La Lettre

During my daily web browsing today I came across La Lettre, a French-based online site that shares and informs daily on the events in the world of photography, available in French and English.

On their front page they list their current review postings on photo projects, books, and exhibitions which LL labels as "trends". On the link bar at the top of the front page are days of the week to go to for postings from that day - Photographer portfolios are featured on weekends. Below the Weekend link is a Best Of Last Week section, feature the top book, portfolio from the previous week. And Below the Best Of section is a list of categories of features from Advertising, Fashion, Holidays, Portrait, and Schools.

On the bottom of the page is another link bar, the Adenga page is a calendar of feature gallery exhibits and other events such as festivals and auctions. The Agenda is posted by date of course and also labeled with City or Country of event, which makes the listing informative and give the exhibits and events some contexts - On the left side of the Agenda page is a link column of listed Countries to see events by location.

La Lettre has a reputable and experienced team behind the site. It's three co-founders together are news media-specialists,  published photographers, editors, and artistic directors (formerly creative directors at GQ). The regular contributors are reporters,  journalists, and photographers from France, Russia, the U.S., Japan, Italy, and several other countries.

What I enjoy most about La Lettre and makes it unique from other popular and hip art/photo sites is it's  features focus on professional and established photographers and their works. A lot of great popular sites like A Dirty Job, BOOOOOOOM, and Shoot for You Life are mainly showcasing newer emerging photographers and their works. It is important to have a concentration of the "higher" end type of photo work from veterans to learn and be aware of what they're doing as well opening ourselves up from the young and new styles. La Letter shares work coming from people with years of experience and news from established organizations, and that's not to say that it's better in any way or not to degrade newer artists. Honestly, I'd really relate the works of veterans and younger photographers by their parallel of spirit, drive and attitude for their work. Not to go off topic with justifications, but the features on LL are coming from people who've had years of time to their work, to reflect and perfect.
& It is worth noting again that LL has a full staff of experienced editors, photographers, and reporters/journalists who understand the veteran world of photography, and who put a lot of effort and time into operating this site, which most of the hip/popular sites just don't have.

Vice's Picture Perfect with Patrick Brown

I just picked up the latest issue of Vice, and while flipping through it I saw one of their ads - for one of their own productions. This ad is for one their online video series called Picture Perfect(presented by Incase), where Vice goes behind the scenes with their favorite documentary photographers. The images on the ad struck me, as well as the concept of documentary about photographers' work so I curiously went to Vice.com and looked for the newest episode featuring Patrick Brown, whose images were on the ad. In this 21 minute video Patrick Brown, based in Bankok, Thailand for the past 12 years talk about his perspective on photography as a craft and we see the last year of his 10 year long project in which he is documenting the illegal trade of endangered animals in Asia for a book to be called Trading to Extinction.

At his studio space Brown gives us his perspective,  saying that his photographs are different from him, they are records of what's been happening in front, they are not his constructions, and if he is able to give a voice for that situation then he has achieved his objective.
Brown confesses that photography was the best visa, taking him in and out of societies he otherwise wouldn't have been able to, he's been with homeless, drug addicts, and royalty.
With Brown who came up as a tool maker and loving to work with his hands, he doesn't just like taking photos as a craft, but the process of making a unique hand printed photograph in the darkroom. This is definitely a certain trait most film photographers carry, not just that they like grain or the distinct image quality of film -  Bex Finch and Ian Ruhter also bring this up in their work.

Brown admits himself as naive when he was younger about what documentary photography could do. He explains that when he came across a section in the newspaper about the only surgeon in Africa for 2.5 million people that was when Brown decided to sell his car and surfboard and spend 6 weeks to photograph how that situation was. When he Brown returned home to Australia he had an exhibition of the photos which raised a lot of money for the surgeon, Dr. Robert Weeden, and raised awareness in Australia. From that trip and the impact the photos generated, Brown realized you could actually make a difference with a photograph.

