Making Madeleine: a young photographer at a glance

Gabi Bellairs-Lombard
Oct 23, 2016
3 min read

Words allow us to read about stories, people, find out information. Photographs let us see them. It seems fair to say that a story is incomplete without a picture to accompany it. A single photograph can tell a story all on its own, too.

Madeleine Chaput, fourth year Photojournalism student at Rhodes University, has, essentially, been telling stories with her camera from the young age of 13. Her desire to be a photojournalist has remained unwavered since before she started university and chose her preferred degree. Clearly family-oriented, Madi says she has always been armed with a camera whenever something significant happened, “trying to capture every moment.”

Madi’s love for photography grew exponentially after a trip to Bologna, Italy, with her family. Her parents’ good friends, Della and Daniella, are both photographers that specialise in animal photography, producing calendars and photographs for pet magazines. During her visit, she was able to explore Bologna whilst also learning new things about the skill of photography from her family friends.

However, the first time Madi learnt about the experiences that come with being a photographer came when interning for the Daily Dispatch newspaper. She shadowed one of the photographers there, Stephanie Norman, who took Madi out on different assignments. One trip in particular that stuck with Madi prompted her to be more conscious of what photography can teach you: “It was Mandela Day and we had to go photograph in the township near the area where I live in East London. It was the first time I’d been in a township, the first time I’d actually seen a township up close and interacted with the people living in it.”

After photographing a few kids playing near a colourful house, Madi became drawn towards this scene: “I just like the way the scene looked happy and joyful and ‘alive’. The kids looked like they were having more fun than I’d had in a while.” The importance of a moment such as this is something that has stuck by Madi ever since, showing her how to interact with people who lead different lives to her.

Being a photographer is not an easy ride, especially when trying to make the leap from “student photographer” to a recognised photographer. “People asking you to photograph events for free is probably the biggest and hardest challenge to overcome. When you’re a student you’ll take any opportunity you can get because you need it so saying no becomes very difficult,” Madi explains, acknowledging that navigating this jump becomes talent-based and increasingly more difficult in the real world. “Navigating the leap from ‘student photographer’ to photographer is what I’m trying to do now, and it’s pretty difficult and disheartening sometimes,” Madi says.

Difficulties aside, Madi’s philosophy when taking photographs has remained the same throughout her time as a photographer: “Treat whatever/whoever it is that you are photographing with respect, and try to understand people, animals, whatever you are photographing before you actually take the shot.” Madi’s understanding of her subjects is evident by the way they appear in her photographs: calm, and cared for.

Going into an assignment or project will only be successful if one goes in without reservations, and Madi’s motto that “an open mind and an open heart” are important things to remember if you want to take good photographs. As well as this, Madi has learnt that the “rules” of photography were taught to her “so that [I] could go out and break them. I think [breaking the rules] is important, because to me it mean[s] that no amount of technical perfection can outweigh creativity”.

What encompasses Madi as both a person and a photographer is her unwillingness to be half-hearted when approaching any photo job. To her, at the end of the day, “photographs are just pictures if you don’t put passion into them.”