Début février, Jean Abbiateci a relancé son fameux blog, L’œil du Viseur !
Chaque semaine, un photographe raconte sa manière de travailler au travers de l’une de ses photos… Jean-Marie y est passé la semaine dernière et c’est à mon tour, cette semaine !
Céline Diais, étudiante en journalisme, m’a interviewé et je lui ai parlé de Wichita, Troy Newman, des pro-life, des pro-choice et j’ai même tenté d’expliquer comment je me débrouille quand j’ai peu de temps pour photographier…
Ah! La Blogothèque’s people put their Vampire Weekend’s video online yesterday! It was worth being there, and I can assure you it’s worth seing and listening to as well! Vincent Moon and all the guys from Stances did a terrific job, shooting this event… Enjoy:
I was there with fellow journalist Jean-Cosme Delaloye from La Tribune de Genève (CH). Shooting this story about abortion was a great experience: I went to meet controversial people, have a better understanding on a matter I didn’t know that well…
Technically speaking, I knew it would be more portraits than anything, since we had a lot of appointments in only two days. Meanwhile, I’ve done the best I could so it would also be consistent as a photo essay. Now the story has been published in August. Once. In Switzerland. And. That. Is. That.
Truth be told, I believe there is a strong story, here. My guess is Getty Reportage thought so, too, since they’re distributing it outside France. From July til September, I emailed several papers to tell them about that story in my country. I could not count those I emailed… but I could tell how many answered.
Please bear in mind I do not feel bitter. In fact, I was warned: French press ain’t doing that okay, those days, and obviously, selling a story isn’t quite easy. Besides, being a young journalist, there could be a trust issue. Nevertheless, I didn’t guess any appointment to discuss that. Only a few conversations, some straw of interest… that’s it. What’s now? Well: I stopped trying. Getty has the story. Fine! Let them catch something. But it definitely raised a lot of questions for me… I’ve always defined myself as a photojournalist. Yet, obviously, I’m gonna make more & more from corporate assignments (that is: shooting happy white collars in firms, or nice portraits) than journalism. Not than I don’t like corporate work: in fact, I do! But feeling like I don’t get the point about how one should progress as a photojournalist really hurts.
Are you a photojournalist? How do you do, those days? Do you earn your whole life out of it? Unfortunately, I think I already get the answer…
Deuxième jour à New-York. Evidemment, je me réveille dès 6h du mat’ grâce au décalage horaire, mais j’arrive à me forcer jusque 7h.
Petit déj’ au Black Parlor, près de Bedford Av., puis préparatifs. Trouver une brosse à dent, puis retrouver ses contacts. Du côté de Flatiron district, Alden, qui m’avait fait photographier Frédéric Oudéa quand il travaillait pour Institutional Investor Magazine. Puis la “Picture Editor” et l’”Art Director” du même magazine, à deux pas, sur Union Square. On me donne un contact chez Forbes, j’appellerai demain. En attendant, j’enchaîne sur China Town ou presque, du côté d’Orchard Str. et Grand Str., à la galerie Michali où je retrouve Julien & Joanna dont j’avais photographié le mariage il y a deux ans. Puis café (ci-dessus, l’Epistrophy, sur Mott Street, sous Spring Str.) avant l’interview très cool d’un type très cool en compagnie de Clémentine, histoire de lancer l’un des sujets photo que j’ai en poche.
Alors forcément, là, à 1h du mat’, après e-mails & récapitulatif, je suis tout de même un peu fatigué. Et demain ? Téléphone & rencontres… Ce séjour commence bien. Mais faudrait que je pense à faire un musée.
