Is there a specific female view in photojournalism? Hazel Thompson and Axelle de Russé, two photographers from England and France, tried to find an answer on Saturday at the Perugia International Journalism Festival.

“When I create an image, the emotion in it is fundamental”, Hazel Thompson begins, who has photographed children’s prison in Malaysia last year. “When people are looking to my photo, I want them to have the same emotion.” She also gives the example of Iraq. “I don’t’ want to be embedded and to cover the war. To me the background, the consequences of war in the countryside seem more interesting. When I choose a subject, I need to have an emotion, a connection with it.”
For Axelle, maybe there is a feminine sensibility. But the personality also counts a lot. It’s not only a question of gender, she says.
Emancipation. It’s amazing how many women can be seen in professional photography. Especially comparing to the last few years. “They have started to travel, investigate, make various project, look around catching things sometimes invisible for men”, Tiziana Faraoni highlighted, photo editor of the Italian weekly L’Espresso. Finally they have begun to tell the story about other women what used to be done by male photographers. Even if they go to war it is hard to distinguish who took which photo. In fact some of them are better, much closer, with more details.
Time. Both of them spend long time with people they want to photograph. In Philippines, Hazel Thompson worked as a volunteer in jail. She photographed secretly the shocking conditions there. Axelle de Russé photographed the return of the concubine in China. “I’ve been in China in 2005. I have worked on infanticide. There I’ve discovered the concubin’s phenomenon. Some Chinese men are getting richer. They can have a second wife and, they finance her. In fact, this is an old phenomenon, which was forbidden in 1949 by the Communists because they considered this to be sign of bourgeois decadence.”
Projects. Axelle de Russé now works on reportages about the countryside in the West of France. “I am very happy, to have the chance to work in my country.” I always travel to discover stories. But in fact, there are amazing stories just near you.” Hazel Thompson works on a project about the role of women in Gulf countries.
Difficulties. As a photographer living for and with your job, you need to take care to not lose your own identity. And there is the difficulty to reconcile private family and professional life, Hazel Thompson explains. “When I return home, my sister often says ‘Hazel, you’re not with us’.” Axelle de Russé agrees: “Photoreporters have to bridge the gap between high tensions and normal life.”
Unfortunately there are more external obstacles. “Nowadays newspapers rarely risk to take up serious subjects like the one about children in Philippine jails and concubines in China. People prefer much lighter subjects”, Tiziana Faraoni says. The result is: Newspapers spend less and less money on long term photo projects. But it is impossible to make a good reportage in short time, Hazel Thompson states. To keep up their journalistic work, they have to apply for grants from different foundations and programmes.
And how does the job shape the personal perspective? Hazel Thompson remembers her dreams at the time she worked in Malaysia: “Each time, I am making a reportage, I loose a part of myself.  But at the same time it enriches myself. During the report in Malaysia, I had insomnia, I could not sleep. I was dreaming of these children in jail.”
 
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Axelle de Russé
Hazel Thompson