Having heard many stories about Perpignan from friends, it was the right time to make my way over to that sexier part of the world and throw myself in the deep end. We left london at midnight on the wednesday and drove all the way (2349 miles round trip for those who care). Thankfully my fellow truckers provided hours of gossip, amusement and classic quotes such as “what’s the worst question you could ask a women, which was promptly met with “where can i wipe this?”. Names won’t be provided, the trucking pact is strong.

Arriving in Perpignan and putting faces to those i’ve been speaking to online was great. I finally got to meet up with Mikko Takkunen, who runs the ever popular Photojournalism links, Bruno decock from MSF, Olivier Lourant who did a tireless job interviewing all and everyone for the British Journal of Photography, and all my fellow LCC’ers who i’ve spent countless hours chatting to but never seen them face to face.

The main point of Visa Pour L’Image is to make contacts, show those interested your work and generally mix with others in the field. Setting up meetings beforehand is key, there is no way in hell you can get to see the more popular editors/publications without having one. I decided to see Panos and Sipa Press, with both meetings going well (I think). Beforehand I was fretting over which medium to use to show my work off. Many go down the printing route, which is a brilliant idea but not without issues. I ended up using the iPad and don’t regret it for one minute. All the editors and people I showed the work to loved the ease of using it and how crisp the images were. It worked in the Hotel Pams, even with the bright sunlight, something many other laptops struggled to do.

Meetings aside, I got the chance to speak to some really talented people and see their work. Munem Wasif is a gent as is Stephen du Pont. Perpignan has its share of ego’s, but these two gents are anything but egotistical. Stephen’s work in Afghanistan is just utterly brilliant, his multimedia show really showed me how to do it. Sorry, Soundslides is no longer the way to do things, it’s all about Motion from now on. Munem’s comment, which really hit home for me was about not having to leave Bangladesh to take stories, there are so many still locally available. Sometimes you don’t need to jump on a plane and head somewhere.

As with anything photojournalism, Africa featured heavily in many of the projects. The evening slideshows saw the usual displays of Africa, drought and famine and conflict. Personally this is now boring as hell. How many images can you really shoot of starving black people with deep open eyes? Come on people, I know it’s easy but for christ sake, try another angle. William Klein summed it up aptly with his quote about the festivals screenings: “Photo reportages need context”.

My very good friend Mr Howe gave me more details about his conflict training he’s started with his brother (military type, the type you’d want teaching you) that shows budding conflict photographers how not to get shot and get the image at the same time. Jason needs no introduction, he’s been there and done it in all the lovely places in the world you read about, so this training is bound to be popular. If he does have a UK-based course, I’m keen on heading back and learning from yoda himself.

Overall it was a great Visa Pour L’Image, not sure if I’ll be going next year as it’s a bit of a bitch to get there from Durban, but if the chance presents itself, I’ll be there with the required clothing and suitable ego.

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Being in darkest Africa, where everyone happily pays over the odds for mediocre digital cameras, shooting film is a lifestyle choice these days, support here is patchy at the best of times. My local lab, Fotomax, used to be the best. Hell I’ve heard from all the veterans of this city that Max was the  business back in the day. Alas, just like film has declined, so has any hope of getting a professional service from this lab.

I put up with the expensive prices for processing, I put up with the constant bloody fingerprints on my negatives but this week I finally lost the will to continue forgiving them for such a shoddy piece of processing. Charging me R1000 (£87, $137) for processing 17 rolls of 120 film, and then if you’ll excuse the french, fucking them up so badly as to make ones blood boil, was the final straw.

I ended up with 17 rolls of film with numerous fingerprints all over them and remnants of processing chemicals all over the frames. In some cases I’ve lost that frame, it would just take too long to rescue it in Photoshop. Max did promise to run them through the process again, which removed most fingerprints but the damage has been done and I’ve lost about 6 frames in total. I’m not a pray and spray shooter, so 6 frames is a large amount to me to use.

No apologies, no offer of any remuneration, no fucking shame in being so piss poor at business it’s a joke.

I really hope others who might visit Durban and need a lab read this. Avoid Fotomax at all costs. Rather go with Beith Digital in Johannesburg or Orms in Cape Town. Maybe I need to drop Hugo a mail and ask him who he trusts.

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Luckily the low-cost carriers had a special this month that allowed me to take a flight from Durban to Johannesburg and then do the 5 hour drive into the Northern Cape to meet up with the elders and my contacts. Entering Platfontein is an experience in itself, kilometers of nothing but open land and then all of a sudden, a left turn on the R31 road and then 10 kilometers to the start of the “town”. The fact they have been placed here by the current government, with nothing around them for miles, is a story in itself.

