CEPIC elected a new committee at the 2005 CEPIC Congress in Prague from 15 to 19 June. 768 delegates from 50 different countries flocked to this beautiful city to make the most of the unrivalled networking opportunities afforded by CEPIC membership. The event took place in the beautiful surroundings of Žofin Palace on an island in the city centre. Networking was not the only thing on offer. Each day saw a series of interesting seminars take place, discussing some of the most important issues affecting the picture industry today, including image rights, personality rights and the challenge of adapting to digital technology. Delegates were also treated to delicious buffet lunches beneath the palace’s high gilded ceilings.

CEPIC’s annual general meeting took place on the opening day on Wednesday 15 June and a new committee elected. The new committee is comprised of:

Alan Smith (BAPLA/UK) President

Jean Desaunois (FNAPPI/France) Vice President

Staffan Teste (BLF/Sweden) Treasurer

Paul Brown (BAPLA/UK)

Barbro Kaufmann (IMS/Sweden)

Peter Remmerssen (BVPA/Germany)

This does not mark a significant change to the previous committee. CEPIC hopes that the new board will continue to build on the excellent work it has done in the past.

The 2005 Congress was a resounding success, with delegates commenting on the excellent organisation and the significant return on the membership fee. CEPIC continues to attract new members every year, eager to make the most of the benefits of membership. Next year’s congress will take place in Biarritz in the Basque area of France and looks set to draw over 1000 delegates. It will run from 7 – 11 June 2006.

Despite a rainstorm of biblical proportions, delegates flooded to the Prague House of Photography on Wednesday 15 June in order to register their attendance at the 2005 CEPIC Congress, a huge networking event offering delegates the chance to strengthen existing business contacts and forge new ones. Over 750 people from 49 different countries attended the congress, making CEPIC’s event the biggest of its kind in the world.

However, networking was not the only thing on offer. If people grew tired of talking, they were able to wander through Prague House and take in the exhibition, ‘The Nude in Czech Photography‘.

One can see Pavel Banka’s mysterious black and white images of the female form. Banka’s images seem playfully sexual, yet in the background there lurks a disturbing threat of violence. This effect is contrasted with Tono Stano’s intriguing photographs which capture otherworldly shapes from the female body.

Pavel Mara’s pictures cast the naked form in the role of shop mannequins. The model’s bodies seem to lack texture and detail, the closed eyes seem open and pupiless. Miroslav Myska’s images place the naked form in bizarre contexts, creating tension from the juxtaposition of pale, fragile bodies and dark, desolate industrial landscapes.

Jan Saudek has created perhaps the most disturbing images of the exhibition. His photographs capture strange scenes which seem staged and static. His use of what looks like hand-tinting results in colours that lend the photographs a detached and dream-like air. The result is a collection of striking images which linger long in the subconscious.

The unsettling effect of Saudek’s images is somewhat soothed by the photographs of Miloslav Stibor and Frantisek Janis. These images depict voluptuous female bodies, caressed by inky shadow creating the effect of dark landscapes bathed in soft moonlight.

After exchanging contact details amid these beautiful and thought provoking images, delegates retired for the evening to build energy for the activities of day two.

CEPIC Office
Teutonenstr. 22
14129 Berlin
GERMANY
Tel: +49 30 804 85 420, Fax: +49 30 804 85 499
Email: cepic@cepic.org

CEPIC administrator is Sylvie Fodor

For more information visit the website: www.cepic.org

European Premier of New Documentary Film ‘Off Limits’ at CEPIC Congress 2005

The European premier of new documentary film ‘Off Limits’ took place at this year’s CEPIC Congress, held in the elegant surroundings of Zofin Palace in Prague. The film was made by French Canadian photographer and film maker Gilbert Duclos and tells the story of his legal battle to defend the future of street photography. Although the film centers on a specific court case in Quebec, the issues the film raises affects the whole photographic industry.

