AFC Newsletter Editorial, December 2017

By Richard Andry, President of the AFC

par Richard Andry - 11 décembre 2017 - Modifié le 9/01 La Lettre AFC n°282

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Sunday, November 26th. Back to Paris. Cold but sunny weather. Through the window I see trees loosing their leaves. Still fresh from Camerimage, I will get on the writing of the editorial of the monthly AFC Letter. The phone is ringing. A call from Rémy Chevrin. It’s a terrible and inconceivable news : our friend Matthieu Poirot-Delpech left us, taken from us brutally. I cannot believe it.

Matthieu is life, sensitivity. It is the permanence of a distanced glance on the vanities of society and our profession. It is a sharpened pen to transcribe it, tuned with a wicked sense of humour.
I met him thirty years ago, at the IDHEC, he was from the forty-first promotion, the last before our dear old school became the Fémis. I was a consultant in cinematography on a graduation film by Olivier Ducastel, with Matthieu as director of photography. He already showed sensitivity, confidence and talent, serious without taking himself seriously. Smiling and reassuring. A beautiful work. A frank and strong personality.

To lose him is hard, so hard, too hard. Today our most tender thoughts are with Sarah his wife and his two daughters whom he loved so much and whom he spoke to us so often. On this sad Sunday, we stay by them. “Hi Matthieu, we will miss you, for sure, but you will always be present in our hearts and in our thoughts and the idea of your memory and your humour will accompany our future actions as you did so well when you were President of the AFC.”

Yes, action is our engine. The Camerimage Festival, as every year, was a great moment in the life of our "art" and as a result, of the life of the AFC. This year we were even more present : in competition, in the various juries, through the AFC Master Class and various workshops, with the students and in partnership with those of our faithful associate members who did not fail to support us financially especially for this event. On behalf of the AFC, I thank them.
As the December Letter is already in XXL format, Isabelle is going to make a superb Camerimage Special supplement to this December Newsletter. On December 15, the AEC, Spanish Association of Directors of Photography, will inaugurate in Madrid its first "Micro Salon" inspired by ours. The AFC is the guest of honor. We are proud of this mark of recognition and salute the initiative of our colleagues. But it is still with my heart full of sadness that I will meet up with you next year.