The American Magnum photographer Richard Kalvar is signed and confirmed to Magnum Caravan Brasil in its first destination Ouro Preto March 29th -April 3rd . So fasten your seat because he is holding the wheel!!
Richard Kalvar is playing. By only checking his photos it is noticeable he is also having fun, while being in the moment and printing the moods of his personality. And this natural but still striving condition of overlapping the photography and the photographers’ sensitiveness has become his secret to making any corner of the world and any ordinary event his pathway to his playground, where fun is found, the language is constructed, deconstructed, and the magic happens.
Richard Kalvar is an equivalent of a master of “following the flow”.
Following the flow romantically evokes this unpretentious consciousness of simultaneous moment leading to an unexpected unknown territory. What is more exciting, defying and frightening than the unexpected?
Like most of the great photographers, his photo legacy and signature came from the nature of free, curious and open wanderers. Following the flow can imply to be lost , but for Richard Kalvar it is an excuse of being found in this exercise of being prepared for lucky openings in the overall equation…adding known, predictable elements like choice of moment, composition, framing, focus and depth of field, together with tricky factors that can enhance or limit the effect of a photograph on other people. He boldly flips the coin!
And from there , comes his particular voice.
Some choose drama, tears, the profound. He walks on those with a smile on his face. And his attentive –prompt eyes and lenses become the mirror to simplify and amplify that.
He owns his luck, by being a photographer and mostly by being himself and owing that, loosening up in slight odds of the incredible, and with high expectations in this playful game of causalities. His sensitivity and humor can be captured, and ”luckily” become a testimony in those moments.
Standing the flag that a good moment doesn’t carry the responsibility of being hard painful or complex, it can be merely a masterpiece of the ordinary, the divine glimpse of surprising angles on a street taken every day.
Richard Kalvar/ Magnum Photos FRANCE. Paris. 1971. Men walking with tables on their heads.
Magnum Caravan team had a pitch stop chat with Kalvar:
Interview by Roberta Tavares
RT: Richard, every time I look at your work it brings smiles or a suspicious surprised look to my face, and I bounce between feelings and reactions like irony, sarcasm and certain humor…even when so full of charged beauty.
And I can picture you walking in Brazil when all of that is so visually accessible .How do you feel about Brazil? Jumping in a playground? Or have you ever been in that situation when to romanticize the idea of playground can be either dangerous, leading to boring or frustrating?
Kalvar: I’m always excited about going to a place that I don’t know well. I try not to pre-visualize things too much, because it’s better to observe and discover things for yourself, without the filter of preconceived ideas. As you say, playgrounds can be boring or frustrating, and boring places can be wonderfully rich in unexpected occurrences, so I’ll just take it as it comes.
RT: In your photos from “Unconventional Photography” , “An American’s Week in Holland”, “Davos” till the older “Tramps” it seems this unusual perfect orchestra, a match evoking attention and dragging the eyes, the right (and real) subjects, the right place, the right move, the right position. There is this pause in time, when everything collapse and fit in interaction, moves and stop graciously for your lens. Being prepared in the exact time, to control the “unpredictable”, and predict your fixed elements as light, tech gear, and let the irony happens. Do you believe in luck or to embrace your intuition?
Kalvar: Luck is absolutely essential, but it takes an awful lot of hard work to encourage luck to happen. And observation. And the intuition that you mention, having a feeling about what might happen. And an ability to go with the flow, to adapt when something completely different from what your intuition tells you might happen happens. And a capacity to recognize when everything suddenly and miraculously comes together, and gives a situation a strong but unanticipated meaning. It’s quite a complex soup. It’s not easy, because I have no idea what my next picture will look like.
RT: Is it that intuition, that fine perception of your environment, the main drive of a photographer? To not fail as a pipeline? Even with all your experience, Is there still the adrenaline but also a torture mode in that specific millisecond before you hit the shutter?
Kalvar: The torture is mostly during the long periods between good pictures, when I walk around not seeing anything of interest, and wonder whether I’m still capable of photography. The more immediate torture when I’m actually taking a picture involves my courage or lack of courage in affronting possibly hostile subjects. But if I’m not getting a negative reaction, and if I’m in an inspiring situation, there’s adrenaline and excitement, and maybe exhilaration, but no torture. Sometimes maybe some frustration, if I haven’t succeeded in making it all work.
RT: There are a lot of good photographers out there but it is hard to find THE great outstanding ones. Magnum is constantly seeking for them, National Geographic I’ve heard it is the same, but it is hard to find something spectacular, special showing up on the table. In my humble opinion, that is one of the most conflicted and intriguing realities once facing the amount of projects and photographers there are out there.. Can you possibly point out some reasons, or THE reason, for this lack of this little “something” that adds such big difference? Good photographer but a photographer not ready yet for the next level? Could you give 3 characteristics that in your opinion separate a great photographer from a good photographer?
Kalvar: This is not only a recent phenomenon, and it doesn’t only apply to photography. It is true that there are a lot more photographers out there nowadays. It’s hard for me to make qualitative judgments, because I recognize that there are many types of photography that can all represent valid approaches, but I’m mostly sensitive to my little corner of that world. I think great photography grabs you and makes you want to look at it, and there aren’t that many people that do that for me. In my case, and forgive the pretension that I might be a great photographer, I think it came through the accidental marriage of my sensibility, personality, sense of play and sense of humor, and photography. I knew nothing about, and was not at all interested in photography, but when I fell into it and started doing it a lot, my pictures unconsciously and unintentionally filled up with my being. That’s my secret; I wonder if it doesn’t apply to others.
NOW IF YOU ARE WONDERING WHAT TO EXPECT FROM HIS MENTORSHIP IN THIS CARAVAN… HERE WE GO:
Magnum Caravan: What teaching means to you / has meant to you (any mentors, the people / teachings that have most influenced their practice, etc)
Kalvar: I really enjoy teaching, because it forces you to re-examine what you think you know. You say things to your students, but you have to see whether what you’re saying is really true, and whether it touches other people. The exchange with open-minded students can be very enriching. I’m self-taught as a teacher, even more so than as a photographer.
Magnum Caravan: How can you help students of photography develop their own practice (your approach to teaching, etc)
Kalvar:One has to be very open to each individual’s personality and aims to be an effective teacher, but there are certain aspects of photography that are pretty universal. In addition to dealing with the construction of a coherent group of photographs, I put a strong emphasis on how a particular photographic situation is dealt with, and how an individual photograph is constructed. What are the formal considerations that determine whether a picture has the desired effect on the viewer, and how can they be controlled? We try to relate these to each student’s personal sensibility and way of working.
Knowing better Richard Kalvar … check it out his photos clicking at: Magnum Photos
and more of his history and philosophy clicking at : Richard Kalvar by Eric Kim Blog
Apply for Magnum Caravan Brazil clicking here
Magnum Caravan Brazil 2016 