(ZM wrote about his trip to Paris earlier this month, in Chinese. He covered some very interesting topics and people, i thought more people will be interested in reading this so I translated it from Chinese into English, with great editorial help from Alice and Gui! Thank you both! 🙂)

Impressions from Paris — My Photography Exhibition
by Mi Zhou

After doing photography for over a decade, I had my first gallery exhibition. I flew to Paris for a week to attend the opening and met my agent for the first time. I want to share some of my experiences with other amateur photographers who are in similar situations.

1. The Agent

In June 2009, I received an email from someone named “Aurélie”, inquiring whether i have an agent in France. In the case that I did not, she offered Florence Moll’s services as my French representative. After a brief exchange of emails, Florence and I confirmed our agent-photographer relationship.

This was my first interaction with any agency. I was completely ignorant of how it should work. I remember asking multiple times for some kind of contract that would legalize our partnership. At the end Florence told me she has never signed any contract to date with any of the artists that her agency represented. All of her professional partnerships operated on the basis of mutual trust. I took her words for it, but I wasn’t sure whether it would work out.

Florence Moll represents a dozen or so top commercial and fashion photographers and designers in Europe. Most of her clients are luxury fashion merchandising brand names such as LV and Hermès.

I’ve always been curious how she found me and what motivated her to represent an amateur like me. To be honest, even if my photos really sold well in the future, the amount of money it would generate still couldn’t compare to her other commercial projects.

A year later, when i finally made my way to Paris and met Florence for the first time, I raised this burning question to her. She told me that her assistant Aurélie saw Ma Ke’s “Wu Yong” fashion photo series in a magazine last year and thought it was “simply splendid”. Aurélie then showed the magazine to Florence, who “fell in love at first sight.” She asked Aurélie to find this photographer at once. A few seconds later, Aurélie exclaimed in delight as she found my website on-line. After reviewing my site, Florence “fell in love all over again.” The reason she wanted to represent me was completely based on her love of my photos; potential profit was not in the equation.

The rest was history. Florence selected 80+ photos from my site, and I produced two sets of portfolio based on her selection and mailed both to Paris.

The potential audience of my photos was new marketing territory for Florence. In order to promote my work, Florence spent a lot of energy in networking with galleries, media, and museums. She even took some university classes on art and photography. During our meetings this time, i noticed how worn were the cloth covers of my two portfolio boxes, a mark of the numerous trips Florence made to various potential clients.

June 2010, Florence emailed me with good news: six months after submitting my portfolio, Polka publications group decided to print and exhibit a few of my photos, together with those from five other photographers: Peter Lindbergh、Stanley Greene、Brenda Ann Kenneally、Williams Daniels, and Alain Loison. All these names were new to me, so i did some research on line…

2. Polka

Polka is actually the name of the dog of the founder, Alain Genestar. Alain said told the story of how when everyone was trying to come up with a name for their new organization, nothing stood out. At the end he pointed at his little dog and said, that’s it.

Polka is made up of three entities: Polka Gallery, Polka Magazine, and Polka website. Personally I think these three entities are the most ideal media channels for promoting photography. Polka is run by Alain and his son and daughter. Every year, it publishes four magazine issues: Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter. The magazine’s publication is in sync with four exhibits in its gallery. It also organizes exhibitions and promotional events at other locations, including all the major photo festivals throughout Europe. From the Polka editorial committee, one could see the focus of this organization: “Photojournalism”.
http://www.polkamagazine.com
http://www.polkagalerie.com

Some of Polka magazine editorial committee members: Christian Caujolle, Jean-Jacques Naudet, Reza, Marc Riboud, Sebastião Salgado, Robert Delpire.

Polka Gallery currently represents 32 photographers (see images below). I feel honored to appear in the same list as Elliott Erwitt, William Klein, Mary Ellen Mark, James Nachtwey, Sebastiao Salgado. Many of them have been my idols for years. Meanwhile, I’m trying to not let any of this get to my head — I understand perfectly where my work stands against these masters.

