Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Lumix Festival : Steve McCurry & Others

Image © Steve McCurry-All Rights Reserved

On the 18th – 22nd of June 2008, the University of Applied Sciences and Arts in Hannover organized the first Lumix Festival for Young Photojournalism in cooperation with the German photojournalist union FreeLens. Universities, photo and journalism schools as well as professional photo reporters up to the age of 35 from all over the world were invited to participate in the festival.

Streaming videos of lectures given by Steve McCurry, Antonin Kratochvil, Vanessa Winship and others, recorded live are availble on Lumix's website. I chose to watch Steve McCurry's lecture which runs for 122 minutes out of which, inexplicably, the initial 14 minutes are wasted in filming attendees entering the lecture hall...no editing, Herren Lumix?

The lecture by McCurry had nothing new...no new photographs, with an accompanying narrative that was monotonous, and which told us absolutely nothing about the whys and hows of each image. Nothing about techniques, nothing about the culture of South and South East Asia...in all, a trite presentation. Maybe I'm being uncharitable after wasting almost 15 minutes of nothing, so you be the judge.

Via Rob Galbraith: Lecture by Steve McCurry

Holly Wilmeth

© Holly Wilmeth-All Rights Reserved

Born and raised in Guatemala, Holly Wilmeth was slated to teach at the Foundry Photojournalism Workshop in Mexico, however she had a last minute conflicting photo assignment preventing her from joining the faculty. She's a freelance photographer based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and traveled to over 45 countries.

Her work has been published in National Geographic Adventure, Houston Chronicle, CARE, USAID, PBX, Christian Science Monitor and Time Magazine.

I found her photographic style to be eclectic and diverse, and her work straddles both photojournalism and travel. Her above image of the elder smoking his pipe at the 99 houses village in China is a lovely environmental portrait, and there are many more like it on her website.