famous people gather in Cannes

Saturday, May 24, 2014

I don't love literal crowds, and I don't love doing what all the cool kids are doing. But I have been living in southern France for almost two years, and if ever I'm going to go to Cannes, I might as well just visit the famed Côte d'Azur city during its important little film festival. I tried to go with a friend last year, but our attempts were foiled by transportation challenges and not enough incentive. This year, though? Success!

Let's just get this out of the way from the
start - Here's the most famous person I saw that day. Unfortunately, he was a
little too one-dimensional to sign an autograph for me.

Just to prove it really is Cannes I'm showing you photos of.

Reporting live from the middle of star-gazers.

Apparently, if you're at the right place at the right time, you will see real, live famous people.
At least I think that's why unfamous people stake out their spots with much intensity near the red carpets.

This guy was all dressed up for the big event Saturday night, kindly requesting that someone, anyone
 would give him tickets. I really wanted to follow him around all day and see how it worked out for him.
Did he get in? or not?

Look! RED CARPET!!!!

A small crowd was gathered outside this hotel. We don't know whether there was really something
 to see or whether it was an experiment to see how quickly the sheep would follow
 once a few people formed a crowd. Burning life question that will never be solved.

The scene of the nightly movie on the beach for the commoners.
We didn't go, but I bet it was cool.

The hat seller guys appeared to share a fun camaraderie.

A little break from the sun. Cafés are always appreciated.

inspiration

Photo credit AFP, taken from this BBC
website: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-27400896

May 23, 2014

Half listening to French radio news one day recently while I did other work, I kept hearing the French name that sounds like mine (call me sometime, and I’ll pronounce it for you :-) ). Someone named Camille was being mentioned a lot. At first, I thought she was a reporter doing lots of reports on the radio that day.

Then I learned the real story: Camille Lepage was a 26-year-old French freelance photojournalist who had been covering conflicts in Africa. She made the news because her body had just been found in the Central African Republic where she’d been reporting. [And another article here.]

At this point, I pulled away from my work and dug into her story a bit farther. And discovered this compelling quote from Camille:  “I can’t accept that people’s tragedies are silenced simply because no one can make money out of them. I decided to do it myself, and bring some light to them no matter what.”

I don’t think I’m as brave as her, but I think I would have liked her. We care about some of the same things.

Here’s the full interview this quote comes from: “Hidden World of South Sudan: An Interview with Photojournalist Camille Lepage.”