Ugly pictures

Yesterday I attended a talk with Daniel Aguilar, a photo-journalist from Reuters. Besides from being barely able to breathe when that handsome guy talked straight to where I was sitting (yeah, yeah, perhaps there was Giselle Bündchen right on the row behind me...), he got my undivided attention when he opened his lecture by saying: 'I don't do pretty pictures. I don't expect people to hang them on their living rooms. My job is to denounce what is wrong and make noticeable what is right.'

So photo-journalism... definitely not my branch. Mr Aguilar said that nowadays 'everybody' has a camera, but although there are lucky punches, a good picture does not come out solely from luck. He knows what to pack depending on the event: you cannot wear jeans while waiting for a hurricane to strike, and a bullet-proof vest among students can draw unnecessary attention. You have to know if in a demonstration the police is for or against press. You have to read about what you are gonna photograph, and think before shooting. You have to pack different lenses if you are gonna report the beginning or the end of the football season. You have to bring along two cameras if things are gonna get rough. You have to know that the lighting is everything.

Daniel Aguilar's pictures are far from pretty but many of them are beautiful. If each image tells a story, I'm up for being told what is going on in the world.