I am sitting in a café having a good plate of pasta. Nothing remarkable about this, but this is Moscow, and I still carry memories of struggling to find anything half decent to eat when I first visited this city in the early 90s. Now there are good eating places everywhere, as this is a city flush with cash. The Gucci store in downtown Moscow generates more income per sq metre than any other Gucci outlet in the world.
I came to Moscow in 1992 and photographed in the first McDonalds that opened here. There were long queues to experience this icon of the America. I still remember, with almost disbelief, the excitement and thrill of the diners. Now of course, there are Yellow arches everywhere here, and not a queue in sight.
Funnily enough, it is the only time I have been granted permission to photograph in a McDonalds. I have asked since, and always had permission declined.
This does not prevent me going in and shooting, especially in the likes of China, where being thrown out by a faintly embarrassed duty manager gives a certain thrill. And remember like speed dating, there is always another target just down the road.
Back to Moscow, where I am photographing the 2nd Millionaire's Fair. Talk about bling, the Muscovites have no hesitation in showing off their wealth. One can buy a helicopter, mobile phones encrusted with diamonds or an apartment in Dubai.
One suspects the really wealthy do not want to be seen here, but those that do show up on the opening night are exactly what you think the wealthy should look like. The women wear the latest label, the younger women all have glowing long hair, many keep their furs on, despite the heat. Champagne is everywhere, and never seems to run out, there are people rolling cigars and handing these out, canapés come at you at every angle.
Traditionally poverty has been the front line for the concerned photographer, I am happy to reverse this, and for many years have photographed the wealth of the West. These images will all accumulate towards a suite of photographs entitled "Luxury" I am convinced that the non stop growth and the wealth we create has many problems associated with this.
The Millionaire's Fair is in Krokus Park, an exhibition Centre about 20 KM from the centre of Moscow. Getting there can take up to 2 hours, when I return late at night, it takes 25 min, such is the congestion on Moscow's roads.
The next stop on this wealth tour is the Chinese Motor show in Beijing next April. I must get a hotel where I can walk there, rather than being stuck in traffic.
LIFE Magazine, created by TIME founder Henry Luce, published its first issue on November 23, 1936. That was exactly 71 years ago.
LIFE always set standards in photojournalism, until 1972 it was published weekly when it was unfortunately shut down. Six years later, in 1978 LIFE was published again. This time as a monthly magazine and according to Dirck Halstead, who wrote a very interesting article entitled The Last of LIFE, "it was a pale imitation of its former self". The monthly magazine was discontinued in 2000 only to be published again as a weekly newspaper supplement from 2004 to April 2007.
I did miss the glory days of LIFE magazine but its spirit and the work of some of the greatest photographers in the world who photographed for LIFE shall not be forgotten. This one goes out to the old LIFE magazine.
Now that this tome has hit the streets, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some details to the background of this project. All Magnum group projects have to gain board or membership approval, and so it was at the 2006 AGM in London we were discussing Thames and Hudson's interest in doing a book to celebrate our 60th anniversary for 2007.I came up with an idea that the photographers select each other as being a potentially interesting way to get a fresher selection, and to benefit from inside knowledge within the agency.
As most people are aware Magnum is the only agency where the photographers vote on any potential new member, so it would be quite logical that we select each others' work for this book. Peer group knowledge can also be quite illuminating as we know our fellow photographers' work pretty well. This idea then started to get legs and it was clear that the only person capable of orchestrating such an undertaking was Brigitte Lardinois who had worked in the London Magnum cultural department for 12 years. Not only was she liked by all the photographers, she would know all our quirks, foibles and was also very charming and persuasive, a vital ingredient to make this work. One month was allotted to the task of making up the pairings, but in fact this eventually turned into 3 months. Some photographers would have to select more than one, because of the estates, but it soon became obvious this was no easy task. Jane Cutter, an editor at Thames and Hudson likened this process to organising a teenage camping trip. You had to find out who did not want to share a tent with x, who did not mind sharing with anybody, and who was determined to sleep on their own. She also had the problem that some photographers were very popular and were over subscribed with potential selectors, and horror of horrors, some had no suitors.
