Un/Taken ep. 8 George Appletree
Want to read what you don't get to see?
This topic is about the photo you did not take. If you haven’t seen the previous episodes, read those stories here.
For this episode we hear the story of George Appeltree, a photographer from Spain and Fellow Substack author. He will tell us about his photos, taken and untaken.
Here we go.
Untaken
Which photo was untaken and why did you not take it?
When you asked me to tell the story, one came to mind. Of course, there are many (too many?) photos that I didn't take because I checked my film roll or SD card and realised that there wasn't much there at the time... But as I have been running The other side of the mirror in Substack since the beginning of the year, I would like to tell the other side of the story here. It happened once at a talk by René Burri, the famous Magnum photographer. He was presenting his latest (perhaps his last ever) book. A hefty retrospective of his career. He was wearing a hat and a big cigar, which meant he had taken some of the famous pictures of Fidel Castro during the revolution. Well, one of the things I remember him saying was something like "there are photographs you shouldn't have taken", referring to a famous actress he ended up photographing that he thought he shouldn't have.
Taken
Which photo that you did not expect to take surprised you the most?
But the story continues. If you allow me, Marcel. After his lecture I went to the cafeteria and he was there with some other people. I thought it would be a good idea to buy his (expensive) book and ask him to sign it, which I did. I went to his table, said hello and asked him what he was doing. He was with Frank Koetzle, then director and publisher of Leica magazine, who was promoting the book. A few days later I met Koetzle at another photo exhibition, said hello to him and he "invited" me to the opening of the book exhibition in Switzerland. I took the invitation seriously and thought it would be a good idea to take a break and go there. As with the "great" untaken photographs, I was of course very excited about the opportunity. But... so let me expand on that a bit:
René Burri was one of those mythical Magnum photographers who was everywhere and with everyone, as I could see from the pages of the book. I thought it would be a good idea to present him with a good Cuban cigar that I had bought. After a flight to Geneva and a train to Laussane, I arrived at this palace called Le Musée de L'Elysée, now an important centre with an amazing modern building called Photo Elysée. A pleasant, fabulous scene in a huge lawn garden on the Lake of Geneva with swans on the shore and lots of people with a glass in their hands enjoying themselves was what my eyes saw when I got there. The musicians were getting ready and he was there with his wife or girlfriend and also Koetzle, near the instruments, being interviewed.That was my moment. My photograph. I went up to him, gave him the cigar (he didn't have one that day) and took a couple of photographs. One of them is this one.
Moments later, after posing for the media and fans, it was lunchtime and I thought I should meet him; I had been invited, I thought. So I went to the party bar where he was with that woman and tried to have a little chat with him. But, ... let me eat, was his reply. And I went off to move around and enjoy myself some more. So that was the untold conversation. I think there's an osmosis, more than anything else, in the fact that you go to photography workshops, for example. I was actually going to do one of his workshops before all this happened, but he cancelled it. And certainly there was a lot of osmosis in my frustration.
Which photo that you did not expect to take surprised you the most?
Many photographs surprise me. Perhaps most of all when I'm using a home-made pinhole camera, or an old Rolleiflex, or sometimes my digital camera. Maybe I'm not the decisive moment type. But following on from the previous photographer saga, I was surprised to meet William Klein in Paris Photo a few years ago. He was in a wheelchair; I was never a big fan of him, but of course I was interested in his work and his figure. So I didn't really expect to have the opportunity to photograph this legendary photographer. I just managed to take two pictures of him and I still remember the moment.
Who is George Appletree?
I have been taking photographs since young and developing myself as a self taught independent photographer. I passed through, and like to practice alternative photography methods, or making a pinhole camera from time to time. My favourite genre is street photography. Some say I have a particular style of approaching my subjects; I like informal portraiture some times and try to do my best , though I take them as street photographs,... I was born in Spain, and George Appletree is my photographer's name. I have a Naval Architecture degree, that taught me a lot about space.
You can find more about George on his photography related Substack The other side of the mirror
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That’s it for this week,
Till next time
Thanks a lot, Marcel