In 1998, Canada’s Supreme Court ruled against Duclos in a law suit filed against him ten years earlier by a young woman whose photograph he had taken in the street many years before. When the image appeared in an arts journal, she sued Duclos for damages. The ensuing legal battle raised issues which went far beyond the confines of the case itself and soon Duclos was fighting to safeguard the future of the art form he so loves.

Despite his efforts and the support of the arts and images community in Quebec, the Supreme Court found in the young woman’s favour, saying that her right to her own image had been violated. This created a precedent which effectively made it illegal to publish a photograph of an individual without their consent. As the film demonstrates, this has severe implications on street photography. At what point in a ‘magic moment’ should one ask for permission? If the subject refuses, then that is one more image of modern life that will be lost forever.

Alongside the account of the implications of this ruling, the film explores the role street photography plays in society. Duclos and the photographers he interviews examine the importance of maintaining our collective memory through truthful depictions of real life. Without these images, our perception of who we are and where we have come from will be lost or dangerously distorted as legally safe, artificially staged images will be used instead. As photographer Janine Niepce puts it, street photography is ‘not just artistic, it’s indispensable’.

The film points out that the threat of more law suits is not limited to Quebec. Already there have been similar cases in Europe and unless the photographic industry puts up a fight there will be many more, effectively stifling a vital form of artistic documentation. French photographer Guy le Querrec sees the Duclos case as the beginning of the end, as he puts it, ‘photography has hit the quicksand’.

‘Off Limits’ is a heartfelt and eloquent piece of film making. It makes its case in the defence of street photography by sensitively examining the beauty of taking a photograph, of capturing a magical moment to share with the rest of humanity. It asks if we are willing to lose the right to publish these moments, to lose the right to memory. Is it right that we should be deprived of this art form for the sake of a few individual’s thirst for money? The issue is not the right to one’s own image, but the right to access our own history and the colorful people who make it.

To obtain a copy of this film please go to www.virage.ca and ask for a copy to be sent to you by post.

Les Productions Virage
6300 ave du Parc, bureau 605
Montréal, Québec
H2V 4H8
Tél : (514) 276-9556
Fax : (514) 276-2262
info@virage.ca

Mélanie Bhérer - Responsable à la distribution
Tél : (514) 276-9556 #42
Fax : (514) 276-2262

CEPIC CONGRESS 2005 A RESOUNDING SUCCESS !

CEPIC (Coordination of European Picture Agencies) is a growing organisation with over 1000 members which promotes the interests of the picture industry in Europe and the rest of the world.

Prague played host to this year’s highly successful CEPIC Congress. 768 delegates flocked to the city to make the most of the unrivalled networking opportunities and informative series of seminars provided by this four day event. Deals were struck and new relations forged as the delegates did business in the magnificent surroundings of Žofin Palace, a beautiful building located on an island in the centre of Prague.

Day one of the event saw delegates arriving at the Prague House of Photography in droves, where they registered and picked up their welcome packs. Some took the opportunity to start networking straight away, while others took the time to enjoy the wonderful photographic exhibition with which they shared the building.

The exhibition, ‘The Nude in Czech Photography’, included work by a number of different artists, all managing to create beautiful images with the camera and the human body. Most startling of all were the photographs by Jan Saudek. His work captures strange scenes which seem staged and static. His use of what looks like hand-tinting results in colours that lend the photographs a detached and dream-like air. The result is a collection of striking images which linger long in the subconscious.

Day two saw the event really get into its stride. Registered delegates crossed the bridge to Žofin Palace all morning, eager to meet new people and do some business. After some lunch, they had the option to attend the plenary session. This comprised of a series of speeches all addressing the theme of this year’s congress, ‘Does the Past Have a Future?’.

