00:00:21.999 --> 00:00:22.880
(helicopter flying overhead)

00:00:32.560 --> 00:00:33.000
(crowd cheering)

00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:42.560
(shouting in foreign language)

00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:51.800
(chanting)

00:00:58.360 --> 00:01:01.200
- I'm always a foreigner.

00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.800
I mean, even Iran
in a way I was.

00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:10.600
Foreigner means
somebody from outside.

00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:12.999
I am always a
photographer from outside

00:01:13.120 --> 00:01:15.160
going to a situation, taking
photographs and going home.

00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:18.640
(calm music)

00:01:25.920 --> 00:01:26.640
I never become the other.

00:01:30.999 --> 00:01:33.760
Wherever I photograph, if it's
a war, if it's a revolution,

00:01:33.920 --> 00:01:38.640
if it's some religion, I
always go back to my own place,

00:01:38.800 --> 00:01:42.440
to my own culture.

00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:44.120
(dramatic instrumental music)

00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:11.999
(lighthearted music)

00:02:37.999 --> 00:02:39.160
- [Voiceover] For years, he
has observed, interpreted,

00:02:42.999 --> 00:02:45.999
photographed and
described the realities

00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:48.200
he witnesses in a direct,
extremely personal style,

00:02:48.360 --> 00:02:51.920
not only as he sees,
but also how he wants

00:02:51.999 --> 00:02:54.560
to convey them to others.

00:02:54.720 --> 00:02:56.320
(uptempo music)

00:02:58.999 --> 00:03:01.280
Abass, a born photographer
as his biography state,

00:03:04.120 --> 00:03:07.999
is Iranian, living and traveling
in a world of conflict,

00:03:08.120 --> 00:03:11.880
oppression, faith
and fanaticism.

00:03:11.999 --> 00:03:14.999
From Islam to
Catholicism to Hinduism,

00:03:16.999 --> 00:03:20.120
posing questions
and reflecting on

00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:22.280
the historical implications
but above all, man,

00:03:23.320 --> 00:03:26.360
in his most intimate moments.

00:03:28.480 --> 00:03:30.240
(uptempo music)

00:03:46.400 --> 00:03:46.999
- All right.

00:03:51.560 --> 00:03:52.880
Well, you know, we're in
a Hindu temple in Paris

00:03:52.999 --> 00:03:56.240
and by the way you
realize how convivialities

00:03:56.400 --> 00:03:58.960
is not like a Catholic mass.

00:03:58.999 --> 00:04:00.999
People move around and they
give you lunch at the end

00:04:03.200 --> 00:04:07.800
so you might think,
you might ask

00:04:07.960 --> 00:04:09.680
what's the link between
what I'm doing here today

00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.975
and the Iranian Revolution?

00:04:12.999 --> 00:04:15.040
I mean, it's really
the Iran revolution

00:04:15.200 --> 00:04:17.800
what made me
interested in religions

00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:21.960
because I could see
the passion raised

00:04:21.999 --> 00:04:25.480
by the revolution in Iran.

00:04:25.640 --> 00:04:28.480
Then of course I got
interested in Islam,

00:04:28.640 --> 00:04:30.400
Christianity, Paganism, Buddhism

00:04:30.560 --> 00:04:32.880
and now I'm doing the Hinduism.

00:04:32.999 --> 00:04:34.999
That's why I'm in this temple.

00:04:35.000 --> 00:04:36.760
(chanting)

00:04:36.920 --> 00:04:40.680
I'm fascinated by religion
because I don't understand

00:04:40.840 --> 00:04:43.200
why people believe, I
still don't understand.

00:04:43.360 --> 00:04:45.080
And maybe they understand
then I can define

00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:47.840
why people need God,

00:04:47.999 --> 00:04:49.400
but why people believe,
I still don't know.

00:04:49.560 --> 00:04:52.120
(calm music)

00:04:54.999 --> 00:04:58.480
When I started my work on
the resurgence of Islam,

00:05:00.160 --> 00:05:04.560
Islam became very obvious.

00:05:04.720 --> 00:05:06.600
At the beginning, there
were two elements.

00:05:06.760 --> 00:05:08.080
One was Islam the
religion, the faith,

00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:10.440
people's relation with God
which was not my problem.

