Occupy Wall Street Portfolio in Photo technique Magazine
09/May/2012 21:44
Discret. 26 Octobre 2011, Zuccotti Park, Manhattan.
ARTICLE:
We bought our house 15 years ago. Two doors down lived a fellow and his wife. We eventually started to talk, and when we had our daughters, they became friends. During those years we have had countless dinners together and countless walks strategizing the political future of the nation.
Rodrigo and I had both lamented for years about the political apathy in America, why Americans seem- ingly never take it to the streets as in notably Latin countries, from France to Argentina. Consequently,
when Occupy Wall Street exploded the status quo (although the movie was already in editing stage) we had to include our vision of the movement regardless of the impact on our timeline for submitting our film to festivals.
I photograph a lot of different situations, from nature to protests, urban myths and political events. I shoot as much as possible with a Hasselblad 503 CX, unless it is indoors. That allows me to make prints up to 43 inches wide. Size matters: a photojournalistic style photograph that large is like a sledgehammer com- pared to a regular hammer. When I need to be lighter, faster or more intimate, I pick up the Leicas.
The Leica M is the ultimate in comfort and elegance for reportage. It is quiet, quick and the lenses are super crisp. Ultimately the Leica is more conforming to the traditional “raw” feel of photojournalism, while a Has- selblad photograph, with its optical stylization of the out-of-focus and its crystalline resolution and square- ness, has a more sophisticated allure.
For all its press coverage, it was difficult for me to know what to anticipate at OWS. Would the lack of light mandate the use of the Leicas? Surely there would be a need for the Blad, but who wants to haul that all day and have it in the way for little use? I am not good at compromising and therefore needed to decide on location.
We adapted our traveling style to the 99 Percent motto and went up with an overnight bus. It would test our physical resilience and we arrived in Chinatown later than planned due to a mechanical failure of the bus. I ended up using the Hasselblad very little, although it produced a couple of extremely precious photographs. But on the whole, because of the low light level, the Leicas were technically required, as well as better suited to this rather unglamorous environment.
For gear I typically have two Leica M6 TTL bodies with me: one with Ektar 100 film, and one with Ilford FP4 Plus film. I can hand hold to 1/15th, 1/8th if I have to, and I also use a Manfrotto monopod when needed. Except for the Hasselblad that I just carry on my shoulder, everything fits in pouches on my Think- tank pro speed belt, the only belt that stays at the right length even under stress. The Leicas fit nicely in Thinktank “Skin 50s.” This is the best and fastest way I can deal with my gear as well as last a whole day with this kind of load. I also have a beautiful Thinktank Airport Security rolling case when the full Hasselblad gear, including the shifting bodies, is needed.
In places like OWS I am definitely happy to shoot film. Because of the larger dynamic range it can absorb (which there was huge) due to the difference between the light down low and the sky or the reflections of the glass of the buildings. My Hasselblad scanner can extract every detail on the negative, and all that has more resolution than the digital capture equivalent. It is more work for sure, but I also like the organic nature of the photographs. A little grain gives substance to an image, while no grain is “plastic looking.” I don’t do “faux grain.”
I am a one-man orchestra. Apart from the raw materials, I do everything including mixing my own chemical formulas. I process my black and white films in PMK, the developer that should warrant a statue somewhere for its inventor Gordon Hutchings. I also process my own color, thanks to my JOBO processor that Greg Blank resurrected from the dead. The JOBO gives me the cleanest possible color negatives I have ever achieved. I proof scan everything with my Epson V750 and Silverfast Studio 8 (see the article in July/August 2010 photo technique).
Coming up with oversized enlargements from negatives captured on the fly requires low blood pressure and low speed film. I use Noise Ninja soft- ware which is a must in color and in the stratospheric levels of enlargement ratios in black and white. I also use Perfect Resize from OnOne Software, without which I could not fully enlarge the Hasselblad negatives.
