Meet Fujifilm X Shooter Alain Shroeder, 2020 World Press Photo Award Winner, and Discover Why he Does Not Use the Viewfinder

May 16, 2020
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Fujifilm APS-C (and also medium format) cameras experienced a true victory parade at this years’ World Press Photo awards, creaming off the top overall singles and stories awards, but winning also in other categories.

Now Fujifilm has interviewed Alain Shroeder, winner of the overall stories category (as well as a single category) at this years’ World Press Photo award.

It’s an enjoyable video that you can see below. For your convenience I have made a summary, in case you don’t have the 8 minutes time right now to watch the video.

Video + Summary

he won the awards with his story about Orangutans
Alain’s way of expression is not to take 1 single image. He likes to make stories of 8 to 12 pictures (in case of the World Press Photo the limit is 10 images)
the picture he shot, of the dead Orangutan baby, that won the singles category, is not inside the story, that won the overall story award
after 3/4 months of shooting his story, his pictures were OK, but not great
one day they saved an Orangutan, who got shot. The helpers put the monkey in a cage on a bed with white sheets and pink pillow. He took the image and loved it
starting from that time, he started to feel that his story could become impressive
he didn’t stop, until he felt the story is perfect
he shot DSLR before
DSLR are heavy
he was a sports photographer
he wanted something good and small
he bought X-Pro2
with X-Pro2 he printed a 5×5 meters image and it was amazing
so he realized he does not need another camera
easy to carry, silent, autofocus is good, lenses are very good
he can work with X-Pro2 for the next 10 years
now he looks on the LCD to make the picture, and not through the viewfinder
if you watch through the viewfinder, you have to move your whole body to frame your shot, and people, because of your body language, have the impression you are a professional photographer
but when you use the LCD composing your image, and move just your hands, you look like an amateur, and people pay less attention at you. So he works like this
he shots 18mm most of the time, then also 14mm. That he uses 97% of the time. Sometimes a telephoto if required. Using mostly wide primes, he just zooms by moving closer
when he was 15, he wanted a camera, but cameras were expensive
he was reading all photo magazines, and the first story that he saw and really influenced him was made by Kishin Shinoyama
his style was surreal, strange but very interesting
Alain is a photojournalist since 45 years
the golden era of magazines now is over. Many do not have the money to pay the right price

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