00:05:10.600 --> 00:05:14.600
On Islamism, the political side,

00:05:14.760 --> 00:05:16.360
the ideology was
totally different,

00:05:16.520 --> 00:05:18.960
they're telling you what to do

00:05:18.999 --> 00:05:20.920
or what you should think.

00:05:20.999 --> 00:05:22.880
This is Islam.

00:05:23.999 --> 00:05:25.640
This is a man
praying in Indonesia.

00:05:27.120 --> 00:05:29.480
He's gone, it's a
very nice picture.

00:05:29.640 --> 00:05:31.400
He's with God, you know?

00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:33.080
This is Islamism.

00:05:33.640 --> 00:05:37.720
It's a demonstration in
Paris in favor of the whale.

00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:43.160
And you can see the violence
inside the photograph.

00:05:43.320 --> 00:05:47.080
I tried to, again, I tried
to be fair to my subject

00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:51.440
and I didn't try to show only
the Islamism, the ideology

00:05:51.600 --> 00:05:56.120
but also Islam because

00:05:56.280 --> 00:05:58.800
Islamism doesn't
grow in the void.

00:05:58.960 --> 00:06:01.120
Islamism grows on
Islam so I had to show

00:06:01.280 --> 00:06:05.080
the relation between the two.

00:06:05.240 --> 00:06:07.480
And I did the same
with Christians,

00:06:07.640 --> 00:06:08.960
I did the same with
every other religion.

00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:11.960
- [Voiceover] The year is 1979.

00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:19.040
Ayatollah Khomeini
after a period of exile

00:06:19.200 --> 00:06:22.040
imposed by the Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi

00:06:22.200 --> 00:06:24.999
returns to iran.

00:06:25.000 --> 00:06:26.880
His ideals are the inspiration

00:06:27.999 --> 00:06:29.400
behind the demonstrations
that have been taking place

00:06:29.560 --> 00:06:31.880
for over a year
against the Shah,

00:06:31.999 --> 00:06:34.440
who had paralyzed the
country for decades

00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:36.975
investing huge amounts of
capital in building the army

00:06:36.999 --> 00:06:40.320
and financing his own monarchy.

00:06:40.480 --> 00:06:43.640
Khomeini will soon take over
founding the Iranian Republic

00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:47.640
and implementing a rigid Islamic

00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:49.920
and anti-Western policy.

00:06:49.999 --> 00:06:51.999
(slow tempo music)

00:06:57.920 --> 00:06:58.999
- It was my country, my
people on my revolution

00:07:02.999 --> 00:07:06.999
at least in the early stages

00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:08.999
when the revolution was
a national movement,

00:07:09.120 --> 00:07:12.160
before it was confiscated
by the mullahs,

00:07:12.320 --> 00:07:14.760
by the religious elements.

00:07:14.920 --> 00:07:16.920
I went back to Iran in 1977

00:07:16.999 --> 00:07:19.680
when I knew
something will happen

00:07:19.840 --> 00:07:20.920
because the country was
developing too fast,

00:07:20.999 --> 00:07:22.999
there were too many tensions.

00:07:23.000 --> 00:07:24.975
So I wanted to do some
in depth work on Iran

00:07:24.999 --> 00:07:29.040
but then suddenly the
revolution happens.

00:07:29.200 --> 00:07:30.880
All I have to do was
to go down in streets

00:07:30.999 --> 00:07:33.960
and take photographs

00:07:33.999 --> 00:07:35.160
because it was all
happening in the streets.

00:07:39.880 --> 00:07:40.640
My own interpretation is that

00:07:44.999 --> 00:07:48.200
the people were taking
revenge on the Shah

00:07:48.360 --> 00:07:51.440
because the Shah
with his regime,

00:07:51.600 --> 00:07:53.320
with the political
police, the Savak,

00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.975
had humiliated every Iranian.

00:07:56.999 --> 00:07:59.560
Everybody thought that
every other Iranian

00:08:00.680 --> 00:08:02.975
was a Savaky, a secret agent.

00:08:02.999 --> 00:08:04.999
People will not even talk to
their brothers or their cousins

00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:07.440
because they were
afraid of the Savak.

00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:09.440
Then suddenly people perceived
that the Shah is weak,

00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:13.160
the regime cannot control them.

