Be Creative: Magali Delporte x Portraiture
04.16.2020
Written by...
Magali Delporte
"My career started in the late 1990s, working for The Independent and The Times in London. I was assigned everything from news, travel, portraiture and even stakeouts. I’m still working for those newspapers today as well as the Financial Times, Le Monde, Les Echos, photographing politicians, CEOs and cultural personnalities.
In 2001, I was the first woman photojournalist to be awarded Canon’s Visa pour l’Image prize for Unseen, Sport Without Sight. In 2006, Elle Au Pluriel was a series of 50 portraits of women from a town in Northern France. In 2016, the Prime Minister’s Office commissionned me for a similar project wich was exhibited at the Hotel de Matignon. My latest project "M" Is A Mother is about self-portraiture."
"In recent years, photojournalism has undergone many changes and, in 2017, I decided to shift perspective too. I bought a Fuji GFX50s with two lenses. After years of using reflex cameras, it felt like a luxury to handle a medium format and the opportunity to revisit the way I shoot portraits. Now, the GFX 50S is my ally when I’m photographing my subjects.
Its sharpness is amazing. Using the Fuji has made me more precise and straight to the point, I often use a tripod which felt cumbersome before. My relationship with the sitter is more intimate, thanks to the back screen and I shoot less images.Buying a medium format for someone whose work is mostly commissioned by newspapers and magazines was a financial gamble but it’s paid off. Soon after I bought my Fuji, I photographed Bernard Arnault of LVMH for the Financial Times. He liked the photograph so much that he bought it for the cover of Forbes magazine. Other people have since done the same and I think they recognise the extra quality that the GFX brings to the images.In my handbag, I like to have a Fuji X-T2. It’s the camera I use for family photographs and outings.
In my handbag, I like to have a Fuji XT2. It’s the camera I use for family photographs and outings."
