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Photographer

Few days ago C called and asked me: how do you do it, taking pictures of people.
Doing it became such an automatism for me (though I admit, at certain moments I am as shy as I was several years ago, and I don't dare to take the picture.)
Picturing people is something you learn. And you really have to try.
Picturing people is also very often identify yourself as a photographer, show the camera and thus loose the moment you wanted to picture.
But it very often gets replaced by another moment that is worth as much.

©Palestine, 2002

I studied photography to satisfy my curiosity. It allows me to see things in different subjects other people probably not always get the chance to see. The camera is very often a good excuse to get somewhere.
And it is the best language I know.
I don't need to learn Chinese or Portuguese or whatever to transfer what I see into words.

The thing I learned in Israel was not to 'tell the story as I see it' but to ask the questions.
There is no need for another photographer who pinpoints what is going on, showing his/her own opinion on the matter.
The viewer has to ask the question, wonder for himself.

©Sint Petersburg 2002

Of course there is the business aspect. I want to be a photographer, thus I need to have jobs. And admitted, unfortunately those are very often a lot more boring than the nice idealistic photography everyone of us has in mind.
Yet, I love it. Yesterday I had to take pictures of farmers. Follow them during their day, picture it.
When standing on a tractor, driving through the fields of Flanders, feeling the sun on my skin, I knew I really love my job.

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