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Lucie Awards Honorees
BY
Bianca Zen
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The Lucie Awards salutes the achievements of the world's finest photographers. The photography community from countries around the globe will pay tribute to the year's most outstanding photography achievements presented at the Gala Awards ceremony. Honors will be given for Lifetime Achievement, distinguishing some of the world's greatest men and women whose life's work in fashion, photojournalism, advertising and fine art merit the highest acclaim by their peers. The winners of IPA Photographer of the Year and the Discovery of the Year are announced at the Lucies and are awarded cash prizes and the Lucie Statue. The Lucie Awards is a 501(c)3 non-profit charitable foundation.
Their mission is to salute the achievements of the world's finest photographers, to discover new and emerging talent and to promote the appreciation of photography.
This year’s honorees go out to Willy Ronis, Eikoh Hosoe, David Bailey, Neil Leifer, Roger Mayne, Duane Michals, Sarah Moon, Marc Riboud and Albert Watson. TAXI Design Network talks to Leifer, Michals and Hosoe.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Eikoh Hosoe
TAXI >> You conducted countless workshops and promoted photographic education very actively. What do you think is the primary challenge to the development of photography?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Photography has much positive energy and capability in its medium itself. When you take a photo at the instant of 1/1000 of a second, and the moment can become an eternal fact, an eternal moment. So we have a philosophical problem of objectivity and subjectivity.
TAXI >> And how does that translate into a challenge?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Well, it is not a controversial creation in between objectivity and subjectivity. So we have to consider the two extremes like the earth—the north and south poles-- and in between, there is a wide range on a spherical surface, not on a linear line, in between you have mountains, you have the oceans, and the continents, so you have so many number of activities to prepare. And photography has such a great possibility.
TAXI >> A little more onto your philosophy, you published Embrace in 1971 which focuses on the dialogue between men and women, which cleverly abstracted the flesh. How does your photography aim to communicate the invisible, or anything intangible, to the one looking at your works?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Well, Photography is not only a mean of communication but also a means of expression. A Photographer is an artist who manages, who operates a camera which has the capability of rendition of objectivity, very realistic. But the man, who is behind the camera, the photographer, is very complicated, with much subjectivity, interpretation. So using that kind of media which has the power, the man behind the camera is so much complicated. This kind of relationship has much potential energy and Potentiality. And photography has only 170 years of history. So it has much more possibility in the future.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Neil Leifer
TAXI >> There's nothing you started out your career wanting to do, but never had the chance to?
Neil Leifer >>You know, honestly, I have a very lovely career, it is funny at this time that I can’t think of one. So I always thought, one day, I might be able to take the first shot from a space shuttle, that never happened, but it will be a lot of fun. They have never taken up a journalist, but that was 20 years ago. I will still love to do it.
TAXI >> Congratulations on your achievement award in Sports photography at the Lucie Awards, 10, 20 years ahead, what will Sports Photography look like?
Neil Leifer >> Thank you. I think The future will be wonderful, but more of the challenges, will be much much greater than when I first started. And the reason is simple, and I know I’m right, the challenge for sports photography is how really well sports is being covered on television. It’s true in New York, in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in London, in Paris, in Barcelona, television has done such a good job in covering sports, they are so excellent now, watch the Olympic stuff -- High Definition, remote cameras everywhere.
The uniqueness of Sports Photography that I grew up with when television started blooming were very different -- the cameras were upstairs and they were pretty wide and it was sports photography that brought most of the features but it is a lot harder today, television does it more conceptually now than it was when I was shooting.
TAXI >> But of course when we talk about Sports Photography, we are looking at two very diverse cultures – Sports culture, and Photography culture. In your personal opinion, the difference between Sports Photography in Asia and Sports Photography in America.
Neil Leifer >> I haven’t covered everything, but to cover most cultures around the world, a good photographer does his or her homework. For instance, there are certain things you will dare do in America that you weren’t dare do in Asia, and there are things you do in Asia that you probably wouldn’t do over here. Very early in my career, in 1976, I was doing a preview of the Olympics and I was photographing this European woman.