The new keystone of my production is my Eizo ColorEdge CG 275 W monitor which gives me a lot of viewing real estate. It is a high precision device, with a built in calibration system that has resolved the color management issues that had plagued me since switching to Snow Leopard. I print most of my work on Museo Portfolio Rag, which gives me the crispest prints with the right amount of warmth and the highest Dmax I have found.
Following the completion of Rodrigo Dorfman's film on my work, Monsieur Contraste, Photo technique magazine has published in its May/June issue 2012, a portfolio on my series on the historic Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti park, Downtown Manhattan. 
The article is in the left column and the pages of the magazine are inserted (click to enlarge). The article may be dowloaded in pdf format here.
The entire Occupy Wall Street series may be viewed on this blog here.
TEXTE FRANÇAIS :
Suite à la finalisation du film sur mon travail par Rodrigo :, Monsieur Contraste, le magazine américain Photo technique publie dans son numéro de Mai/Juin 2012, un portfolio sur ma série traitant de Occupy Wall Street,
le site historique du mouvement qui a changé la façon dont l'Amérique ressent son establishment. L'article (en Anglais) est dans la colonne de gauche, et les pages du magazine sont insérées (cliquer pour agrandir). L'article peut être déchargé en format PDF ici.
La série entière peut être vue dans ce blog, ici.
The entire Occupy Wall Street series may be viewed on this blog here.
TEXTE FRANÇAIS :
Suite à la finalisation du film sur mon travail par Rodrigo :, Monsieur Contraste, le magazine américain Photo technique publie dans son numéro de Mai/Juin 2012, un portfolio sur ma série traitant de Occupy Wall Street,
La série entière peut être vue dans ce blog, ici.
Comments
Twenty Years Ago
30/April/2012 09:01
IL Y A VINGT ANS
ON PAYE CONTENT: c'est le titre de cette photographie, dû au signe dans la vitrine "Ni chèque ni crédit," en d'autres termes "On paye comptant," dont j'ai modifié l'orthographe afin de jouer avec l'humeur des protagonistes.
J'ai pris cette photo il y a 20 ans, en 1992, le jour (ou peu après) le premier verdict du procès qui vit l'acquittement des policiers impliqués, résultant en un soulèvement populaire à Los Angeles, dont le centre fut mis à feu et à sang suite au caractère révoltant de l'acquittement en question.
Je visitais ma future épouse à Chapel Hill, et mon niveau en l'anglais à l'époque, ne me permettais pas de comprendre la radio ou la télévision. Voyageant de surcroît, je n'étais pas au courant des derniers évènements. C'est ainsi que je retournai chez ce coiffeur de Raleigh, chez lequel j'avais remarqué la veille une lumière saisissante vers 17:00. Le propriétaire me permis de prendre des photos, et c'est ainsi que celle-ci fut prise. Ce n'est que plus tard, parlant de mon expérience à Trisha, qu'elle mentionna les évènements de Los Angeles, sans doute à l'origine de la tension palpable dans cette photographie.
J'en fis rapidement un tirage pour mon portfolio, mais ce n'est qu'en 2006, pour mon exposition "Life on Mars" que j'en fis un tirage d'exposition en 50 x 60. Ce tirage est très difficile dû à la différence de lumination dans le sujet. Avec le masque approprié, une infinité d'expositions, une harmonisation au ferrycyanure, je suis parvenu à faire quelques tirages qui maintiennent un excellent contraste, très dynamique, tout en préservant les détails requis dans les ombres et hautes lumières, tout cela dans un ton très chaud, ce qui est toujours difficile lorsque l'on souhaite un contraste tonique.
