PDNEWS
Associated Press].
Online News Digest
continued from page 12
© MAT T SAy LES/INVISION
MH: [After] 9/11 happened, George W. Bush announced that they were going to push the Taliban
out, and that was happy news. I was treated like a
second-class citizen [in Iran]. When the U.S. invaded
Afghanistan, I thought OK, I’ll go there and see what
opportunities come [to me].
PDN: Did you have any idea what you wanted to do?
MH: I really wanted to be a journalist. I wanted to
capture [the changes in Afghanistan] for history, and
to share it with others.
PDN: How did you get a job with AFP?
MH: My girlfriend at the time, who is now my
wife [Farzana Wahidy, who also trained at AINA],
and I went to the AFP office together in Kabul, and
told them we were looking for jobs. They said they
needed one photographer. We decided that Farzana
should go with AFP because it is easier for men to
find jobs. At the end of 2006, AP hired Farzana and
AFP hired me [to replace her]. I asked them to get me
military embeds so I could go and cover the war.
Pop singer Katy Perry.
AP Launches New Entertainment
Photo Agency
The wire service is the majority investor in
InVision, a Los Angeles-based agency launched
in May to challenge Getty Images, the dominant
agency in the business of covering red carpet
events and celebrity assignment work.
http://bit.ly/KR8eES
PDN: How did you learn photography?
MH: When I finished high school, an Afghan charity organization asked me to help them [and] sent me to talk
to some Afghan refugees [in Iran]. Their houses were
plastic and [corrugated] steel, with no water, no power. I [wanted] to show the Iranian people: You talk a lot
about justice, but these people are invisible. I thought
the best way was to show pictures. I worked for nine
months in a tailor shop to buy a camera [and] I started
to take pictures, and sent them to some Iranian papers.
PDN: As an Afghan national and native speaker,
couldn’t you have worked outside the military
embed system?
MH: That was possible, but it was too dangerous.
The insurgents are really awful. They’re blind, and
they’re deaf. If they saw me with a camera, they
would consider me a spy, and behead me.
Police Brutality? Pictures Tell a
More Complicated Story
A Chicago Tribune photographer captured an
image of a police officer throwing a punch at a
protester outside the NATO summit meeting
on May 20. It’s tempting to condemn the police
outright, but photos leading up to that disturbing
image show the importance of context in
(photo) journalism. http://bit.ly/KaEWjj
PDN: How did you end up with AFP?
MH: By coincidence I met [photojournalist and
National Geographic contributor] Reza in Kabul. I
told him I really wanted to go on with photography,
and asked if he could help. He invited me to study
photography at AINA, the photojournalism school
he started in Kabul with his brother [Manoocher
Deghati, now Mideast regional photo editor for the
PDN: What’s your plan once the U.S. military leaves
Afghanistan?
MH: Unfortunately there will be another war, and it
will be a civil war, and in civil war there are no rules.
Anyone can be killed. For sure, that will happen. I tried
my best to show war in Afghanistan, and I did it. If
there is no possibility for me to stay in Afghanistan, I
can cover war in another country. This doesn’t mean
I will forget Afghanistan. I will try to cover war there,
but if it’s not possible, I will leave.
Getty Going Public Again?
Reuters reports that Getty Images, the largest
stock photo agency, has retained Goldman Sachs
and JPMorgan Chase to evaluate the possibility
of a sale or an initial public offering. Getty was
a publicly held company prior to 2008, when
a private equity firm bought it for $2.4 billion.
http://bit.ly/JlV4PW
PICTURE STORY
BIKE RACING IN RWANDA
At the second annual Tour of Rwanda, Ben Ingham captured the spirit
of a new generation of African cyclists and their enthusiastic fans for
an unconventional British cycling magazine. By Meghan Ahearn
Shutterstock Prepares for IPO
Microstock photo agency Shutterstock has
filed a business prospectus with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, announcing its
intention to sell shares through an initial public
offering. The filing revealed that the average
price its customers pay for each image they
download is $2.05. http://bit.ly/JNK TRJ
MOMA Appoints Quentin Bajac as
Chief Curator of Photography
Bajac, who was the chief curator of photography
at the Centre Pompidou in Paris for nearly
a decade, has been named chief curator of
photography at MOMA to replace Peter Galassi,
who retired last year. http://bit.ly/KuAMoF
THeRe’S NO qUeSTION THAT eUROPe IS THe ceNTeR of the cycling world. Many of the sport’s most
prestigious races are held on the continent, and they
are huge, corporate-sponsored events with celebrity
riders and devoted fans. But recently, Union cycliste
Internationale, the sport’s governing body, has held
smaller races in Africa and Asia. These events not
only introduce lesser-known riders to cycling fans,
they also bring new spectators to the sport.
The novelty of back-to-basics racing in an unusual
setting is what photographer Ben Ingham had in
mind when he pitched a story about the second an-
nual Tour of Rwanda to the British cycling magazine
Rouleur. Ingham isn’t a sports photographer but he
has worked with athletic brands that don’t want pol-
ished, traditional sports imagery. He shot the first as
well as subsequent ad campaigns for Rapha, which
have helped the cycling clothing company establish
its brand identity. That work led to his collaborations
with Rouleur, an unconventional cycling magazine
that focuses on design, photography and writing to
convey the beauty of the sport.
editorial director Guy Andrews says one of the rea-
sons that the Tour of Rwanda article was a perfect
fit for the magazine is that it’s far removed from the
european cycling scene. Plus, he adds, “it has all the
essential ingredients: drama, beauty and a sense of
adventure.”
Ingham arrived two days before the seven-day
race with writer Tom Southam, a former cyclist
turned journalist. Ingham’s original plan was to fol-
low a specific team, such as the Rwandan riders or
the ethiopian riders. However, he says, “as it trans-
pired, it didn’t feel right to focus on just one team
as Africa is so huge and has such a diverse culture. I
decided to show as much as I could.”
each morning, Ingham planned his coverage for
that day’s leg of the race. There were standard places
where he could always shoot: the riders’ hotel before
or after the race; the start or finish line; or along the
route of the procession, which went ahead of the
racers to alert people that the race was coming. The
