Michel Philippot interviews JP Pappis Founder and President of Polaris Images.

"Sylvie and Jean-Pierre Pappis are the gris-gris of the world of photojournalism. As long as they are there, we know we still exist. Indefatigably, 24 hours a day they meet, advise, comfort. It’s the ultimate iconic image for a world that certainly has need of it."

Sarah will be promoting two of her books, "Pakistan / Land of the Pure", a 128 page collection of her work accompanied by text from Dimiti Beck and Alain Genestar as well as "Le Paistan à vif", a personal chronicle of her work and experience as a female photojournalist in Pakistan.

Visa pour l'Image runs from August 27 to September 11.

“Listen” centers on the marginalization of Iranian women, focusing on the restriction of female vocalists. The multimedia installation features video of female performers singing and acting- but without sound, illustrating their lack of agency and presence within the music community and society at large. Also on display are album covers each vocalist has created for an imaginary CD, depicting her identity and her dream of personal representation as an artist in Iranian society.

Congratulations Kemal!

The application is available for download from the Apple App Store by searching for YannisKontos or is available for download at:
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yanniskontos/id400112422?mt=8

Yannis is one of the first photojournalists to release such an application, developed by IT Consultant Konstantinos Christodoulakis and his team at www.cultureconcept.gr

The app is fully integrated with Yannis website, www.yanniskontos.com, extending his presentation of content to the mobile world.

Robert will be speaking at the museum on Sunday September 26th, 2010 with a reception immediately following.

I have known Laurent since 1986 when he started writing code and building a search engine for Sygma, the agency where I worked. He was one of the pioneer programmers to work with a photo agency. His approach was daring and the tools he used were unheard of at the time in the photo agency world: Unix, 4GL code and other technologies that integrated Search, Traffic, Accounting at a dazzling speed. He was a designer, an innovator and a creator that saw the big picture, yet always looked for the "nimble" solution, practical, fast and elegant.

A jazz player and aficionado (soprano sax) he named his servers Gordon, Duke, Mingus, among other Jazz greats, and rightly so as the pages of his systems unfold like a symphony. He was fond of photography and photographers. He appreciated their technical ability and saw much in common between their work and his. He was always available to guide them and show them "computer" tricks, many will miss him.

As I write these words, I also think of how much he will be missed by the staff at Polaris and myself. He was present for us at all hours, finding solutions and improving the system. Laurent was with me when I started Polaris in September 2002 and his tech support is an invaluable contribution to the agency's success and longevity during a time that saw the industry move from partially to fully digital. About five years ago during a trip to Perpignan for the Visa Photojournalism festival, Laurent met Julia Lucke and fell in love. Soon, they were married and their first boy Dexter was born, followed shortly after by Oscar.

Laurent, thanks for all the good work and all the good times. While up there and till we join you, just blow the horn and, if you feel the urge to "move electrons rather than atoms," then write a few lines of code between notes.

jpp
06/22/2010

See below the information for the June 24 memorial. If you can not attend and wish to send a message, please do so to my attention: jpp@PolarisImages.com