Well, in Europe, women don’t shave their underarms. In America, you wouldn’t want a photograph like this. Yes, I knew the pictures had to be done, and I remembered trying to get this German shotputter shave her underarms, because it’s for an American magazine. And she said “It’s predominant in my country, this is the way I like to look, this is the way my boyfriend likes me to look.” You’ve got to learn to feel with different cultures, and traveling around the world and to have a good understanding. What is probably acceptable in New York may not be in Singapore, and you’ve got to respect that. Usually I do my homework. In America, you deal with the athletes. In China, you deal with the officials.
TAXI >> Part of the Sports Photography is to capture the proudest moment of the…
Neil Leifer >> Or the emotions. Of all the sports covers that I did over the years, a third of them are about capturing the desire to win, the winning goal of a football game, the homerun of the baseball game, or simply, some wonderful emotions.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Duane Michals
you’re an event in the universe, you know how amazing that is? And since you’re here, and since you’re going to be alive for, say, 70, 80 years, check it out.
Photographers never have questions. They never photograph what they can’t see, and the most important things in life are what you can’t see. They are your desires, your lusts, your dreams, your griefs. Don’t show me a photograph of a woman with her eyes closed, show me what it is to feel like to lose somebody. People show me of a photograph of a woman crying, anyone can photograph a woman crying, but the question is why is she crying. You can’t photograph the nature of her grief, how do you do that, I don’t know. It’s important to know what is she feeling, not what she looks like. It’s important.
TAXI >> It’s intriguing you used the word ‘curious.’ I personally felt you were a little more ‘rebellious’.
Duane Michals >> Well, I feel most people are being defined by the media. Or they redefine the media in terms of their own needs. I think most photographers are being defined by photography, they want to be like someone else before, and they end up taking pictures like them. I didn’t, I redefined media. I brought sequences, broaden the sights of moments, I did the moment before, and the moment after. I spread the sight of moments from one picture into the three pictures. I didn’t agree with the right of photography, because I found photography failed. I can show you a picture of my mother, my father and my brother and they are all smiling to the camera.
My mother and father hadn’t had sex in 40 years, they had a turbo marriage and they actually disliked each other. And when they are standing to have a photograph taken, they lie. Most photographs are lies. People never question. I was the one because of my needs, or my photography. I have to redefine photography to express what I needed to say.
TAXI >> What do you think is the future of Photography?
Duane Michals >> I’ve discussed about this in my book. Unfortunately, when I started as a photographer, in the 50s and 60s, photography was never about money. People became photographers for the passion, there were no photography schools to speak of. There was no museum showing photography, if you sold the picture for five dollars, we would be amazed.
All the people in my generations were passionate about photography because there were no big rewards but now photography is a big business, people are getting hundred thousand of dollars, there are photography schools and every museum has a photography department. I never thought photography could be corrupted because the money was never there. Photographs go for hundred thousands, three hundred thousands, it’s corrupt. I think photography should be paid for, but if you pay for more than what the photograph is about, then it’s corrupt.
TAXI >> What is the one thing you can change to shape the direction of the future in photography?
Duane Michals >> I don’t do that. I did a book called Questions Without Answers, and I told my assistant “Ask me questions. We spent a lot of time together but you never asked me any questions.” Then I had to ask her questions...what is life…what is death…what is universe…what are memories… or every aspect of life in the giant mystery. But photographers are around, just photographing observable facts, but to bring insights, or else it’s simply documentation.
You have to bring insights, not photograph into somebody’s face that you know nothing about, and pretending that if you blow it up seven feet by eight feet, there’s something, but it’s nothing. There’s a difference between falling in love and reading love stories. Photographers are always reading love stories about other people’s lives. But it’s falling in love when you know what you’re experiencing, and that I believe the only true knowledge is by experience, the rest is bullshit. Photography is about questions, not answers. And most photographs are about answers.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
Their mission is to salute the achievements of the world's finest photographers, to discover new and emerging talent and to promote the appreciation of photography.
