[Applause]
you know how they say single image can
tell a whole story to an extent I agree
with that I think that’s true but the
thing is that there’s difference between
telling a story and telling the whole
story and most images only have the
ability to tell one story one side of
the whole story another problem is that
sometimes we don’t even know if that
story is true but the thing is that an
image or a photograph has the ability to
plant a seed in our minds and that seed
can be grown and fertilized by other
similar images that collectively shaped
the way we feel about something now for
the last almost 30 years I have been
involved in search and rescue as a
volunteer and as a professional now
about five years ago I turned the page
and became a professional photographer
and while I suit anything from bags of
dog food to the Northern Lights for a
living I like to think that I specialize
in a combination of my two lifelong
passions with its photography and search
and rescue I call it emergency
photography and one of my clients is I
shot this is the Icelandic Association
for search and rescue now as an
organization of volunteers they rely
heavily upon public donations and so
showing the work that they do is
absolutely critical for them now some of
that candy shot during actual operations
a lot of it can be shot during training
and exercises but due to the nature of
it some of it simply needs to be
recreated or staged in order to properly
describe the conditions and the work
that these people are doing and also to
protect all the people involved so while
you look at some of those images I want
you to try and imagine if they are too
or not how they make you feel are these
images taken during an actual operation
or is it even during training what do
you think that some of them might
actually be staged so how do they make
you feel what are you thinking about
those people and the work that they are
doing I have a feeling that some of you
might be thinking something like you
know those are pretty tough people or
even something like know whose
conditions are pretty cruel or or even
boy am I glad that I don’t have to be
out there somewhere else who wants to do
it and the fact is that’s kind of what I
wanted you to think that’s how I
selected those images and what’s even
more that’s way ahead in mind when I
photographed some of them and if we take
that even further that’s what I stated
some of them to do so then the question
becomes are these image is true or not
and if they are – do they tell the whole
story
but to me they are all – in the wrong
way the ones taking doing actual
operations and training definitely are –
and the ones that are state can also be
argued to be true because they describe
actual conditions and actual operations
that’s like a written text to do is it
the whole story absolutely not I mean
there’s still a lot of less important or
less sexy things that they do there’s
all those meetings there’s all those
were planning and fundraising and all
that different stories but those are
stories that are perhaps less likely to
get people to part with the money input
in order to fund this important work so
my point is that by the way we
photograph and by the way we select and
edit the images we can affect the way
people feel about something and we can
focus people’s attention on something
and I want to tell you a story about
when a bit is and my own images in that
case refocus my attention to something
about two years ago I took on the role
of team leader and photographer for our
team of people setting up wireless
internet connections and mobile phone
chatting for Refugees in some of the
Greek islands now this was my first
contact with his crisis and like most
people I had almost become used to
images of suffering and sorrow and
hopelessness so that’s what I prepared
to photograph that’s what I thought my
images would be coming but instead I
felt hope and I saw a lot more smiles
than I expected I would see and I felt a
lot of gratitude from those people for
what we were worried what we were doing
there so that’s what I photographed
instead a different story a story that
is indeed a very very narrow perspective
on this crisis but it’s still a true
story
much like all the images of suffering
and sorrow and hopelessness that we’ve
seen also show a true story but they
still refocused my attention on this
crisis I realized that of course there’s
no one simple story there’s no one
simple truth in fact the truths are
probably as many as the stories of those
people our versions of the truth however
as on Lucas to this crisis are shaped by
what we are shown and the images that we
look at and then the seeds are planted
and those seeds that grow into being our
emotions and into being our feelings and
ultimately into being our opinions now
this ability of the photograph to
refocus our attention on something
became even more evident to me when I
got home and edited my images from this
mission from thousands of images I
narrowed my selection to about thirty to
fifty describing the work we were doing
there and the effects that it had and I
started seeing and feeling things that I
had not seen or felt when I was there
even having been there and spoken to the
people and listen to the stories the
collective impact of my own images still
had an added effect on me afterwards and
mine too not the quality of him since I
regard most of those as snapshots and
I’m probably more of my own harshest
critic but rather the content and mainly
the collective effect of that selection
and this made me think about my own
emergency photography see my whole life
has been search and rescue since I was
16 years old I’ve been more or less
completely immersed in certain rescue
it’s been my hobby my profession and
pretty much my life and borderlining on
obsession at times but still looking at
it through the lens of a camera made me
see things about it I had not seen
before
I certainly gained more respect for
those people and more respect for that
work so while I do think and I do
believe that without my background in
search-and-rescue my photographs of it
would definitely not be the same but
that’s kind of a given we already know
that the insider perspective is always
beneficial for a photographer what I did
not expect however and what is the
surprise is that it’s also the other way
around
that is photography now affected the way
I saw certain rescue even though it’s
been my whole life so that’s when I
realized that for me that’s probably the
true power of the photograph to focus
our attention and then sometimes refocus
it only way we see the world around us
thank you
[Applause]
you know how they say single image can
