The second Instagram Live Chat Series, presented by MDFF—Athens’s guest Daniel Gava, as part of our initiative New Forms Of Presence. The live chats aim to zoom into each guest, as well as zoom out looking at the knowledge, observations and inspirations within the sector that each one represents.
The 2nd Live “episode” revolves around the notion of Events and Public gatherings: From the society and celebrity scene of the past, to the architecture and design Events of the future.
A conversation with Richard Young
The chat touches upon the art of building relationships of trust within the Event scene, the power of the archive of personal memories, the elements that make an Event successful, and beyond.
Richard Young
With a career spanning over 45 years, Richard’s exceptional eye has cemented him as the most trusted and prolific contemporary photographer to the stars. As both a portraitist and photojournalist, his unerring ability to capture the moment and present a candid, inside view into the world of celebrity has resulted in iconic images that are celebrated in publications throughout the world.
Richard has photographed a diverse and distinguished range of famous celebrities such as capturing some genuinely unique moments over the course of his career. Richard visited orphanages in Romania with Michael Jackson, photographed Sting’s wedding to Trudie Styler and toured the country with the Sex Pistols. He has covered parties for the Cannes film festival and the Oscars in Los Angeles. He accompanied and documented United States troops in Iraq and Fidel Castro in Cuba. These examples are only a few of Richard’s diverse achievements, and are a mark of the trust and liking that he inspires in his subjects.
His impact in the field of photography has been honored with numerous awards. He is the Co-Director of Richard Young Gallery, and has published four books, By Invitation Only, Paparazzo!, Shooting Stars and Nightclubbing.
“I have been doing this crazy job, for 47 years of being a photographer, from 1973…this is being the very first time that I have a holiday for more than a week. What I have been doing, in the last several weeks, walking around Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park, Regents Park, and the Regents canal taking photographs of things that interest me, or things that I see, and I feel that make nice photographs, and that’s been really enjoyable. I have been using this camera that I have managed to purchase called a Fuji Pro3… because it’s small and lightweight…it’s been very nice to travel around and walk around town with it. I have been documenting the last several weeks… I am not looking for famous people; I am not looking for celebrities or anything; it doesn’t come in the rounds of what I am trying to do. What I am trying to do is record a moment in time that I hope people will look back with me and say, “My God, this really happened, and this is what people were doing in the past… I love my job; I’ve been very fortunate and very lucky …it has given me a great life, I have met the most amazing, incredible people, and actually with the majority have become friends… At least they recognize you and think of you..the amount of emails or texts or Instagrams of people with goodwill, good things to say about over the last several weeks has been astonishing. I have been quite touched… You got to show them a lot of respect, a sense of humor comes into it a great deal, just being a warm, nice person, just being kind…it costs nothing to be nice… What we are going through now and what we will go through, later on, post this, we are going to have to be nicer to each other and much more considerate and patient with each other… If you got a smile on your face straight away you are relaxing people, and you make them feel comfortable with you, you make them feel that they can trust you… It would be interesting to see how all this pans out when the next big party is going to be. I am waiting for the next invitation. I think it’s going to be very, very different… I can’t wait to party. I want to have a big party to celebrate the end of this craziness… I can’t wait to cuddle and hug somebody”_Richard Young