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[HORS SERIE] La responsabilité de tenir un appareil photo avec Marco Grob
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[HORS SERIE] La responsabilité de tenir un appareil photo avec Marco Grob
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GRÉGORY : So you’re photographer. But you also have a lot of different things that you love, so I was wondering why, in the first place, why did you choose photography?
MARCO : Well, actually, it came into my life like almost: you fall in love with a woman you you meet at the bar and you didn’t expect anything to happen that night, in my life I wanted to be a musician very bad, I was very ambitious, I rehearsed a lot, but ultimately I had an experience where I saw that I don’t have that given talent if you want, like you would need to pursue a career and have a good time and also leave something behind, and at the same time, almost same place, actually at the same place, I had access to interesting things and stole my father’s camera and had started to do pictures, and then the world around me reacted with saying : you do this very well, and that was the first time I heard that in my life. So I thought ok maybe that’s worth pursuing and in that process I definitely fell in love with it and I never fell out since, which is a long, long, long time.
GRÉGORY : Long time ago. You do differents kinds of photos and films also now, and to me I feel like, but it’s in my mind, is always focusing in one subject and you do both Holywood movies and documentaries in Africa or in other countries. How can this happen? How can how can you do like one day black punter and another day another thing?
MARCO : Well, I think basically at one point in my life, when I went to New York it was like that. The boy which was interested in history and since I was very young I was always very interested in history and politics in general and what’s happening in the world met the man who carried a camera and it was. It was really a moment where I realized that destiny. I was lucky enough that I was put in a situation where I could start to show a picture of the world I’m living in. I know of the limitations. It’s only my view of the world, it’s only Marcos world, but it’s carried with subjects which mattered to me. There’s many different subjects which matter to me, in social and social aspects, but also at the same time I’m a movie buff. I grew up in Switzerland, Hollywood seems so far-away and I found myself in the midst of that process and I must say I really thoroughly enjoy doing this kind of work and then you mix it up with with other subject matters which are weigh deeper and I’m much more involved, my personality much more deeper, and the other side more involves, you know the photograph man and the creative side, and I think this change is sometimes good and helpful. I have a lot of friends, they are photojournalists, I really admire them. Most of my photography friends are actually photojournalists and again I admire them deeply and I think they have a very important role in our daily lives, in politics and in showing what’s happening in the world. But at the same time I know also it can be very daunting for people to always be exposed to the worst of human condition over years and years and years and years, and so on my end, it’s not that I didn’t want to do that, i was never put in the situation, i was a portray photographer by trade, and so I was never really a photo journal. I mean I was a journalist, I worked journalistic as soon as I work for a magazine. You become a journalist right away, but it’s not that I was photojournalist, but I know it can have very, you know, it’s daunting for a lot of people. They do this kind of work.
GRÉGORY : And in my case I studied with marketing a few years back and eventually, this partwas about marketing at the beginning, four years ago, and and then I gave myself freedom to go to the subject that I was very much more interested in, which was sociology, antropology, geography, history and all those subjects that I love. Was it the same for you like, did you felt that, did you straight begin with both words? Or you felt like you begin with trading like somehow and then give you the freedom to go somewhere else? Or was it straight from the beginning? You wanted to do both? I mean it’s not only both.