00:08:13.320 --> 00:08:16.400
The Savakies all, he's not there

00:08:16.560 --> 00:08:20.720
so they emboldened and
they start the revolution

00:08:20.880 --> 00:08:23.840
and as I said, it was a revolt
and it became a revolution.

00:08:23.999 --> 00:08:26.999
When the American embassy

00:08:27.000 --> 00:08:28.840
was taken now by the
militants I was in Paris,

00:08:28.999 --> 00:08:31.720
so I thought maybe the thing
will be over within a day

00:08:31.880 --> 00:08:35.680
because Iranian
militants have taken

00:08:35.840 --> 00:08:37.960
the American embassy
before and I was there.

00:08:37.999 --> 00:08:40.760
It was settled in a few hours.

00:08:43.760 --> 00:08:44.720
- [Voiceover]
During those years,

00:08:48.920 --> 00:08:49.999
Abbas follows the
dynamics in his country

00:08:50.120 --> 00:08:52.680
and the uprisings that
trigger this radical change.

00:08:53.400 --> 00:08:56.040
But his sense of belonging
does not divert his eye

00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:01.360
and he recounts every detail

00:09:01.520 --> 00:09:02.999
with a totally objective
and critical spirit.

00:09:03.000 --> 00:09:05.999
It's the same approach that
had already characterized

00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:09.080
his previous photo features
on Vietnam and South Africa.

00:09:11.280 --> 00:09:13.200
- Vietnam was very
important for my generation

00:09:16.440 --> 00:09:19.999
because it was really
the world event

00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:22.360
but when I became an
international photographer

00:09:22.520 --> 00:09:24.999
it was too late, the
big battles were over.

00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:28.440
What I did, I tried to
do something different,

00:09:30.240 --> 00:09:32.480
I tried to go to the Viet Cong

00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:34.200
because people had
been to North Vietnam,

00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:37.440
people have been
to South Vietnam

00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:39.600
but nobody had really
been to the Viet Cong

00:09:39.760 --> 00:09:42.600
which were fighting
in the South,

00:09:42.760 --> 00:09:45.000
or if they went in it
was just, you know,

00:09:46.160 --> 00:09:48.240
there were militants but
not really photojournalists.

00:09:48.400 --> 00:09:53.240
I thought the best
way to show this war

00:09:53.480 --> 00:09:57.200
was to go to other sides.

00:09:57.360 --> 00:09:59.240
When the peace process
started in Paris

00:09:59.400 --> 00:10:01.880
and Kissinger was
negotiating with the

00:10:01.999 --> 00:10:04.040
North Vietnamese Le Duc Tho

00:10:04.200 --> 00:10:06.040
and Kissinger made a
statement peace is at hand,

00:10:06.200 --> 00:10:09.160
I just jumped on
the first plane.

00:10:09.320 --> 00:10:10.960
Because when there
is a cease fire

00:10:10.999 --> 00:10:13.520
I knew from experience that
this is the best time to work

00:10:13.680 --> 00:10:16.800
because the states are weak,

00:10:16.960 --> 00:10:18.560
there's less control
then you can work.

00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:20.520
I went in a couple of times

00:10:20.680 --> 00:10:22.480
and I spent like
a week with them

00:10:22.640 --> 00:10:24.520
and they were very,
very, very fruitful week.

00:10:24.680 --> 00:10:26.880
It was like probably
in those days

00:10:26.999 --> 00:10:28.760
the most eventful
week of my life

00:10:28.920 --> 00:10:30.800
because we're moving around
Viet Cong all the time.

00:10:30.960 --> 00:10:34.000
After I did that I also
went to North Vietnam

00:10:34.160 --> 00:10:36.999
so I don't know, maybe I'm wrong

00:10:37.000 --> 00:10:38.560
but I think I'm the
only photographer

00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:39.999
who's covered three
different sides of Vietnam.

00:10:40.000 --> 00:10:42.999
The South, the North
and the Viet Cong.

00:10:43.080 --> 00:10:45.520
Wars are very complex because

00:10:45.680 --> 00:10:47.999
there is a social element,
the economic element,

00:10:48.120 --> 00:10:50.960
the (mumbles) element,

00:10:50.999 --> 00:10:52.080
even sometimes spiritual
element in the wars.

