The Lumix Fotofestival Lectures

13.07.2008 | Author: Miguel Garcia-Guzman | Posted in Photography

The Lumix Fotofestival in Hannover [Germany] has just posted the videos with the lectures by a number of famed photographers.

Here is information about the photographers from their wesbite [some lectures are in German and some in English].

There are just a few Germans under the members of the legendary photo agency MAGNUM. Since 1989 Thomas Höpker, 71, is a member. From 2003 to 2006 he was even its president. For this position he was qualified through his matchless carrier, which started in 1960 when he worked as a photojournalist at the German newspaper “Münchner Illustrierten Presse”. Afterwards he took on a position as a correspondent for the German weekly newspaper “stern” in East Berlin and New York. During this time many of his famous photos and reportages were published, amongst them the one about Mohammed Ali. From 1978 till 1981 he was responsible for the Department of Photography and Design of the American edition of “Geo”. From 1986 till 1989 he worked as art director at the “stern”. But Thomas Höpker was not just a photographer, he also recently shoot several documentary movies . In total he published over 20 illustrated books. He now lives in New York and Berlin. His lecture in the Design-Center gives an overview of his life’s work.

The American MAGNUM photographer Steve McCurry completes the top-class lecture program of the Festival for Young Photojournalism. McCurry is member of the photographer agency MAGNUM since 1986. He graduated cum laude from the College for Arts and Architecture at the Pennsylvania State University. For his coverage about the Russian invasion into Afghanistan he received the Robert Capa Gold Medal. His connection with the Afghan topic finally made him world-famous: His photo of the refugee girl with these incredible green eyes, that impresses everybody, was picked for the cover of the National Geographic and printed endless times all over the world. In 2002 the National Geographic organized an expedition and Sharbat Gula, the name of the girl, was found in Afghanistan. Steve McCurry won the World Press Photo Award six times and since 2005 he has the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain. During the festival he will show a short abstract of his work.

It is unbelievable what the Czech Antonin Kratochvil can reconcile as a photographer. His black-and-white pictures from the political hotspots all around the world made him as famous as his gloomy pictures from East Europe. But since some time now, Kratochvil gets more and more famous for his outstanding portraits. He photographs them with the apparently easiness of a reporter but still you get the impression that, while doing so, he can get the ultimate photo of stars like Jean Reno, David Bowie or Johnny Depp.

The British photographer Vanessa Winship comes to the Festival for Young Photojournalism to Hannover. On Thursday, 19th of June, at 7:30 p.m. she will hold a lecture on her work. She graduated with a BA hons in Film, Video and Photography Arts from the Westminster University and later on she received a Postgraduate Diploma in Photojournalism from the London College of Printing. Since 1992 she has worked as an independent photo journalist. In the publishing house marebuchverlag she published a wonderful book about the Black Sea, for which she travelled through all riparian states. This year she was first at the World Press Photo in the category “”Portrait Stories”. She is member of the French agency Agence VU.

He is one of the few German MAGNUM-photographer and also one of the youngest ones. Thomas Dworzak made himself a name as a photographer as war correspondent in Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya. He published his work in Iraq, by the name of “M*A*S*H* IRAQ”, in an also very interesting podcast regarding its format.

  • Heidi und Hans-Jürgen Koch / german

Heidi and Hans-Juergen Koch belong to best and most unusual international photographers specialized in animal imagery. Thus the two graduated in Biology, their picture essays have journalistic character and are not just simple illustrations. The photos are always something special. Their carrier started while shooting essays about rather normal animals, for which a photographer had never shown any interest in, such as the housefly or the domestic pig. Up till now their work is published in various famous magazines like the stern (Germany), Geo (Germany), mare (Germany), National Geographic (USA) and the Sunday Times (UK). Most of their pictures proof that an outstanding photo of an animal needs more than just a photo safari in an exotic surrounding. Never ever before a polar bear was portrayed in a more exciting pose than in their photos. Each of them taken in a zoo. The magazine “mare” published this work in an opulent manner. Their photos as well as their lectures about their work are exciting, humorous and inventive

Kai Wiedenhöfer, born in 1966 in Schwenningen am Neckar, studied photojournalism at the Folkwangschule/University of the Arts in the Ruhr-Region and Arabic in Damascus. Since 1989 the Middle East is his main subject. He received numerous studentships/grants and prices, such as the Leica Medal of Excellence, the Alexia Grant for Global Peace and Dialogue, two World Press Awards and in 2002 also the Eugene Smith Grant in Humanistic Photography. In the Steidl Verlag he already published “Perfect Peace – the Palestinians from Intifada to Intifada”. Now, in 2007, his new book “Wall” is also published here. Despite the fact that Kai Wiedenhöfer belongs to the younger generation of photojournalists, he already photographed a astonishing work, which he will present in the lecture room of the Design-Center.

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