MARCO : I think initially it was my interest in people in general. I think every I’m interested in phases beyond the genetics. In every case you see what life left behind. You see things like even social class, you see how they fit themselves if they fit themselves, if they live mostly most of their lives in happy or less condition. You see whether they smoke or not and all embedded in their faces. And it all tells the story and in a weird way, as much as you want to, you can run, but you cannot hide. So you face ultimately, if the other person is willing to look at it will tell the story in it truth. And I met a lot of political leaders in my time. So I always question myself. How the hell could people vote for these people? Because it’s all there, it’s all almost on paper. Very early in my life already as a kid, I looked around in my universe, parents, their friends, tried to make sense of it. I tried to understand : is this all authentic? I didn’t know the word yet as a kid, but that’s probably what I was looking for. Is this authentic? Are these people living an authentic life and their body language, what they said, the way they said it and the tone they said it. So it kind of made me, very early in my life, kind of an observer of humans and without knowing it, it gave me that almost that understanding which then later, when I started taking portraits, became very important to initially the moment I see a person for the first time, have a very good sense of how to go through a sitting with them and I don’t know it’s a very interesting question. Why do I do both? And when did that come in my life? I think the movie thing came relatively late. I do this now for like 7/8 maybe 9 years, 9 years. It came, i just did a film for Disney, did the marketing posters and everything, and then, from that moment on, it’s like America, you know it, it’s not overnight. I wish it was, but it took a while, but then it started to become very, very frequent and always enjoyed working on that subject at the same time. You always you ! And you have to serve those things within yourself, which is a deeper understanding of the world and the people and politics made out of these people. And so I love to do both, and I don’t even question, I just go to work. For me it’s not like I do this now, it’s just me reacting on a situation.
Description de l’épisode
[Episode en Anglais]Marco Grob est un des plus grand photographes portraitistes des 20/30 dernières années – vous connaissez forcément son travail. Que ce soit la dernière photo de Steve Jobs pour la couverture du Times, les photos des différents présidents des U.S., des célébrités comme Léonardo DiCaprio, le film Black Panthers…Marco est autrichien est officie aux U.S., il a également beaucoup travaillé avec le National Geographic dans le cadre de documentaire principalement sur le continent africain.
Nous nous sommes retrouvés avec Marco dans un appartement en vacances cet été et avons eu de longues conversation jusqu’à se poser cette question: quelle est la responsabilité de tenir l’appareil photo?
Si cela peut vous paraitre neutre, vous êtes évidemment loin de la réalité car à travers les images que vous allez projeter des imaginaires et cela est d’autant plus vrai si, comme Marco, vos photos sont vues dans le monde entier.
Marco a un regard passionnant sur son metier, sur l’impact que ses images peuvent avoir sur le monde, sur la manière dont les personnes qu’ils photographient essaie, à travers lui, de modifier la perception que le public va avoir de lui ou elle.
Nous parlons également d’Instagram car ce qui est vrai pour lui l’est également pour nous tous dès que nous envoyons des images sur les réseaux sociaux.
Ce sont autant d’imaginaires projetés évidemment et d’ailleurs la récente étude sur les Facebook papers prouvant l’impact délétère d’instagram sur la confiance en elle des jeunes filles prouvent bien que cela joue un rôle.
Mais avez vous seulement déjà songé à votre impact en terme d’imaginaires?
Dans la mesure où je crois que tous les challenges qui sont devant nous sont liés aux imaginaires que l’on a et que l’immense travail de nous concerne la déconstruction massive de croyances limitantes mais surtout qui détruisent la possibilité même de l’existence sur la planète.
Cela me fait penser à l’épisode avec Mo Gawdat que je vous remets en lien.
[HORS SERIE] La responsabilité de tenir un appareil photo avec Marco Grob
/
GRÉGORY : So you’re photographer. But you also have a lot of different things that you love, so I was wondering why, in the first place, why did you choose photography?
MARCO : Well, actually, it came into my life like almost: you fall in love with a woman you you meet at the bar and you didn’t expect anything to happen that night, in my life I wanted to be a musician very bad, I was very ambitious, I rehearsed a lot, but ultimately I had an experience where I saw that I don’t have that given talent if you want, like you would need to pursue a career and have a good time and also leave something behind, and at the same time, almost same place, actually at the same place, I had access to interesting things and stole my father’s camera and had started to do pictures, and then the world around me reacted with saying : you do this very well, and that was the first time I heard that in my life. So I thought ok maybe that’s worth pursuing and in that process I definitely fell in love with it and I never fell out since, which is a long, long, long time.
