I’m Alive When I Photograph with Antonin Kratochvil, Sponsored by Canon Speaker: Antonin Kratochvil
Amazing seminar by Antonin. He certainly IS alive! This delightful Frenchman has travelled the world as a photojournalist for greats such at Time Magazine, The New York Times, Fortune Magazine, Vanity Faire and many others. He has some of the most touching and horrific photographs that I’ve seen ranging from Aids in Zimbabwe to despair on Wall Street. Antonin has captured so much. View his work at: http://www.antoninkratochvil.com/ .
I really can’t remember laughing so much during a seminar before. This man was a total delight! He takes a real interest in people and travels the world a lot, often returning to the places he has photographed to find the people in the photographs and see what they’re doing now, or if they are still alive. Many are not. He has many books, one on the human condition. He is one of the only photographers to have the rare opportunity and permission to photograph Venezuelan prisons.
On the lighter side of things, he has photographed numerous celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Rod Steiger, William Defoe, David Bowie, Liv Tyler and countless others. Funny though, he can hardly remember any of their names…. celebrity doesn’t impress him.
He doesn’t shoot film anymore, but actually prefers digital after a period in his life, he tells us, where he thought that digitial had ruined his life, his career. “I thought I was a dinosaur…. not anymore,” he told us. After looking at digital another way, he saw how powerful of a tool it could be and now loves working only in digital.
He has been arrested for taking photographs and spoke of often being eyed with suspicion, noting one occassion when the secret service told him he took photographs in a different ways than other people and so he was “….being watched.” He explained that he takes picutres differently because he is a professional photographer. He was also arrested by homeland security on that occassion. It was very interesting to hear of his run-ins with authorities in this country or that…. simply for taking a photograph.
He also spoke of being an embedded photographer in Iraq and his method for getting photographs to the newspaper he worked for. On the technical side, he uses the Canon 5D and a 2.8 mm lens. When he wants to blend in better, he uses a point and shoot, the G10 or G11.
He teaches for Maine Media Workshops and told us that his students often come with 70 lbs of equipment to which he tells them “Hey, you’re not a Marine!” and says that he doesn’t like to carry a lot of equipment when he photographs, preferring to be light and have movement. That was our last bit of laughter for the day.
Do I recommend him? YES! Great stories and, best of all, a good time!
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