221 - Richard Kalvar

Ambiguity is at the forefront of Richard Kalvar’s photography. Richard, who describes context as the “enemy”, seeks mystery and multiple meanings through surprising framing and meticulous timing. He describes his approach as “more like poetry than photojournalism – it attacks on the emotional level.”

Richard has done extensive personal, assignment and commercial work in the United States, France, Italy, England, and Japan, among others, has published a number of solo books including Earthlings (Terriens) in 2007 and his most recent title, Selected Writings, published in 2023 by Damiani, and he has had important exhibitions in the US, France, Germany, Spain and Italy.

His work has appeared in Geo, The Paris Review, Creative Camera, Aperture, Zoom, Newsweek, and Photo, among many others. Editorial assignments and even commercial work have given Richard an additional opportunity to do personal photography. He did many documentary stories that allowed him to disengage from documentary mode when the occasion arose.

Richard joined Magnum Photos as an associate member in 1975, and became a full member two years later. He subsequently served several times as vice president, and once as president of the agency.

In episode 221, Richard discusses, among other things:

• How he ended up settling in Paris
• His introduction to photography
• How humour is an intrinsic element of his photographs
• how he is playing with things he has trouble dealing with
• Why he called up Robert Delpire
• VU agency becoming Viva
• How he ended up in Magnum
• His favourite cities to shoot in
• The legal restrictions on shooting in public in different places
• Public attitudes towards taking photographs of strangers in public
• His new book, Selected Writings
• Why his interest is in single images that stand alone

Referenced:

• Jérôme Ducrot
• André Kertesz
• HCB
• Robert Frank
• Lee Friedlander
• Elliott Erwitt
• Robert Delpire
• Viva Agency
• Guy LeQuerec
• Gilles Peress
• Mary Ellen Mark
• Alex Majoli
• Jonas Bendiksen
• Paolo Pellegrin
• Olivia Arthur

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“I’m most interested in having pictures stand alone, and each one is something you can get into and is a story in itself and is also an imaginary story. I’m working with reality, that’s what’s really interesting to me and it’s also what’s interesting about photography in general, that you’re doing something that looks like real life but obviously isn’t. that’s the edge I like to work on. Where you have the impression that things are going on and not necessarily going on. If I have to tell a story, I feel a certain moral obligation to respect the truth or respect the feelings of the people that are in it. I think that’s a noble thing but for my kind of work it’s a break.”

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