Jérôme Aoustin Photography

April 12, 2009

Being a photojournalist has been a fantasy of mine for quite some time. Traveling, being at the heart of current events, taking historic shots and adventure aplenty… it all sounds very glamorous on paper and probably a bit cliché, too. It’s not a very original fantasy for a photographer to have either, but who cares? I was searching for photography groups on meetup.com when I stumbled upon “The New York Photojournalism Group”. It was exactly what I was looking for so I immediately joined.

It was founded by Thomas Churchwell in January 11, 2009, but the calendar of events was already starting to get filled: Obama’s inauguration day, Chinese New Year, Saint Patrick’s day parade… unfortunately, most of those events were conflicting with my job so it wasn’t until the Easter Parade that I was able to meet with fellow photographers. We found each other in front of the Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, where His Eminence Edward Cardinal Egan was delivering his last mass before retirement. That was the shot of the day.

Thomas arrived earlier to capture Cardinal Egan before the mass. With noon approaching, people were starting to flock to the Cathedral’s stairs to receive the Cardinal’s blessings. All the good spots were taken within a few minutes. Clearly, if you’re being too polite in such a frantic environment, you won’t get any quality shot. Thomas just invited us to get in front of the crowd. One has to be rude to get the shot, others will be if you’re not and they will get it while you don’t. “Gangsta photojournalism”, as he calls it. Well, I left my values aside for a minute and positioned myself in front of the crowd, as non-obtrusively as possible. An older lady argued with me a little but I convinced her to stop with a smile, and all was good (cf photo below, © Thomas Churchwell).

Then everything happened very quickly. The Cathedral’s doors opened, and soon Cardinal Egan was coming out. I had brought both my cameras with me, the 5D with 50mm f/1.4 and the 350D with 100-300mm f/5.6L. I’m glad I did. There’s absolutely no time to switch lens, you’ve got to be prepared and start shooting. I made the huge mistake to not prepare better for the shot. My ISO was wrong on the 5D as I forgot to switch back to ISO 100. I started shooting full manual at ISO 800 without thinking about it twice, and of course blew highlights like there’s no tomorrow on the first few shots. Fortunately, I had checked the 350D so those shots came out nice. Live and learn. Overall and given the circumstances, I am very satisfied with what I was able to capture. “F/8 and be there” is quite an accurate motto. It’s not about art but about getting the shot.

Afterwards, we just mingled with the crowd to take photographs of the many beautifully costumed citizens. The pressure was off and we could just enjoy shooting more freely. The challenge was to shoot a photograph that said 2009. Most photographs could be placed in a book from the last ten years and nobody would know the difference. Some costumes had interesting elements from current events though, from Obama to Madoff. I feel sorry that my business cards didn’t come until the next day, as I could have distributed a few along the way. Especially to a couple with their baby daughter, whom I took a rather nice portrait of.

The only thing to deplore was the absence of more than half the people who RSVPed, a far too common occurrence when there’s no accountability. At least, have the courtesy to let the organizer know in advance if you change your plans. This was a fun afternoon, very well organized and I can’t wait for the next meet-up.

Read more about this event:
On the Street With Bill Cunningham, New York Times Photographer

PS: Thanks to Ann from the New York Photojournalism Group, I watched the narrated slide show from the Easter Parade by Bill Cunningham. He is a New York Times photographer whose specialty is fashion in New York, Paris and London. While his audio slide show is indeed very insightful and I recommend you to watch it, I also realized that I met and spoke to Bill at the parade, which came as quite a nice surprise. He approached us (Thomas, Chris and I), inquiring whether or not we saw that man dressed in this beautiful antique Russian garment. I do not think we did, but after the fact, I wonder if he referred to the man with the dog and the parrot, who did sport a very unique hat and unmissable outfit. As most photographers tend to do, I looked down and noticed his film camera. He looked at ours and amicably teased Chris about having one camera while Thomas and I had two. “You’re not as serious as them”. I lost him a little with my French accent, something that I am used to by now. I probably should have spoken French as he travels so often there. Next time. He soon vanished in the crowd to capture more of the unfolding promenade, an allegedly more fitting word for the parade. And so we did.