00:10:52.240 --> 00:10:55.360
As a photographer I
always try to cover

00:10:55.520 --> 00:10:57.640
all these various
aspects of the war.

00:10:57.800 --> 00:11:01.120
Battle is just one
thing, the violence,

00:11:01.280 --> 00:11:02.880
the direct violence, two
troops or two sides fighting

00:11:02.999 --> 00:11:06.999
it's just one part of it.

00:11:07.000 --> 00:11:08.200
When you see a Viet Cong resting

00:11:08.360 --> 00:11:10.440
with his gun next to him,

00:11:10.600 --> 00:11:12.999
with his kalashnikov
next to him,

00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:14.480
it looks like a very
sort of relaxing moment,

00:11:14.640 --> 00:11:17.880
intimate moment but it's
not, the war is still on.

00:11:18.760 --> 00:11:21.120
South Africa was very
important in my life

00:11:23.920 --> 00:11:26.320
because there was apartheid

00:11:26.480 --> 00:11:29.480
and I was obviously was
not in favor of apartheid

00:11:29.680 --> 00:11:34.480
I get there, on the
first day of course

00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:36.999
I go to the minister
information, they welcome me

00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:39.560
and they say, "Oh Mr.
Abbas, we have a school for

00:11:39.720 --> 00:11:43.160
"policemen trainees.

00:11:43.320 --> 00:11:44.920
"You want to photograph it?"

00:11:44.999 --> 00:11:46.520
And I said, oh, this is
propaganda and they want me,

00:11:46.680 --> 00:11:49.720
it's something they're proud
of and they want me to.

00:11:49.880 --> 00:11:52.920
I was just about to say no,
thanks, then I said okay.

00:11:52.999 --> 00:11:55.999
They take me to the
school of policemen

00:11:56.080 --> 00:11:59.400
and they're all
naked to the waist

00:11:59.560 --> 00:12:00.880
and they're all
running, and you know?

00:12:00.999 --> 00:12:03.975
And I see the colonel, of
course they're all black

00:12:03.999 --> 00:12:06.600
and the colonel who runs
the school is white.

00:12:06.760 --> 00:12:09.480
They all stop, the colonel
stands in front of them,

00:12:09.640 --> 00:12:13.480
I make a formal portrait

00:12:13.640 --> 00:12:16.120
and you can see there's
a lot of tension

00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:19.080
and this photograph became
an icon of apartheid.

00:12:19.240 --> 00:12:22.760
I mean each time somebody
wanted to illustrate apartheid

00:12:22.920 --> 00:12:26.640
they will have
this white colonel

00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:29.160
in front of the blacks lined up.

00:12:29.320 --> 00:12:32.760
(slow tempo music)

00:12:36.999 --> 00:12:37.680
(slow piano music)

00:12:42.600 --> 00:12:46.999
- [Voiceover] The Iranian
Revolution is not nearly

00:12:47.760 --> 00:12:49.520
a personal matter for Abbas.

00:12:49.680 --> 00:12:52.400
It offers him the opportunity
to clearly express his style,

00:12:52.560 --> 00:12:55.640
thoughts and views
of the situation.

00:12:56.720 --> 00:12:58.640
The series of photographs
taken during those years

00:13:01.880 --> 00:13:04.720
will provide the
basis for the future

00:13:04.880 --> 00:13:06.975
producing shots that
will become true icons

00:13:06.999 --> 00:13:09.440
of photojournalism.

00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:11.000
(calm music)

00:13:21.120 --> 00:13:21.999
- And I remember very vividly,

00:13:26.280 --> 00:13:27.520
I mean this is the situation.

00:13:27.680 --> 00:13:30.240
You can see a woman
being lynched by

00:13:32.680 --> 00:13:37.400
demonstrators who then went
become revolutionaries.

00:13:37.999 --> 00:13:41.480
There was a pro-Shah
demonstration

00:13:42.999 --> 00:13:47.760
and this woman was
believed to be pro-Shah

00:13:47.920 --> 00:13:49.640
so people are lynching her.

00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:51.040
They're hitting her and
they're dragging her.

00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:53.480
In these moments of action,

00:13:53.640 --> 00:13:55.120
you don't think you just shoot.