After 3 months, 4,000 e-mails and hours on the phone it all worked out like a huge jigsaw. A couple of photographers such as Dennis Stock insisted on self selection. Some photographers such as Bruce Davidson insisted that he was selected by Chien-Chi, and that he selected Chien-Chi, who he regards as the most underrated photographer within Magnum. Brigitte then had the task of getting the introductory text out of the photographers, and this too was a daunting task. This process was all the more difficult as the photographers would disappear as the were on assignments or doing personal work in all the corners of the globe.
The texts do display real insights, much affection and respect for their colleague photographers.
So far, so good. At the AGM in 2007 when I was debriefing the member photographers about progress on this project, there was much concern voiced about the procedure for signing off the proofs and of course the quality of the printing. Some photographers demanded to personally sign off their proofs, and this meant sending them to summer retreats, and catching the restless Josef Koudelka at one of his rare times in the Magnum Paris office or other rather complicated arrangements. I agreed to take on the responsibility of checking all the proofs. These finally caught up with me in a hotel in Tokyo and meant getting up at 4am, so they could be returned immediately, as by now the project was on a very tight schedule to come out now for the run up to Xmas.
So finally the book is out and weighing 6.5kg and with 414 photographs it is an epic item. I calculate that at £95 in the UK, this means it works out at £14.62 per kilo, about the same price as cod, so you do get a lot of book for your money.
It has also been published in 7 language editions around the globe.
Surprisingly this is the only recent Magnum group project that included every photographer and estate, a rare achievement, as there is usually a photographer who declines to participate, for various reasons.
My congratulations to Brigitte and the London Magnum office staff who supported her sterling work. I think she could be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2002, Alec Soth traveled with his wife to Bogotá, Colombia to adopt a baby girl. The baby's birth mother gave the new parents a book filled with letters, pictures and poems for their new daughter. 'I hope that the hardness of the world will not hurt your sensitivity,' she wrote. 'When I think about you I hope that your life is full of beautiful things.'
During the two months that the Colombian courts processed their adoption paperwork, Soth set about making his own book for his daughter. Soth recently completed this book, Dog Days Bogotá. On November 9th, an exhibition of this work will debut at Weinstein Gallery in Soth's hometown of Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Soth discusses Dog Days Bogotá with his intern, Carrie Thompson, a photography student at the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Carrie Thompson: You made this book for your daughter, why did you decide to make it for the public?
Alec Soth: Wow, you're starting with the hardest question - you should be a journalist! Unfortunately I don't have a great answer. This work was produced five years ago. After Sleeping by the Mississippi was published, it didn't feel right to do this book. So I just kept it in my back pocket. After Niagara, I guess I was ready.
CT: Tell me about the dogs, how did they become so important?
AS: I was aware of the street kids in Bogotá. I mean, it is a hard thing to ignore, but I was especially attuned to it because of the adoption experience. But I was uncomfortable photographing these kids. So I photographed street-dogs instead. I guess they were a stand-in for the kids.
CT: So do the dogs have different types of personalities in your eyes - like young street children?
AS: Great question. In a way, this gets at why I was uncomfortable photographing the kids. I mean, I wasn't seeing them as individuals; I was generalizing them as a group. I don't like doing that. The dogs are all a little different, but I'm using them largely as an idea.
CT: It seems like you are searching for something in these images, was there something you were looking for?
AS: In the dog pictures or the book as a whole?
CT: All of the photos, the book.
AS: Yeah, I feel like I was looking for something...I'm just not sure what it was. But, of course, it all has to do with my daughter. Since we weren't given too much information about her background, the whole city became charged with her presence. I guess I was looking for signs of her and her background.
CT: Imagine your daughter looking at this book in five years, what do you want to see in her birthplace?
AS: I guess I want it to be a real place for her. I mean, we are already showing her the pictures (we only tore one page out of the book). We talk about Colombia a lot with her. As a five year old, it is just a mythical place. But over time, I want her to absorb it as a real place and as a real part of her history. I suspect that in five years she would be ready to take a trip there.
At 5:30 am on 12/11/2007 special police units and representatives of the ECCC arrested KIM Trang, alias Ieng Sary, and his wife Ieng Thirith at their home on street 21 in Phnom Penh and transferred them to the Khmer Rouge tribunal's prison in Kambol in execution of an arrest warrant for Crimes against Humanity.
