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.

Bitterness and short memory

Laura Pannack's winning shot of the foto8 Summer Show. And no, I don't know him and I didn't ask him to pose. © Magnus Andersson

The wretched* thing that is the foto8 Summer Show took place last Friday and I was going to boycott it based on the simple fact that none of the three images that I entered got accepted. Plus it cost £10 to get in on the night, on top of the £15 entrant's fee that I'd already paid to enter my unsuccessful images. Bitter, me? Pfft!


If you are thinking of going with your dignity intact, please remember your rangefinder; in this case a Hasselblad X-Pan. © Magnus Andersson

I mean, come on, PPY charges £20 but all entrants gets a copy of the £17.99 book and free drinks if you can make it on the night, and its in a spacious venue to boot - The National Theatre. And the PPY book is bigger...


Size comparison: foto8 vs. PPY books. © Magnus Andersson

Anyway, I then got word from my friend Tiziano that there was a spare ticket going and would I be interested? Of course I would! Short memory, me? Hell yes.


Not sure what is going on her in terms of B&W/colour etc. © Magnus Andersson

Turns out that our mutual friend Alex couldn't make it to London in time for the show so instead I came along and acted as his intrepid reporter from the show. The lucky git had all three of his entries accepted.


Jon Levy announces that happiness is now to be enjoyed (for the remainder of the party, at least). © Magnus Andersson

From his perspective, he might have been a bit disappointed to that see 2 of his 3 pictures where hung right at floor level. Do you know how difficult it is to view an image at ankle height? If that wasn't bad enough, his trio of images all came from the same story but were not placed together. But these are my words - NOT his - and at least his work was good enough to to be included, so I just need to try harder next time [swallows bitter pill].


An Alex Masi print (R) hung at ankle height. © Magnus Andersson


Another Alex Masi print hung at ankle height. © Magnus Andersson

After several unsuccessful attempts of avoiding the free bar, we finally managed to get around to see the whole exhibition and I think the words 'information' and 'overload' comes to mind. And before I get an angry rant from Jon Levy, I must add that I really appreciate what foto8 are trying to do in this show case and in fact we need more people doing it, giving a space to all strands of current photography.


A print/back of heads. © Magnus Andersson


Having been part of a group exhibition before (which was nowhere near as complicated), I know how much time the foto8 team must have put in into hanging 153 (!) prints properly in such a small space, but more importantly, space or no space, as a showcase for current photography it is a must see!


Towards the end of the night you could actually see some of the prints properly. © Magnus Andersson

Perhaps this lack of contemporary photographic spaces reflect the lack of funding in the industry at the moment, but a show like this deserves a bigger space and I cant really fault HOST or foto8 for for pulling off the show and especially the opening night, year after year.


Live band in action on Honduras Street. © Magnus Andersson

Note to self (and anybody thinking about entering the Summer Show in 2011):

Don't go for IKEA frames. You'll disappear in the judges eyes. Saying that though, quite a few IKEA frames still made it...hmm. OK, just print BIG and you're in, no matter how average your pic is.

*Its actually brilliant, especially the opening night, which is worth a tenner in booze alone, not to mention the photography on display, so there.

Gear change

The nifty little ZoomIt SD card reader for iPhone. © Magnus Andersson

This morning my ZoomIt arrived! I ordered this in early February and four months (!) later it is finally here. I paid $49.99 for mine and got a free 4GB SD card for being one of their first customers. They had various problems with manufacturing, including having to wait for Apple to deliver a key component. I'm pretty sure that Apple deliberately delayed delivery to ZoomIt so that they could get their own Camera Connector Kit for iPad ready (it only costs $29, but doesn't work with the iPhone as far as I can tell), but never mind.

The ZoomIt is a small device which connects to the iPhone and via the free app it turns into a SD card reader and a file management system. It means that you can now move large files to and from the phone and that's great news for us photographers with SD recording cameras! My walk around kit has always been a good compact camera - currently the LX3 - but its always been frustrating to instantly share pictures, having to revert to the iPhone and its camera with little control. Don't get me wrong, I love the usability of the built-in camera, its fun to use, especially when there are so many apps to edit your pictures with, and its easy to share them online, but you never had full control over focus or exposure and file sizes left a lot to be desired - until now.

The ZoomIt connected to the iPhone. © Magnus Andersson

After charging the internal battery for 20 minutes it was good to go and it works straight away. You plug in the reader to the phone, pop in your card and then launch the ZoomIt application. It should say 'Connected' on your screen and then you can start moving your images and videos onto the iPhone for editing with your favourite apps. I tried it out this morning with this tweet and it works a treat! Everything on the card shows up, so you can keep movies, TV shows, music and other documents on a separate card and transfer to the File Manager when you need it.


My walk around kit; a battered LX3, a shiny new ZoomIt and the slightly scratched iPhone 3Gs. © Magnus Andersson

The only drawback so far is that they have opted for a proprietary USB cable that you have to use to charge the internal battery and I can see this being a problem if you forget it at home or worse, loose it. Battery capacity could also be an issue, but I've only had it a few hours so its too early to tell.

All I need now is a CF card version so I can edit D700 pictures on the iPhone, but so far there have been very little movement on that front. Come on, developers, you can do it!

Postcards from Tunisia

A lucky shot where a butcher cleans his shop front wearing a cow's head. © Magnus Andersson

Back from a fantastic holiday in Tunisia, I though I'd share some impressions of this place. We stayed in a beautiful hotel in the tourist resort of Hammamet on the northeast coast, which is dominated by these huge hotel complexes along the beach with the rest of the city up in the hills. We arrived in the evening so our first impressions was that of darkness and crazy traffic. This is a place without a single traffic light and I must say, as someone who navigates horrible London traffic every day, it was a breath of fresh air. It simply works and I think we should introduce the system here as well. What do you say, Boris?