J'ai un tirage parfait tiré sur Forte PolyWarmtone Fibre, un papier qui n'existe plus. C'est là un tirage exceptionnel aux qualités historiques peu courantes pour le collectionneur visionnaire. J'ai aussi une poignée de tirages excellents mais avec de petits défauts qui ne les rendent sans doutes pas rédhibitoires.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
I took this photograph twenty years ago, a Friday of 1992, at 5:00 p.m. eastern time, in Raleigh, Wilmington Street, the day (or soon after) of the first Rodney King beating trial, the one in which the felon policemen were acquitted. Riots of earth quake magnitude ensued in L.A., which seems healthy.
At the time I was visiting my love, who was then living in Chapel Hill. I had already started to like photographing America, as I was surprised by its funk and grit, while our European imagination assumes something more in line with Star Wars. Trisha worked two jobs, so in the evening I was often alone while she was waiting tables. I would then take her car and venture outside of the usual circle. That is how I ended up at that barbershop. The day before I had noticed the light there, around 5:00, flowing that 50’s decorum so Americana-like, but I was on the late side. I therefore arrived earlier the following day.
The town was quiet, in those days Raleigh was somewhat sleepy anyway, but it did seem unusually calm, a little bit like the countryside before the storm, when the birds seem to bicker louder. In those days I could not understand the radio or TV in English, and was enjoying a news-free time outside of my own sphere. I had therefore no idea of what was going on, and stepped into the barbershop quite innocently. I asked the owner if I could take some photographs, he did not hesitate, and I proceeded with setting up my tripod. My subject was naturally going to be the chair by the front window, due to the light and that sign “No Checks, No Credit” which is at the origin of this photograph’s title.
I wondered why the fellows in this photograph were so stern looking, but was not complaining as that added more depth than otherwise. I used a little flash to tame the light some, and before long I was on my way, thanking everybody, probably leaving the fellows in the shop laughing and deriding that clueless Frenchman.
Back to France, I quickly made an 8x10 print for my portfolio, but only printed this exhibition size (21" tall) in 2006 for my show “Life on Mars, part I” at Through This Lens gallery in Durham. This was a very challenging print to make, notably due to the range of light, at the extreme, between the shadows and light blast on the white sleeve of the client’s shirt. With the appropriate mask, a litany of light passes and other techniques, I was able to produce a very dynamic print that still exhibits all the necessary details, on a very warm tone print.
I only have one perfect print of this photograph. Printed on Forte Poly Warmtone Fiber, a paper that does not exist anymore. That is a very rare historic print, available for the visionary collector. I also have a handful of very good prints with slight defects that may not be deterrent.
The title "On Paye Content" is a pun, paying with the same phonetic between "comptant" in French, which would apply to the fact of paying right now, referring to the sign "No Check, No Credit," while "Content" means happy. which the two fellows in the photograph do not seem to be.
Hasselblad Celebrates Monsieur Contraste
01/April/2012 22:08
On March 19, 2012, Hasselblad published an article, worldwide, on my work and the movie it Monsieur Contraste
Le 19 Mars 2012, Hasselblad publia, diffusion mondiale, un article dont le sujet était mon immodeste travail et le film à son propos: Monsieur Contraste.
Happy / Joyeux 2012
31/December/2011 20:00
Evolution
Enjoy a year with a globe rotating as much as ever.
J'espére que vous aimerez une année où le monde sera comme d'habitude en pleine évolution.
Rocking for Discomfort
05/December/2011 21:34
On a Marvin Gaye Tune.
Zuccotti Park, October 28, 2011
OCCUPY WALL STREET, THE MODERN REVOLUTION:
TEXTE FRANÇAIS A LA FIN DE CE BILLET, APRES LES PHOTOS.
Occupy Wall Street is about changing the way people think, it goes in the exact opposite direction that was America’s track for the past 30 years, and so far people follow. That is a true revolution, one with the most modern strategy : when people think differently, things change, deeper and for longer than the over way around.
I was lucky to be able to spend several days around Occupy Wall Street, in Zuccotti Park at the end of October, it was a true forum, a life laboratory where democracy was maybe not always pretty, but nevertheless at its best, as close as I can imagine of what it was in Athens, 2500 years ago. As the photographs below show, the creativity, the intensity of the reflection were astounding, and everyday would bring its own specific crop.