Polka magazine has published a total of 10 issues since 2008.

This is the best photography magazine I’ve seen. It attempts to revive the golden age of magazine as a media channel. The most impressive part of the magazine is its 100% high quality content. All the articles and information are about the photographers and their work. Some of them are classics and some are new documentary photos (too bad it only appears in French). Every issue contains over 150 pages and 20+ topics. Every topic ranges from 6 to 20+ pages, so each topic can be thoroughly presented. Many photos get spread page treatment. I think this is probably as close to heaven as it comes for photojournalists.

From every magazine issue, Polka Gallery picks 5-6 photographers holds simultaneous gallery exhibits. They usually include 1-2 famous photographers, plus 3-4 new faces. Each exhibit lasts for 2 months.

While in Paris, I went to the gallery four times, every member of Polka was easy going and friendly. Alain introduced me to his little dog Polka. They constantly expressed their appreciation of my photos, explained that they were the perfect fit for their magazine and gallery. They thanked me for attending the opening. The chief editor of the magazine, Dimitri Beck, gave me the entire set of their magazines as a present…

3. The Printer
It is a little embarrassing for me to admit that after all these years, I had no gallery quality final prints of any of my photos. Usually, established photographer will have their best work in print form, ready for exhibition and sale. But I’ve never done so. The production cost is high, and more importantly there hasn’t been the need. I’m really grateful that Polka took care of all the cost of print and framing for the exhibit. But I was a little worried of the quality of the final print since the I only had photo scans done on an Epson V700.

Picto is a prominent professional imagery production company in Paris. The printer Christophe Batifoulier works in their Fine Art department. Bati sports sideburns and looks like a skinny version of the actor Jean Reno. He holds a prestige position inside Picto. His has a gigantic workshop as his private office and workspace. It contains four computers, one scanner, two large scale printers, one giant viewing table and a wall sized board where final prints could be hung up using magnets and viewed in ideal light.

At Picto, Bati enjoys unprecedented independence. he is not limited by the cost of material or any fixed working hours. Bati only agrees to print photos that he likes. His imagination and sensitivity enables him to reveal what each photographer is trying to express, merely based on a sample print.

Upon my arrival, the first thing Florence did was to take me to see my exhibition photos at Bati’s workshop. When I saw the final print, I was blown away. They far exceeded my highest expectations. Bati showed me samples he made on various papers and with various inks. He said that he could tell which scanner I used based on my scanned files. He commented that my scanner focus was not accurate, the negative was not completely flat, and some of the details in highlight areas were lost. It was good enough for any print that is under the dimension of one meter. But it could have been better.

Before he set out to print my photo, Bati spent a lot of time adjust my image files, including the tone, contrast, sharpness, and grain. He thought the best scanning technique for film negatives was not drumscan but Imacon. He explained the reasoning but unfortunately it was too technical for me to grasp his finer points. He also suggested to not use color ink to print black and white photos, because even with the most careful adjustments, it is hard to keep the tone consistent if you print the photos at different times, which is not good for gallery edition because they only print photos when there is a sale. Carbon ink wouldn’t have such a problem.

Three days later I went to visit Bati on my own. He showed me some of the photos he was working on for other photographers. We chatted for a long time. I asked him how it was like to work for Koudelka. Bati told me that for him photo production was not about money. It was a game for him. He didn’t want to work for only one or two photographers, because no matter how great those photos are, limiting oneself into such a narrow style would impede one’s imagination and reduce the enjoyment of the work itself. He loved working with various photographic styles and topics; they brought him inspiration and challenge. He didn’t want to open his own print shop because he didn’t want to be trapped into the marketing and finance matters that he didn’t care for. For the photos he loved, he was willing to spend the time, resources, and his passion in production. For photos he didn’t respond to, he usually pushed them to other co-workers instead.

He was generous at sharing his knowledge and expertise. He was contemptuous of people who mystify technique or guard their techniques like a trade secret. He even suggested that in the future, I could mail him my film negative so he could scan it for me, then send me print samples to get whatever adjustments I prefer, then he would modify his file accordingly. He pointed out some of my photos that he thought were ideal for galleries, and asked me in addition to Polka whether I have other gallery representations.

