Sport and Society
July 2006
Banner photo: Image Source/Getty Images
Photographers: Distilling Time
Helmuth Rautenbach is a fashion and beauty photographer in Cape Town, South Africa, who also worked for many years in the U.K. Massimo Mastrorillo is a photojournalist who lives in Rome, Italy. His work has centered on geographical and social reportage.
Massimo Mastrorillo (left) and Helmuth Rautenbach
Can you describe your most challenging and perhaps most rewarding photographic assignment?
Massimo: About two years ago I stopped working for a year to support my wife through cancer treatment. It was a very difficult year that we both got through only with our Buddhist practice. When Paola was ready to begin a normal life, I received an assignment from the International Photography Festival in Rome to document various contrasts and social problems in Indonesia following the tsunami. I realized this was a significant opportunity for me. The show was a great success. One of the images won first prize in the World Press 2006 selection, the most prestigious photojournalism prize in the world.
The determination that I developed under these circumstances helped me find the energy to finish a photographic project in Mozambique that I had been wearily working on for four years. The result was that some of these photos were selected by the Picture of the Year International and the Best of Photojournalism, two well-known international American competitions.
Aftermath of the 2004 tsunami, Banda Aceh, Indonesia
[©Massimo Mastrorillo]
Helmuth: The ongoing project I call "The Pinup Project." Briefly, I collaborated with models (which is unusual in itself) to make images based on pinups from the 40s and 50s. Eventually I hope to get a sponsor to publish it and thereby raise funds for HIV and AIDS. It is my firm belief that lighthearted things can create enormous value within the context of such serious matters. Often in South Africa, people are overloaded with serious images and media and so switch off to them.
What, for you, makes photography different from other art? What drew you to photography?
Helmuth: I am not always sure that photography is art, in the same way that painting is sometimes painting a cupboard. It might sound a little trivial, but I always loved the sound of the studio flash, and the whirr of a motordrive. I suppose it is because it has a theatrical quality, a dramatic moment. I am also very humbled by having the honor and trust to photograph a person.
Massimo: Photographic language certainly has many limits. In a novel, for example, a single word can give the reader space for infinite nuances and imagination. A photograph is a synthesis. In a single frame, the photograph must have a strong spirit of research. It must be able to observe reality and isolate an instant of life--to show the many worlds that exist in that life-moment.
Henri Cartier-Bresson spoke about the "decisive moment" and the necessity of putting the heart and the eyes on the same level. He said that a good photograph is an emotion born through the meeting of the photograph's interior world and the world that surrounds it. Photojournalism helps me respect and recognize a person's Buddhahood, a person whose life circumstances, behavior and thoughts may be extremely distant from my own.
How do you see your "mission" as a photographer--what is it that you are aiming to do through your work?
Massimo: I feel that my mission is to inform by providing elements that help open our eyes to reality, and to recognize life in its complexity and simplicity as well as its harshness and incredible beauty.
Helmuth: I am convinced that lighthearted things, like dancing or magazines or other modern aspects of popular culture, impart the artists' motivation. If the motivation is joyful and inherently positive, then on some level this is picked up. I always think of the scene I read about Jewish musicians in Auschwitz being forced to play beautiful music for the Nazis. On a much smaller scale, making a model feel uncomfortable but making her smile in a picture is similar. So I suppose I like the idea of creating passionate intense images, but before anything consider and respect the sitter.
How does your approach to life as a Buddhist affect your work?
Helmuth: I suppose the idea of creating value tends to underpin my attitude to photography, and so I feel that one should take care of the sitter first. I would rather have a bad picture than a bad day.
Massimo: In my work environment, there is often a lot of conceit around the idea of success--a lot of arrogance and cynicism, in spite of the fact that we handle themes like sickness, death and the lack of basic human rights. I believe as a Buddhist I must help change this situation, being seen first of all as a human being of value and then, hopefully, as a good photographer.
Do you think photographs can change the viewer's life or make the world a better place?
Massimo: I don't think that photography is that powerful. People are too used to being inundated by images--images of suffering and death are "metabolized" in a really short time. A photograph can evoke an emotion or offer the viewer a deeper approach to a certain reality. It can have an educational role, but only people themselves can decide to make the world a better place. As a Buddhist I can only try to have this kind of determination and to use photography as a useful instrument.
From the series "Mozambique: a decade of peace between
poverty and a dream"
[©Massimo Mastrorillo]
Helmuth: I think in unusual cases an image can truly affect one, but mostly I think it is the collective impact of all the media one takes in that really has an impact. I have thought that the idea of sustainability is very relevant in popular culture. This is because it is communication, and it thereby imparts much more than is seen by the "naked eye." I believe that if we build good relationships with the teams we work with (in fashion and beauty it is always a team of between 5 and 10 people), this is a bit like planting trees when you cut down trees. It does not necessarily have an immediate effect or benefit, and sometimes seems like it might have no impact, if you live in a world dominated by the need for only surface results, but it does have a positive effect.
How do you go about improving your skills as a photographer?
Helmuth: I try and keep learning, and doing test projects. It is hard because photography is a very time-consuming and physical enterprise.
Massimo: I am always looking for new stimuli. I don't want to feel satisfied with myself or settled in my ways. I am convinced I can become a better photographer because Buddhism gives me the opportunity to continually improve myself as a human being.