GRÉGORY : Long time ago. You do differents kinds of photos and films also now, and to me I feel like, but it’s in my mind, is always focusing in one subject and you do both Holywood movies and documentaries in Africa or in other countries. How can this happen? How can how can you do like one day black punter and another day another thing?
MARCO : Well, I think basically at one point in my life, when I went to New York it was like that. The boy which was interested in history and since I was very young I was always very interested in history and politics in general and what’s happening in the world met the man who carried a camera and it was. It was really a moment where I realized that destiny. I was lucky enough that I was put in a situation where I could start to show a picture of the world I’m living in. I know of the limitations. It’s only my view of the world, it’s only Marcos world, but it’s carried with subjects which mattered to me. There’s many different subjects which matter to me, in social and social aspects, but also at the same time I’m a movie buff. I grew up in Switzerland, Hollywood seems so far-away and I found myself in the midst of that process and I must say I really thoroughly enjoy doing this kind of work and then you mix it up with with other subject matters which are weigh deeper and I’m much more involved, my personality much more deeper, and the other side more involves, you know the photograph man and the creative side, and I think this change is sometimes good and helpful. I have a lot of friends, they are photojournalists, I really admire them. Most of my photography friends are actually photojournalists and again I admire them deeply and I think they have a very important role in our daily lives, in politics and in showing what’s happening in the world. But at the same time I know also it can be very daunting for people to always be exposed to the worst of human condition over years and years and years and years, and so on my end, it’s not that I didn’t want to do that, i was never put in the situation, i was a portray photographer by trade, and so I was never really a photo journal. I mean I was a journalist, I worked journalistic as soon as I work for a magazine. You become a journalist right away, but it’s not that I was photojournalist, but I know it can have very, you know, it’s daunting for a lot of people. They do this kind of work.
GRÉGORY : And in my case I studied with marketing a few years back and eventually, this partwas about marketing at the beginning, four years ago, and and then I gave myself freedom to go to the subject that I was very much more interested in, which was sociology, antropology, geography, history and all those subjects that I love. Was it the same for you like, did you felt that, did you straight begin with both words? Or you felt like you begin with trading like somehow and then give you the freedom to go somewhere else? Or was it straight from the beginning? You wanted to do both? I mean it’s not only both.
MARCO : I think initially it was my interest in people in general. I think every I’m interested in phases beyond the genetics. In every case you see what life left behind. You see things like even social class, you see how they fit themselves if they fit themselves, if they live mostly most of their lives in happy or less condition. You see whether they smoke or not and all embedded in their faces. And it all tells the story and in a weird way, as much as you want to, you can run, but you cannot hide. So you face ultimately, if the other person is willing to look at it will tell the story in it truth. And I met a lot of political leaders in my time. So I always question myself. How the hell could people vote for these people? Because it’s all there, it’s all almost on paper. Very early in my life already as a kid, I looked around in my universe, parents, their friends, tried to make sense of it. I tried to understand : is this all authentic? I didn’t know the word yet as a kid, but that’s probably what I was looking for. Is this authentic? Are these people living an authentic life and their body language, what they said, the way they said it and the tone they said it. So it kind of made me, very early in my life, kind of an observer of humans and without knowing it, it gave me that almost that understanding which then later, when I started taking portraits, became very important to initially the moment I see a person for the first time, have a very good sense of how to go through a sitting with them and I don’t know it’s a very interesting question. Why do I do both? And when did that come in my life? I think the movie thing came relatively late. I do this now for like 7/8 maybe 9 years, 9 years. It came, i just did a film for Disney, did the marketing posters and everything, and then, from that moment on, it’s like America, you know it, it’s not overnight. I wish it was, but it took a while, but then it started to become very, very frequent and always enjoyed working on that subject at the same time. You always you ! And you have to serve those things within yourself, which is a deeper understanding of the world and the people and politics made out of these people. And so I love to do both, and I don’t even question, I just go to work. For me it’s not like I do this now, it’s just me reacting on a situation.
