Jérôme Aoustin Photography

May 13, 2009

The New York Photojournalism Group I was part of was unfortunately shut down due to the lack of involvement from its members. Thomas Churchwell recommended us to join another one, “The New York City Photography/Photo Safari Meetup Group”. I’m glad I did. With over 2,000 photographers, it certainly is active. The following meetup was taking place in an event room at B&H, a store no photographer coming to NYC should miss. Peter Turnley, international award-winning photojournalist, was presenting his work from the last three decades, encompassing most of the major World events of that time period.

I was very eager to meet Peter and hear about his life experiences. Getting there on time proved to be a difficult challenge… my wife left me the car with an unexpected delay caused by an accident on the Bronx River Parkway. I only had an hour and 15 minutes ahead of me, which inexorably shrank as I got stuck in traffic due to another accident, then another. It always happens at the most inopportune moments, doesn’t it? Served me right for taking the car. Suddenly, with only 10 minutes left before the beginning of the presentation, everything cleared up. I found a parking spot a block away from the subway, hopped on, switched to the express and arrived in the event room just 8 minutes late. How quickly things turn.

While Peter’s amazing work clearly spoke for itself, I wouldn’t have minded not seeing any of his photographs and simply listen to his experience as a photojournalist. This is really what I came for in the first place. Beyond the events that marked him and shaped his vision of the World, a few common denominators: empathy, passion, sensibility. These values are reflected in his body of work and deservingly one of the reasons why Magnum’s director gave him and his twin brother David the boost they needed when they first started.

I was happy to hear Peter break the traditional compartmentalization of the photographer. While it is natural to be better in one area than another, there is absolutely no reason for somebody not to be great in many diverse areas, whether fashion, nature or commercial photography. The gap is not as large as some people make it seem to be. What really matters is what you put into it. I also liked his reference to Diane Arbus. While he admittedly said he wasn’t a huge fan of her work in the beginning, he also came to recognize the importance of her contribution to our society. Each and everyone of us has a different sensibility, a different filter that makes us see the World in our own unique way. As he pointed out, if each of the 60 people who were attending the presentation were to take one photo of the room, they would most likely be all different. So many angles and viewpoints, ways to capture the essence of the present moment.

This also led to subjectivity. The chosen moment to take a photograph… this very instant you decided to capture, it’s something that you’ve wanted to show, a feeling or emotion that you’ve wanted to convey. It can be quite subjective. It does make a lot of sense that looking at a photograph at different times in our life will evoke different feelings. We as human beings evolve and our sensibility to a photograph will most likely change over time. I think it could be a very interesting process to intellectualize or analyze the moment we decide to take a picture. Why do we chose to release the shutter at that particular time. What does it reflect upon ourselves.

Peter’s favorite pictures are those asking open-ended questions. Photographs rich in meaning, telling a story and able to stand on their own. He actually wishes that newspapers or magazines used them less as a support to editorials, but as a full fledge testimony of the event that needn’t any text along with it. I’d have to agree. The vast arrays of sometimes hidden meanings and emotions captured on a photo tend to disappear once we’ve coined them with an often too simplistic explanation. “A picture is worth a thousand words” is quite an accurate saying. There would probably be a smaller divide between people if an event was just viewed for what it is, and not over analyzed through our own polarized lenses.

Peter is also not afraid to voice his political inclinations, or debunk myths put together by recent administrations. Refusing photographers access to the coffins of soldiers who died in combat for the sake of respect alone proved to be such a myth. Censorship anyone? Acknowledging their deaths by making them public is a form of respect an overwhelming majority of their families much preferred, which is now possible once again. I don’t think the families of the people who died in 9/11 are offended when their names are read on this tragic anniversary.

Peter is a great storyteller and has many stories to tell. I could just write a thousand word post on a single story of his, but I wouldn’t want to simply recount it. It would be a disservice to his presentation to try to sum it up. One has to see it. What I can say is that I felt a strong connection to what he talked about and could identify myself to it on many occasions. If I ever needed more motivation to work on my photography, I certainly got my dose now and for a long time to come.

I was very happy to have the opportunity to talk to him further following his presentation, and share dinner with him and the organizers of the meetup, Michael Delugg and Sherry. Peter happens to be a francophile, with only Parisian as an accent. Student of La Sorbonne and the Institut d’Études Politiques, he had been a classmate of Nicolas Sarkozy. I enjoyed conversing about that period of his life with him as I miss France myself more often than not, and I would certainly like to reiterate it soon.

That evening was all I needed to get more fired up about photojournalism and work towards that goal. There aren’t many jobs out there who provide such a deep understanding and connection with our humanity, as an individual and as a whole. A very rich and exciting life, indeed.

Further reading:
Peter Turnley’s official website
“The Unseen Gulf War” by Peter Turnley, December 2002 (graphic content)