“Photo-psychoanalysis” is a word that we can’t look up in the dictionary. I heard it for the first time in one of the sessions of the Master in Photojournalism at the University of the Arts of London. It was mentioned by one of the students, Stefania Mizara, who meant the capacity of blogs to self-analyze, to reflect about oneself, about the past, the present and the future. Blogs are not simply a product of our ego, but it is a brilliant way to spread our doubts and certainties on a paper sheet (well, maybe on a computer screen), evaluating them and, why not?, letting someone to put his nose on it and giving a hand.
After nearly five years writing on the blog of my website, I can look back and think about my future projection. I mean, I can exercise my “photo-psychoanalysis”.
It was 12 years ago when I took a camera for the first time in my professional career. It was in 1999, working for Segre, a local newspaper based in Lleida (Catalonia, Spain). By then, I had a very small idea what photojournalism meant, because I was more obsessed with words than images.
But, as many things in this world, photography came to me as a perfect glove. It was not because I started as a talented genius (not at all, my beginning was really immature), but because it was a vocation just awake. Since then, I have been on the hands of many mentors from who I learnt something. Almost none of them is (yet) a sacred name in the history of photojournalism, but they have been a big influence of my daily activity.
The profile of each photojournalist consists of 25% innate material and 75% external components, those who are feeding for a lifetime.
And here I am, in a sweet stage of my career. Working in Darfur (Sudan) for the United Nations is a candy that I’m still enjoying. It is one of the best ways I’ve found to combine the two fields I’m most passionate about: photojournalism and development.
The rudder is now locked on this position. I do not know if I will change my route, but for now I get the sense that photography is supposed to serve the society and support the efforts for the Third and Fourth Worlds.
With these coordinates, my boat is still receiving visits from all who cross my path during the journey and, of course, moved by technological improvements that XXI century is usually bombing us.
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