean-François Leroy, the 'General' of Visa P'our L'image, wrote earlier this year about the death of photojournalism, and both pieces have similarities.

So what will 2010 bring? More industry death or is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Surely the end of recession must come soon and freelancers and staffers alike might see a rise in income/decent jobs.

Multimedia might finally start to make an impact on newspapers and perhaps revenue from online content finally becomes viable? The amount of people with video enabled SLR's out there is growing but it is of course a new profession that needs to be learned and so far very few news organisations are investing in training. Instead they assume that a stills photographer should be able to produce stills plus video content.

Normally a TV crew would contain three people; a cameraman, a reporter and a sound engineer, and quite often a producer too. How can newspapers expect all that on top of stills production from just one person? That's quality control versus shareholders for you, and so far only one winner; the owners line their pockets and readers go elsewhere.

As it is, the proposed pay walls are up for discussion, but one thing is certain - advertising has already moved online and so has readership. The question is: can newspapers regain the revenue they lost at the introduction of the internet when cars, real estate and small ads all slowly went online to separate sites such as autotrader, rightmove, craigslist, gumtree, eBay and the like?

It might be a case of too little, too late for many of the old news empires, but the demand for content hasn't diminished, so there is still hope for us. We just have to see where the money men and women take us. Failing that we have to do it ourselves.

Have you got any resolutions for 2010? I usually don't make them but this year I will endeavour to produce at least two book projects. They will of course have nothing to do with my day job on the newspaper, instead they will be both self-financed and self-published, but hopefully it will bring back some joy into my day job, push me to do better things and see better days.

I don't know a single photographer who does this job for the money (OK, one or two have given up PJ and moved to advertising, but hey, they have a families to feed).

We are always much more motivated by communication, creativity and empathy rather than the monetary factor, and personal projects are often much more rewarding and hopefully also feeds into the newspaper work.

With all this in mind, here's hoping for better days in 2010. Happy new year to you all, especially to the photojournalists! :)

Lets dip into the sea!

Diving into the Mediterranean sea, somewhere between France and Spain. © Magnus Andersson

Its gotten cold in London and when that happens, it doesn't hurt to look back at the delights from the summer just gone. Visa pour L'image was one of the highlights of the year for sure, but there was a trip inside the trip which made the whole thing extra-special:


Five Vikings in the Mediterranean. © Magnus Andersson

Canon Sweden have been along for the ride for 10 years and they decided that it was time to celebrate a decade's worth of sponsoring the event. Thank God for Canon! A bus was hired which took us down to Collioure, a small seaside town at the bottom of France, just before you get into Spain. Medieval and beautiful, we still didnt have much time there before...


Ringo Star - aka Mattias Johansson - also dipped in. © Magnus Andersson

...we got on a rented yacht which took us all the way into Spanish waters and back again, and of course we were treated to a Mediterranean feast whilst on board.


Tuckin' in on the freshest seafood on the...sea. © Magnus Andersson

Anna and her crew from Collioure served up the most amazing smorgasbord of food, most of it fresh from the sea, and only one of us Vikings felt seasick, the rest had the time of our lives. Thank you Per!


The Scandinavian Canon boys that made it all possible. Sadly they were all showcasing the Canon EOS 7D, nuff said about that camera. :) © Magnus Andersson

Shooting!

Bullet hole in a window of the office building next to our bedroom. © Magnus Andersson

This was quite scary; while we were asleep in our hotel in Perpignan, a shooting occurred less than 10 metres from our bedroom. When I woke up the following day I noticed the police outside our window, and they were inspecting the office building next to where we were staying.

After breakfast we went to have a look and this (above) is what we were confronted with. The amazing thing was that (apart from nobody being hit by a stray bullet) not a single person in our hotel had heard a thing; must be the fresh Perpignan sea air that gives you such a deep sleep.

A Beatles album cover?

Abbey Road, Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

Of course not! This is photographers Sofie and Lisa, mentioned earlier here, and Mattias, leaping like a salmon out of the water, only in this case I cant quite remember why we took this picture. We were coming back from le grand finale party on Saturday night and the sun is already up (which makes it Sunday morning)...maybe that explains my amnesia.