It is now gone, and many claim that is for the best. I don’t know, it seems very bourgeois to condemn the mess all this looked like from above and the sidelines, while much worse is tolerated elsewhere provided that it does not challenge the status quo. At any rate it is gone, but it is far from dead. It hibernates, and will blossom in full force in the spring. You can take it to the bank that this election year will be under its spell.
Caution
Open Fort
Move it, Move it
Frozen Sensuality
Le Cheval
Televised Revolution
Forever Anonymous
Ah Ah !
Where to Go
No Token Change
Something Different
Le Quidam
Musical Refrain
Timelessness
The Enforcers
Mortgage Specialist
Discret
Forum
Bakunin Avenue
Born Again
The News
Troubling
Wayne and Bess
La Main dans le Sac
Thou Shall be Good Neighbors
Twilight Flash
Accross
OCCUPY WALL STREET, LA REVOLUTION A L'ETAT MODERNE:
La fonction de “Occupy Wall Street” est de changer le mode opérationnel de la pensée populaire. Le mouvement secoue la crasse, et part à fond de ballon dans la direction opposée de celle que les Etats Unis ont suivie depuis au-moins trente ans. Jusqu’à maintenant la population dans son ensemble, suit. Cela est une véritable révolution, une révolution à la stratégie parfaitement moderne : lorsque les gens pensent différemment, les choses changent plus facilement, mieux, et pour plus longtemps que si l’on impose un changement en espérant que les masses comprendront et s’adapteront. C’est un concept inverse à celui qui a prévalu historiquement de par le monde révolutionnaire universel.
J’ai eu la chance de pouvoir visiter le site historique de “Occupy Wall Street” à New York fin Octobre. C’était un forum effervescent, un laboratoire démocratique vivant, pas toujours très joli, mais où la démocratie bouillonnait, près de son apogée, aussi près que je puis imaginer de l' Athènes d’il y a 2500 ans. Comme les photographes ci dessus le montrent, la créativité, l’intensité de la réflexion y étaient surprenantes, et chaque jour amenait une nouvelle moisson.
Ce forum là n’est plus, et beaucoup se rassurent en disant que c’est mieux ainsi, même si il est un petit peu bourgeois de froncer le sourcil depuis ses hauteurs, à la vision contemplative d’une expérience parfois désordonnée, cafouilleuse et pas très bien mise, alors que l’on laisse filer sans histoire des situations bien pires mais qui ne clament pas la couverture des journaux ni ne remettent le statu quo en cause. Enfin, quoi qu’il en soit, “Occupy Wall Street” tel qu’il est né, c’est fini, mais l’animal est loin d’être mort. Il hiberne, et reviendra avec le printemps, plus pétillant que jamais, et vous pouvez parier gros que les élections Américaines danseront au son de sa musique.
Willy Ronis est Mort
17/September/2009 21:35
Les Rencontres d'Arles, Willy Ronis Rétrospective, 17 Juillet 2009
Willy Ronis Retrospective at the Rencontres d'Arles, July 17, 2009
WILLY RONIS EST MORT
Ceci est dédié à mes étudiants de l”I.A.U. de l'été 2009, comme un ultime exemple que ce que nous avons abordé, y compris dans l’histoire de la photographie, se retrouve dans la pratique:
Willy Ronis est mort. 99 ans. Il était le quasi éternel survivant, le dernier des Mohicans de cette tribu de l’âge d’or de la photographie, celle des années 50-60, quand Cartier-Bresson menait le bal, et que la photo humaniste dont l’épicentre semblait être Paris offrait au monde une alternative à l’école Américaine. Un style que Lartigue avait sans doutes inspiré, cette photo humaniste qui semble être tellement ce pour quoi la photographie fut inventée. Une photographie empreinte de réalisme mais aussi de poésie et d'esthétique, tendant sans cesse vers la définition que Cartier-Bresson en avait donnée : “pour moi la photographie c’est l’alliage de la géométrie et de l’émotion.”
