Eberhard Grames told how he had become a successful magazine
photographer, and had then wanted more control over the use of his work than
he got by handing over hundreds of slides. He had started by selecting just
a small number of pictures to give to the magazines, and had then moved to
working in large format 8x10" colour so that he made very few images,
only taking a single picture for each location.
Earlier on, I'd had the chance to look thorough his fine book, The Ballad
of Rita Tushingham, a near-legendary volume from Editions Stemmle in
the early nineties. It's a shame that it was never made available at a reasonable
price.
Eberhard also was one of the founders of the Bilderberg Agency and had some
interesting comments to make about the problems they had in changing over
to digital supply of images - it had taken him a year to scan his own work
in the library.
We also talked privately about the use of personal web sites. At the moment
it is very hard to see any of his work on the web, but perhaps that may change.
Shadi Ghadirian works for the photography museum in Iran
as well as for various companies and teaching photography. She talked particularly
about the problems of photography in a culture where censorship abounds, and
it is an offense to show a woman's hair.
As a woman she has had many problems in working, often due to quite arbitrary
decisions by the authorities, and has had at times to send work out of the
country without permission.
Eikoh Hosoe asked whether it was possible for visitors to see the collections
at her museum. Apparently it holds one of the best collections of early Japanese
photography, collected by a former ruler who was keen on photography. He intended
to visit and see if he could persuade the museum to let him see the work.
Vasil Stanko has also had some problems with the authorities
over the years, working with staged scenes involving nudes and dance. Some
of his work, 'Taking Care of the Natives' was also produced in a directly
political manner as a series of pamphlets to give to Russian soldiers.
By now it was around 5pm and I was starving, so I made my way back to the
hotel to grab some food. On the way back from dinner, I took a few pictures
of Bielsko in the gloom, and met two angels. One gave me a flower, made from
a stick with feathers on the end and I took her picture.
Back in the gloom of the main hall we had a presentation from Istanbul based
Ali Borovali, a Turkish travel writer as well as a photojournalist.
He took his MBA and learnt photography in the USA in the early 1980s and has
enjoyed considerable success in competitions and awards. Perhaps the most
interesting work he showed was his long-term project on the monks of Mt Athos.
The degree of openness he obviously enjoyed in taking their pictures was surprising.
Marta Daho from Magnum, who I had spent some time talking
to on the car journey from Krakow Airport on Thursday, talked about Larry
Towell, Trent Parke, Donovan Wylie
and Lise Sarfati. She spoke in English, and there were some
problems with ideas and their translation - the French have a very different
concept of the land to us.
Marco Bischof then spoke about the work of his father,
Magnum member Werner Bischof, killed in the Andes in 1954.
This was Magnum's blackest day, as they also heard the news that Robert Capa
had stepped on a landmine and been killed in Indo-China. Marco is a film and
audio visual man, and has been involved in the making a a fairly comprehensive
CD-ROM about his father.
After the lectures ended, we again made our way to the bar. It was pretty
late before Bevis Fusha and I decided we needed some rest
and made our way back to the hotel.
Inez
Baturo introduces Eberhard Grames
Eberhard
with one of his books