Hopefully I will work with Bati again in the future.

4. The Exhibit

The Polka Gallery itself was nothing fancy. Compared to some of the galleries in China, it seem almost shabby. The gallery space is divided into two physical partitions. The partition facing the street is currently displaying twenty photographies by Stanley Greene. Inside the courtyard, the exhibition space has two stories. Five of my Burning Man photos were displayed on the facing wall. The other three walls were given to the other three photographers in this exhibit, five to seven photos each. The basement was devoted to Peter Lindbergh’s 20 photos.

The opening went from 6pm to 9pm on a Thursday afternoon. What put me at ease was the informality of the opening. There were no ceremonies, nor were there any speeches given or demanded. No time was spent on exchanging pleasantries. Even the Culture Minister of France drew no crowd. Everyone there seemed to be returning friends and all knew their way around. According to gallery personnel, there were over fifteen hundred attendees at the opening.

During the opening I discovered another benefit of having an agent: I didn’t need to spend energy socializing. I was chatting with my old friend Kang, Yves, and their friends. Claude told me that she saw lots of bigshots, but none of their names rang a bell for me. One photographer came up and congratulated me for having an exhibit at “one of the best two photography galleries in Paris.” I didn’t snap too many photos at the opening.

The gallery set two sizes for my photos: 21x60cm, limited 15 prints each; 40x100cm, limited 10 prints each. The photographs were framed on an aluminum board, on the back of which was a 8-ply paper board with a rectangular window opening for the photographer’s signature. I was pleasantly surprised that my photos made three sales. Two buyers wrote their checks in person. Both Florence and Polka were happy, too.

The next day, Florence and I went to the Gallery again to sign a bunch of documents that gave Polka the right to represent me in photo sale. Florence explained to me the document explained the method of representation, its limitations, the sale price and rules, etc. Both Florence and I were first timers seeing documents like this, so the sales manager of Polka, Adélie (Alain’s daughter), patiently explained every bullet point on the document. She also explained certain rights that I as the photographer should retain for myself. Florence told me that for the initial sales, she would wave her commission so that I can earn a little money to compensate for the travel expenses. I was very moved, given how much time and energy she had spent on this project herself.

5. Meetings

Florence explained that I wouldn’t be able to meet a few people because Visa pour l’Image, the premier International Festival of Photojournalism held in Perpignan, happened to fall on the same week. But she managed to get me appointments with photo editors from “Vogue”, “W”, and “Le Monde”.

I’ve never participated in this kind of meeting before. I thought photo editors from such publications would probably be desensitized by the large volume of photos they go through on a daily basis. Also, considering the general stereotype of French arrogance, I was hesitant to attend these meetings. But I was proven wrong. My portfolio was submitted prior to each appointment. If the other side had no interest in the work, there would have been no appointment in the first place.

All of the meetings turned out to be very pleasant. At Vogue, the editor called in everyone from her department, and asked me lots of questions regarding my photos’ backstory. We discussed many topics covering travel, culture and society. She said unfortunately they already sent two photographers to this year’s Burning Man, and they just got back…

It was pretty difficult to get in “Le Monde”’s door, literally. We had to pass an X-ray machine, then through a double door that was controlled by security from inside, Florence presented our appointment sheet to the front desk who summoned our host, then we had to take a security controlled elevator to reach the editor’s office.

The photo editor of Le Monde is an elderly lady in her sixties, Frederique Babin. She spoke to Florence in French while browsing my portfolio. Later I asked Florence what they were discussing. Florence asked me in return, “Didn’t you notice her eyes were wet when she looked at your work?” Before we left, Frederique asked me to prepare a complete work portfolio and send it to her.

