As part of LeBook’s Connections networking event, a full house of photographers, agents, and art directors gathered at a lecture titled “Images Making History” last Friday. Deborah Sterescu reports.

The speakers, British designer and art director Neville Brody of Research Studios, Italian creative director Giorgio de Mitri of Sartoria Communications, British creative director Terry Jones of i-D Magazine, and Dutch creative director Erik Kessels of Kessels-Kramer, spoke on the state of today's market.

“We [photographers] have to try and understand how to represent reality nowadays,” says de Mitri. Photography is supposed to inspire people, and this is something that people have forgotten. People forget what natural means. We have to bring photography back to where it belongs – that is reality'.

Authenticity, going back to your roots, and having no fear were the three essentials mentioned for any good photographer. To make a powerful statement, the simple things in life need to be appreciated, says Brody.

“We’ve gotten into rigid guidelines of what we should do. We have a sensation we want to communicate and we work from there. It’s backwards. It’s not coming from an exploratory place, but from a controlled one. We have to make trouble and make thought,” he says.