Ieng Sary, born in 1925 in Kampuchea Krom (a vietnamese province wich once belonged to Cambodia) studies in France in the 50ties, comes back to Cambodia in 57 and in 63, by then a member of the PTK and brother-in law of SALOTH Sar, alias POL Pot, he joins the maquis. He is deputy prime minister during the Khmer Rouge regime from 75 to 79 and flees to Thailand after the vietnamese invasion. He receives the death penalty in absentia during a trial set up by the PRK. After the Paris Peace Accords of 91 he settles in Pailin and in 96 is instrumental in the surrender of the Khmer Rouge controlled area which triggered the subsequent surrender of the other KR areas. King Norodom Sihanouk gratifies him with a Royal Pardon for that fatal blow to the Khmer Rouge movement.
Ieng Sary's house happens to be in my street, so at least I didn't have to get up too early. Unfortunately for us, security was very tight and all the 5 journalists who were present at that time were pushed back 200 meters near a garbage dump by the Anti-Terrorist squad who was in charge. We waited there until 8:30am, trying to spot any movement near the cars parked in front of the house, speculating which road they would leave through, chatting with the policemen or the defence lawyers who were blocked by the police just like us, and chasing away the flies buzzing on the garbage. By then the number of journalists had increased by at least 20 and the big telelenses were readied. My poor 135mm certainly was no match but in fact it didn't really matter because the car going to carry the former Khmer Rouge leaders was driven inside the courtyard, so at 9:00 it became certain we would not see the faces of those being arrested. It also became clear that they would leave through the other street, so most of us rushed over there, mingling with the people from the densely populated street. Many of them did not have a clue of who Ieng Sary is. Around 9:30 the motorcade cut through the little crowd and left some dust behind. None of us journalists has had even a glimpse of Brother Nr 3...
It was my birthday and Henri asked me what I would like as a present and I told him that I would be so happy if he would make an autoportrait of himself in drawing. He went straight to work. He sat on our bed with a mirror posed in front of himself, I was literally lying back watching him when all of a sudden I saw the triple image that ensued. I slipped away to grab my Leica M3 with a 35mm lens, he was so concentrated and focused on what he was doing that I don't think he even realised that I had photographed him.
I did not publish the photograph until his 90th birthday when Ferdinando Scianna persuaded him to allow me to publish a selection of "snapshots" I had made of him over the years.
Even I was wary of photographing Henri as I knew he did not really like it. Then one day he asked me to make a passport photograph of himself and from then on it was a joke between us: "Just a passport photo."
My first direct experience of Magnum was on June 24 1982, when I turned up in Paris for my first photographer's meeting, (once a year all the members get together, alternating between New York, Paris and London to decide policy for the year ahead, and look at new portfolios presented to the group). I had been voted as a Nominee, the summer before, on the first rung of the Magnum membership ladder.
Round the table were some most well known photojournalists of the twentieth century, but on the table was basically a carpet of Leicas and other assorted cameras, and as the meeting went on people began photographing each other.
I felt more than uneasy when I finally had the nerve to join in, but it is something that I have done ever since at subsequent meetings over the years. Rene Burri has traditionally been the one to shoot a group portrait each year, an event that is always full of fun as Rene tries to dash into the shot as the delayed action setting ticks away.
I was always rather frustrated by the lighting conditions, which are normally difficult, and in my first meeting as President in London 1991, I set up two large film lights across the large table determined that this was going to be the best-lit Magnum meeting ever. It all went well until on the third day Philip Jones Griffiths started fiddling with one of the lighting stands and it came crashing down fusing the whole system.
The pictures here were all taken this year in June 2007, at Milk Studios in New York, and were my way of passing some of the time during four days of intensive and sometimes difficult discussions. They are all shot on real film, using a 6x6 Mamiya camera, and with the occasional help of a chair for the camera to rest on for long exposures.
Now that this tome has hit the streets, I thought it would be worthwhile to give some details to the background of this project. All Magnum group projects have to gain board or membership approval, and so it was at the 2006 AGM in London we were discussing Thames and Hudson's interest in doing a book to celebrate our 60th anniversary for 2007.I came up with an idea that the photographers select each other as being a potentially interesting way to get a fresher selection, and to benefit from inside knowledge within the agency.
At 5:30 am on 12/11/2007 special police units and representatives of the ECCC arrested KIM Trang, alias Ieng Sary, and his wife Ieng Thirith at their home on street 21 in Phnom Penh and transferred them to the Khmer Rouge tribunal's prison in Kambol in execution of an arrest warrant for Crimes against Humanity.