00:13:55.280 --> 00:13:56.920
And of course somebody
would shout always,

00:13:56.999 --> 00:13:58.440
"Oh, don't take photographs.

00:13:58.600 --> 00:13:59.360
"Don't take photographs."

00:13:59.520 --> 00:14:00.760
And I would say, "Oko,
this is for history."

00:14:00.920 --> 00:14:02.120
I would say it in Farsi.

00:14:02.280 --> 00:14:03.560
But the problem was not
taking the photograph,

00:14:03.720 --> 00:14:05.720
the problem was showing it.

00:14:05.880 --> 00:14:07.999
Because in the evening, we'd
get together with friends,

00:14:08.120 --> 00:14:09.960
we'd talk about my day's
events and my friends said,

00:14:09.999 --> 00:14:12.999
"Abbas, you shouldn't
publish this photograph

00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.640
"because it shows the
revolution the wrong way.

00:14:15.800 --> 00:14:19.440
"Suddenly the violence
is not from the regime,

00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:22.960
"from the Shah's regime,
it's also from us."

00:14:22.999 --> 00:14:25.960
So, I said, "Ah,
sorry, sorry, sorry."

00:14:25.999 --> 00:14:29.080
I might be for the
revolution at this stage

00:14:29.240 --> 00:14:31.760
but I'm also a journalist,
I'm a historian of the present

00:14:31.920 --> 00:14:36.760
so my picture has
to be seen now.

00:14:36.999 --> 00:14:38.999
(slow tempo music)

00:14:52.440 --> 00:14:53.720
The taking of the hostages,
the American hostages

00:14:57.600 --> 00:15:01.720
in the American embassy
was the turning point

00:15:01.880 --> 00:15:04.600
because that's how we
could see the revolution

00:15:04.760 --> 00:15:06.920
was being confiscated slowly.

00:15:06.999 --> 00:15:09.480
People will come in
front of the embassy,

00:15:09.640 --> 00:15:11.600
they will demonstrate
and it went on,

00:15:11.760 --> 00:15:14.360
it went on and it went on.

00:15:14.520 --> 00:15:16.320
At one point it only
was a media event.

00:15:16.480 --> 00:15:18.840
There was a Japanese
film procedure

00:15:19.160 --> 00:15:23.840
he would say, "Okay, go on now."

00:15:24.320 --> 00:15:25.720
And they would say,

00:15:25.880 --> 00:15:27.480
"Death to America,
death to America."

00:15:27.640 --> 00:15:29.720
And they'd say, "Okay,
stop," and they would stop.

00:15:29.880 --> 00:15:31.280
It was Hollywood.

00:15:31.440 --> 00:15:32.480
And then afterwards,
then the Americans

00:15:32.640 --> 00:15:34.920
journalists will
come to me and said,

00:15:34.999 --> 00:15:36.240
"Abbas, explain, that's
something I don't understand.

00:15:36.400 --> 00:15:39.880
"They're saying death to
America, death to America

00:15:39.999 --> 00:15:42.080
"and then when it's finish they
come and invite me for tea."

00:15:42.680 --> 00:15:45.840
The turning point when
the revolution started

00:15:47.840 --> 00:15:50.040
being confiscated slowly
was the American hostages.

00:15:50.200 --> 00:15:55.040
In fact, it was
not 50 and then 42

00:15:55.280 --> 00:15:59.600
American diplomats were hostage,

00:15:59.760 --> 00:16:01.320
it was the whole Iranian
nation which was hostage

00:16:01.480 --> 00:16:04.920
of Khomeini and his clique.

00:16:10.999 --> 00:16:11.999
In those days I was
shooting analog,

00:16:16.120 --> 00:16:19.440
I mean I was shooting film.

00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:21.560
Therefore, the second
stage after shooting

00:16:21.720 --> 00:16:25.880
was the contact sheets

00:16:25.999 --> 00:16:27.320
but they're also important
for another reason

00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:29.680
because they capture events

00:16:29.840 --> 00:16:33.320
which sometimes you don't
have the time to see.

00:16:33.480 --> 00:16:35.920
I remember very vividly when
Khomeini came back from Paris

00:16:35.999 --> 00:16:40.640
and he walked down the
steps of the plane,

00:16:40.800 --> 00:16:44.440
and up to then Khomeini
was a nice old man,

00:16:44.600 --> 00:16:48.520
a sort of Gandhi.

