To the screened photographers
by Vincent Jolly
Last year, while we were chatting with Olivier Laurent (former director of photography for Time Lightbox, now working at the Washington Post) about the screenings - and our will to highlight them more during the festival - he shared his thought about an issue he noticed. And we wanted to share them back with you.
"Before the festival this year, I only received four emails from photographers who have a screening to tell me : 'Hi, my screening is that night, can we meet after to speak about it ?' Four emails ; but 110 stories are being showed during the professional week. That's less than 1%. I find that really weird. I mean we tend to speak a lot about exhibitions, of course, but a screening is also a big deal. Everybody is here. Yesterday for instance, there was picture editors from all around the world : they are here to see your work. For three minutes, they will see nothing else. Every photographers should capitalize as much as they can. Some of them spend 1500€ to come to Perpignan in order to see their screening, and I see a part of them spending their days at Le Café de la Poste. Maybe they don't know where to go but still. Or maybe that's what they don't realise : for a picture editor, the fact that a story was shown at the Campo Santo means that it has past a 'pre-selection'. So we're almost certain not to waste time if we decide to meet the photographer. It's like when someone ask me if it's worth it to be a part of an agency : that depends. If you use that opportunity to open doors that are usually difficult to open. If you do nothing, it's useless."