IMAGO is committed to promoting education on the cinematographic image. Adriana Bernal Martínez ADFC – co-vice-president of IMAGO – outlines the aims of and activities carried out by the federation’s Master Class Committee.
Being an artist implies thinking of oneself as a social being, as a political being and, obviously, as a human being. It is impossible to assume ourselves as cinematographers without understanding that we have a responsibility to our craft and towards the community to which we belong.
IMAGO, and especially the Master Class Committee, have proposed spaces where cinematographers can meet artistically and technically and through which we can at the same time share specialised education in cinematography outside of our community.
We understand that, as an international federation, we are committed to promoting education on the cinematographic image and to offer knowledge to thousands of young people around the world who do not have access to specific education in cinematography and who are eager to learn and hear the experiences of renowned directors of photography. An audience that we can reach, no matter how far away. That is why the committee, along with its master classes, is becoming an open stage where cinematographers share experiences and knowledge online as well as in person.
Secondly, and no less important, is our relationship with manufacturers, which allows us to have increasingly cutting-edge tools, making our work easier and giving us infinite possibilities to materialise our artistic proposals. That is why the Master Class Committee is also opening a forum where cinematographers and manufacturers can talk about technological advances and their impact on the construction of images. The Master Class Committee has been carrying out talks of different kinds, from two distinct scenarios:
1. IMAGO Talks
This is a project that aims to create a space for discussion between cinematographers and professions related to cinematography where technical and technological advances, artistic positions, aesthetic proposals, working conditions and copyright – in short, everything that concerns the profession of cinematography – can be shared. Since we began to execute the project, there have been two IMAGO Talks: the first one of a technical nature, where a possible adaptation of the analogue zone system to digital cinematography was discussed with high-level guests such as Ed Lachman ASC, Marko Massinger, Alfonso Parra AEC ADFC, and David Stump ASC. The second was a talk discussing the new role of the director of photography in current TV shows’ production structures with renowned cinematographers such as Adriano Goldman ASC BSC ABC of popular British series The Crown and Miguel Amoedo AEC of the highly successful Spanish series La Casa de Papel (Money Heist), both for Netflix.
2. IMAGO Art and Technology
These talks are mainly aimed at opening spaces for our sponsors to show their technological advances to cinematographers. The talks have been carried out with the presence of a representative of the manufacturer who talks about the specific product along with two or three cinematographers who have worked with the equipment and who can give an account of their experience.
Our first talk was with ARRI, specifically about the new ARRI Alexa 35 camera and we had as guests Art Adams, representative of ARRI Inc, and cinematographers Evgenia Alexandrova AFC, winner of the CST 2024 award at Cannes Film Festival for her film Les Femmes au Balcon (The Balconettes) and Alejandro Mejía AMC who spoke about his recent film The Summers, which won the jury prize at Sundance Film Festival. The moderator on behalf of the Master Class Committee was Alfonso Parra AEC ADFC, who had recently carried out extensive tests on the Alexa 35 camera.
The second talk, where our special guest was ZEISS with its Supreme Primes product, featured Alejandro Alcocer, ZEISS representative in Mexico and part of Latin America, and cinematographers Eszter Csepeli HCA with the Hungarian film Our Blossom (currently on platforms), and Benedict Spence BSC who had just released the series Eric on Netflix. Our moderator was Tom Campbell, IATSE 600 cinematographer.
All sessions have attracted a significant number of attendees worldwide (between 200 and 280 attendees at each talk), including cinematographers, producers, and film students. Of that number of attendees, about 40% were from Latin America, 25% from Spain, 20% from the rest of Europe, and the remaining 15% are distributed between the US and other countries. From this we can deduce that this type of talk is very well received and that there is a greater audience in countries that have difficulty accessing specialised information on cinematography.
As we know that nothing is achieved without perseverance, the Master Class Committee is committed to carrying out a process of continuous education. As French novelist Gustave Flaubert would say, this is ultimately the only way to open horizons and feed the vision of the image within film creation, and the importance of cinematography in the narrative.
IMAGO Master Class Committee Members: John Aduloju CSN (Nigeria); Carlos Congote ADFC (Colombia); Alfonso Parra AEC ADFC (Spain/Colombia); Lars Pettersson FSF (Sweden) Edward Yinka CSN (Nigeria); and Adriana Bernal Martínez ADFC (Colombia).