tell a whole story to an extent I agree
with that I think that’s true but the
thing is that there’s difference between
telling a story and telling the whole
story and most images only have the
ability to tell one story one side of
the whole story another problem is that
sometimes we don’t even know if that
story is true but the thing is that an
image or a photograph has the ability to
plant a seed in our minds and that seed
can be grown and fertilized by other
similar images that collectively shaped
the way we feel about something now for
the last almost 30 years I have been
involved in search and rescue as a
volunteer and as a professional now
about five years ago I turned the page
and became a professional photographer
and while I suit anything from bags of
dog food to the Northern Lights for a
living I like to think that I specialize
in a combination of my two lifelong
passions with its photography and search
and rescue I call it emergency
photography and one of my clients is I
shot this is the Icelandic Association
for search and rescue now as an
organization of volunteers they rely
heavily upon public donations and so
showing the work that they do is
absolutely critical for them now some of
that candy shot during actual operations
a lot of it can be shot during training
and exercises but due to the nature of
it some of it simply needs to be
recreated or staged in order to properly
describe the conditions and the work
that these people are doing and also to
protect all the people involved so while
you look at some of those images I want
you to try and imagine if they are too
or not how they make you feel are these
images taken during an actual operation
or is it even during training what do
you think that some of them might
actually be staged so how do they make
you feel what are you thinking about
those people and the work that they are
doing I have a feeling that some of you
might be thinking something like you
know those are pretty tough people or
even something like know whose
conditions are pretty cruel or or even
boy am I glad that I don’t have to be
out there somewhere else who wants to do
it and the fact is that’s kind of what I
wanted you to think that’s how I
selected those images and what’s even
more that’s way ahead in mind when I
photographed some of them and if we take
that even further that’s what I stated
some of them to do so then the question
becomes are these image is true or not
and if they are – do they tell the whole
story
but to me they are all – in the wrong
way the ones taking doing actual
operations and training definitely are –
and the ones that are state can also be
argued to be true because they describe
actual conditions and actual operations
that’s like a written text to do is it
the whole story absolutely not I mean
there’s still a lot of less important or
less sexy things that they do there’s
all those meetings there’s all those
were planning and fundraising and all
that different stories but those are
stories that are perhaps less likely to
get people to part with the money input
in order to fund this important work so
my point is that by the way we
photograph and by the way we select and
edit the images we can affect the way
people feel about something and we can
focus people’s attention on something
and I want to tell you a story about
when a bit is and my own images in that
case refocus my attention to something
about two years ago I took on the role
of team leader and photographer for our
team of people setting up wireless
internet connections and mobile phone
chatting for Refugees in some of the
Greek islands now this was my first
contact with his crisis and like most
people I had almost become used to
images of suffering and sorrow and
hopelessness so that’s what I prepared
to photograph that’s what I thought my
images would be coming but instead I
felt hope and I saw a lot more smiles
than I expected I would see and I felt a
lot of gratitude from those people for
what we were worried what we were doing
there so that’s what I photographed
instead a different story a story that
is indeed a very very narrow perspective
on this crisis but it’s still a true
story
much like all the images of suffering
and sorrow and hopelessness that we’ve
seen also show a true story but they
still refocused my attention on this
crisis I realized that of course there’s
no one simple story there’s no one
simple truth in fact the truths are
probably as many as the stories of those
people our versions of the truth however
as on Lucas to this crisis are shaped by
what we are shown and the images that we
look at and then the seeds are planted
and those seeds that grow into being our
emotions and into being our feelings and
ultimately into being our opinions now
this ability of the photograph to
refocus our attention on something
became even more evident to me when I
got home and edited my images from this
mission from thousands of images I
narrowed my selection to about thirty to
fifty describing the work we were doing
there and the effects that it had and I
started seeing and feeling things that I
had not seen or felt when I was there
even having been there and spoken to the
people and listen to the stories the
collective impact of my own images still
had an added effect on me afterwards and
mine too not the quality of him since I
regard most of those as snapshots and
I’m probably more of my own harshest
critic but rather the content and mainly
the collective effect of that selection
and this made me think about my own
emergency photography see my whole life
has been search and rescue since I was
16 years old I’ve been more or less
completely immersed in certain rescue
it’s been my hobby my profession and
pretty much my life and borderlining on
obsession at times but still looking at
it through the lens of a camera made me
see things about it I had not seen
before
I certainly gained more respect for
those people and more respect for that
work so while I do think and I do
believe that without my background in
search-and-rescue my photographs of it
would definitely not be the same but
that’s kind of a given we already know
that the insider perspective is always
beneficial for a photographer what I did
not expect however and what is the
surprise is that it’s also the other way
around
that is photography now affected the way
I saw certain rescue even though it’s
been my whole life so that’s when I
realized that for me that’s probably the
true power of the photograph to focus
our attention and then sometimes refocus
it only way we see the world around us
thank you
[Applause]
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