None of the people I met talked about art or trends. Instead, they were more interested in whether the imagery moved them spiritually or emotionally. Meanwhile, everyone showed more respect for traditional film photography and classic black and white imagery. They were also interested to learn whether a photographer could master diverse topics and styles. Florence believes that “As long as your work is truly great, it would shine.” I couldn’t agree more. She also told me to be patient and spend as long as needed to photograph what I was interested in. But she also said, it would be difficult to promote someone who doesn’t put out new work every two years. Ha, so there is still some pressure.

While promoting my work in the past year, Florence also met her share of arrogant clients. Some organization’s first sentence was “Who referred you?” On the other hand, she understands the other side’s frustration, too. Her agency would receive approximately ten portfolios and resumes submitted by new artists every week. I guess that birds of the same feather eventually flock together.

The one-week Paris trip passed in a blink of an eye. It felt like all the events had something to do with me, and had nothing to do with me at the same time; all had something to do with photography, or not.

Now I’m home and life goes on as before.

War Photographer

This documentary came highly recommended by Mi, who has seen it on tape shortly after its airing on Cable TV, about a month ago. This time, Mi brought the tape to the west coast. We watched it together over the weekend. James placed a macro camera right above his shutter on his ¡°weapon¡±, so we could see how he aimed and when he clicked each shutter. I imagine it must be fascinating for hard-core photographers like Mi, to know when each moment was chosen and to imagine what picture he would have made if he were there instead of James.

From the movie we learned that James was a man of few words, but he was kind and compassionate. He treated his subject with respect and his pictures showed. We also got to see real time the sulfur mines in Indonesia, the stone-throwing Palestinian kids in Gaza strip, the grieving parents of Kosovo mass grave victims, and of course Rwanda, etc. The normal misery of our world today.

I was dry-eyed throughout all the showing of the misery. Looking at these poor souls through James lens somehow made them less real. Or maybe I had been desensitized by too much of these¡­What really got to me was one statement made by James¡¯ best friend since high school. He said, ¡°He truly believes that the good will triumph over evil, and that is what had kept him going and kept him from being cynical like so many of his fellow journalists.¡± Upon hearing this, my tears started rolling down non-stop.

So that was what we had to accept all along. It was such a simple belief, yet so hard when faced with all these facts. ¡°the good will eventually triumph over evil.¡± That’s what human being has been blessed with: Hope.

Christmas came to this house early! Just received a NIKON 24-85mm zoom lense from Mi! The best travel lense! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! :* You are THE B-E-S-T!!!
Finished one row of color negative to test the lense.

Will take the entire Thanksgiving week off! Leaving for Thailand on Saturday. Happy Turkey Day, everyone! See’ya all in December.

Peace.

Mi and I first met Thoth a few weeks back in Central Park. He was just setting up shop. A couple of women tourists were talking to him enthusiastically, asking for his autograph, and taking turns posing pictures next to him. A few others were flipping through a scrapbook he placed at the beginning of his line of paraphernalia. I poked my head in and read a few clippings. He called himself Thoth, and he was one of the top 20 famous faces of New York City selected by a well-known magazine. According to those newspaper and magazine clippings, he was quite a celebrity with the media, and a fixture in the Park. Many photographers have taken pictures of him. He displayed them all in the book.

Mi and I were curious to hear his music. We walked around the proximity waiting for the tourists to disperse so Thoth could start his performance. Finally he was left alone. He took his sweet time to prepare himself and the surroundings. Kneeling on the floor the Japanese fashion, he settled on reading a small book. From afar the color theme of the book reminded me of Tibet. His sincerity indicated it was the beginning of his ritual. It was followed by meditation and praying. We were standing around, watching him. He stood up, lighted incense one by one, while walking in some kind of dance steps. Finally he picked up his violin, stood up erect, silently he waved the bow around him, eyes closed, mouthing some soundless phrases as if calling the spirits to gather around.