So what about the shows in Perpignan?

Exhibition goers at Eugene Richards' 'War is personal', Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

Next year I will definitely try to go and see all the exhibitions, we missed some of them and sadly we didn't make it to a single one of the talks that were given by various photographers. It is difficult when you go to these places though; you need to strike a balance of trying to enjoy your holiday, make the most of the exhibitions and also the city itself, socialise and have fun, outside all of the industry hullabaloo. It is also quite easy to over do it, there's only so many harrowing stories you can take in before your mind goes numb.

Of the exhibitions we saw, 'War is personal' by Getty photographer Eugene Richards is one of the stand outs. Centred around wounded US soldiers after their return from duty, it is a very simple show, nothing fancy, just uncomplicated images and a wonderful presentation of large captions from relatives and carers, giving a strong voice to the people in the images, something that was often lacking elsewhere in the shows.

It was telling to see that hardly a word was spoken by the large crowd when we went. It was absorbing, and the viewers seemed to be really moved by the images and the words, watching in hushed silence. You felt a kind of respectfulness in Eugene's work, something which was reflected in us as we took it all in in silence. You can find a BJP interview here.


Tattooed gang member in prison by Miquel Dewever-Plana in his exhibition 'The other war', Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

Another good exhibition was Miquel Dewever-Plana (again a BJP interview here) of Agence VU, with images of Guatemala's gang members inside prisons and with the police on the violent streets, where a human life is worth next to nothing, a country stuck in an endemic cycle of violence.


Obama with his feet up from Callie Shell's exhibition 'Barack Obama', Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

TIME photographer Callie Shell also had a great show of Obama's journey to the presidential seat, three years in the making, showing the man we all love to love. See the whole essay online here.

One of the funniest shows was 'Only in America' by French photographer Francois le Diascorn. Humorous B&W images from the US, circa 1960 onwards, with a gentle touch an and almost Cartier-Bresson-like quality to them, but sadly I didn't take any pictures in there.


The giant screen at Place de la Republique, Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

The one thing we didn't miss was the slide show held every night for the duration of the professional week. You could either watch it live in the stands of Campo Santo, enabling you to take in the booming voice of Jean-Francois 'the general' Leroy, or you could opt for a live transmission in the main square; Place de la Republique. We went for the latter and this meant we could also have dinner and a drink at the same time, watching the slide show on a screen at least 30m wide. Great stuff!

Wall of fame

Remy Cortin's photo of David Burnett at the Canon party at El Boca Boca, Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

I've mentioned it before and Mattias has the shot to prove it, but legendary photojournalist David Burnett had just had his photograph (above) taken by Remy Cortin when we decided that we should have a go as well.

It was inside Canon's area at the Palais des Congres and the best shots were then displayed in a mini gallery on the wall. Safe to say that only the famous photographers got to hang on that wall, but at least we walked away with a free A3 print of ourselves from the event.

That is until someone stole my Visa Pour L'image press bag where I had stashed my print whilst I was busy doing the jitterbug on the dance floor of Habana, sometime around 3am....

Anyway, later on we had the pleasure of being in the mix of the wall-projected slide show at El Boca Boca during a VIP Canon party (OK, maybe not that VIP as we were allowed in, but people were offering us Euros for that black Canon wristband when we left), sharing the wall with selected PHOTO front covers and Remy's shots. For those not familiar with PHOTO, it basically took the Playboy cover and gave it an eighties French twist. Very good company indeed for Mr Burnett.


Conflict photographer Philip Blenkinsop sporting a black eye, signing books outside Couvent des Minimes, Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

And then there was the story of the experienced conflict photographer above Philip Blenkinsop of the NOOR agency. Having safely negotiated his way back from his latest assignment, perhaps he forgot that the civilian world can sometimes be a lot more dangerous than his usual subjects.

He hitched a ride on a friends scooter down the narrow alley streets of Perpignan, and before you knew it the driver lost control, Philip flew off and the handlebar connected with his eye socket...I think he was lucky that he didn't suffer any permanent damage to his eye, a photographers worst nightmare.

