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Jerry Lampen, the Photographer of the Year 2001 in the Netherlands, in Photoforum 2002 Moscow
28.05.2002
"Start living with each other instead of fighting"
Jerry Lampen - interview by Paula Kaurismaki/Photo by Ian Lopez/Canon |
Jerry Lampen, chief photographer in The Netherlands for Reuters News Pictures, visited Photoforum 2002 Moscow, on invitation by Canon North-East Oy. The themes of his lectures were "Change from analogue photography to digital and how it affected our profession" and "Difficult circumstances and how the digital cameras are behaving".
This Dutch photographer, living in Rotterdam, is only 40 but has already made an impressive career. "I bought my first camera — it was Canon F1 — in 1978, and I am using Canon since then. For a small period I had Nikon, but never sold my Canon. And with Reuters we always use Canon equipment. Now I use EOS 1D and my lenses vary from 14 mm to 500 mm. My favourite lens is EF 24 mm F 1.4 L. It is wonderful, you can shoot with it in a very dark light without flash. I also carry a small camera, Canon PowerShot G2 always with me, in case something unexpected happens."
Jerry Lampen works as photographer since November 1981. He was playing as professional actor in a theatre group, when he met a photographer who gave him an idea of a photo. The week after Jerry's photo was published in a newspaper. So he started working in various news agencies. 1990 he started with Reuters as free-lancer and 1992 as full-time photographer. Since 1996 he works as chief photographer with Reuters. His work covers sports events like Olympic games, championships, skating competitions and all kinds of news. Recently he worked in Gaza/Israel and Pakistan.
"I show what I see. You have to be objective."
Canadian speedskater Klassen. Photo by Jerry Lampen/Reuters |
Jerry Lampen was awarded as the Photographer of the year 2001 in the Netherlands and he also received the Fuji prize. When asking about the topics and clue of his photographs, Jerry answers humbly: "I show what I see. Working for wire services, you have to be objective and just show what you see. Every day is a new day and you are able to show new topics. With some pictures I am satisfied, for example some of Gaza and some artistic pictures of skaters."
"We are photographers, not Aid agencies"
Iraqis dance during celebrations for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's birthday. Photo by Jerry Lampen/Reuters |
Not anyone can or like to work in conflict areas. "You feel awful to see what people do to other people. If someone is in trouble, you'll try to help, but mostly you cannot do a lot, like in Pakistan with refugees. It's impossible to help millions of refugees, we are photographers and not Aid agencies. You never get used to see injured children.
In Gaza I took a picture of a 9-year-old boy who was shot through the head. I felt helpless taking pictures of him during his hours-long operation. People during the seminar asked me if the boy survived, and I had to answer "no" and again I felt tears coming up in my eyes.
I never get used to these cruelties and hopefully nobody else does. People have to start living with each other instead of fighting. Fighting for religion and small pieces of land is something I don't understand. Why aren't they contented with competing with each other, like in sports?"
"The quality of digital photos is 80 percent better"
Jerry Lampen is the right person to say, why digital photography is essential for press photographers. The most important topics in his work are sports and news that means quickly changing situations and rapid movement. "I started photographing fully digitally on May 1998, it was just before the World Cup in France. To photograph digitally is much faster and more cost-effective, since you don't have to carry all the equipment with you — no films, no developers, no minilaboratories. Also the quality of digital photos is 80 percent better. And not to mention it is environmental friendly."
Before his first visit in April in Moscow, Jerry Lampen has not photographed in Russia.
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