A woman doing the arduous task of weaving a carpet. It takes a month just to do one square meter. © Magnus Andersson

Dust! It gets everywhere and it isn't that strange, its a country in the Sahara desert, and you soon learn to breathe through your nose at all times, otherwise you get a mouthful of the stuff in just a few minutes.


Collage of some of the portraits of the president which were everywhere. © Magnus Andersson

The police seems to be everywhere, every single roundabout is manned day and night, and they routinely stop vehicles although we didn't have any trouble with them. Another omnipresent was the portrait of Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the man who has been Tunisian president since 1987. Add to that that during our stay there were local elections in the whole country, and you felt that he was watching you from every corner. The ruling Tunis party took some 90% of the votes, but you can hardly call it a democratic country, more a one-party state. The EU have now entered talks with Tunisia with their record on democracy very much in the spotlight.


The old Medina in Karouan, central Tunisia. © Magnus Andersson

There is a lot of construction going on in the tourist resorts but elsewhere in the country it seems as if construction all of a sudden stopped. Endless houses are left unfinished and there are many shanty towns where the poorest live. There are also nomadic shepherds along the roads and in the fields. They stay in makeshift tents and roam from area to area in order to feed their sheep. I never managed to get close to them but they seemed to lead an age old existence and would love to explore them more when I return.


iPhone panorama of the amphitheatre in El Djem (El-Jem). © Magnus Andersson

Once you get out of the tourist resort Tunisia becomes much more interesting. We hired a car and went to Karouan in the centre of the country. Here we visited the Great Mosque, the 4th holiest place in Islam and a beautiful building to behold. While there we also looked around in the old town Medina. It is of course a very poor country but the beauty of their buildings and especially their doorways was extraordinary. We also went to El Djem and its Roman amphitheatre, dating back to 238AD, capable of seating an amazing 35,000 people, and still in great condition.


Fruit stalls by the road side like this one are all over the place. © Magnus Andersson

We got lucky with the ash cloud, on the day we left the airports of nearby Morocco had closed but we managed to find a window and leave on time, however, with our very last meal, my fiancee managed to get food poisoning and had to seek medical help in the airport. A word of warning, Tunisian health care is not of the same standard that we are used to back home. The doctor was going to inject her with something when he dropped the needle on the floor. He promptly picked it up and tried to attach it to the syringe again, thinking it was perfectly normal practice to use dirty needles. My fiancee protested and he grudgingly replaced it with a new one. He then needed two attempts before a successful injection. Yikes.


One of many tanks left from WWII battles in the eastern hills of Tunisia. © Magnus Andersson

There is so much more to say about this beautiful country, but tomorrow its back to work again so I need to catch some sleep, but man, it was a good holiday.


The Great Mosque in Karouan. © 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

IoW

The Big Dipper (Ursa Major) above The Solent, Totland Beach, IoW @ 60s, f2. © Magnus Andersson


The Solent from Yarmouth, IoW. © Magnus Andersson


The Needles as seen from a boat ride, IoW. © Magnus Andersson


Chair lift ride next to The Needles, IoW. © Magnus Andersson


A kestrel scanning the hills next to our restaurant The Waterfront, Totland beach, IoW. © Magnus Andersson


Beautiful Victorian house on the street we were staying at in Totland, IoW. © Magnus Andersson


Prime example of the micro climate on IoW, where the sun was always shining. Look across The Solent towards Portsmouth and you'll see the rain they had. © Magnus Andersson

All the images jumbled on top of each other, novelty idea for the blog and this is what you get, OK.

Another week goes past in the blink of an eye and the juicy stories I was hoping for failed to materialise. Never mind, I was away for a long weekend at the gorgeous Isle of Wight (IoW) and my girlfriend and me had a wondrous time. The sound of stones on the beach being washed out by the incessant waves I will never forget!

I first ventured to the IoW many years ago and stayed in Shanklin on the east coast, but being born and bred on the west coast of Sweden, I insisted on a location where you could see the sun setting in the sea.

The IoW tourist board warned me that it would be a lot more quiet on the west coast, as if that was something to be afraid off! Bring it on, I said, and soon enough we had booked a place in Totland, about as far west as you can get and a mere two minutes walk from the most amazing of beaches. Warm waters and clean too!

Driving down from London in the early hours of a Friday morning meant that we beat the rush hour and could catch the 7:00 ferry from Portsmouth, 30min before the ferry we where supposed to be on, and once we arrived at Fishguard it was a simple matter of taking the scenic route around the island to our rendezvous.

While on the island we got very lucky with the weather. Across the Solent we could see the heavy rain clouds unloading on Bournemouth and Portsmouth, whereas on IoW it was glorious sunshine in their fabled micro climate, with lots of late-afternoon-swimming on our behalf.

Its well documented that I don't tan well, and this trip was no exception, but I take sunshine before rain any day! My holidays continue and all that is left now is some minor preparation for the trip to Visa in Perpignan (I'm packing light, only the trusty LX3 and an iPhone, no SLR or laptop for me) , where my room mate Mattias has just returned from another island experience in Ireland. Nothing about that on his blog though...

I checked the forecast for Perpignan earlier today, it looks good!!! This time I'll bring the sunblock. I am soooo looking forward to bumping into fellow photographer friends Rii, Charly, Marco and Orhan, not to mention the 30-odd Swedish photographers that I'll be joining forces with for the first time, but no matter what; it is going to be a good trip, yup!

So far though, nothing beats the sound of round pebbles being thrown up and down the beach by continuous waves. Simples, aight?