As with any project like this, getting myself known to the relevant people was key and the first morning was spent being introduced to various village elders and other important people in the community. Platfontein houses the Khwe and !Xun tribes, in an informal split between the two. I agreed with the elders that the best way to introduce myself and explain my documentary and goals was to offer a braai (barbecue) and supply the meat and drinks. This way I could talk to each elder individually (with the help of a translator) and hopefully express what I was trying to achieve.

The braai itself went down well and good relationships were formed, I can honestly say this was a brilliant idea and it gave me the necessary access and trust to the community. I had done intensive research beforehand about what I wanted to document, especially since part of the story looked at how the modern Bushman is changing due to modern pressure, and then managed to spend the rest of the weekend shooting and meeting with various people. The Bushman are incredibly warm and welcoming. I know that many of my peers have walked this path before and shot the Bushman as more of an exotic freak show, and this was something that not only the Bushman were aware of but also myself.

Respect is everything in this game, no need to be digging up dead bodies to get a good image. Good honest conversation and respect will do you wonders.

In the end I shot 17 rolls of medium format film, granted I’m not a spray and pray shooter but feel I have got a much better understanding of the 3rd generation Bushman community in Platfontein and the issues they face. This is phase one complete, the next two phases both present numerous logistical hurdles as well as access issues, but this is all part of the challenge and fun of it.

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This iPad-only magazine is produced by The Collective, a partnership between a photographer; Nathan Shanahan, a creative director; Lizzie Murray and an advertising executive; Nick Griffin.

Nathan, Lizzie and Nick decided that two of my images from Orania were suitable enough to be included in issue two. What I love about the magazine’s concept is that it’s only for the iPad. Something I’ve blogged about previously and thought was the direction many will take with publishing.

I hope to contribute to further issues in the future and be part of this refreshingly new approach to magazines and content.

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As Southern Africa resolves decades of oppression and white rule, the struggle by the San people for human rights in Southern Africa is starting to become known to the international community. Issues faced by the San people, such as alcoholism, malnutrition, loss of traditional hunting lands and economic dependency, have left them vulnerable. Basic human rights have been taken away from them. Their land, food and traditions all socially shunned by governments not allowing political participation.

Since the 1990s, the San have been able to make inroads with various governments to ensure political recognition and representation was forthcoming. However, the San people are currently facing other social issues that challenge their way of life and leave them with an uncertain future.

My Approach

My aim is to spend the next five months looking at how the San people of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana are currently living and adapting to the pressures of modern society and political change within Southern Africa.

The key areas I want to document are:

• Land
• Tradition
• EconomicDependency
• Health

In each of these areas, I want to document how the San people are adapting, or in some cases, not to the pressures placed on them by the various governments, who now control their traditional lands. It will include looking at how these governments, and various NGO groups, are ensuring they are treated as an indigenous people and allowed to practice cultural and traditional methods without feat of prosecution, such as hunting in state- owned game reserves.

On the economic dependency aspect, I want to understand how todays Bushman is providing a living for their family, as well as ensuring traditional ways are taught to the younger members of the family.

Lastly, I want to document the life of a young San. This approach will see me spending a large amount of time with the person whilst trying to get a better understanding of what life is life for a modern San today. What pressures they face, what challenges and what they feel is the future for the San people of Southern Africa

Timetable

Due to the geographic nature of this project, and the fact that the San people are nomadic and occupy three different countries at any given time, this will be broken down into a per- tribe basis.
I plan to spend a week with each tribe, as and when time permits. The San Organisation and the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa (WIMSA) will endeavor to help me as much as possible in spending time with the various groups for longer periods of time.

I will endeavor to visit major tribes in RSA, Botswana and Namibia. For the last part of the documentary, I will spend time with a young Bushman who lives in Kimberley and works in the mining industry. This will see me spend a week with the person initially to fully understand their daily way of life.
As the relationship builds, I envision spending further time in, and around, Kimberley.

The approach taken by me for this project will be similar to my Rethink project on The Afrikaners. It will be shot with medium format film and potentially 35mm film, when deemed necessary.

I want to move away from the posed african men in loin cloth shots so often used by my peers and want to portray the San as something other than an exotic sideshow for Europeans.

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Now before I delve into my relationship with Getty, stock photography is pretty much dead. This was performed solely as an exercise taken on by myself to prove that it wasn’t a sustainable market for any photographer to be in. I was under no illusion that it would be worth my while, hence me only allowing a small number of images to be added to the collection. The one image that has sold the most was my night shot of an empty car park outside of Pietermaritzburg.

Initially Getty managed to sell this a number of times, the most recent being to a publishing house for a tidy sum of $185 dollars. Great I hear you mutter, except until you look at the statement.

Now as I’ve previously mentioned, this was never a exercise in ensuring I’ll retire rich, especially with that royalty rate in operation. A whopping 80% cut by Getty before I’ve been given my cut. So who’s image is this really? it doesn’t feel like mine, especially when processing and film worked out to be a little less than that, and that’s without taking into consideration the equipment costs and personal costs. In addition to this, once you’ve licensed it to Getty, you are unable to sell it to anyone else for the duration of that contract.