00:16:48.680 --> 00:16:49.840
But then 25 years
later, I discover a gem

00:16:49.999 --> 00:16:54.520
and this is Khomeini's face.

00:16:54.999 --> 00:16:58.999
It's only frame
in the many frame

00:17:00.080 --> 00:17:02.600
and his face is no longer
the face of the nice,

00:17:02.760 --> 00:17:05.160
gentle old man sitting
under the apple trree.

00:17:05.320 --> 00:17:08.840
Suddenly, he's the Khomeini
he would become later.

00:17:08.999 --> 00:17:12.640
His eyes are so sharp

00:17:12.800 --> 00:17:14.520
and he's looking down at all
the, like the lay people,

00:17:14.680 --> 00:17:19.520
not the religious people,

00:17:19.760 --> 00:17:21.120
and his eyes are saying wait
until my feet hit the ground

00:17:21.280 --> 00:17:24.560
and then you will see.

00:17:25.760 --> 00:17:26.360
(crowd shouting)

00:17:34.240 --> 00:17:35.600
- [Voiceover] The attack
on the U.S. Embassy

00:17:39.400 --> 00:17:40.880
in November 1979
is the key event

00:17:40.999 --> 00:17:43.999
of the revolutionary uprisings.

00:17:44.000 --> 00:17:47.080
After the United States
refuses to extradite the Shah

00:17:47.240 --> 00:17:50.040
who is there for
medical treatment,

00:17:50.200 --> 00:17:51.960
Iranians stood and swarmed
the U.S. Embassy in Tehran

00:17:51.999 --> 00:17:54.999
occupying it and
taking 50 hostages.

00:17:55.040 --> 00:17:58.320
Almost two years will pass
before they are released.

00:17:59.920 --> 00:18:03.120
(slow tempo music)

00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:08.120
- I just stayed there.

00:18:08.999 --> 00:18:10.640
On that day, in fact, look
at my contact sheets now.

00:18:10.800 --> 00:18:14.920
I can see that
there were so many,

00:18:14.999 --> 00:18:17.440
it was media event
because you have some

00:18:17.600 --> 00:18:20.400
important character and
personality from the regime

00:18:20.560 --> 00:18:23.440
because he has bodyguards coming

00:18:23.600 --> 00:18:25.960
but you can see also people
selling food like a fair.

00:18:25.999 --> 00:18:30.360
And you can see the journalists,

00:18:30.520 --> 00:18:32.600
you can see all the
journalists working.

00:18:32.760 --> 00:18:36.040
I'm surprised when I look
at my contact sheets now,

00:18:36.200 --> 00:18:38.999
I see I just shot two frames

00:18:39.040 --> 00:18:41.240
and then one obviously
is the good one.

00:18:41.400 --> 00:18:43.800
And then I go photograph the
journalist at work, Didi Cruz

00:18:43.960 --> 00:18:48.800
and then I come back
the last frame again

00:18:48.999 --> 00:18:50.600
is these two armed militants

00:18:50.760 --> 00:18:52.999
and shouting from those element.

00:18:53.120 --> 00:18:55.080
Again, photography sometimes

00:18:55.240 --> 00:18:57.440
you photograph something
you're not aware of.

00:18:57.600 --> 00:18:59.360
It's only when you look
at the contact sheet

00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:02.000
or when you look at your
prints that you see.

00:19:02.160 --> 00:19:04.560
There's a very element,
there's something in the...

00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.480
At the end of the picture you
can see the Statue of Liberty

00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:10.920
raising his hand the same
way that the militants are.

00:19:10.999 --> 00:19:13.440
This is history giving you
a little wink, you know?

00:19:13.600 --> 00:19:17.680
That's what it is.

00:19:17.840 --> 00:19:19.080
(slow tempo music)

00:19:21.560 --> 00:19:24.080
I don't provide answers.

00:19:26.720 --> 00:19:27.760
I help people to
define questions.

00:19:27.920 --> 00:19:31.440
I ask the questions but the
answer they're multiple.

00:19:31.600 --> 00:19:35.080
I mean, sometime I give
my own answers in a text

00:19:35.240 --> 00:19:37.999
or even in the sequence
of photographs, you see.