When Brown moved from Australia to Asia he met Burmese refugees who gave him access that he would have never been able to get to. That experience opened up his eyes to a world he didn't know existed to the extent that it did, a world that was the Burmese boarder - where smuggling happens.
His current project, Trading to Extinction, about the animal trade started back in 2002. Brown didn't know much about the animal trade, thinking it was just small critters, and in some way that's what the rest of the world thinks of it too, but 4 years ago made as much as some of the biggest electronic industries with 52 billion dollars. To place a physical boundary for Trading to Extinction, Brown's focus on the project was South East Asian, nearer to where he lives.

Brown shares stories and photos from some of his trips, like the first story he did on anti-poaching in Cambodia and Nepal with a team of anit-poachers who most of which were ex-poachers. Brown says that he has a lot of empathy for the poachers because they are just doing what their ancestors have done for hundreds of years, which is hunting, and they make little money for every animals and have little knowledge of where the animals go.

Switching gears, the video shows us Brown's recent trip and experience with the animal trade scene in Guangzhou, China - the economic powerhouse in the south west region of China. Due to the wealth in this area in China it has been a popular place for the animal trade. Brown was in Guangzhou 5 years ago for the 10 year long project and decided to come back to see how things are. Although Brown didn't believe that that trade decrease, he feels the traders have gotten smarter about hiding it because they are less confident since they know the issue of trade is beyond China and are more paranoid about people with cameras.

Slightly off the issue of trade Brown touches on him never asking for permission on taking photos, since he has only a small window of opportunity, people don't act the same when you start asking for permission, and even says that when people(the traders) don't want photos taken it's because they know they are doing something wrong. Brown describes the hardest thing to capture in a photo is an emotion so if he is able to get an angry person it adds another dimension to the body of work. I found this particularly interesting that Brown has this aggressive attitude for taking photos because he isn't concerning himself with being particularly polite, Brown's concern is the photo and the real story.

When Brown goes into a fish store the worker openly says that most of the fish were smuggled in through Hong Kong from different countries. Brown called the sellers "untouchables" because of the way they are not on the radar of criminal activity and not a priority of law enforcement. I also think a component to the traders' openness on details of animals may come from their wanting to impress potential buyers on what they have to offer.

Brown talks more about the different restaurants, shops, and tourist spots. The wildlife game for food he describes has a lot to do with the idea that you are what you eat, so predators like tigers and alligators are popular but also mostly all of the animal is used, whether for creams or soups. On zoos, Brown says the ones that are legitimate are great institutions and highly educational, but most in the region are not so legitimate. The zoos and circuses with rarer collections of animals attract more people and make a lot of money, but caged animals are just like prisoners - and especially when one institutions has about half the population White Tigers, one of the most rare species, there is something wrong.

Brown says that he is not an animal activist, that his work is more about exposing subcultures in society. It isn't about showcasing the animals, it's about what is happening to the animals. The cause is the subculture of smugglers and poachers. When I watched the video for the first time this really struck me as a younger photographer, and it ties back to what Brown says in the beginning about his objective being to give a voice to a situation.
Brown discusses his decision to shoot the project in black and white film. This project not being shot in color by Brown discouraged some publishers financially and also wouldn't have been able to be printed right away. Brown says his decision was simply based on his understanding black and white film photography. He feels black and white to be a more powerful tool, it allowing people to on a more subconscious level to get a sense of placement - their imagination can go further than if they were looking at a color photograph.

According to Brown the trade industry is driven by naivety and greed, naivety in the sense of lack of education in terms of health benefits some products from animals have and greed comes from the idea of delicacies that the animals are.
While in Guangzhou a man even goes up to Brown and his translator while the cameras are rolling to try to sell bile from a bear that came from Tibet (or Nepal), which had never happened before to Brown - like it was nothing. This showed Brown just how much traders would go just to sell small items for a lot of money (1000 dollars for two small items of bear bile).

This video focuses on Brown's documentary photography perspective in his project, but really I think it's his generally perspective. With the project coming to an end, he says "my book will soon be in people's hands and it will no longer be my book, it will be their book." I think Brown says that because he knows that the people who get the book will have and appreciation of Brown's work or have a sense of why the trade is an important issue. I personally have sub-interest in animal photography, but even more so as a photographer look up to the way Brown just wants to use his photography to give a voice and by the way he realized it can make a difference and applies it for  his documentary photography.

To see additional information on Trading to Extinction and to support check here.