When the music finally bursting out from the violin, it felt like a joyful eruption of a lively volcano. The music sounded Irish and cultic, he danced while playing, and suddenly his beautiful singing voice joined in. His red silk cape, his extravagant feathered headdress, and now his singing all reminded me of Farinelli. Mi started circling him like a lion circling its prey, taking pictures. That day I was assigned Mi¡¯s Leica M6. So I shoot a few frames as well. The location was a underpass with ruined wall paintings, resembled a ruined temple. The sound affect was lovely. For a few moments, one could be fooled to believe it was a real concert hall from ancient times. And we were privileged to witness a god singing.

When the music stopped, people started walking up dropping their dollar bills in his small bowl. He settled back to his sitting cushion and started making notes on that same small book he was reading at the beginning, completely oblivion of these by-standers coming and going. As I walked up to surrender my dollars, he suddenly turned to me, looked at me straight in the eyes and said, ¡°Thank you!¡± I was so shocked and all I could manage was a smile before fleeting the scene. Later I was a little shamed of myself, when would I ever gain the courage to converse with strangers?

Mi went back in the following two weekends, hoping to find him there. The past Sunday Thoth finally showed up at the right time when the late afternoon sunlight was still beautiful. Among the series, I liked the cover the best. Thoth¡¯s torso formed a human arrow, half guiding half inviting the audience to see the light, to hear the higher being, through Thoth¡¯s body language, through Thoth¡¯s music. The frontal view resembled a face with his breasts as eyes. Shiny metal chains that Thoth wore as decorations resembled a kind of ¡°headdress¡±. It strongly recalled an image impressed upon me during my childhood. It was from an ancient Chinese legend. A general was killed brutally, his fellow general who was also a music lover decided to revenge his friend’s death. During the fight, he lost his head, refusing to fall, his breasts formed eyes, his belly button formed a mouth, his torso became a new head, he continued his battle cry, and he continued to fight.

There is something very similar between Thoth and that Chinese ancient general. And Mi¡¯s photo vividly says it.

More photos of Thoth by Mi: Thoth
The Story of Xing-tian ÐÌÌì(in Chinese): ɽº£¾­(Ê®)ÎÞÍ·¾ÞÈËÐÌÌì

It was the best photography show I’ve ever seen. The content was rich and complex, the format was comprehensive and original, the exhibit was beautifully laid out and well executed. The power of each photograph was gripping and intense, and the sheer volume of these photos overwhelmed me. Not sure whether the exceptionally hot sun outside the window added to the pressure, but I did need to take a break in the middle closed my eyes and rest before I was physically capable of viewing the rest of the exhibit. When we walked out the exhibit hall, Gui said, ¡°No wonder she killed herself.¡± I nodded. Each face captured by Arbus was showing a world of thoughts and intricate relationships heavily packed within. If each of us was required to take care of one complex world, then Arbus saw them all, and they had to weight down on her. Who could have taken all that weight? Speaking of ¡°Altas Shrugged¡±.

Standing on the sidewalk outside MOMA, blinking in the bright and burning sunlight, I was suddenly seeing, as if for the first time, the world that I¡¯ve been living in. Every face came at me, passed me, surrounded me became new and interesting. I suddenly was eager to stare into each and every pair of eyes that were gliding through my world in such a random fashion, knowing suddenly they are each unique and complicated. Each face has a story, a soul, a world of emotions¡­

Being a person that was attracted to words, I found Arbus¡¯ writing particularly interesting. From those sentences, one could easily sense the sheer volume of ideas and thoughts tangled in her mind at each given moment, and the strength she exerted trying to untangle them to make others see as she did, to capture them before they rushed past her; yet, they kept on rushing past her¡­

The New York Times (9/28/2003 issue) did an review by Philip Gefter of Reagan Louie’s photography exhibit currently on view in SF MOMA. The title of the exhibit is “Reagan Louie: Sex Work in Asia”.

According to the review:

and:

You can clicking the thumbnail on the left to see a larger version. I was surprised at how the photographer made it seem so clean, smooth, and… yes, young. It is merely another occupation. Similar to other white collar women going to work. They dressed maybe a little sexier, but not obviously so, considering today’s fashion trend. There is a matter-of-factness in it. They are selling labors and skills just like us “skilled labors”. If they, themselves, don’t associate lots of emotional or morality bagadge with their job; what’s there for us to say? Is there any reason for us to feel superior? Look at them, do they need to be saved? or to be pitied?

