Thierry Maindrault’s Monthly Chronicle
Already fifty monthly columns, including this one, have slipped into The Eye of Photography. However, it was not a win for me. The day Jean Jacques Naudet, in a lost corner of Provence, asked me to write an exclusive column in his magazine, I smiled and refused this tempting offer, surely highly coveted by a lot of suitors. My reasons were objectively numerous (lack of time, uncertain skills, editorial quality, number of subjects, disinterest in customizations, etc.). Then, I gently succumbed to the arguments as numerous as they were heterogeneous, unrolled with great convincingness. I agreed to do a first one, as a test, on a very experimental basis. A second column, even hypothetical, was in advance, as far as I was concerned, not conceivable. This is how the story of the finger in a gear was set in motion! My only main conditions, accepted by the editorial staff, concerned my independent choice of subjects and the posting of a small link, at the end of the reading, for direct feedback for readers who wanted it.
Hats off to the very many readers who not only read my photographic lucubrations; but who carefully write personal contributions as illustrations of the subject, as developments of the ideas presented or even as relevant comments. Gratitude to the editorial director and to Gilles Decamps, the editor-in-chief. The first for his tenacity in obtaining the realization of his personal projections, through others. The second for his exceptional kindness in correcting my typos (when it is not worse), in restoring false photograph credits or in discovering and anticipating errors through his great skills in photography.
As you know, even well-deserved, my forms of flattery are rare and the stories of History are of those nostalgias that are foreign for me. However, there is no question of forgetting all the truths! How does a subject arise — on the table — to become the focus point to begin observations and raise some questions at the end of a column? Very often, it is current events that take precedence with their arrival inside our photographic society with equipment, with designs, with projects or with interferences likely to modify already tumultuous paths, or even undermine photographic logic. We see everything and more, creating a lot of usurpations near forms of scams. This is how from NFT to so-called AI, from the Uberization of photographers to misappropriation of rights, from bogus exhibitions to ghostly juries, from abstruse scenographers to silly audiences, nothing has been spared us. Thus, we were able to share fields of reflection to anticipate the choices that will build the future of the photographic universe. All these published topics that generate concerns, revolts, hopes, rejections, even enthusiasms, come to me quite naturally to be captured, analysed and retained by my curiosity open to all directions. It also happens that the perspicacity of someone suggests to me a relevant and worked as chronicle object, of course. It goes without saying that all my proposals for reflection, all my ironies and all other indignations are based on evidence gleaned as close as possible to the subject put in the hot seat.
As mentioned above, the columns generate a certain number of comments in both language versions of the magazine. About the age of the commentators, as for a certain newspaper (from 7 to 77 years old), the range is also wide, but shifted by about ten years. Half of the comments come from the 50-65 age group, very often professionals who have benefited from real technical training to master photography in its many aspects. They work, on a daily basis, in increasingly difficult conditions. The economic collapse of the various photography professions while the production of images is increasingly invasive. The highest production costs, every day, in a technological race that has nevertheless reached its limits for human perception. The pitiful remuneration that barely covers the expenses incurred, even for the most prestigious signatures. Not always (but even frequently) dishonest customers who shamelessly slash prices, with this blackmail that has become repetitive: “… if you can’t, we’ll do them ourselves (for the photographs), it’s not rocket science…”. When these thugs do not double the shot behind the photographer’s back. Their results look like total horrors; but, unimportant since the smart guy is absolutely incompetent (especially for reading an image). Such is the life of our colleagues still in the commercial circuits.
The older ones, still in the circuit, devote themselves to photography, called creative or visual, because their passion for working with light remains deep-rooted. Contrary to the preconceived ideas spread by the pseudo-progressives, there is very little nostalgia in their comments, often very well documented. Their concern, very shared, arises from the uncertain economic future for young real photographers who are emerging, even for those who are possessors of obvious talents. For the rest, they are rather mocking in front of all these announced utopias and others wonders which deflate, rather quickly, like leaky balloons.
There remain the young readers who wish to express themselves. Times are changing, mastered writing is fading and telephone exchanges prevail in a more direct expression. They are finishing expensive studies (generally unsatisfactory in their eyes) or else they have been confronted with the realities of a professional activity for three to five years. Times are hard, social laws have destroyed this transmission by immersion with a master photographer. The subtlety of knowledge and the understanding of genius against the sweeping of the studio, the races to the laboratory, the carrying of equipment or the presets of lights have gone, now, into digital virtuality. The intern must be paid, so he naturally asks to be paid (especially if he does not know how to do anything yet). For the economic reasons already explained, the studio can no longer pay. Obtuseness no longer kills, on a side, young people are on the streets idle and, on the other side, photographers in studios in need of assistants and successors, for tomorrow.
However, it is certain that there is no particular exception for photography, being photographer requires duties before claiming rights.
All this is very nice, but do these chronicles not break down open doors to end up as a sword in the water? Perhaps it is not exactly like that.
This chronicle allows us to open some eyes to discover the beginnings of situations that request attention. Like a few examples that we have studied together.
As, this desire to catch all the photographers in the world in a gigantic net to supposedly organize a monopoly of this profession. Bad assessment because photographic technique requires a minimum of brain functions, which was not the case for a driving licence (to drive people) or a bicycle pedal (to deliver pizzas)?.
Also, the transformation of photographic creation into a fabric of speculation on the unimaginable, all payable with money as fictitious as the ownership of dematerialized images. After the dry losses of a few million (dollars and euros combined) by very prominent “celebrities”, the speculative trap is running out of steam.
As for the binary concept, called AI, we have to wait a little. The many submissions I received, supposedly superb, were all of a pitiful poverty, full of graphic uncertainties unacceptable to a human brain. It is possible to try to deceive reasoning, much more difficult to feign a sensory emotion. “Souvenirs, souvenirs”, it reminds me of the “seccotine” collages of the 1960s that were rampant in artistic circles and reigned in a few galleries, depending on the signature attached.
It is obvious that the constants of Man are non-existent, compared to the inescapable rules of Nature. Which explains, constantly, the number of nonsense that flourish in the Panurge gangs to swallow themselves up in the waves of the realities of Life. Let’s stay the course, despite all these swirls, the photographic Grail awaits us!
A wink to Stephen, Caroline, Kim, Arthur, Marianne, Lucy, Anne, Erik, Benoit, Berry, Donatien, Ana, Paul, Patricia, Henny, Hugh, Patrick, Mark, Neal, Yaël, Maurice, Lionel, Pasqui, Soren, Valérie, Ellen, Lynn, Didier, Andy, Raphaël, Syene, Etienne, Serge, the numerous team of various Michels, all excellent photographers, without forgetting the multitude of other enthusiasts, all so quick to give me feedback.
Thierry Maindrault. August 09, 2024
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