This is a brilliant move by Getty. On the one hand they’ve managed to create the worlds largest stock imagery database, at a rate that doesn’t exclude anyone, and they prevent the photographer from selling their work anywhere else.

In business terms: Gordon Gekko would be proud.

So now that Flickr and Getty have decided to open up the flood gates for everyone on Flickr to be able to submit images into the collection, it is most likely the final death knell of the stock industry as a whole. If you were making a small living from stock photography, you can pretty much bet that it won’t be that way for much longer. Flickr contains an obscene amount of images, all available at such a small price, it doesn’t make sense to use a more expensive photographer to create them.

The question I ask is what protection is in place to prevent amateur photographers from being exploited by all of those in need of cheap imagery?

Another popular argument often cited by professional photographers is that of raising their game. Often I hear “you will just have to make your images better.” argument. This is a rather poor argument, in that most purchasers won’t necessarily want to pay for a superior image when a semi-decent one is available for 5 US. We’ve already seen this with the current stock market, so why would it all of a sudden change with even more cheap images flooding the market?.

Interesting times ahead, especially for those pro’s trying to survive by stock.

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Many thanks to Diane Smyth over at the BJP for the interview.

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So who the hell is Lebogang Nkoane?

lebogang nkoane is a computer scientist. That is the best description I have. I am fascinated mostly by how humans use computers (Human computer interaction), but being that I am a visual person: interactive media is what fascinates me, hence research and development in it (interactive media). I suppose then photography can be inferred too.

You’ve created an African flickr, which contains fresh photography from those living on this continent. What made you wake up one day and go “hey, we need this?”

An Afrikan Flickr? tjo! I wouldn’t be bold to enough to say that — but I do think 75 will grow into its own; being compared to Flickr is a complement, alas, my (afrikan) arrogance tells me, 75 should be its own, but it would take time and resources to achieve.  Why did I start it? Well it all goes down to Sinah Ntholi Nkoane ; Sinah is my photo-journal, through that, I realised that every morning I would visit close to 30 photo-blogs but few from South/Africa; So 75 was created on quite a selfish want to see more photography from South/Africa.  I am not sure if “we” need 75 — I know dam well that I need it — photography feeds my visual cravings.

The community has grown since I was last a member, is this a sign of coming of age for the site or just a natural progression for photography in Southern Africa?

Wow, dude, you asking me questions I am not in a position of authority to answer. Southern Africa? tjo! But hey, it has grown not in leaps and bounds, but gradually of which I like, because then we could say its a “natural progression”, I like people to interact with rather than random figments of Avatars.  I’d say the progression of photography is probably fueled by the lowered barrier of access to “good-enough” photographic equipment, and the minute those who have a keen interest in photography stop “taking pictures” and try to engage through their imagery, then photography starts getting appreciated even more.  (I hope I make sense).

I’ve been muttering on about the perception of Africa for a while now, is this something you feel is changing with the likes of 75.co.za pushing for a new direction?

I think so — I suppose 75 to some extent does show the world that Africa is not what is perceived by mainstream media (cue Chris Rock)— this can also be inferred from my previous answer about: barrier to entry; so the minute the people that capture their own reality and thus telling their own stories, then that will affect what is being told about Africa.  But, this not to say africa is all glossy capetown-johannessburg-nightlife, there realities are still true: poverty, crime, etc; but my state of mind is: with all these “negative” things that exist in Africa, people ARE still alive and living in those environments, with some good to it;  and these good things too need to exposed and shared to the world.

Who are some of your favorite African photographers currently?

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Hopefully I’ll be back inside Burma finishing off the project I started a year ago.

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One word can sum up how I feel about the new look: Astonishing.

Everything about the magazine’s relaunch does it for me. The paper is gorgeous to hold, I cannot describe how good it is to have in your hands. You feel like you are reading a proper periodical and not some cheap smut magazine purchased down the high street in a corner shop. The layout is crisp, the fonts make me excited (oh god, I’ve admitted a rather bad fetish for all things font related there..) and the photography is as you expect, brilliant.

The Personal Projects section is a welcome inclusion. I’ve seen some amazing work already and would love to have some of mine features there (*hint hint, hello BJP editors!). Michael Grieve’s ‘Blue of Night‘ takes a look at a sex club, the use of grainy images is brilliant and really adds to the project. In fact, so many of the articles in the edition I picked up were useful, I’ve read it over and over, something I rarely do with magazines these days. I’ve enjoyed reading it so much, I’m about to place a yearly subscription for the magazine and have them send it out here to SA.

Job well done on all accounts, you’ve managed to prove what I’ve been saying for a while now: Create a product that oozes quality and people will buy it, even with a recession in place.

*this message was brought to you without any sponsorship from the editors of the BJP. No money was exchanged, no hamsters hurt during the filming.

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