-----------------------
Update: Just found it, below is the print of Mattias and me along with various others.


© Magnus Andersson

Have you ever felt like...

MJ with an LX3, shot on an LX3. © Magnus Andersson

...someone was always looking over your shoulder? There is always this little worry that things are not quite right, that you're gonna get punched in the stomach any minute? Welcome to Perpignan 2009!

Luckily for me it was an endless journey through pain (laughing, only punched twice) and pate cuisine (food), and it was dished up by my travel companion who kept all dangers at bay.

Ladies and gentlemen, give it up for Mattias, travel partner extraordinaire!


Mattias (in a bear suit) and a museum exhibit of early Swedish man (appx. stone age). © Magnus Andersson

Sisters are doing it for themselves

Photographers Lena Kvist and Sofie Isaksson sharing a light, and the chin of Pontus Hook. © Magnus Andersson

The man who left Magnum

Charles-f. Ouellet after I put superglue on the viewfinder of his Leica, Perpignan, 2009. © Magnus Andersson

Charles and I used to work together in a camera shop here in London before he went back to his native Quebec. He taught me everything I know about medium and large format photography, but deep down he always preferred creeping around with an inconspicuous Leica rangefinder.

After belatedly going digital he opted for a Canon 5D and L-series lenses, but didn't like the bulk of the kit and decided again to switch back to Leica (now an M8.2) , and this is how I found him in Perpignan, nearly three years after we last saw each other in London.

In the meantime he has started up an image collective called N+3 and in Perpignan I met his friend Christian Lamontagne, fellow collective photographer and also a film maker. A thoroughly nice chap who kept apologising for his English not being good enough...very humble considering that my French is near non-existent and certainly not something that should be published here...again Charles is to blame/thank for this.

Earlier this year Charles started out an internship at Magnum's Paris office where he was working as 2nd to one of the main people there. A dispute (which I wont go into here) arose and Charles, being the honourable man that he is, felt that the person in question was forced to leave and that he couldn't stand by their decision, so he left to work for another agency in Paris and had an excellent time.

However, he is one of very few people who has seen a well kept Magnum secret; the thousands upon thousands of colour slides which Henri Cartier-Bresson took during his lifetime, and there are not many that has made it out of their archive, but Charles made full use of his time at Magnum and went through them all. Verdict? Not very good. The man was thinking in B&W, he just didn't see in colour.

But I digress; what Charles doesn't know about cameras isn't worth knowing, so it was quite interesting to hear how he dealt with [insert famous photographer's name] in Perpignan.

Lets just call him the 'old man in the photo vest'. He overheard our conversation of the new Leica M9, coincidentally launched today (09-09-09, geddit?) and decided to invite himself onto the topic by pointing to the taped over Leica slung on his shoulder, and yes, it was a Leica M9, not yet released.

In his eagerness to convince us of the marvel of a full frame Leica, he managed to stay over 20 minutes, leaving Charles utterly unimpressed by the his knowledge. It was quite amusing watching the old man in the photo vest growing ever more desperate in his attempt of convincing Charles, finally leaving us with the grace of a car salesman desperate for a sale.


Charles-f. Ouellet. © Magnus Andersson

A look back...

Dog on the lookout from his balcony, central Perpignan. © Magnus Andersson

Over the next few days I will try and go through all the stories and pictures that were accumulated during our fantastic trip to Visa Pour L'image in Perpignan. Hopefully you'll get a smattering of posts, but if you cant wait, head over to my roomie's blog here, as he kept up superb commentary while we where there, thanks to his Macbook.

Below is said roomie, Mattias Johansson, looking fresh as a daisy in the first sun rays of the day, an hour or so before we went on a Mediterranean cruise courtesy of the good folks at Canon Sweden.


Mattias Johansson in the morning. © Magnus Andersson

Au revoir Perpignan

Sunset at the end of Boulevard Henri Poincare. © Magnus Andersson

We're packed and waiting for our bus to Barcelona and one of the most enjoyable holidays is coming to an end. I'll be posting more images later but rest assured, I will definitely come back again next year!