This year’s honorees go out to Willy Ronis, Eikoh Hosoe, David Bailey, Neil Leifer, Roger Mayne, Duane Michals, Sarah Moon, Marc Riboud and Albert Watson. TAXI Design Network talks to Leifer, Michals and Hosoe.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Eikoh Hosoe
 | TAXI >> You come from Japan, a nation legendary for the wealth of cultures. Will you credit the accessibility to the arts the key push factor to your successful career?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Yes. Japanese photography has been very popular for many years. And now, with the software aspects of the photography world, as well as hardware aspects, Japan, as you know, is one of the major countries to produce cameras in the world. Professional photographic schools, college-level, only started in 1922 in Japan. I have been a professor of this polytechnic which was established in 1922, but that would have taken photography forward another 18-20 years. Photography is very popular in Japan, as far as it’s concerned. |
TAXI >> You conducted countless workshops and promoted photographic education very actively. What do you think is the primary challenge to the development of photography?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Photography has much positive energy and capability in its medium itself. When you take a photo at the instant of 1/1000 of a second, and the moment can become an eternal fact, an eternal moment. So we have a philosophical problem of objectivity and subjectivity.
TAXI >> And how does that translate into a challenge?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Well, it is not a controversial creation in between objectivity and subjectivity. So we have to consider the two extremes like the earth—the north and south poles-- and in between, there is a wide range on a spherical surface, not on a linear line, in between you have mountains, you have the oceans, and the continents, so you have so many number of activities to prepare. And photography has such a great possibility.
TAXI >> A little more onto your philosophy, you published Embrace in 1971 which focuses on the dialogue between men and women, which cleverly abstracted the flesh. How does your photography aim to communicate the invisible, or anything intangible, to the one looking at your works?
Eikoh Hosoe >> Well, Photography is not only a mean of communication but also a means of expression. A Photographer is an artist who manages, who operates a camera which has the capability of rendition of objectivity, very realistic. But the man, who is behind the camera, the photographer, is very complicated, with much subjectivity, interpretation. So using that kind of media which has the power, the man behind the camera is so much complicated. This kind of relationship has much potential energy and Potentiality. And photography has only 170 years of history. So it has much more possibility in the future.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Neil Leifer
 | TAXI >> Let’s get to learn about Neil Leifer. After countless covers for Sports Illustrated, you shot for TIME, what haven’t you done in your photography career?
Neil Leifer >> I never did fashion, I never did still life. I’ve worked with Sports Illusrated for many, many years and they’ve never let me done the swimsuit issue, which is the most popular issue, so there are a lot of things that I haven't done. But I basically, I think, part of every success I had was based on the fact that I try to do things I really liked. I was always so psyched about them and so they weren’t a job for me. I love to cover sports, I loved covering news, and so I moved to TIME magazine because there were other things besides sports that I wanted to do. Even though I still continued to do sports at times, but I was able to cover the world, to bring events from other parts of the world, and to explore other worlds. |
TAXI >> There's nothing you started out your career wanting to do, but never had the chance to?
Neil Leifer >>You know, honestly, I have a very lovely career, it is funny at this time that I can’t think of one. So I always thought, one day, I might be able to take the first shot from a space shuttle, that never happened, but it will be a lot of fun. They have never taken up a journalist, but that was 20 years ago. I will still love to do it.
TAXI >> Congratulations on your achievement award in Sports photography at the Lucie Awards, 10, 20 years ahead, what will Sports Photography look like?
Neil Leifer >> Thank you. I think The future will be wonderful, but more of the challenges, will be much much greater than when I first started. And the reason is simple, and I know I’m right, the challenge for sports photography is how really well sports is being covered on television. It’s true in New York, in Los Angeles, in Chicago, in London, in Paris, in Barcelona, television has done such a good job in covering sports, they are so excellent now, watch the Olympic stuff -- High Definition, remote cameras everywhere.
The uniqueness of Sports Photography that I grew up with when television started blooming were very different -- the cameras were upstairs and they were pretty wide and it was sports photography that brought most of the features but it is a lot harder today, television does it more conceptually now than it was when I was shooting.
TAXI >> But of course when we talk about Sports Photography, we are looking at two very diverse cultures – Sports culture, and Photography culture. In your personal opinion, the difference between Sports Photography in Asia and Sports Photography in America.
Neil Leifer >> I haven’t covered everything, but to cover most cultures around the world, a good photographer does his or her homework. For instance, there are certain things you will dare do in America that you weren’t dare do in Asia, and there are things you do in Asia that you probably wouldn’t do over here. Very early in my career, in 1976, I was doing a preview of the Olympics and I was photographing this European woman.
