Interview in quesabesde.com
This morning the Spanish photography web site quesabesde.com, which translates “What do you know about…” published an interview I did with them in Spanish. Below I’ve placed a rough translation of the interview to English. Honestly, I started with Google translate and then modified it a bit manually. I hope you enjoy it.
“You have to shoot as if you were invisible”
INTERVIEW: Charlie Mahoney, Photographer
Sunday, August 3, 2008
By Ivan Sanchez.
Three years dedicated to photojournalism and travel photography have been enough for Charlie Mahoney to find a style that has earned him awards as the Travel Photographer of the Year. In the past few months, his photographs have been published on BBC News and in galleries in the UK. Several publishers have been interested in his reportages on the life of African immigrants in Barcelona. For this American photojournalist living in Barcelona, it is essential to show what is unseen.
You entered the world of photography a bit late, but went straight in to photojournalism.
After recovering from some back problems, I left my previous job in investment banking in San Francisco and decided to travel to Spain. I later moved to Barcelona where I completed a Masters in Photojournalism at the University Autonoma of Barcelona, and exposed me to the work of some amazing photojournalists. So, despite my age, I thought it was a good time to give it a try. I like to travel, but I am most interested in finding interesting stories. In this sense photojournalism is similar to finance, because there is an intellectual side and you have to be attentive to what happens in the world. You have to read much, have ideas and think like an editor.
Yours has been a history of knocking on many doors and visiting publishers. What do you say when your portfolio is so recent?
It depends on the magazine. For example, in New York it is very unusual that they buy from you a completed reportage, and often work more on request. If I send an interesting photo essay and they like, it is difficult for them to find to a journalist to write about the story and then buy the photographs. That being said, if they like your work they may call you for an assignment some time.
Earlier this year you won the Travel Photographer of the Year Award in the section of new talent, competing with really good portfolios.
The truth is that I found out about the contest very late, but I had a few printed photos for a portfolio of travel photography, so I picked some that fit what they were asking for: portrait, landscape, different angles … Also, this July I was one of those selected for awards Ei8ht Magazine Award and Summer Show in London and I won the second prize in the photojournalism PX3 Prix de la Photografie in Paris and I had a few exhibitions, so my images are starting to get out there.
And in just two years as a professional you get into World Picture News (WPN). What is your relationship with the agency?
In WPN there are two types of photographers: featured photographers and collaborators. I’m a collaborator. A year ago I sent them a story I did on a small town in Maine where the parents of President George W. Bush live, which was also where President Bush was about to receive Vladimir Putin during his official visit to the United States. I sent the report to WPN and they liked it, so they contacted me. They said they were looking for photographers and offered me an exclusive contract with them. But four months ago they changed strategy and focus more on assignments, so now the idea is that if a client has an assignment near Barcelona, they call me to do it.
The BBC website published an article on your story about sub-Saharan immigrants living in Barcelona. Did you find it difficult to gain access to them?
It is very difficult to access because you have to take in to account they are living in very difficult conditions, and that was precisely what interested me for the story. It is a long term project in which I’m still working. At first, I noticed the men pushing shopping cart around Poble Nou, a neighborhood in Barcelona. This is what people see, that plus the street vendors, we’ve all seen in the center of the city. As a result I tried to focus on what we don’t see like their living conditions and their daily routine of searching for scarp metal. The work this way to make a little money and thus the police do not harass them as the do the street vendors.
What are you trying to say with a story like this?
We are all human, and I think when you meet someone in person, it can change the perception you had of them. What I am trying to in this reportage is show how the immigrants live and what they feel. I haven’t achieved it yet, but this is my goal. Obviously, I also try to raise awareness of their plight and the conditions they are living in. We see them on the street or selling DVD´s, but we do not see how they live, often in abandoned homes, which are almost always without heat or light, and when it is cold, they suffer.
What corner of the planet surprised you most when traveling and taking photos?
Africa, especially because of the color. The blue of the sky, the reddish earth, the people’s clothes, the tonality of their skin … Africa has much to show us. In Europe or Spain it is harder to find images that surprise you, because I live here and I know it well. Even when I was in Albania was very surprised me: it is a different kind of Europe. What attracts me is the dying innocence of places like Albania. In this same sense, there are rural parts of Spain that I think could be very interesting.
Your portfolio is dominated by color photography. Why?
Personally, I like working in color. I think growing up in the 80s, with the influence of pop culture, is part of the reason. This doesn’t mean that I won’t work in black and white. Surely someday I will. There are photographers who have a vision of black and white photography and others who work better in color. I think I am of the latter.
What kind of toning do you do to your digital photos?
I usually work in RAW, with a slight saturation of color. I also sometimes use polarizing lens, which saturates some colors at the moment of exposure. In some pictures, like the image of the two girls in Burkina Faso, are given the right circumstances: the color mix of the scene works very well, and the tone and the sheen of the girls’ skin, which was lit in the diffused light of the shadows, makes the color very nice.
You have you studied in some “masterclass” workshops. What have you learned from these professionals?
Rafa Badia, Paco Elvira and Tino Soriano have been my teachers in different courses. After the courses, I’ve maintained contact with them. I have to highlight Paco Elvira, because he was my mentor in the graduate program in photojournalism. He is a great guy and very positive. Rafa Badia I can say that has a very good overview of photography and is an excellent teacher and very demanding of students, which is something we all need. I also attended a workshop with Pep Bonet: With him, he taught us things other had never shown me before. He is a photographer who shares with his students all his experiences as a professional.
What is the best advice you have been given?
One very important, especially when you start: overcoming the fear of getting close to the subject and gaining access to people that you are photographing. Once you get in to that space you have to work like you’re invisible.