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Summary:

In this film FotoTV’s founder, Marc Ludwig, talks to photojournalist, David Douglas Duncan about his Korean War photographs, his extraordinary career and the adventures and events he witnessed and recorded.

One of the most influential photographers of the 20th century Duncan was a prominent combat photographer for the United States Marine Corps, perhaps his most famous photographs were taken during the Korean War.

Duncan discusses his photo narrative of the Korean War, while his vivid combat scenes giving us an eyewitness account of the courage and ordeal of the fighting men and what their world was like. At the time of the photographs Duncan was a marine, and therefore most fighting men were completely unaware they were being photographed, while he took pictures of battling and dying men side by side, documenting their many unforgettable warrior faces.

Duncan’s Korean War photographs are truly iconic as they also convey the brotherhood and daily life of an ordinary soldier. He lived with the men following fellow marines through a series of fearful battles taking photographs on the rapidly changing front line.

Summary:

In this film, photographer, Harry Gruyaert sits down with FotoTV and reflects on his life, career highlights and his priorities as a photojournalist.

Starting out in fashion, Gruyaert soon realized that he was more inclined to landscapes and people, rather than photographing the latest styles. He was absolutely enthralled by the locations he visited and fell in love with Morocco after his first trip there. His trip to Morocco was personal and professional success, where he produced intense photographs of light, color, objects, people and situations depicting an undisturbed, beautiful scene of life. Visions of pure landscapes and daily life saturated with rich and colorful surroundings.

For his first serious body of work, Gruyaert made photographs of distorted TV images, covering current events such as the 1972 Munich Olympics to produce a vibrant caricature of the new stories. He explains, “I had a television set that didn't work properly; as my assistant and I moved the antenna, fiddling with the switches, it was possible to obtain fascinating colors. At the time, of course, the video recorder didn't exist, not to mention the freeze frame. So I set my camera to 1/8 sec and f4.0, held my camera steady and sometimes moved very close to the screen to frame it differently.”

At the heart of Gruyaert’s work is his affinity to structuring the intense nature of color. His images are beautiful in terms of life, luminosity and the people in relation to their situations. A contrast of elements assembled into refined graphics of shadows, hue, light and atmosphere.

Gruyaert studied at the School for Photo and Cinema in Brussels from 1959 to 1962. He then began freelance fashion and advertising work in Paris, while working as a director of photography for Flemish television.

Summary:

In this film, photographer and photo-collector, F.C. Gundlach talks to FotoTV at his fashion photography exhibit, discussing his career, his beginnings as a collector and what the word "fashion" means to him.

Gundlach explains that fashion comes into being when it is shown publicly and when there is a collective understanding of a new trend, taste, or smell, or whatever else, that trend becomes a fashion. Furthermore he says fashion is not only happening on the runway, or in fashion houses, fashion is also happening on the streets.

Interestingly enough, on a technical note, Gundlach has become somewhat of an advocate of digital photography. Initially he thought that through digitizing photography much would be lost in regards to content. But he soon realized that not to be the case. He describes how he came to his first digital photo to be displayed in one of his exhibits. "The last photo from this exhibit, a photo of the Pope, Benedict XVI, was a photo I saw published with an accompanying article in large scale in the FAZ Newspaper's Culture Section. It was very difficult for me to find that photo as the photographer was an unknown from Italy. I finally found her and she told me she didn’t have a photo-- but a data file of the image, and this was the first digital photo to be in one of my exhibits. I was skeptical at first, but changed my mind as did most large publishing houses of that time did. There was no data loss and it was simply advantageous in regards to time constraints. Photos could be sent around the world electronically in a fraction of the time it took to send an image via the postal service.

Gundlach is also a genuine admirer and supporter of other photographer's work. He goes on to explain a common feeling many photographers know too well, "Sometimes, photography can be an ambivalent activity. Many photographers have problems with the work of their fellow colleagues. I’ve never had that feeling; to the contrary it interested me. Since I’ve spent a lot of time in America, especially New York, which I nearly never left, with the exception of Los Angeles, I’ve met the American photographers and we had some lively exchanges about photography."

Times and styles change, but fashion will always remain inspirational. In closing Gundlach shares with FotoTV a story of one of his most memorable photos, "I remember in the 1960s when fashion was primarily black and white, reduced to forms and patterns. That worked really well for photography and fashion itself. One of my own photos shot for Brigitte magazine, in front of the Gizeh Pyramids, depicting two models wearing bathing caps has become an iconic image. The photo in the magazine is a variation from what we see printed today. That was a moment where the boundaries of fashion photography were transcended, resulting in a photo that will always be significant and timeless."

With timeless, Gundlach does not mean meaningless, his photo speaks for itself, as do all the photos in his exhibit. Some might say photos are the intermediaries of fashion, and it is Gundlach who is certain that it will always be the case.

Summary:

In this film, portrait photographer Fabien Breuvart discusses a recent large scale project entitled, "Sit and look at the sky", an impressive wall of over 290 photos.

Breuvart is also a collector and seller of antique photographic images, mostly work from unknown or amateur photographers. He owns a fantastic selection of old Paris pictures of anonymous Parisians from the 1920’s to the late seventies, and pictures of some French icons.

Breuvart describes his photography collection of amateur works as being real, wild, and describing a fleeting moment. For his own photography work in the studio, Breuvart uses a simple lighting approach, never attempting to beautify his subjects. He would like his sitters to recognize their personality when they see their photos, something, which he believes, his customers highly value.

For Breuvart, photos are the means to come into contact with other people. You can browse his extensive collection in his store, "Chacun son image", or have your unique portrait taken in the adjacent studio.