After talking about my stolen equipment I should talk about the FEP congres itself. I made a lot of notes, images and audio recordings for you but they are all stolen too, so you’ll have to do with the info in my memory that wasn’t erased by the cervesa. To make all this text a little easier to digest, I’ll put some images in between. I made all this images the day after the congres with an Ixus I borrowed from Bruno, the president of the Belgian association for Professional Photographers. Thanks Bruno.

Jean and I were quite succesful in avoiding tourist traps. We didn’t know what we ordered in this small local restaurant but it tasted way better than it looked. We also managed to do some wildlife spotting (sounds better than saying we saw a cockroach in the toilet.)

The congres starten on monday morning in the Palacia de Congresos. We were overwhelmed by the croud (600 photographers) and a lot of noise (Southern temperaments). We were welcomed by some spokespeople of the organisation: Ricardo Carillo, Belén Caballero en Luc Peeters. Luckily we got these headphones with an Englisch translation because the welcoming was mostly done in Spanish.

The main thing I remember is that the market for professional photography has changed and is still changing. My personal idea about how it’s going to evolve is pretty close to what has been said. The bottom of the market has fallen out. Photographers who can’t deliver quality are dead meat. I think that even the lower medium end of the market is going to fall out too. But for photographers that keep on learning, stay creative and who are aiming for quality, there will always be a market. Originality and creativity are becoming more important. Luc Peeters also talked briefly about changing communication- and marketing channels, web 2.0 remember.

Valencia or Cuba?

The Belgian delegation opened the congress. Instead of having only one speaker, we choose to make an audiovisual presentation that would show different aspects and genres in Belgian photography. We also wanted to make it very open, to keep it interesting for our international collegues. Thanks to the hard work of a number of people we managed to make an interesting 50 minute film, featuring 5 photographers and a slideshow with the best from Belgium. The features photographers were: Norbert Maes (portrait), Stephane Verheye (food/still life), Isabel Corthier (wedding), Pascal Baetens (nude) and also this weirdo (gasmask photography). We cut these movies together with images of a cyclist riding through the Belgian landscape. The big surprise was that at the end, our cyclist rode onto the stage of the congress center.
We received great reactions on our presentation and it lead to interesting conversations later on

Next up was Tony Limeres from Spain. He is running a studio in a small village were very classic portrait photography seems to be the standard. Not really my cup of tea but it was clear that Tony has a really good way of dealing with his clients. The other thing I remembered is that he thinks that photographers should make personal work. The landscape pictures he makes for fun, are really amazing. But it’s even more important that his personal work guarantees him to keep his passion for photography.
I also noticed that his studio has the most beautiful floor tiles, I’ve ever seen. Another idea for my very vague studio plans.

Michael Jackson has had his best days and I’m under the impression that this is also true for photography in many European countries. (Now, if that isn’t an impressive way to bridge the gap between an irrelevant snapshot and another topic). 20 year old business models might still work in certain cases but they are far from a guarantee to succes. And in most European countries they slowly start understandig that. In Ireland on the other hand, it looks like they understand for a number of years already that photography has evolved from being a craft to being a business.

Neil Warner’s presentation about marketing and the business end of photography was extremely interesting. The quality of his images supports his business ideas. The one thing that struck me the most that it’s easier to maintain a healthy between work and family when you consider your photography a real business.

Designer dresses, professional make-up, heavenly light and brides that all looked like they stepped out of a model agency … that what we enjoyed during the presentation of Italian wedding photographer Adriano Pugliese. His timeless black & white photography guaranteed a lot of eyecandy. But a 50-minute slideshow, how beautiful it may be, isn’t why I travel to Valencia.

From the same country but with a different kind of presentation is Marco Onofri. The general way of thinking seems to be that photographers have to specialise because you can’t excel in everything. Marco actually proves the opposite. In his portofolio, you can find portraits, products, documentary, fashion, weddings, … And the cool thing is that it’s all fantastic work. I wouldn’t be surprised if Marco also makes great x-rays in the local hospital.
Onofri also pointed out the importance of personal work. His own personal documentary work (mostly on film) is very impressive.

After this long yet interesting day, we had a huge dinner party with all those photographers. I could tell you about it, but then I would have to kill you.