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Summary:

In this special FotoTV mini-series we learn more about the famous German photo-reporter, Robert Lebeck, as he tells us first hand the hopes and dreams and struggles he had to get to where he was: At the top of the market of international photo-journalists.

In the second installment of the series Robert Lebeck gives us insight on his aspirations as a photojournalist and how he went about finding topics and events to shoot. On one occasion Lebeck read in the newspaper that the leaders of Kremlin wanted to make peace and reparation with the leader Tito. Lebeck then telephoned the editor in chief at Revue to tell of his wish to cover the event. He was guaranteed a full page and that was all Lebeck needed for him to be on his way to travel to Belgrade to cover the event. Even if his photos were not printed he would still receive the page guarantee price of 350 Marks. That was a sweet deal. On the way to Belgrade Lebeck stopped by the editorial offices of Revue to find that the editorial offices were located at the private villa of Helmut Kindler, the famous publisher and Lebeck experienced this time as the “golden era” of publishing. This is also a time of the inception and creation of one of the most popular and highest selling youth magazines of the world, “Bravo” and Lebeck discusses his experiences and contributions to the magazine.

One event Lebeck discusses and shares photographs of was being dispatched on an assignment in Friedland to document the returning soldiers who have been held for such a long time as prisoners of war. That was a poignant moment for Lebeck, knowing that he just narrowly escaped being held as a prisoner of war for that long amount of time, simply by literally running away to Schwerin. It was an emotional and moving moment for Lebeck. In part three we will learn more about the life and work of Robert Lebeck.

Summary:

Sylvia Plachy describes in this video her life and her photography using examples from 'Waiting', an exhibition in Berlin.

Born in 1943 in Budapest, the daughter of a Hungarian aristocrat and a Czech Jewish mother, fleeing at 17 years of age with her family from the Hungarian Revolution to New York, Sylvia’s life reflects the upheavals of the twentieth century. And her work reflects her life.  The lost homeland and the feeling of being lost in the world are tangible in her pictures.  Pictures that  are poetic and melancholy, witty and bizarre, sometimes disillusioning, always moving. Sylvia Plachy has an eye for the little but meaningful things at the edges of our perception: People, animals, places, and things. They are all subjects for her camera.

And she uses cameras of all kinds: Toy cameras, Leicas, panorama cameras, in black and white or in colour. Plachy unites diverse techniques into an organic and characteristic whole. Black and white suits her style better than colour, which she says, is good for entertaining but can detract from the real meaning of an image.

"My father”, she reflects,  “often walked ahead alone, deep in thought, his state of mind one could only guess at. I, on the other hand, have always liked to linger and watch unseen, to take my pictures without confrontation, to look at backs and imagine what's inside."

Plachy’s photographs can look at first sight like amateur snapshots, a little blurred, skewed horizons. But they are perfect in their imperfection. They work on you at a deeper level. Her  images linger hauntingly in your consciousness. It’s worthwhile trying to find out why.

You can see more Sylvia Plachy images on her website. Readers of New York’s Village Voice will have been seeing her pictures there for the last thirty years.

She has published several books of photographs that are worth looking at. Self Portrait with Cows Going Home (2005), is a personal photographic journey through Plachy's childhood in Eastern Europe. Unguided Tour won the Infinity Award for best publication in 1991. Of Signs & Relics (2000) with a foreword by Wim Wenders, Richard Avedon says, "Not since Robert Frank's The Americans have I experienced a body of work of such range and power. She makes me laugh and she breaks my heart. She's moral. She is everything a photographer should be.”

Summary:

Eavesdrop here on two of the twentieth century's top photojournalists sitting on a sofa and chilling out. Elliott Erwitt, three times president of the illustrious photo-agency Magnum, and Marc Riboud, whose startling and captivating images put him in a class with Cartier-Bresson. Like Bresson, both men were born in France. Unlike Bresson, however, both are inveterate globetrotters. Asked about their attitudes to travelling, Riboud says, "I don't travel for the sake of travelling, I like surprises." And Erwitt, too, thinks that travelling is not necessary, but has its merits. It cuts you off from routine so that you can get 'fresh meat'. And it's fun!

Both professional veterans went to places that most people did not, or could not go to. In the 1950s and 1960s Erwitt photographed in the communist block countries of Eastern Europe. He was sent there on assignments, which he enjoyed. "Assignments take you to places you can't afford to go", he says, with a twinkle in his eye. Riboud works quite differently. He just goes off to somewhere that interests him, then comes back and tries to sell his photographs through agencies. Many of his trips were to Asia, including North Vietnam during the war there. He likes travelling alone: "In groups, people talk a lot. I don't think you can travel and speak at the same time!" And he likes exploring on foot ("Walking with your feet, you discover much more.").

The interview is richly illustrated with some of the best and most well known images of these two experienced and skilful photographers.  And it is seasoned with their refreshing, good-humoured and insightful comments. What is the most difficult thing to photograph? What did Picasso say about that?  What do Africans say about foreign visitors? How do you know when you've made a good photo?

More of Elliott Erwitt's work can be seen on his website, which bears the typically subtle and understated subtitle, 'for life-like snaps'.

The FotoTV interview with Marc Riboud alone is well worth watching too. His motto is, "Talk less and look more."

Summary:

Photographer Daniel Pilar works as a staff photographer for Frankfurt General Newspaper (FAZ) since 2006. For this interview he sits down with FotoTV to discuss his photographic background and education and how he ended up working for the critically acclaimed FAZ newspaper. He also talks about an ongoing photography project about the German Coal Industry, primarily a intimate look at the workers who brave their lives daily working many hundreds of meters underground in very hazardous, humid and hot conditions.

Pilar decided to photograph the miners of the coal industry after realizing he had a personal interest in the story, which was wanting to learn more than what the media and press could tell him. He then decided he had a unique story to tell with his pictures. Not like the images he was used to seeing in the press of mineworkers, even though they were very informative. Most always the images were depicted with the same general mood, a grubby worker illuminated by flash, looking into the camera and almost always smiling.

Pilar chose B/W film and a 35mm camera to document his experience and show his perspective. He felt it was the best way to convey the realness and historicalness of the people. He also had to work without a flash underground because any electrical spark could ignite with gasses or fumes and that could mean an explosion in the mineshaft.

One obstacle that Pilar faced underground was not being able to wear his contact lenses because of the immense amount of dust in the air. Since he would be blind without them he had to wear glasses, and on top of that a helmet and a flashlight attached to his helmet. With all that get-up on and the camera viewfinder and glasses to constantly clean, he still could barely see anything, so he relied on his intuition when taking photos, which he took an incredible amount of. Out of 5 or 6 rolls of film, one or two shots would be useable, a very high ratio, but Pilar was not worried about deadlines or delivering his film to an editor on time because he is working for himself on this project. Something he describes as stress free, and a great advantage.

In the beginning, having never given any serious thought if photography would feed him, Pilar always went after his subjects and topics because it fascinated him and because photography is his passion. Photography showed him things and opened doors for him, and it also allowed him to show and share things with other people.