I came across this comment about my recent gallery in Ottawa. I am very glad that I can reply to it publicly. Please read my replies below after a short introduction.
A few weeks ago, I got a wonderful opportunity to travel to Ottawa and photograph the Canada Freedom Convoy taking place there. As a photographer, I am always trying to cover important news around my home. Being able to shoot at such a historic event felt like it was bought to me on a silver platter. Too bad I wasn’t blessed with good weather, as my cold fingers and toes didn’t allow me to concentrate and use the best angles and composition. So in a way, this is actually quite a chaotic gallery. Nevertheless, I am proud of my work.
I have been taking photos since 1998, and constantly learning this very versatile field. I have been mostly concentrated on various events, including weddings, workshops, concerts, etc. However, I have learned it all by myself – by doing, reading and watching. No newspaper work experience, nor a photographic education in the field. But what I have learned is to always be objective of whatever I am taking photos of. I am not so almighty to bend the events which roll in front of my eyes and manipulate them in order to change their course. I am just taking photos of what I see.
My reply to the comment left above:
More Photos. The ones from Kerly Ilves. So, so many of them. You could lose your head in them. – Every media outlet can edit the photos sent to them, they do not have to share it all. In this case, they used all of them. This is out of my reach.
Why are there so many pictures of happy people engaged in kind friendly everyday human activities immersed in colourful environments of support and plenitude showcasing all sorts of massive, expensive ‘trucks’ with the occasional ‘Fuck Trudeau’ mixed in for variety? – There are so many photos of happy people, as they were there and they were happy.
Why is this newspaper running all of these? – Obviously as they run under the same rules of good journalism – you are objective while sharing the news without taking a stance.
This is all propaganda, especially the aesthetics (and it recalls most of all of the beautiful, sentimental aesthetics of fascist regimes (Saul Friedlander, Reflections of Nazism). It is a very skilled photographer at work. – Thank you kindly for your comment.
In this case, show us some photos of people dying in hospitals or spending the rest of their lives suffering chronic health problems because they contracted a virus from people around them who, like these truckers, won’t get vaccinated. – Nobody would grant in this country the right to take photos of dying patients in the hospitals at the time of a pandemic. Unless this is a special case of a very much-needed journalistic story. One can only take photos of the events that happen in front of their very eyes and are accessible to them. Also, I am not here to judge or take sides or God forbid – fabricate the events I am taking photos of! My idea as a photographer is to deliver the events as they are, without adding my own opinion. I was looking around with open eyes as usual and I took photos of what I saw.
The protest is incoherent, not picturesque. Now if the photographer photographed that, it might be worth looking at. – It was picturesque as you admitted it yourself, as you could only say it after looking at the photos.
Dear reader, do not kill the messenger, be open to different opinions, as every coin has two sides.