Hello. Can you want to use this one? Nothing changed at all. Since when? This was 75, pre-75.
Do you think so? No. You have been involved as a photographer for a long time. Do you
still, as a photojournalist, filmmaker, do you consider yourself a photographer still?
Well, I kind of see myself as a hybrid visual storyteller now. And it started about, say,
in 2000. I began shooting video and collecting audio and before the whole multimedia thing
started. But I kind of see the arc of my practice is really in sync with how media has changed.
But now it's changing so rapidly, it's actually almost impossible to keep up.
We talked about this on Saturday a little bit and you mentioned a couple of changes,
like, for instance, the whole selling through stock agencies and selling it yourself is
really changing a lot last year.
Yeah, well, for those of you who are photographers in the audience or run agencies or whatever,
digital revolution has been disruptive to so many industries in the world and photography
in particular has really been hit hard by that. And so the value of our pictures, it's
interesting, there's never been a time where more imagery has been made and consumed by
more people. But I think because of that, the actual value, the economic value has declined.
And so it requires a real fundamental restructuring of how we do our work, especially as photojournalists.
And what kind of approach do you take? How do you adapt to this? Do you just go about
and find your new own way?
Yeah, well, I've adopted new ways for quite a while. I don't know how that happened,
but it's just sort of my nature. And so I've been shooting video for a while.
I mean, we were talking about it that last year, I looked back at, it was a very busy year for me.
More than half of everything I created was video, not stills.
And I'd say 70% of everything that I created, whether it was commissioned or personal work,
went directly to a screen. And I come out of the world of print journalism,
a photojournalism, a documentary photography, you know, working towards being printed
in books and exhibitions. And that has just radically changed.
And sort of to pick what Grant was saying, it's never been a more exciting time.
It's incredibly difficult and challenging, but it's never been more exciting.
I never imagined when I began 30 years ago that I would be working in all these different
mediums using all these different tools, using my iPhone.
It's very, very exciting. What's hard sometimes is to figure out how to make a living at it.
Or that's the big challenge. You know, at the same time, I can reach people in ways that I never could have imagined.
During a break at the jury and you, you said, hold on, I need to publish something.
And it was on your iPhone.
That's right. But I mean, there's a lot of talk about money, but there's also, you produce a lot.
So there must be ways for you to finance it or to get money together.
Can you tell us a little bit about that? What kind of approach do you take?
You want me to give away my secrets?
Yes. I wish they were that interesting.
You know, it's really, you know, this is the kind of a profession and it's the kind of life where,
and I don't mean this in a negative way, but you need to be opportunistic.
You need to create your opportunities.
But I'll tell you, most of my work is fueled and inspired by the things that I am interested in.
And I've always been guided by that, whether it's an issue or a theme or a place.
And then I'm at a point now where I'm fortunate in a lot of the commissions that I get align well,
not always, but quite often with my personal interests.
You're going to show us some of your work?
Yeah, I put together all this medley of very short clips.
Let's start.
So the first one, if we are going in a sequence, last year I was commissioned by the Veterans Administration
in the United States to produce a series of video, short videos.
By the way, Andy Warhol got it wrong.
We're not, everyone will not have 15 minutes of fame.
Everybody will have a three minute video about themselves.
So anyway, so I produced a series of videos for the Veterans Administration about vets who suffer from PTSD.
And this is in alignment with a lot of work I'm doing, which is I call advocacy work.
And it's something, again, I never imagined I'd be doing, but it's very targeted visual storytelling,
where in some cases, like with this, it's really targeted towards that community.
Yes, it's great for the general public to see it.
But it's really targeted towards this community of veterans and their families.
So this is just a tiny clip of one of the films.
I just shut down.
I don't want to be around people.
And even to a point when I always have to make sure that no one is behind me, that my back was to a wall,
that I always have an avenue of escape.
I was just, just, just hurting.
I would take my daughter and we would just get in the car and ride on the base,
because I was comfortable around soldiers.
When I get relaxed, bring me down to a level where I was at ease.
It seems like the only solution that they had was, oh, we're there for you, you know, if you ever want to talk about it.
But I needed more than talk.
I needed more than talk.
What's interesting about working on this is that the remit for me was they wanted me.
It's interesting, last year I was asked to use video in so many different ways.
So for this, it was mostly stills, but all the video they wanted locked down.
So that meant no pans, no zooms, no movement whatsoever of the camera.
And I don't normally work that way.
I work very fluidly, rarely on a tripod.
It was very interesting creatively for me to approach that.
Now the next piece I'm going to show, again, a very short clip for a film about refugees in Azerbaijan.
And this is more typical of what is happening now where, whether it's my own work or commission work,
and this idea of the hybrid visual storyteller where I'm being asked to produce a video and produce stills.
So the stills from this are going to be an exhibition next month in London and then in June in Paris.
And then we created an eight minute film, and this is just a tiny clip of that as well.
