FREEZING THE LIGHT: Eric Bergeri Interview

Interview: Luis Naka

1) The Man
Flofun website, considered you in 2008 as: "... part of the top 10 photographers in the snow world ... A true shepherd-dinosaur that was there from the beginning, back than at the punk years ..." Are you the man bro? Talk about it.
Yes, of course! 
Well, I have not been there since the beginning. Not so old after all ! But definitely, I started in a different period where things were easier (less concurrence), less professional with, more money in the business.

2) Family, childhood and adolescence
How was it for you as a teenager, to grow-up in the 80‘s in a ski resort in the little region of Grenoble. You used to breathe winter sports and your big brother was your greatest inspiration. Your life changed after 1993 ...
It was a lot of fun to grow in a ski resort. In winter after school on wednesday I was hitch hiking back from school to rush up back to my home to go skiing. I was also going skiing on week ends and once a week with school. For some years I was going like 3 or 4 times on the slopes per week!

In the 80's I started to use anything that could slide ... from mono-ski (yes!) to telemark and of course, snowboard in the early 90's.

By then it was from university that I was rushing back to the mountains! When I was not simply skipping some boring courses !

In '93 my brother died snowboarding. It opened my eyes on the shortness and weakness of life. Enough of losing time ... It was time to move on to real life.

3) Photo x Study
You started selling photos to magazines in 94 and then quit university for snowboard photography, only 6 months before conclusion. Tell us how your interest on photography has developed from Scuba diving photos to snowboard along the years, changing completely that "little boy‘s" life. And then after all, you got back to school and gained a higher diploma in business education! Did photo and snowboard really save your life?
Well, I started to dive super early and, when I passed the exam to be myself an instructor, it bored me in a few weeks! So I started to use the diving club camera to shoot photos underwater and got hooked. The following winter (93) I bought my first Canon SLR and a few lenses and started to shoot my friends on the snow. My real goal was to buy a waterproof case and to shoot underwater, but all my economy were gone in the camera!

Shooting snowboarding made me travel all around the world for more almost 15 years. I was quite a nerd, boring student in biology ... shooting photos but most likely traveling opened my eyes on the real world. I finally grew up and got confidence. For that, yes, snowboarding saved my life -from being super boring and common!

4) Analog x digital- topics
You come from a generation that lived analog photography intensely. A digital photo opens a way for manipulation by up to incorrect displaying the original photo.

What has changed with the digital advent? Is there some value left for the simple and direct picture without manipulation? … Is there still room for the analog photography (Museums, art ...)?
I would say it has been a positive change: cheaper to learn how to shoot, faster workflow from shooting to printing.

On the other hand giving the possibility to any photographer to manipulate easily with photoshop and bringing some ethical problems (I'm talking about snowboarding photos). Sure you can change colors ... but is it ethical to erase a detail that you don't like on the photo? Or worse ... putting a good grab where there was bad one ... putting a guy higher.

My point of view is that all magazines in our sports area should only accept DNG or Raw files. Then, the photograph could show how he wants the photo to be color wise, and the graphic-guy can easily get it better. Because, of course, some photographers have no idea that you print in CMYK and not RGB ... or that their hard-work color changes can be ruined by bad calibration of their screen, or simple different color space with the rest of the printing process of the magazines and printing houses ...

By letting photographers to send all-in-one Tiff sequences or other kind of Tiff photos, magazines open the doors to over manipulated images and also, let photographers do graphic designers work. Which is not good for graphic designers (less work), for photographers (more work for the same money) and for the quality in general (a graphic designer generally knows more about photoshop than a photographer!).

So, the solutions are simple: no tiff, only DNG or RAW ... and no over worked photos to make look good enough (or hide) a weak snowboarding action.

Personally, I'm too lazy to work two hours on my computer to make an average image look good. I'd rather spend these two hours on the snow to get a better one. Therefore, I only submit RAW files.

What is the greatest virtue for a photographer that cannot be replaced by digital technology?
Be at the right spot at the right time. To know how to sell, and have a good network of customers. And simply to know how to shoot. Using digital photography does not make a bad photo good. It helps to get better quickly. But if you don't understand how to make a good image, digital won't do anything for you.

5) Influences
Who are your influences, references and thinkers you admire. Do any photograph inspire you?
Well ... I like the work of different other photographers in the snowboarding industry and elsewhere. I get inspired by many things in general. But I have no specific names to drop.

How do you see the future of photography and what positively differentiates the work of good professionals?
In the snowboarding world it is getting quite difficult now. Much more than when I started. Less people but much more quality works for sure.

If the crisis last a couple more years, a lot of snowboarding photographers will give up.

Taking photos is 50% of the job, may be even less. The rest is handling + being smart and good at networking. Most of the younger photographers tend to forget that, and to think that clients owe them something ... when it's actually the contrary. You have to look around to get the jobs. If you wait ... you will be waiting a long time ! Talent is not sufficient.

6) War Zone
It has already been said that brands always send you into areas of conflict like: Lebanon, Abkhazia, Kashmir …

Are you the only nuts to accept those jobs, does life on the limit attracts you that much, or do the brands really want to get rid of you?
Well, I'm not suicidal and I would not go if I thought it could be that dangerous. It's not like being with the US army in Afghanistan!

Visiting Iran is, for me, much more interesting than going to Japan for the twentieth time.

Then I guess, with so many years behind me, brands guess that, even if I'm not the best photographer, I know how to handle people and things in adverse situations and I know how to get a work done.

Does travel broadens the mind even in war zones, do you still might convert into a war photographer, what about Louise?
I wanted to be a war photographer when I was younger. Now it's out of question unfortunately. My daughter is of course a reason why.

7) Louise
What did your daughter change in your life? How is it being dad for a photographer specialized in snowboard, how do you intend to afford the education of your daughter in this business?
She changed many things in my life ! Well, being a divorced dad with a daughter and ex-wife in Brazil don't make life easy when you work on the snow. I spent these two last years between Brazil and elsewhere to shoot. It is so un-ecological!

A "normal" dad spends week-ends and 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening everyday with his daughter ...

When I travel I talk to Louise everyday on skype (bless the inventors) and when I'm with her, I'm with her 24/24 without stress. My rule was to never be one month and one week away from her. Now it will be even less. This winter she will start snowboarding after two years of skiing. She is ok to learn snowboarding only if I also go skiing with her.

8) Snowboarding, business, media & soul
You stated in the past that the main difference in the snowboard market is now the number of digits of Company´s Budgets ...

Other boardsports like skateboarding and surfing have more barriers on making it into the Olympics like snowboard did. How good or bad is this event for the future of snowboarding, is there stil place for soul snowboarding left in such an environment?
I think that the olympic games are a blessing for snowboarding. As long as the format does not go too far from the real pratice (look at windsurfing!), it will be a extraordinary advertising for the sport.

Concerning the multiple cross media poossibilities in the world today? Will the magazines survive to see the next level?
Magazines are the best way to show pictures. The sport is photogenic and people buy magazines for the pictures (and the buyer's guides!) ... so, yes, I do think that magazines will survive. Looking at a video, or a photo on a cpu screen is not the same thing that looking at a photo on a nice spread glossy page of a magazine. But, certainly that magazines will suffer even more from the internet.

Further Information
www.fluofun.fr