Always seek stories: Magnum's Jérôme Sessini on finding your photographic voice

His second prize-winning series, Final Fight for Maidan, documented the violent clashes between Ukrainian police and pro-European, anti-government protesters in February 2014. The protesters built barricades and occupied Kiev’s central Maidan square with ongoing violent clashes peaking on 18 February 2014, when 70 people from both sides were killed.

What first attracted you to photography?

“When I was around 23 (in the early 1990s), I bought my first camera. I was fascinated by images in general – paintings, photography – and also by history. When I saw books by Mark Cohen, Lee Friedlander and Diane Arbus, I understood that photography was a language of the soul. I started to take pictures around my hometown in Les Vosges; landscapes and portraits of ordinary people.”

Then in 1998, you moved to Paris to pursue a career as a photographer and started working with Gamma photo agency. How did that break come about?

How did Albania compare to your expectations? How prepared were you?

“I was totally unprepared. I arrived at night in the port of Durrës and I didn't know what to do or where to go. I was following a group of people who were going to fight with the Kosovo Liberation Army, but once we arrived in Albania, they left me alone with my camera. I met this journalist there who told me, ‘I'm going to help you.’ I was very lucky. At that time, Albania was tough and dangerous.”

Since then, you've done many short-term assignments, as well as in-depth personal series such as your four-year project in Mexico. How do the two approaches relate?

“Mexico was the first project that I wanted to follow for years [rather than for a shorter period]. I speak Spanish and have a lot of contacts in the country. I really wanted to understand what was happening there; to see changes month by month and year by year. It’s difficult to continue a project for many years, but short assignments are difficult too, because you have to react quickly. Sometimes a news story can become a long-term project. I’ve been working in Ukraine for three years now and that began as a news story. It’s hard to explain how I know when it's a major story to follow in-depth. You get a kind of feeling of attraction for the people. It's not something rational.”

Do you identify with the struggles of the people you photograph? In the barricades in Ukraine, for example, is it hard not to get swept up in what’s happening?

“I can make friends and I have my own political opinions. But I try to keep this away from photography. I don't try to give explanations with my work because photography cannot tell everything. It can show, it can translate emotions. I prefer pictures that provoke questions [to those that offer opinions]. I want people to form their ideas themselves.”

Today, the single image seems to be losing its dominance. Do you feel that narrative is more important than having a single powerful shot?

“Definitely. I totally believe in sequences in stories. It's a bit like music: when you compose music, you have some slow moments, then moments of tension – and I try to do the same with my photo series. I always think in terms of series. I'm always looking for a story, not one single picture.”

Do you think there are any new ethical dilemmas facing photographers working today?

“Yes, there are some things that we need to talk about in the industry. I hate post-production work that’s done to make a bad picture look nice. Any post-production editing I do is about making my pictures look more neutral and closer to reality, because a digital shot is sometimes too sharp and too artificial-looking.

“Some people who consider themselves purists say pictures must be uncropped and not staged. That doesn’t matter for me. What matters to me is the honesty of the photographer – if you stage your photography then OK, but you have to tell people. If you stage photography and make people believe it’s real, then that’s a problem. But fiction in photography can be a very powerful way to tell stories."

How has your storytelling changed? You've been working more with moving images...

“I’m not a filmmaker, but I use video in certain situations. In Kiev’s Maidan square, I was in a barricade with some protestors when snipers started to shoot at them. I was stuck for two or three hours, and the pictures began to look very repetitive. So I decided to switch to video, and the action was stronger than it would have been with a still image. But I'm first of all a photographer, not a video maker.”

What advice do you have for photographers who are just starting out?

“Find yourself and then try to remain yourself. That's very difficult – it's easy to get lost with photography. When you start to become a photographer, you don't know which direction you want to go in, so you try many things and it's hard to find your way.”