We had a good life, we had a good family, we had a good family.
My wife and I came to this place to work.
I was 25 or 26 years old here.
Look at this picture.
Look at this picture.
Look at this picture.
So the next thing I want to show you now.
So I've been shooting for the last two years with my phone, happened to use an iPhone.
And on October 29, 2012, when Hurricane Sandy, I live in the New York area,
descended upon the New York New Jersey area, Time Magazine put me on assignment for two days,
along with four other photographers to cover it with our iPhones.
And it was a paradigm shift.
It was actually really exciting.
So it was that idea of, and I don't do news, it was that idea of covering a breaking news event with your phone,
and not only being able to transmit in real time, literally within five minutes of making a picture,
but, and forget about the likes and all that neurotic aspect of this, is that people would write back.
And that was incredibly exciting.
So then last year, for the one year anniversary, I pitched to NBC News.
NBC.com now is promoting photojournalism, for those of you out here.
And I've been told both NBC and MSNBC are committing through the 2016 election to populate their sites with photojournalism,
not video, obviously NBC does video.
So anyway, I pitched to them to re-photograph, to retrace my steps a year later for Hurricane Sandy.
And so I just put this little piece together, combining the two.
Music
Do you get a lot of comments about working on an iPhone with this?
Well, I mean, I think the naysayers, that whole chorus is declining, but I don't pay much attention to either.
I mean, I love creating imagery, and I'm excited by, you know, I think with photography,
I've always loved the different tools that you could use.
When I first learned about photography, and I learned about Imogen Cunningham, who then was in her 90s,
she was still making pictures, square format pictures, and I thought, wow, that is so cool.
I want to do that.
And so the phone is just another tool to create.
And the fact that I am actually, in some cases, even getting paid to do it is very cool.
But that's not the primary point of it.
It's that I can create.
It's something I have with me all the time.
It's become part of almost visual journal, visual diary.
So I think the chorus of naysayers is really declining on that.
You know, and as the phone gets better, I mean, as the camera gets better,
and we can make bigger picture, you know, bigger blow-ups and all that, I think it's just very exciting.
You're involved, of course, with Seven, who still considered a photo agency.
Is this something that you address with the meet-ups as well,
talking about transferring this into just photos to film.
There's many in Seven that work on moving image now.
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, there are those of us in Seven who are firmly committed to doing still photography.
It's interesting, some of the younger photographers are actually working in film, you know,
six by seven and film-based, you know, analog-based imagery, which is very cool.
But there's a lot of us that are really, really interested in working in film.
You know, as I said, I've been doing it for almost 15 years.
I think with, for most of us, it's a genuine organic motivation.
There's very few people, certainly in Seven, who are doing it because they think that's the thing to do.
I think it's just become a natural extension of how we're using imagery, how we're telling stories.
You know, certainly the new tools have made it easier.
There's no question about that.
Yeah, and it's interesting how it's impacted me that now, you know, in the past I would go out to do a project,
a personal project, and I would make a decision it was going to be black and white or color,
but it was going to be still-based.
Now, and the last thing I'm going to show are stills, but in November I went to Iraq and Jordan
to work on a project about Syrian refugees looking at youth, and it's something I've been trying to do for quite a while.
And I went there, in my mind, as a filmmaker.
So we produced a 15-minute film that appeared on Time.com in January.
But as I said with all my projects, I can't help myself but make still pictures as well.
Okay, let's have a look at it.
Okay.
Yes, hold on with the applause.
You've been judging a lot the last days.
I know.
I'm not going to ask anything about the content.
But being involved in it in a way you are, does it move forward?
Does it progress?
Does it get better?
The multimedia, the content that you see?
Not just in judging it, but also in the field that you work in?
Yeah, I mean, it's not only getting better, but it's just changing.
It's morphing.
I mean, nothing is standing still these days.
And it's sometimes, quite frankly, dizzying.
I'm not that old, but it is dizzying.
I mean, there's a point where it's nice to have certain...
Well, it's interesting.
I think Grant's piece was talking about that.
But anyway, I'll move away.
I'll avoid that.
But it is not only getting better, but it's getting more interesting in how people are working.
And one thing that is clear is there's a trend.
And I think there's a little disturbing to me.
There's a trend away from still photography, actually.
I think it's almost a natural evolution that as this medium matures and develops,
there just seems to be more video in the visual narrative.
And I even see that in the kind of commissions I get that increasingly...
Whereas a year or two ago, it would be like, we want you to do this video,
but we want stills in it.
And now it's like, we just want video.
And maybe stills might be on the side.
So I don't personally think that's a good or bad thing.
But as a photographer, I've dedicated my life to photography,
I do not want to see still photography be removed out of this visual narrative.
And one of the things that I love is this sort of challenge
of how do you bring moving and still imagery together
in a cohesive, dynamic way to tell a story.
Questions from the audience?
It's all been very clear.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
