What I Learned In Perpignan

I learned that I'm not as big a lightweight as I thought by going out drinking more than I have in years. But it wasn't so much about partying as it was about getting acquainted with my classmates, meeting people, networking, getting acquainted with my classmates, former LCC students and discussing photojournalism and all the issues around it from photo gear to computers to software to politics to travel logistics to marketing and much more. There of course was the festival programming, exhibits, nightly screenings and presence of agencies, photography collectives and vendors that was the center of my week.

One significant fact--perhaps not so flattering--was that I only took out my camera once during the week. Perpignan's somewhat of a picturesque town certainly with lots to photograph but with so many photographers and cameras, I figured we had it covered. I can remember my early days in photography and going to photo gatherings in the U.S. such as the National Press Photographer Association's Flying Short Course or the Atlanta Photojournalism Seminar and sort of thinking that the guys (usually students) running around with a couple of bodies and a long lens to go to a seminar were a bit over the top. There really weren't those types of photographer there.

My main objectives were mostly achieved: 1.) to spend some time with and get to know some of my classmates; 2.) to connect with a new agency (Polaris in this case); 3.) to see some excellent photography (much was excellent); 4.) to gain some new clients (this one I sort of struck out on but got some great tips).

Being in Africa, I feel a bit isolated at times from others in the class, so it was good to spend time with part of our group. Our common bond is the LCC MAPJ. Having gone through projects, papers and sometimes rough tutorial sessions, I think we all felt a certain badge of honor for having gotten through our first leg of it.

There were several agencies represented such as Getty, Corbis, AP, AFP, Reuters, EPA, Sipa, Zuma and others. The collectives area was interesting mostly to see the ways that these groups of photographers promoted themselves with cool postcards, lots of Blurb and Mac books, and lots of interesting work.

As far as the photographic exhibits there were several very good ones but a few that were just okay. My favorites were by Paolo Pellegrin's project in Iraq and Stanley Greene's story (more the whole story) about the Silk Road being transformed into a drug route. The evening screenings were good but many of us thought a bit uneven at times and are too loosley edited. They did, however, get progressively better as the week went on, but unfortunately the Saturday show which in theory should have been the best, and the big festival party were both scrapped because of rain (don't worry there were LCC reps protesting).

At the Hotel PAMS, there were continual critiques and editors that I wanted to meet (I was told but only ran into the one I used to work for-Michelle McNally). They did have free wifi and drinks, so it was an active place. It's also where we registered. Despite not getting some of the connections that I wanted, I did get great advice, much of it from LCC graduates. Most of that happened at La Post (I'm sure Perpignan's most popular bar during the festival). It's where we had the pleasure of meeting our very own Homer Sykes.

What I liked most out of the trip was primarily getting to know Maria, Dean, Silva, Chris, Jono, Mark, Anna, Rhian, Morag (my favorite LCC grad) and Homer. It helped me realize that we have a rich and interesting group and that being in an online course gave me more of a connection than I thought I'd have. On the festival side, I most enjoyed an impromptu session by Brian Storm about multimedia and a hard-hitting film by Christian Poveda called La Vida Loca about gangs in El Salvador which I got through with French subtitles. My favorite brush with greatness was meeting John G. Morris. It also was kind of cool that David Alan Harvey remembered my name, but I'd much rather have people remember my images.

Dean is going to keep in touch with the apartment owners that we rented from to see if there can be LCC Does Perpignan Redux.

Here's Jono's slideshow if you haven't seen it.

http://www.jonathanlewisphoto.com/mapjPerpignan2008slideshow/