After an opening speech by CEPIC’s President, Alan Smith, in which he made a case for the importance of being vigilant in the present so that we may safeguard the past for the future, the panel of speakers all added their thoughts. These were Bamber Gascoigne, UK author and broadcaster; Leslie Hughes of ImageState UK; Didier Lenart of Bridgeman Giraudon, France; Frank Perrier of Roger-Viollet, France; Eileen Flanagan of CORBIS USA; Stefan Ohlson of Projektor Utbildning AB, Sweden; James West of Alamy UK and Jeffrey Burke of PACA. The general conclusion of the seminar was that is truly essential to protect photography and photographs for the future as they form our collective memory of the past.

Day three started at the crack of dawn as delegated set up their tables over which they would do business and forge new links. After several hours of brisk activity, they relaxed over a delicious buffet lunch beneath the high gilded ceilings of Žofin Palace. After eating, they could attend an intriguing seminar on one of the most important issues to affect the industry today: personality rights.

This general term is used to describe the rights an individual has over the use of their image, whether that be a literal depiction of their body, in part or in whole, or a depiction of an element of their image, for example a specific identifiable stance used by a famous pitcher in baseball. These laws vary wildly from territory to territory and can be used to protect celebrities and mundane individuals alike. This has obvious repercussions on the picture industry.

The organisers assembled an impressive international panel of experts to talk on the subject. They were RA Michael Philippi of Rechtsanwalte PRINZ law firm, Germany; Maitre Thierry Lacoste of French law firm Meyrier Fayout Lacoste; Prof. Dreier, professor of private law at the University of Karlsruhe; Prof. Marianne Levin, professor of private law at the University of Stockholm in Sweden; Nicola Solomon of Finers Stephens Innocent in London and Nancy Wolff, legal advisor to PACA in the United States. Delegates found the complexities of different laws hard to follow but were left in no doubt as to the importance of being vigilant in order to protect themselves.

The delegates also had the opportunity to attend the European premier of a new documentary film by French Canadian photographer and filmmaker Gilbert Duclos. ‘La Rue Zone Interdite/Off Limits’ tells the story of Duclos’ battle to defend street photography from litigation from the people in the photographs. It also sensitively examines the beauty of the act of taking a photograph and the role photography plays in modern society. After the busy day, there were evening drinks in the warm summer sun in the gardens of Zefin Palace.

The final day of the congress saw the delegates return to their deal making tables and there were more seminars on offer. The morning seminar was on the subject of cultural heritage collections and the ways in which they differ from commercial collections. The speakers comprised of Andrea Stern of V&A Images, Susan Chun of the New York Metroplitan museum, Bas van Beek of ANP Netherlands, Eileen Flanagan of CORBIS USA, Nicola Solomon of Finers Stephens Innocent Law Firm in London and Angela Murphy of the Courtauld Institute in London.

After lunch there was a seminar on the complexities of digital technology currently being used by the industry. The speakers were Linda Royles of BAPLA, Sarah Saunders of Electric Lane, Graeme Cookson, a digital imaging consultant and Dexter Lane of Peter Arnold Inc. There was also a seminar on the Eastern European picture industry. An international panel gave their points of view of the situation in their countries. The speakers were Georg Hodek of isifa image service in the Czech Republic and Slovakia; Edwin Redzepagic of DIOMEDIA in Serbia-Montenegro; Bulgaria, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, Julia Kravianszky of Europress in Hungary; Pascal Constantin of GULIVER in Macedonia and Bosnia Herzegovina and Georg Hodek of isifa image service in the Czech Republic Slovakia and Poland.

After a full few days of frenzied activity, the delegates were able to let off steam at the magnificent gala dinner on Saturday evening. The great hall of Žofin Palace was bedecked in flowers and bustling with the attentive activities of white suited waiters. The food was delicious and dancing went on into the small hours.

All in all, the CEPIC Congress 2005 in Prague was a resounding success! CEPIC would like to thank their sponsors:

Picscout

Prague House of Photography

CEPIC Office
Teutonenstr. 22
14129 Berlin
GERMANY

Tel: +49 30 804 85 420
Fax: +49 30 804 85 499
Email: cepic@cepic.org