Perpignan day 5

Panorama of Perpignan and the Pyrenees as seen from Palais de Rois de Mallorca. © Magnus Andersson

Last nights party was immense and I kept running into people I know. We were amongst the very last to leave and despite being a lot worse for wear, we still had time to photograph the fire department putting out a blazing car.

Today has been the best day by far though. Canon again showed their worth by renting a huge boat and taking us on a Mediterranean cruise with food, wine, music and swimming. Look out for the forthcoming calendar...proper pictures and more stories to come later, above is an iPhone panorama taken from the medieval palace with The Pyrenees in the background.

Perpignan day 4 - breakfast

Breakfast at Visa HQ; Hotel Pams. © Magnus Andersson

A quick snap from the luxurious breakfast at Hotel Pams this morning, consisting of a small baguette and some coffee in a plastic cup. They spoil us!

Today I have laid hands on the not-yet-released Leica M9; full frame and 18mp at 14-bit depth; yours for just over £5000...

I also bumped into Charly and he had some juicy Magnum gossip which I might have to tell you about at some point, but dinner beckons, and then the grand finale party!!!

Perpignan day ???

Inside the photo agencies area. © Magnus Andersson

They say that you shall never blog whilst drunk, which usually is good advice, but I'm breaking the rule here tonight because time is of essence. Wifi is surprisingly hard to come by in Perpignan, mainly I get it here at the hotel so I have to be quick while it lasts.

We've just returned from a secret (and massive) Canon party at El Boca Boca courtesy of a special invite from Per Karlsson at Canon Sweden. Lets just say that we appreciated the VIP passes that granted us upstairs access and unlimited champagne! Merci Per!

Alas I am only serving up iPhone pictures so far as I didn't bring my laptop, but rest assured, there's plenty of good pix on my Lumix to come, in the meantime, check out Mattias' blog - he brought his Lumix AND his laptop!

Perpignan day 3

Poster advertising the festival in Perpignan. © Magnus Andersson

Yesterday started off with an fromage et chantarelle omelette and a properly strong cup of coffee at a small cafe, before we collected our press accreditation at the Visa HQ. Inside we bumped into photographers Robert Henriksson and Martin vonKrogh , and proceeded to pick up the press pack, which later got stolen at Habana; luckily I had my LX3 in my pocket rather than the press bag...phew.

Next we checked out three exhibitions, one on Afghanistan, one on Congo and finally one on Obama. We then headed over to Palais des Congres where got to put our mitts on two new Canon's: 7D and G11.

Of the two the G11 is the most interesting, finally we see an end to the pixel mania, this one sporting only 10MP instead of 14MP as seen on it's predecessor; the G10. The reduction of pixels in favour of quality also reveals Canon effectively as having deceived all their customers up till now, quite happily leading the masses to believe it's only about mega pixels. Of course the other manufacturers are equally to blame, but at least they are now seeing sense.

After that we had our picture taken by Remy Cortin, right after he had photographed David Burnett. In the presence of a legend, we thought about making conversation and chickened out...anyway, there were lots of free rose wine to be had at Scanpix's party.

Right after that we headed over to Place de la Loge where Nikon tried to swoon us with more wine. That would have enough for any evening but instead we headed over to the main square and the massive 30-metre screen of slide show projections led by Jean-Francois Leroy. After that we headed to the main watering hole at La Poste and then danced at Habana and got home at around 4 or 5, no one is quite sure when...and we're still quite undecided about today, head hurts a bit.

Perpignan day 2

Palm trees at Barcelona airport. © Magnus Andersson

Yesterday was a long day, we didn't arrive in Perpignan until 11pm as the group from Sweden was delayed which then meant having to go through rush hour traffic in Barcelona...but at least I got a view of some palm trees at the airport while I killed six hours!

We still managed to get food and drinks though, in fact we didn't get in bed until 3am and managed to bump into two friends from London who had decided to come last minute!

Now we're off to get breakfast and then our accreditation.