This year’s winner of the world-renowned photo contest World Press Photo is a Danish photographer Mads Nissen. His Jon and Alex, a picture of a Russian gay couple, is named the best photo of the year. “Sexual minorities face legal and social discrimination, harassment, and even violent hate-crime attacks from conservative religious and nationalistic groups,” explains World Press Photo’s website.
For Nissen, this victory is not the first in this competition. In 2003 he won the third prize in the nomination “Daily Life Picture Story.” Then, starting with 2006, he has won several other prestigious photo contests, and 14 times his photos have been chosen the best at Press Photo of the Year in Denmark.
Nissen has cooperated with such respectable global media as Time Magazine, Newsweek, Stern, Geo, Sunday Times Magazine, D Magazine, and others. Now he is working as a staff photographer for a national Danish newspaper Politiken.
Past year Nissen visited Ukraine to make photo accounts of the events on Maidan and in Crimea. Read The Day’s interview with the photographer where he shares his impressions of the Revolution of Dignity as seen through the lens of his camera and ideas on global standards of reportage photography.
“THIS PHOTO IS NOT ONLY ABOUT THE PROBLEM OF HOMOPHOBIA IN RUSSIA”
“I became a photographer to be able to tell the rest of the world about some important things. I try to do it on a daily basis working on topics the world must learn about. I see my victory in this competition as a platform which helps make stories like the one of homophobia in Russia known to the outer world. Thanks to this, the photo will appear at more than a hundred exhibits and become part of human history. For me it is very important to make my humble contribution to love. And maybe it will change people’s ideas of LGBT.”
How did you come to get interested in the problem of homophobia in Russia?
“I was in St. Petersburg, where I gave a seminar for budding photographers. I had read a lot about homophobia in Russia and wanted to explore the problem. Once I went to a gay parade where a young man who stood in front of me was brutally beaten up. That moment changed everything for me, making it a very personal story. This incident infuriated me, I felt myself responsible, I felt an urge to do something. That is how I began to shoot. For me the winning shot is not only about the problem of homophobia in Russia. This is an opportunity for us all to look at ourselves and ask: are we tolerant enough with others?”
Nowadays a lot of people have cameras built in their smartphones or tablets. What does being a professional photographer mean for you?
“First of all, I see myself as a narrator journalist. I like the new trend which makes photography increasingly more available for ordinary people. There was a time when the profession of photographer was more of a trade. Photographers were the only ones who knew how to handle a camera or develop films in the darkroom with developers.
“Now the role of the photographer has dramatically changed, the trade became a narrative. I love that, since the more people can shoot, the better. The more people understand complicated shots, the better.
“Photographers must tell people about important things. That is why I like people who take photos. However, this year I was impressed by a shot which was made not with a camera and even not with a mobile phone. It was made by an X-ray machine and featured a boy who was trying to smuggle another immigrant kid to Spain in a suitcase.
“On the other hand, the audience must trust the work of professionals. You could compare this to writing. A lot of people can read and write, but it does not mean you have to believe everything which is written in blogs or in the Internet.”
“I SAW UKRAINE IN PAIN AND MOURNING FOR THE FALLEN”
Past year you visited Ukraine, in particular, Maidan and Crimea.
“I wanted to visit Maidan before, but unfortunately my paper would not have that. I was told, ‘We already have a lot of photos from information outlets. Why should you be going there?’ I replied I could have another perspective on things.
“So, when I was at last allowed to go, it was a little too late. I arrived on the day when killings began in the afternoon. When I went out to the square, the fighting was already over. I saw Ukraine in pain and mourning for the fallen. There were funerals all day and all night long. I made a lot of shots, I was trying to do my best, but the impressions and feelings I have after Maidan are much more vivid than my photographs.
Photo by Mads Nissen
“And then I set out to Crimea. There the situation was quite different. On the one hand, it was far less dangerous. And on the other, much more complicated. On Maidan, everyone welcomed my presence and wanted me to capture what was going on. In Crimea everything was just the opposite. People did not want me there. They did not respect me being a neutral journalist, representing Western mass media. They wanted me to begin defending Obama’s (!) policies, but I am a reporter, not an American ambassador (smiles).
“I was interested to learn about Crimea’s ancient history and its symbolic meaning. I tried to make a photo essay about the historical importance of this place and the life of Crimean Tatars. As an outsider, I had known quite little of Crimea before that. But the more I learned about Stalin’s deportation of Tatars, the stronger I felt the symbolism of this place.
“In Crimea, I sensed a tense atmosphere. When the conflict began to develop, it was increasingly harder to work, since Russian military were against my activities.”
“IT IS NECESSARY TO FEEL THE STORY YOU WANT TO TELL”
Western media often receive information on Ukraine from their offices in Russia. Or from information outlets which provide a shallow coverage of events. How important is it in your opinion that the West should be more thorough with handpicking of information?
“Many outlets tend to make such photos which would fit all kinds of media. But this could destroy the diversity in photography. People who cooperate with outlets must apply a more personal approach. That photographs have a great diversity is of crucial importance. Any good photographer has their own vision of the subject. The photographer must justify their presence on the site with his personal vision and personal ambitions. In a place with a lot of photographers you must ask yourself time and again: what can I do to make it different from the others? What is my perspective? What kind of story do I want to tell? If you don’t do this, we will all just replicate one another.”
When you were going to Ukraine, did you have any stereotypes or reservations about this country?
“Personally, I had never been to Ukraine before, and I did not know what to expect. I had been to Eastern Europe: Russia, Poland, and Moldova. If you ask people in Denmark about Ukraine, they will say they greatly sympathize with Ukrainians. They feel they want to help Ukraine as much as possible. But it is a complicated situation because Danes do not want to provoke Russia any more.”
