as a young 'un, i saw a movie (double exposure) based on the life of margaret bourke white, an amazing photojournalist in the days when it was very much a new medium. the movie sucked bad but i was struck by the fact that it was based on a true story. margaret popped up again on the screens, as the photographer recording - unknowingly - mahatma ghandis last days in the movie ghandi. i was sold. she was amazing. brave, adventurous, trailblazing in every sense of the word. her photos were full of humanity and tenderness. i knew that that was what i wanted to do: follow in her footsteps and become a photojournalist.

fast forward to now. sadly, somewhere along the way i lost margarets footsteps.... i got distracted by a frenetic life studying film and then working in the music industry, saw my 2 SLR's get hocked off by dodgy housemates with nasty habits and just clean forgot that margaret had ever been my hero.

tonight i'm sure the spirit of margaret was dancing a tango in the skies above tokyo. last week i found mention of a special tokyo photo night featuring a presentation by the legendary magnum photojournalist philip jones griffiths (read this and especially this link to his latest book. i'm sure margaret was whispering in my ear "go on, swap your monday shift. you MUST go to this, and hear him talk." anyway, i did just that.

and so tonight i ventured over to the meiji university campus in ochnomizu to meet and listen to mr philip jones griffiths talk about his photos, and his life as a photojournalist. his observations were littered with wry barbs about politics, politicians, multi-nationals and the nature of war. he was exactly what i imagined a famous veteran photojournalist would be like. intelligent, witty, and full of fantastic stories.

the room held about maybe 100 people, maybe half of them westerners. after the slide show presentation there was a long question and answer session. i enjoyed hearing his take on the fine line between observer and participant, and the humanitarian role that photojounalists should be serving - siding with the davids, not the goliaths... and local hardline analog photographer mr easterwood will be very happy to know that philip *hates* colour photography, working exclusively in black and white.

despite a fairly fundamental clash of photographic principals (ie my love of deep, saturated colour VS his hatred of it), everything he said kinda rang true to me. i like his outlook on life and photography.

i met a couple of cool people, including 2 photojournalists based here in tokyo - torin boyd (who actually organises these regular photo nights) and a jovial scot named jeremy sutton-hibbert. both of them work for international agencies. i asked lots of questions and they kindly gave me lots of answers and their cards.

imagine being PAID to travel and take photos. goddamn it. what have i been doing for the past 20 years?