Les Rencontres d’Arles, qui se complaisent le plus souvent dans les errances communes à l’art moderne du moment, avaient donné à Ronis une rétrospective cette année, une bouffée d’air frais encore que réchauffé, pour nous autres les spectateurs. Il est mort le 12 Septembre, un jour avant la fin de l’exposition. Avec sa disparition s’en est fini, ils sont tous à se taper le portrait entre eux, dans un paradis improbable pour virtuoses de la gâchette photographique : Doisneau, Carter-Bresson, Boubat, Ronis etc... Ils nous laissent à un monde où l’establishment désormais privilégie les Richard Prince de tous acabits (voir Carambouille au Guggenheim ).
Pour ma part, alors que mon travail évolue souvent vers une sémantique plus radicalement moderne, je suis content de conserver, lorsque pertinent, une filiation avec ces grands messieurs de la photographie.
Des Amants dans mon Café. Paris, Mars 1991
Le Démon sur la Baie des Anges. Nice, Juin 2001
C’est comme dans la chanson de Trénet:
"Longtemps longtemps longtemps,
après que les poètes ont disparu,
leurs chansons, courent encore dans les rues..."
WILLY RONIS DIED
This is dedicated to my students at I.A.U in Aix en Provence of summer 2009. Maybe it will help them see how what we have touched on, even in History of Photography, is related to actual real life.
Willy Ronis is dead, he was 99. He was the quintessential survivor, seemingly eternal, the last of the mohicans of that tribe from the 50's and 60's when Henri Cartier-Bresson was leading the crew. This is when the "humanist style," as it came to be called, and whose epicenter seemed to be in Paris, offered the world an alternative to the American school of photography. Jacques-Henri Lartigue, the early 20th Century photographer, probably inspired this style which appeared so much to be what photography had been invented for-a photography rooted in realism, but also loaded with poetry and aestheticism, endlessly aiming at Cartier-Bresson's definition of photography as: "the alloy of geometry and emotion."
I do not know who inspired whom, or if this is a case of great spirits meeting each other as should have been expected, but Ronis offered his own beautiful definition: "A fine image is geometry shaped by the heart." It is often difficult to tell who of Ronis or Cartier-Bresson did this or that photograph. They often photographed alike, except that Cartier-Bresson was more consistently at the top, and more monolithic as well. You may have an overlook at Willy Ronis' work here.
This year, the Rencontres d'Arles, which usually likes to comply with the seemingly necessary wanders of today's modern art lack of wonders, gave Ronis a retrospective. For us mortals normally presented with a plethora of pseudo destined to oblivion, this was a healthy breath of timelessness. Ronis died on September 12, one day before the end of the show. With his passing we reach the end. They are all dead: Doisneau, Boubat, Cartier-Bresson, Ronis. They now can shoot each other all day in the improbable paradise for virtuosos of the shutter release. They left us in a world where the art establishment now favors the likes of Richard Prince (see Carambouille au Guggenheim ).
While my work evolves following a semantic path reflective of modernity, I am proud to keep as well, when relevant, a connection with the aforementioned lords of photography. For instance, Doisneau and his "Baiser de l'Hôtel de Ville" is obviously at the source of my "Des Amants dans mon Café." And the famous Ronis "Amoureux de la Colonne Bastille" was clearly in my mind when shooting "Le Démon sur la Baie des Anges." Lavoisier once claimed "nothing gets lost, nothing gets created, all is a product of transformation." Indeed Art is a continuum in constant evolution, and maybe these four photographs participate in that.
As Charles Trenet sings:
"A long time, a long time, a long time,
after poets have disappeared,
their songs still run in the streets..."
.