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Champagne days for F1

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This article is an online version of our Scoreboard newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delievered every Saturday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newsletters

Welcome to October, the equivalent to a full moon for North American sports fans. With the NFL, college football, and Major League Soccer seasons in full swing, ice hockey and basketball return this month while baseball and the WNBA are in playoff mode. Any given night or afternoon features something engrossing to watch.

With that comes an onslaught of dealmaking. Scoreboard hears that the first round of the sale of the reigning NBA champion Boston Celtics got under way this week, with banks reaching out to and engaging with interested individual bidders. (The Celtics, meanwhile, open their 2024-25 pre-season with exhibitions in Abu Dhabi this weekend.) And weeks after the NFL formally approved institutional investment in teams, the Miami Dolphins are in talks to sell a minority stake to private equity firm Ares. Stay tuned on both of these deals and more, and meanwhile we have dispatches on LVMH’s continued sports push and the race for the next president of the International Olympic Committee. Do read on — Sara Germano, US sports business correspondent

Send us tips and feedback at scoreboard@ft.com. Not already receiving the email newsletter? Sign up here. For everyone else, let’s go.

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Formula One bags LVMH as new top sponsor

Podium popping: time for an upgrade? © TOM WHITE/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

That victorious F1 drivers currently spray Italian spumante over each other rather than actual champagne has been something of a running joke. Made with Chardonnay grapes grown in the Italian Alps, Ferrari Trentodoc may have a very motorsport name, but still lacks a certain je ne sais quoi on the podium.

That looks set to change after F1 signed up French luxury behemoth LVMH as a new global partner from next year. The 10-year deal is worth more than $1bn, and will involve several of the company’s high-end brands, which include fashion labels Louis Vuitton and Dior, jewellery brand Tiffany & Co, and Benefit Cosmetics. LVMH will become F1’s top sponsor by annual spend.

The most obvious starting point will be for LVHM’s Tag Heuer brand to replace Rolex as F1’s timepiece partner. Rolex has been tied to F1 since 2013, but its 11-year deal is about to run out. Tag Heuer has long fostered links to F1 through individual sponsorships, such as with drivers Max Verstappen, Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and even the late Ayrton Senna.

As for French bubbles, LVMH has plenty of options to pick from, including Dom Pérignon, Moët & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Ruinart. Which one LVMH executives go for may tell us more about who they see as the F1/LVMH crossover audience.

LVMH’s foray into motorsport has long been in the works, but its firm commitment to F1 comes hot on the heels of its lauded debut at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

For F1, landing such a big sponsor is evidence that it is still reaping the financial rewards of the growing US and female fan base brought to the sport by Netflix show Drive to Survive. According to earnings from F1 owner Liberty Media, sponsorship accounted for 18 per cent of the sport’s revenue in 2023, so around $580mn; this deal suggests there is still plenty of room for growth.

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More broadly for sport, it offers hope to those who believe that big brand sponsorships can help pick up some of the slack as the media rights boom tapers off.

After Paris, a new Olympic race gets under way

Olympic powers: sponsor Bridgestone Tires and IOC president Thomas Bach © AFP via Getty Images

Barely two months after the successful Paris Olympics, the games have a new contest ahead of them: the selection of the next president of the International Olympic Committee.

With current leader Thomas Bach set to complete his term limit of twelve years next spring, the candidates to succeed him include World Athletics chief Lord Sebastian Coe, the son of former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, Zimbabwean swimming champion Kirsty Coventry, Prince Feisal al-Hussein of Jordan, among others. The election is set to take place in Greece in March, preceded by presentations from each of the candidates in January.

At stake is an Olympic movement steadying itself amid global political and economic instability. Since Bach’s tenure began in late 2013, the IOC has shifted from its bullish push into new geographies, such as the 2016 Rio de Janeiro games, to a more conservative approach favouring recycled host cities (Los Angeles, Salt Lake City) and sustainability (tap water and public transit-reliant Paris). Through this period, Bach has sought to make the Olympics a distinguished advocate for political refugees, while also staging games through the help of authoritarian leadership in Sochi and Beijing.

“If we start taking parts as an organisation saying ‘this country’s human rights record I don’t like’ or ‘this other country is guilty in this war’, we will disappear” said Samaranch Junior of Spain in an interview about his candidacy with Reuters. He also proposed moving summer Olympics to winter months if global warming makes such events unfeasible.

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The younger Samaranch’s father served as IOC president from 1980-2000 and developed the lucrative advertising scheme, known as TOP, which turned the games profitable. In recent years, a clique of Asia-based corporates signed on for sponsorship to cover the 2018-2022 stretch of three straight regional games in Pyeongchang, Tokyo, and Beijing; this week Bridgestone Tires joined fellow Japanese brands Toyota and Panasonic in opting not to renew with the IOC.

