Some examples of Hasselblad photographers documenting protests with V-Series:
Ta Mwe in Myanmar, Heinz Fröhlich in Prague, Klaus Thymann (various), Anastasia Taylor-Lind (Ukraine), Andrea Briscoli (Berlin)...I am certainly not in the same league, but maybe one day....
The V series was build for professional use, so it will hopefully survive that trip. If not, its modular architecture might make repairs/replacements not too difficult.
Apart from Ta Mwe, I haven't seen in these other photographers' work examples of photographing riots. What I saw from Andrea Briscoli are photographs from very peaceful protests, and anastasia Taylor-Lind's absolutely stunning Ukrainian series are essential portraits — the idea of asking these women stand in front of the camera with their flowers in hand is both brilliant and moving. I couldn't find anything ressembling a protest on Klaus Thymann's website's portfolios.
Ta Mwe's photos come close to what you are describing. Being from the country, he obviously knows the terrain and the people there very well. His photos were taken in the span of many months, not just one day of protest. Hopefully, you can do the same.
maybe you can give me concrete advice based on your own experience
I have given you advice based on my own experience. I work for a news media. I've studied journalism, and most of my colleagues and friends are journalists, some of whom have been in difficult and violent situations abroad. I am very familiar with the type of training they go through before they leave, be it to cover people in Ukraine or to document the wave of feminicides in Mexico. I've also had the opportunity to chat with the photographers and/or cameramen who accompany them.
Wandering around a city and documenting its people is one thing. It's a great experience, a good way to both learn the craft of photography and learn to communicate and interact with people. Anybody can do it, everybody
should do it. And it can be done with any camera, from 35mm to 4x5. You have a great set up, if your intent, as seemed to be the case earlier on, is to document a city and its people "Ara Güler-style," honestly, you're all set, and have been so by page 2 or 3 of this thread.
But documenting a city and its people "Ara Güler-style" is a far cry from shooting a protest that turns into a riot, which now seems to be the main, or one of the main objectives of this project. That's for pros: because they know their craft, have the skills, and have the training to know what to do and where to go if and when things take a turn for the worse. You only go into these situations if you're knowledge of your gear is so intimate that using it has become like breathing or drinking a glass of water. You don't go into these situations with a film camera if you don't know how to change your roll in a millisecond, and if you don't know all that the film you've chosen can do well.
In other words, a protest that turns into a riot is not a place to learn or experiment.
Hence my advice to talk to a pro or to take a workshop with one. If you're intent is to photograph a protest that looks more like Myanmar than a Berlin peace march that's only missing the flowers in one's hair, then you need expertise, which a pro will give you, not opinions, however informed they are, which the good people at Photrio can give you.
Nobody's trying to dissuade you from doing this project. On the contrary. I think you've had a lot of support and encouragement. What you have misconstrued as prying into your personal affair was rather a way of giving you better advice using the most information possible. As I said before, to me, it's very difficult to "critique" a choice of camera and film without knowing all the circumstances in which it will be used. Some have agreed with that position, some have disagreed. Part of the forum life.
In the end, you are free to do want you want, how you want to do it, with the gear you want to do it with. I can assure you, the day you post on Photrio "This is it, I'm leaving for the protest (even though I'm not telling you where
), wish me luck!" Everybody will cheer.
Hm, my SL 601 has that, so you are saying that maybe digital is better than analog for this project?
My suggestion would be to take the medium format for your "Ara Güler-style" photos of the city and its people, and, for the protest/riot, an SLR — 35mm film or digital,
whichever you are very familiar with — with a 28mm prime for close-ups and large views and a 70-200mm zoom in case you have to move out fast but still want great shots from afar. The 28mm can be replaced by a 24-70mm zoom. This is the basic set-up a pro photojournalist covering such an event would use.
If you don't like zooms, carry a wide or normal lens + a telephoto (anything from 135mm to 200mm).
You use what you have.... that's what Josef Koudelka did....
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These are so extraordinary. I never get tired of looking at them.
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. This is where it all is!