But then again, is it just the photographer’s point of view? Is he only letting us see what he intended us to see? Is he only seeing what HE wanted to see, what he wanted to believe? Or is it because he is a man, so this is more of a man’s point of view?

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently exhibiting The Dawn of Photography: French Daguerreo 1839-1855. New York Times ran an review of this show on their Friday (Sep. 26, 2003) paper: The Eerie Exactness of the Daguerreotype, by Michael Kimmelman.

Here is the picture described above. Of course, to count the buttons on the police’s shirt, or to even see where the policeman is, you have to go to the Met with your magnifying glass. 🙂

Another quote from the New York Times review:

Zhou Mi’s new series. I loved this photo. The musician, the city, and even the trumpet were blurred into one rthym. It is so very jazz. Can anyone say “Kind of Blue”? That’s how it makes me feel. I guess New York City CAN be romantic. 🙂

Check out his new series :
Night is Blue
Coney Island: this is another new project he just took up. I loved these photos, the harse light gave the photos the quality of sculptures. As if the someone (the photographer? people in the photo? us viewers?) wants to freeze those moments in time. I sensed reluctance and happiness with a hint of regret. It is so 50’s! As if coming out of someone’s childhood memories.

An incredible article on Diane Arbus by New York Times Magazine(Sep. 14, 2003). She was known as the street photographer that captured freaks in Manhattan. She was from 50s-70s. Starting October 25th, SFMOMA is going to put up the one and only full-scale restrospective of her photography since 1972!
Many of the photos have never been shown before and some has never been printed, even. She committed suicide in 1971.

New York Time Article: Arbus Reconsidered
(for a Chinese translation of it, go here)

SFMOMA Retrospective: Revelations

Absolutely amazing! Photos, design, words, and a journey, what a life!
EARTH PILGRIM by Sacha Dean Biyan
“A compelling photographic journey to the farthest reaches of the globe, delving into the customs and rituals of various remote and vanishing cultures. A revealing glimpse into the lives of several indigenous groups struggling against the tide of global assimilation.”
The names of the place could roll down your tongue like morning dew, still reflecting the lush green of the tropical jungle: “amazon. irian jaya. papua new guinea. ecuador. peru. bolivia. java. brazil. indonesia.”

A new picture from Zhou Mi’s Ecuador series (click on the picture to see a larger version).

My heart was immediately filled with delight, and it soared. It is Cuenca! I’ve been there. Those pretty domes are in iron grey, resemble the color of a stormy sky. I also remember those lovely villas with white washed stucco walls and red spanish roof-tiles, and the cobble stoned street radianted away like sun rays.

Evenly spread square windows with balconies or dark doorways are neatly arranged like musical notes, the clean lines and curves of the street curbs are like the musical scale, and the beautifully arranged three maganificant domes formed an obediant group of geomatric shapes in the backdrop. Waiting for the nod of the concert master, and then all are brought to life by the flock of birds flying toward us, like the music flowing from under the pianist rapidly dancing fingers. Bathed in the gentle morning light. One could almost feel the slight chill in the air, and hearing the wing flopping as they flew past us.

How did he do it? To capture such a beautiful moment. Even birds seem to know how to arrange themselves in his picture so that the composition would be most pleasing…

Ah! The magic of photography masters!

Saw a Chinese translation of some Susan Sontag opinions extracted from her book On Photography. It is not the easiest read in Chinese. The translation is a bit dull and obscure sounding. One could still see her unique point of view and many interesting observations she has made.

Found a review of the book on photo.net. The same paragraph reads much more lively in English and a lot more easy to understand. Funny.

Here is one of many quotes in the review (it is also in the Chinese translation) that i find interesting:

Mi sent me an introduction and review (in Chinese) on Jose Koudelka‘s work. Here is A look at the Josef Koudelka retrospective (in English) from his home country-Czech.