Silvia Omedes: "A good photograph informs, moves, and, if it is photojournalism, it questions us"

Since 2001, Photographic Social Vision (PSV) was created to promote and enhance the social value of documentary photography and photojournalism. Silvia Omedes, founder and director from the beginning, talks to us about photojournalism in general and two of her most emblematic projects: World Press Photo (WPP) in Barcelona and the DOCfield festival.

Since 2001, Photographic Social Vision (PSV) was created to promote and enhance the social value of documentary photography and photojournalism. Silvia Omedes, founder and director from the beginning, talks to us about photojournalism in general and two of her most emblematic projects: World Press Photo (WPP) in Barcelona and the DOCfield festival.

Why did you choose photography?

My mother was a photographer. For me, taking pictures and having everything around me photographed was normal; my education was fundamentally visual due to my mother's influence. Moreover, I studied art history and at university, they helped me to deeply analyze images. But I was always very interested in cinema and photography. However, the University of Barcelona did not offer courses on photography, so I took a course in the United States, where I finished my degree specializing in this discipline.

Was it in the USA where you discovered cultural management?

I wanted to be a photographer, but I had the opportunity to start working at the Guggenheim in New York as an exhibition coordinator and discovered the power of cultural management. In some way, my career has combined my photographic sensitivity with cultural management.

When did you decide to leave the field of photojournalism?

When I returned to Barcelona, I tried to work as a photographer and publish the reports that interested me, but I found that there was no one to buy them. I did a postgraduate course in photojournalism at the Autonomous University and realized that photojournalism as a sector was very mistreated and did not have the social recognition it deserved. And also, in Barcelona, there was no platform to support photojournalists, so I decided to create one.

Was Photographic Social Vision born this way?

Indeed. This also came to light after participating in a third sector congress where all the NGOs unanimously said that they invested their members' money in development projects and that at the end of the year they never had a budget for communication. Consequently, they always had logisticians and volunteers without visual training take the photos, resulting in poor quality images. However, for effective communication, it's necessary to work with professional photographers, especially in Africa, where otherwise the result has been the abusive use of wide-angle shots of African children with runny noses and flies on their faces. Such images do not help to raise awareness about what Africa truly is. They reinforce a paternalistic image and a feeling of superiority over Africans, and if we are to understand the African continent, its wealth and its vast nuances, it is much better for a professional to tell us about it.

You therefore started by helping the NGOs

We started the foundation by connecting photographers with NGOs. The NGOs obtained much more educational, profound, and respectful material. And the photographers had an exhibition at the end of the trip that gave them visibility. That's how we worked for several years.

There is always a project that makes a difference. Which one was yours?

The research project for the Vicki Bernadet Foundation. We spent a year investigating child sexual abuse. We produced an in-depth journalistic work that was published in La Vanguardia's Magazine. Both the Vicki Bernadet Foundation and we, as well as La Vanguardia, were satisfied to see how a good report had managed to raise awareness, educate, and bring visibility to a social issue that was silenced and stigmatized. From there, we produced and supported reports for other NGOs in Algeria, Bosnia, Guatemala, etc., which have allowed them to have a good visual narrator of their activities, because a photographer is fundamentally a visual storyteller.

Is photography the best tool for social complaint?

It is a very powerful tool. If it is well made and connects with the audience, it has an incredible power to raise awareness. It is a universal language. Often, there is no need for a caption to connect with the public, regardless of their origin and condition. It is a very rich language, with many nuances, many levels of interpretation, and it has the ability to provoke emotions. A good photograph informs, excites, and, if it is photojournalism, it challenges us. Therefore, it is a tool that, today, anyone working in communication should understand and master.

A photographer is fundamentally a visual storyteller.

- Silvia Omedes | Founder of Photographic Social Vision

Since 2005 you have been partners with WORLD PRESS PHOTO, what kind of collaboration do you have?

Since we founded PSV, we already had this Dutch foundation as a model, which since 1955 has been carrying out a task of vindication and recognition of photojournalism. They do this through a contest, and it seemed most natural to propose to them to bring the best photographs of the contest to Barcelona in an exhibition format. 13 years ago, we suggested that Barcelona become a venue for the World Press Photo, they agreed and since then we have been partners. We have taken advantage of this powerful exhibition, which represents the best photojournalism in the world, to be a channel for disseminating news that most of the Spanish press does not publish: 90% of these winning photographs have not been published. For the Barcelona audience, it is a unique opportunity to learn about stories, contexts, and issues that they would not know otherwise.

Photographs: Tash McCammon

- Silvia Omedes | World Press Photo

In 2013, you chose the image of the bullfighter Juan José Padilla for the WPP poster in Barcelona. How did you experience the controversy that arose?

