Straying from the project - part I
Life happens, while you make other plans. Clearly life had a different plan than we did, at least for the past week. The whole reason I got to Argentina, was to work on this amazing project on transgenders and transvestites in Buenos Aires. ‘Unfortunately’ I arrived just before the C40 - a get together of world cities - started. As my partner in this project is a Dutch correspondent in the land of steaks and Messi (Dutch joke), we just had to make a few stories that had nothing to do with ours.
Sadly a newspaper often just uses one photo. For me it is important to make that one image really count. The saying “A picture says more then a thousand words” exists for a reason. So even though people only see that one photo, often there is a lot more time and effort involved than the 1/125 of a second that is finally printed. (For the nerds and photographers amongst us: in this case it was 1/350 of a second at f8 and ISO 640) For this final image to make it to the cut, it took two days of just being around ‘the action’. Therefor it might be obvious that there is a lot more images that I also could have picked as the one. Choosing the final image and editing it to your own level of perfection, is - just like deciding on the right words when writing an article - the biggest part of the job. The rest of the reportage often won’t be seen by anyone else but the photographer; me. Luckily I have a blog where I can elaborate and showcase the photos that didn’t make the paper.
So if you like, I’ll take you through the process. As we were invited when the mayor of Rotterdam had a brief meeting with Dutch entrepreneurs and local parties that would be good for doing business, this ‘only’ resulted in a very nice portrait, if I say so myself. It could have been shot anywhere in the world though. Furthermore there were some boring shots of people in suits talking to each other. Which - lets be honest - also could have been shot anywhere in the world and as an image don’t add anything to the story.
The next day, Peter (the journalist writing the story) was invited to join the mayor and Dutch ambassador on a fieldtrip. At first they didn’t want a photographer to join, keeping the group small. Luckily Peter persisted in inquiring my presence and only at the very last minute I was invited to come along. As we would walk through Barrio 31, a run-down neighborhood, I was asked to leave my big camera (SL2S) at home and bring an inconspicuous one. So with my trusted M around my neck I joined the delegation. We had a two hour walk through a neighborhood that only recently has been improved by moving thousands of people from little shacks beneath the ring way to newly build social housings. Infrastructure, economic help and safety are all implemented and improved in order to provide a longterm vision for this deprived neighborhood.
For me, this was the moment I had been waiting for. A chance to see an area of the city that you’re normally are advised to avoid. A way to get a glimpse of what the mayor is all about when out in the field and more important being able to capture that. Choosing the right picture was difficult as a lot of them had some added value for the article. The first one shows the social housing in the background and the mayor is giving me his biggest smile. The second one is showing the new playgrounds and green area that has been build underneath the ring way. The fourth one shows the roughness of Barrio 31 and the last one gives a glimpse of the entrepreneurship that is rising in the neighborhood. The middle one never was an option…. I just really like that image. The reason I chose the photo that you can see in the article and below, is because I think it shows Aboutaleb’s curiosity and character. Also, you still get an impression of what the area looks like. But most of all - and that has nothing to do with the story - I chose this photo because I think Annemieke Verrijp, who is the new ambassador of the Netherlands standing on his right, looks bad-ass in this picture.
The unexpected bonus of this day though, was meeting exactly the right people. These are the ones that showed us around, explained what was what and who was who. These are new friends who, in a later stage, can take us back to this area for our own project.