00:19:38.000 --> 00:19:40.560
Again, this is why
sequence is important.

00:19:40.720 --> 00:19:43.800
I mean, the sequence
really is your writing.

00:19:44.600 --> 00:19:47.560
Your photography is
not just one frame,

00:19:49.760 --> 00:19:51.960
it's just the whole thing.

00:19:51.999 --> 00:19:53.360
See, there are three
times in photography.

00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:57.040
The first one is shooting
and this moment is emotional.

00:19:57.200 --> 00:20:00.999
I mean, you.

00:20:01.000 --> 00:20:02.600
But if you take this
frame instead of that one,

00:20:02.760 --> 00:20:05.920
it's not by chance.

00:20:05.999 --> 00:20:07.760
It's defined by your
culture, by education,

00:20:07.920 --> 00:20:10.840
by your personality,

00:20:10.999 --> 00:20:13.720
by the fight you had with your
girlfriend the night before,

00:20:13.880 --> 00:20:17.999
your emotions you felt.

00:20:18.120 --> 00:20:19.560
All these things feed you
but you're not thinking,

00:20:19.720 --> 00:20:21.880
you just do it, you just take.

00:20:21.999 --> 00:20:24.280
Almost automatically
you take this photograph

00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:27.520
although they're fed.

00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:29.680
The second part is the editing
which you know, we will see.

00:20:29.840 --> 00:20:34.600
When you edit, you
choose photograph.

00:20:34.760 --> 00:20:38.360
Then the third part
which is probably

00:20:38.520 --> 00:20:39.999
the most important
one is the sequencing.

00:20:40.120 --> 00:20:42.800
(slow tempo music)

00:20:57.760 --> 00:20:58.320
Hinduism in India.

00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:04.400
Because taking the
same photograph,

00:21:06.720 --> 00:21:08.040
putting in different order

00:21:08.200 --> 00:21:09.880
might mean something
totally different.

00:21:09.999 --> 00:21:12.440
That's why when I make a book
with a publisher, I insist.

00:21:12.600 --> 00:21:15.999
Their responsibility is
the cover, the title,

00:21:17.640 --> 00:21:20.160
they have the last word

00:21:20.320 --> 00:21:21.640
but I have the last
word on the sequence.

00:21:21.800 --> 00:21:24.360
(slow tempo music)

00:21:28.320 --> 00:21:29.160
My photography didn't change.

00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:34.600
I mean, I like to
say I've been taking

00:21:34.760 --> 00:21:37.560
the same picture for 50 years.

00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:40.120
Same photograph
mean the same style.

00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:41.960
I mean if you look
at my photographs

00:21:41.999 --> 00:21:43.999
what I like about them
is the suspended moment.

00:21:44.120 --> 00:21:47.840
Suspended moment means I
like to give the feeling

00:21:47.999 --> 00:21:52.720
that when I took the photograph

00:21:52.880 --> 00:21:54.720
the people who were doing
what they were doing

00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:56.960
kept on doing the same thing.

00:21:56.999 --> 00:21:58.120
They didn't stop for me.

00:21:58.280 --> 00:21:59.720
It wasn't a frozen moment,
it was a suspended moment.

00:21:59.880 --> 00:22:03.040
That's my way of.

00:22:03.200 --> 00:22:04.999
And also if you look
at my photographs

00:22:05.040 --> 00:22:06.520
I mean, think there are many
elements in my best photograph,

00:22:06.680 --> 00:22:09.880
there are many things
happening at the same time.

00:22:09.999 --> 00:22:11.840
There's something there,
something there, something there

00:22:11.999 --> 00:22:13.840
but there is a kind of harmony
between what's happening,

00:22:13.999 --> 00:22:17.999
and this is what I call
"the suspended moment."

00:22:21.560 --> 00:22:22.600
Mexico was important
because after the,

00:22:26.720 --> 00:22:29.840
I mean, covering the
revolution for two years

00:22:29.999 --> 00:22:32.080
really drained me
out emotionally

00:22:32.240 --> 00:22:35.960
because I'd given really a lot.