We were very surprised that the institutions did not understand this photograph as a winning picture. The city preferred that we did not use it on the street banners, but the rest of the campaign continued with the original image. It is a very striking image of a bullfighter looking at the camera with a skewed montera, facial paralysis, one injured eye covered with a pirate-style patch, and fingers with band-aids. For us, who were in the midst of an economic crisis, it was the image of a human being facing their future and challenges. As a result of this controversy at a politically tense moment between Barcelona and Madrid, because Barcelona declared itself anti-bullfighting and Madrid pro-bullfighting, it gave us extra publicity we hadn't counted on. To the point that 15 days before the opening we had a very long line of people who wanted to come to see the photograph of the bullfighter. It was not easy to manage because here, unfortunately, culture and political identity are very intertwined. We defend photojournalism and this photograph is taken by one of the great exponents of photojournalism in this country, Daniel Ochoa de Olza. For us, it was very important to spread his work.

How are the photographs for the exhibition chosen?

The photographs that make up the exhibition are the winners of the contest and are the same in Barcelona, Madrid, or New York. We do have the authority to choose which photograph we use for the communication campaign, and each year we try to give visibility to the winning photographs of national authors because we are a support platform and the exhibition is a great window for people to get to know our authors.

This year, the photo of the assassination of the Russian ambassador in Turkey has won. What do you think the jury intended to acknowledge with this award?

Above all, the work of the agency photographer, who even in a context as dangerous as a confined space with a terrorist killing a prominent politician, remained calm documenting the situation and risking his life, also taking informative and graphically powerful pictures of what happened there.

Which photo would you like to win the WPP?

A photo taken by a woman. Only 15% of international photojournalists are women.And when we analyze the work of women, we realize that their perspective on the world is very different from that of men. I would like the balance between genders to be equalized. We must try to ensure that this 15% of professional women also have visibility. We have a vision of the world, especially in the 20th century, based on their photographs, which have focused on conflicts or public spaces or political and geostrategic events. Women choose more intimate, domestic themes, they pay attention to relationships between people, communities. If our perspective had also been nourished by images and stories made by women photojournalists, we wouldn't have such a depressing view of the world.

- Silvia Omedes | World Press Photo

Another one of your projects is the DOCfield Festival. How did it come about and what is its purpose?

The initiative comes from the former director of the CCCB, Josep Ramoneda, who after hosting the WPP for so many years and seeing how photojournalism brought to the CCCB an audience that had never entered before, told me, 'Silvia, I want more photojournalism.' The seed was a small exhibition called 'More Photojournalism' at the CCCB and it could have continued for years. But with the change in the institution's leadership, we were left without a room to exhibit when we already had the photographs produced, and we had to relocate 5 exhibitions to different locations in Barcelona within two months, which naturally created a route. Five years later, it has become a City-Festival that brings together different cultural venues: museums, community centers, private galleries, cultural centers, etc. They all come together at a specific time of the year to display documentary photography and allow us to see complete works. The WPP offers small samples of reports that are actually longer. We were very excited that the city could have access to the complete reports and that photographers could see their entire body of work exhibited.

Photographs: Oscar Ciutat

What will DOCfield 17 consist of?

The opening will be on October 19th, and the theme is The Journey, which suggests many other sub-themes, but we will focus on migrations and refugees, and on the phenomenon of tourism. These are fundamental issues for Barcelona that many citizens have requested us to address, and which we need to reflect upon. We are looking for content that challenges the viewer about human mobility in all its forms: tourism, about the city of desire, about the transformation of the human landscape of today's city compared to that of 100 years ago, about what motivates travel, not only as a tourist but also as a migrant, what encounters and conflicts the journey entails, etc. We are very eager for the city to join this reflection and to feel stimulated through the Route of exhibitions DOCfield to reconsider these realities.

Do you think we are witnessing the end of photojournalism?

Many believe that photojournalism is dead, but I think the opposite, that it couldn't be in better shape. Photographers are developing new visual formulas, seeking and locating their audiences, and shaping their projects with the channels to reach them in mind. What is in crisis are the traditional media: print media. But we have outstanding examples like the New York Times, which has been able to adapt its content to the digital age through the Internet without losing quality and is consolidating a hugely important global audience. However, at the state level, I'm not clear on where print and digital press are heading. Having good digital strategies is key for the future.

The tool is the least of it. What's important is the intention, the perspective, the goal, the professional who researches and corroborates sources to make a good story.

- Silvia Omedes | DOCfield

Do you think that mobile phones can eventually replace photojournalism and photojournalists?

No, because we are confusing tools with authors. The important thing about photojournalism is that there is a trained eye to create a good visual narrative. A good photographer will do great work with whatever tool is needed. Social networks are full of amateur photography taken with phones, and photographers use them too, but for professional work with a professional perspective. The tool is actually the least important thing. What matters is the intention, the perspective, the goal of a project, the professional who researches and corroborates sources to tell a good story or project. The personal use of an amateur who documents their personal life and publishes their selfies is very different.