Well, in Europe, women don’t shave their underarms. In America, you wouldn’t want a photograph like this. Yes, I knew the pictures had to be done, and I remembered trying to get this German shotputter shave her underarms, because it’s for an American magazine. And she said “It’s predominant in my country, this is the way I like to look, this is the way my boyfriend likes me to look.” You’ve got to learn to feel with different cultures, and traveling around the world and to have a good understanding. What is probably acceptable in New York may not be in Singapore, and you’ve got to respect that. Usually I do my homework. In America, you deal with the athletes. In China, you deal with the officials.
TAXI >> Part of the Sports Photography is to capture the proudest moment of the…
Neil Leifer >> Or the emotions. Of all the sports covers that I did over the years, a third of them are about capturing the desire to win, the winning goal of a football game, the homerun of the baseball game, or simply, some wonderful emotions.
Exclusive Highlight on TAXI Design Network
Interview with Duane Michals
 | TAXI >> You mentioned you dropped out of Parsons, went into publishing…you have a pretty fairytale-like career, truly inspiring for up and coming talents. Any words you have for these young people?
Duane Michals >> I think the most important thing for young people is to be curious. I think that separates me from other photographers is curiosity. As I get older, I become more and more curious. I don’t take anything for granted, I question everything, I don’t know who in me is talking now. Once you stop being curious, then you’re dead. You’re breathing, but you’re dead. The other thing is to be able to take risks. Because if you don’t take risks, then you might as well get back to your mother’s womb and don’t get out. And in the entire history of universe, you will not be duplicated. You are more important than Jesus, you are important than Andy Warhol, |
Photographers never have questions. They never photograph what they can’t see, and the most important things in life are what you can’t see. They are your desires, your lusts, your dreams, your griefs. Don’t show me a photograph of a woman with her eyes closed, show me what it is to feel like to lose somebody. People show me of a photograph of a woman crying, anyone can photograph a woman crying, but the question is why is she crying. You can’t photograph the nature of her grief, how do you do that, I don’t know. It’s important to know what is she feeling, not what she looks like. It’s important.
TAXI >> It’s intriguing you used the word ‘curious.’ I personally felt you were a little more ‘rebellious’.
Duane Michals >> Well, I feel most people are being defined by the media. Or they redefine the media in terms of their own needs. I think most photographers are being defined by photography, they want to be like someone else before, and they end up taking pictures like them. I didn’t, I redefined media. I brought sequences, broaden the sights of moments, I did the moment before, and the moment after. I spread the sight of moments from one picture into the three pictures. I didn’t agree with the right of photography, because I found photography failed. I can show you a picture of my mother, my father and my brother and they are all smiling to the camera.
My mother and father hadn’t had sex in 40 years, they had a turbo marriage and they actually disliked each other. And when they are standing to have a photograph taken, they lie. Most photographs are lies. People never question. I was the one because of my needs, or my photography. I have to redefine photography to express what I needed to say.
TAXI >> What do you think is the future of Photography?
Duane Michals >> I’ve discussed about this in my book. Unfortunately, when I started as a photographer, in the 50s and 60s, photography was never about money. People became photographers for the passion, there were no photography schools to speak of. There was no museum showing photography, if you sold the picture for five dollars, we would be amazed.
All the people in my generations were passionate about photography because there were no big rewards but now photography is a big business, people are getting hundred thousand of dollars, there are photography schools and every museum has a photography department. I never thought photography could be corrupted because the money was never there. Photographs go for hundred thousands, three hundred thousands, it’s corrupt. I think photography should be paid for, but if you pay for more than what the photograph is about, then it’s corrupt.
TAXI >> What is the one thing you can change to shape the direction of the future in photography?
Duane Michals >> I don’t do that. I did a book called Questions Without Answers, and I told my assistant “Ask me questions. We spent a lot of time together but you never asked me any questions.” Then I had to ask her questions...what is life…what is death…what is universe…what are memories… or every aspect of life in the giant mystery. But photographers are around, just photographing observable facts, but to bring insights, or else it’s simply documentation.
You have to bring insights, not photograph into somebody’s face that you know nothing about, and pretending that if you blow it up seven feet by eight feet, there’s something, but it’s nothing. There’s a difference between falling in love and reading love stories. Photographers are always reading love stories about other people’s lives. But it’s falling in love when you know what you’re experiencing, and that I believe the only true knowledge is by experience, the rest is bullshit. Photography is about questions, not answers. And most photographs are about answers.
© 2003 - 2007 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.