Magnum Blog / What in fact DO you want to say?

What in fact DO you want to say?

With my new book Tokyo Love Hello being launched, I thought it might be interesting to some of you out there to get an idea of what sort of issues, problems and questions have gone through my mind during the process of making this book. How, as a photographer, do you try to put out your work in such a way as to make the most sense to you and, hopefully, to your audience? What in fact DO you want to say? Front cover of Chris Steele-Perkins' new book Tokyo Love Hello. Should you do a book, a magazine story, an exhibition, a slide show, a podcast, a Magnum In Motion-style web piece, a combination of these things; all of them? How will this affect the work? An exhibition will create a different response to a book. With a web piece you can use sound, in a magazine you might reach an audience of millions. If you do an exhibition is it like doing the book on the wall? If you do a book is it an exhibition between covers?

pierre-yves

Very interesting "lesson"... Thanks a lot ! ! !

Rafal Pruszynski

Sounds great, Tokyo is a great city, but also very widely photographed. Ever think about shooting a city like Seoul?

Martin Fuchs

Interesting article, glad the original cover wasn't chosen to be published. :-)
I have to say however that I don't like the Magnum In Motion "Tokyo Love Hello" essay.

I think this Magnum In Motion piece is not so much about the photographs but more about wanting to create a piece of art... Using blurry and pixelated details from photographs, showing a photograph step by step before showing the whole one, etc.
Reminds me more of a strange music video were somebody played around a lot. Maybe that is the intention, maybe that's how Chris Steele-Perkins sees his photographs and the story. But I personally find it inadequate.

Davin Ellicson

I'm really enjoying the Magnum Blog. It's providing the philosophy behind the pictures in the way that the book "Magnum Stories" does, but in a much more immediate way.

Rafal Pruszynski

I must concur. Its really interesting to read the thoughts of these guys to whom we look up afterall. I like how less forma it is than Magnum Stories which is a fantastic book, but the blog is more casual, more immediate and ofcourse the ability to add some of our input is great too

Diana

what a great site! i just stumbled here through a blog.

Sandip Debnath

Very Good written and great lesson for us. I liked the work here too.

Shailendra Shinde

It is really great to read this blog.
It is real relief. Believe me!!!
I have seen your Tokyo collection again & again, Number of times & it is in fact interesting selection.

There is mis-perception among People about Japan that "Japan is quite easy place to shoot". But since I am staying in Tokyo it is darn hard country to shoot on street.

Main question is "What shall I shoot??"

Forget Harajuku, Kyoto, geisha, Kimono.....
Whhen it comes to hardcore streets..
For street photographer from Kagoshima to Hokkaido, where ever you go It is just a Photocopy of location, everything is just same.

Often I feel sick in Japan is about expressions of people.
Somehow people are less expressive & I would dare to say people are FAKE expressive.

Everybody tries to hide the emotions & in this scenario if you shoot on street & get a collection like "Tokyo Love Hello" it is amazing work.

Thanks for providing wonderful work!!!!
-Regards,

sean

aprreciate this post.

thanks

Eric Perriard

I would like to thank Magnum for this blog-idea.

I don't know if it was the purpose, but I think it is a gift for the young photography. I am part of it, as an unexperienced and fresh little boy who try to find a way.

I hope it will help us not to find specific answers, but to raise the good questions which really generate introspection... and then help to improve the quality of work.

For example, just the title of this article made me think a lot: "What do you want to say". Finding a vector which goes through years and years, series after series, is critical... and very difficult. So thanks to Chris, I re-defined my initial vision, in order to prepare a book if circumstances of life give me this opportunity.

And I'll work hard, this blog should encourage to work hard!

Charles Peterson

Fantastic insight into book editing. Having done three myself I know what a mysterious and difficult process it is. There is no "right or wrong" per se when not working in a strictly narrative fashion. It's true, there's a myriad of ways it can come together, and eventually one has to say "Enough!" I've been trying to edit a project of photos I've taken over several years of a particular country, and I've made the process even more difficult by photographing in b&w and color, and both in 35mm and medium format! Talk about a puzzle. But I hope I can make it work because it's a different way of viewing a subject. My last publisher said yes - and then two months later no. I hear Chris when he talks about the response to showing it. It's very difficult to get a "non-specific" (ie no celebrity or overriding conceptual filter) book published these days, even one on a place as popular as Tokyo, which is why a book on say, Seoul, would be even more of an uphill battle. Love the idea of using iView - never thought of that. Hurray to Chris Steele-Perkins and Magnum for this blog.

Iron Flatline

Interesting. I never thought of all these different ways of showing photographic work. But of course, they are quite different from one another.

Thanks for sharing your thought process.

Graeme Smith

I too agree that photography holds an ambiguity, its the truest form of exploring ones introspection, ones way of dealing with how they see the world face to face.
The photographed subject matter invisioned remains almost secondry to the perceived realisation of the world and how we ultimately react with in it through our cumulitive experiance of life and our experiances received from it.

Daniel Seguin

Thanks Chris for sharing your experience in publishing. You've unfolded a wonderful story about Tokyo, leaving just enough gaps for me to fill in. Though I have yet to see the book, I truly enjoyed the multimedia essay. Good on you.

Kevin Coombs

Great ! I love this slideshow. This is what slideshows were meant for ! Funny to hear the announcer's voice on the Friendly Limousine Bus. I always thought her accent was so perfect. They have used that recording for years. I wonder what she looks like ?

rob

The Sato-esque image (028) rocks. The 'early cover' reminded me of HS's Thirty-Three bays for the 21st c. How surprised to count the masks and find 33.
I like the flavour analogy, recipes, courses, etc.
Interesting work.

RICARDO GOMEZ PEREZ

Ajmal, a LS member and fixer in Afghanistan, is reported kidnapped along with an British journalist…
Here is the link to the BBC article. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6422671.stm

RICARDO GOMEZ PEREZ

Hi Chriss,
Long ago we met in London and both of us were doing the Teddy Boys of London
Now your photo are exhibit in Venezuela and I am proud to share the wall with your work and same subject.
Please contact me if you ever will come this way.
All the best
Ricardo Gomez Perez
rgomezp@ricar2.com