These five-day events, introduced in 1994 to encourage and train young photographers, are normally held every November so that a dozen young practitioners from all over the world can meet and learn from some of the world's top professionals and each other.
The subject for this issue is 33-year-old freelance Rena Effendi from Baku in Azerbaijan.
How did you get started in photography and what was your biggest break?
I have these old black and white pictures from my father’s youth. He was posing for a camera everywhere with a cigarette in his mouth. Sometimes in some strange outdoor settings, other times in wallpapered interiors of the 1960s. In most places he was alone. There were a few shots where he photographed his own shadow, another shot where he was theatrically holding a human skull. There was something mysterious about these portraits of my father as a young man, something that I really yearned to explore and understand. I think they really set the tone of how I photographed in the beginning. I was often attracted to taking a picture from another time zone, something that visually and aesthetically resonated with our past history. My first big break was in 2004. For two years, I had been photographing Mahalla, my city of Baku’s historical neighbourhood that was undergoing a lot of social change. Ancient homes were cleared for impersonal high-rises. I entered a project, Fifty Crows in San Francisco, in a competition and won the prize. I realized that these photographs crossed international borders. The story of a small neighbourhood in Baku addressed the more global issue of urbanisation. It was important, not only to me.
What qualities does a top photojournalist need?
A good eye, a sense of wonder, a feel for urgency and definitely a sense of humour, especially in lonely and desolate places. Patience, perseverance, intelligence, compassion, courage, high adjustability to weird situations and hospitality of the spirit. War photographers should also possess an ability to disarm with charm.
What is your most memorable assignment?
It was a commercial assignment for a Russian mining company. I was sent to Siberia in the middle of winter to a small town, Leninsk Kuznetsk, to photograph mines from the Stalin era and the daily life and the work of miners. It was a very strange experience being 400 meters below ground, walking in pitch dark along the slimy corridors of the mine with coal grease underfoot, sometimes not knowing where to step. I imagined that this is exactly how a devil’s intestinal system would look like – dark and slippery and highly volatile. The situation above ground was also bizarre as I found myself in freezing temperatures of -35°C, fishing on thin ice in the morning and attending a miner’s disco with strippers and vodka in the middle of the Taiga forest at night.
Are you – or will you ever be – fully digital?
I am not digital. I don’t know if I ever will be. I use medium format cameras and the transition from medium format to digital is much more difficult than from the 35 mm system. When I have only 12 or 10 shots on my film I think much harder before I push the button. So, in a way, it’s a matter of discipline and not just an aesthetic choice for me. I’ll stick with film for as long as I can.
What essential equipment do you travel with?
Rolleiflex, Mamiya 6 and 7, Holga and a big bag of film.
What is your favorite camera and how do you use it most – do you prefer natural light, for instance, or artificial/mix?
Rolleiflex is my favorite. It really slows me down, which I think is a good thing as it allows me to spend more time on the scene and get to know my subjects better, understand the situation deeper and thus take more intelligent pictures. It’s not an “in your face” kind of camera, it’s very quiet and the viewfinder is down, so you are looking ‘down’ more and it’s almost like a humble praying position. I think it makes you look less aggressive. This position also helps the subject to relax in front of the camera. You can take pictures as you communicate with the person and look in his/her eyes. I think Rolleiflex is a great portrait camera, the mask slides down a lot faster. It allows for a more intimate dialogue.
How, when under pressure, do you try and make sure the image is as good as possible?
Well, when you shoot medium format film you only have about 12 shots until you have to change a roll. So it’s very risky and you can miss a lot of situations that happen fast around you. So what I try to do is not to put myself under such pressure. I avoid situations where I have to elbow my way and fight for the best position to take the best shot. I try not to do spot news. Or even if it is a news subject, I approach it from a different angle. I know my limitations and I am used to working within them and I enjoy it very much. So if I take a slow camera to a conflict area for instance, I will not be taking blurry pictures of running soldiers in combat. I will look for a different subject that tells the story in a similarly powerful way that also fits within my chosen visual medium. I’ve done it before and it’s worked.
If there is one piece of advice you would give to a photojournalist starting out on a career, what would it be?
You are a big part of your picture. Even when you are trying to blend in and be invisible on the scene, you are still behind that lens. You own that frame, that fragment of reality, so claim it.
Which of the pictures you selected is your personal favorite and why?
I was walking down the street in the Mahalla neighbourhood of Baku, with a friend photographer. A man approached us and asked if we could come to his house and photograph his mother on her last day of life. I was surprised to be invited to a situation like this. Me – a total stranger, witnessing such an intimate moment of family life. The man led us into his house. In a dimly lit room. There was his brother speaking on the phone and a woman leaning over the dying mother. It was such a quiet scene, almost like a renaissance painting, so powerful and complete that it was not interrupted by our presence. The man’s semi-transparent mother was lying on her bed, breathing loudly. She seemed sucked out of the room by the light from a window above her head. I held my breath because I felt that if I take the air in the room I would be infected with death. I stood speechless in the doorway. My friend whispered: “2.8 and 15”. These were the aperture and shutter speed settings he knew would work there. I set them and took a couple of frames. I love this picture because it’s magical, as I don’t know who was doing all the thinking at that moment.
Next to whom would you like to sit in an airplane going where?
I would like to be on a very long inter-continental flight, preferably in a private jet with the following group of mad geniuses: writer Kurt Vonnegutt, musician Tom Waits, painter Hieronymus Bosch, photographer Diane Arbus, movie directors Tim Burton and Federico Fellini, and perhaps the fictional character of Doctor House trying to give them all a diagnosis. I would serve drinks and watch.
What ambitions do you have left?
In September 2009 I became a mother to my delightful baby girl Eliya Runi. My ambition at this point is to continue doing what I do with passion and precision, as well as to be a good mother to my daughter. I would like to keep that balance intact.