00:22:35.999 --> 00:22:38.520
I could see that
the wave of Islamism

00:22:39.560 --> 00:22:42.999
raised by the Iranian Revolution

00:22:43.120 --> 00:22:44.999
was not going to stop
at the borders of iran,

00:22:45.040 --> 00:22:47.440
it was gonna hit the
whole of the Muslim world

00:22:47.600 --> 00:22:50.600
and maybe the rest of the world.

00:22:50.760 --> 00:22:52.360
Emotion I wasn't ready

00:22:52.520 --> 00:22:53.920
because as I said,
I was drained.

00:22:53.999 --> 00:22:56.760
For three years I went to a
country I knew from before

00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:00.640
because I had lived
there one year, Mexico

00:23:00.800 --> 00:23:02.440
and then Mexico helped
me to define my style.

00:23:02.600 --> 00:23:07.120
Because not, contradict
to Iran where

00:23:07.280 --> 00:23:09.280
all you had to do was
to run on the streets,

00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:11.520
everything was
happening in the street,

00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:14.240
in Mexico, nothing
was happening,

00:23:14.400 --> 00:23:15.760
there was no event.

00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:17.720
I went to Mexico, I
did I think 12 trips

00:23:17.880 --> 00:23:21.680
within three years in and out.

00:23:21.840 --> 00:23:24.560
And then I did two books

00:23:24.720 --> 00:23:27.440
and it helped me
define my aesthetics

00:23:27.600 --> 00:23:29.800
and my style of photography
and become more intellectual.

00:23:31.360 --> 00:23:32.920
(soothing piano music)

00:23:44.880 --> 00:23:45.320
This is Magnum.

00:23:49.999 --> 00:23:51.920
These were stamps to
put either on prints

00:23:51.999 --> 00:23:56.640
or on jutes, color jutes.

00:23:56.800 --> 00:23:59.880
And of course we don't
distribute prints

00:23:59.999 --> 00:24:02.975
except for exhibitions

00:24:02.999 --> 00:24:04.160
and we don't distribute jutes,

00:24:04.320 --> 00:24:05.975
everything is electronic now.

00:24:05.999 --> 00:24:07.640
but it's very moving to
see all these people who,

00:24:07.800 --> 00:24:11.999
the founders of Magnum first.

00:24:12.080 --> 00:24:14.320
First, Capa,

00:24:14.480 --> 00:24:17.999
Robert Capa.

00:24:18.999 --> 00:24:21.040
Robert Capa, Henri
Cartier-Bresson,

00:24:21.480 --> 00:24:26.040
George Rodger.

00:24:26.640 --> 00:24:28.720
Now where is Jim?

00:24:28.880 --> 00:24:29.999
Jim, Jim, Jim, Jim.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:31.480
Sorry, Jim is missing.

00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:33.720
But then we have people
who left us, who died

00:24:33.880 --> 00:24:37.320
like of course the
two Capa brothers,

00:24:38.440 --> 00:24:40.960
Henri, Rodger, Silverstone.

00:24:45.280 --> 00:24:48.440
But the good thing is
we have some new names

00:24:50.440 --> 00:24:53.040
but without the latest one

00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:54.640
because the latest one
don't use film, you know?

00:24:54.800 --> 00:24:57.480
We have some younger
guy, Bendiksen

00:24:57.640 --> 00:25:00.360
and we have who else,
Soth, Alec Soth.

00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:04.999
It can be nostalgic
about these but

00:25:05.999 --> 00:25:08.440
the other thing we have as well
which disappeared are these.

00:25:11.800 --> 00:25:12.999
I mean, in a way,
this is all my life

00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:21.200
and there's more behind
there, all my contact sheets.

00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:25.600
And the last one is number,

00:25:25.760 --> 00:25:28.400
number 152.

00:25:29.920 --> 00:25:33.560
Book number hundred, 152 books,

00:25:34.999 --> 00:25:36.999
that's the last one there.

00:25:37.040 --> 00:25:38.200
Look at the contact sheets.

00:25:38.360 --> 00:25:41.640
That's how they were.

00:25:41.800 --> 00:25:43.560
They were kept.

00:25:48.240 --> 00:25:48.999
And so this is it.

00:25:53.400 --> 00:25:54.520
This is the end of this world,

00:25:54.680 --> 00:25:57.520
the analog world.

00:25:57.680 --> 00:26:00.400
(soothing piano music)

00:26:14.640 --> 00:26:15.200
(lighthearted music)