Other candidates are still forming their public message. Coe, the current World Athletics president and two-time Olympic champion, has said on his personal social media that he will release “a detailed manifesto” in the coming weeks. Kirsty Coventry, who would become the first woman and first African IOC president if elected, emphasised recent efforts by the Olympics to reach gender parity. Unlike other political elections this year — this one is just warming up.

Highlights

Diarra ruling: The ECJ sides with former French international © AFP via Getty Images
  • Fifa’s rules on the transfers of professional footballers break EU rules on free movement, Brussels’ top court said, in a ruling that could disrupt the European game’s system of player sales between clubs. The ECJ’s verdict came as a result of a case brought by Lassana Diarra, a former French international player.

  • The world’s top ranked men’s tennis player Jannik Sinner could be banned for up to two years after the World Anti-Doping Agency challenged an earlier decision by an independent panel to clear the Italian of any wrongdoing after he tested positive for a banned substance in March. Sinner said he was “surprised” and “very disappointed” by Wada’s decision to take the case to the Court of Arbitration in Sport.

  • Nike withdrew its guidance for its fiscal 2025, which began in June, as sales and profits continue to decline and the world’s largest sportswear maker prepares for a CEO transition this month.

  • GMR Group, part-owner of the Delhi Capitals Indian Premier League team, has acquired Hampshire County Cricket Club, making it the first English side to become foreign owned. GMR, an energy and infrastructure conglomerate, also has investments in crickets teams in Dubai, Pretoria and Seattle.

  • Renault will cease making Formula One engines at the end of next year. Alpine, the F1 team part-owned by the French carmaker, could instead turn to Mercedes to supply its future power unit.

  • Youth sports are not immune to the forces of commercialisation, and are now estimated to be a $30bn-$40bn per year industry. Private equity investment is now threatening to make Little League — baseball for tykes — too expensive for the average US family.

Chart of the week: Juve’s pain

Column chart of Annual net loss, €mn showing Juventus losses mount as lack of European football hits revenue

Italian football club Juventus, which has a public listing, posted another year of losses, after failing to qualify for European football last season. That alone pushed revenue for the 2023-34 season down by €76mn compared to the previous year, while losses widened to €199mn after tax. The club has not made a profit since 2017, while cumulative losses over the past six seasons are now just shy of €900mn.

However, the club, owned by the Agnelli family, gave a more upbeat outlook for the year ahead. Executives believe the return to the Champions League this season plus cost cuts will help the club break even this year, with the aim of returning to profit in 2026-27.

Final Call

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The lengthy trailer for the Six Kings showcase depicts a gigantic clay Rafael Nadal, a floating wolf pack leader Novak Djokovic, and a lightning-struck Viking chieftain Holger Rune all pinging tennis balls to each other. It’s pretty weird.

What’s it all for? Well, according to Andy Murray it’s to promote “an exhibition tennis event that nobody cares about”. See for yourself.

Scoreboard is written by Josh Noble, Samuel Agini and Arash Massoudi in London, Sara Germano, James Fontanella-Khan, and Anna Nicolaou in New York, with contributions from the team that produce the Due Diligence newsletter, the FT’s global network of correspondents and data visualisation team

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Singapore Airlines adding first class to its A350-900ULR fleet

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Singapore Airlines adding first class to its A350-900ULR fleet

The investment is part of a multi-year retrofit programme to install its all-new long-haul cabin products across 41 Airbus A350-900 long-haul and ultra long range (ULR) aircraft

Continue reading Singapore Airlines adding first class to its A350-900ULR fleet at Business Traveller.

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Ryanair profit drops as airline cuts passenger forecast

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Ryanair profit drops as airline cuts passenger forecast

European low-cost carrier blames pressure on consumers for fall in fares

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All about international rates: tech advancements in monitoring exchange prices – Finance Monthly

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What is the Average Credit Score in the UK

Technology has transformed how traders monitor trends. It has made it easier to collect data and come up with effective strategies. For example, the intricacies around Forex demand for constant monitoring of prices. As well, any price fluctuations can lead to significant losses or huge profits. It all depends on whether you have access to data or not.

New tools are making it easier to access accurate price predictions. These have emerged due to the challenges that traders have faced such as the inability to overcome the high volatility around exchange markets. So what are some of the advancements that are impacting how people monitor exchanges? First of all, different tools can be effective and provide the right information as value changes, for example, aggregators like Rates – all about international rates. Let’s check more about how to find out proper data and the best ways to monitor prices.

Integration

Having many tools can be challenging sometimes. Being able to integrate different tops helps you to have seamless operations. API integration offers another way to monitor currency value. It makes it easier to connect to various sources of data and get a single report.

All you need to do is ensure that the data is accurate. These APIs can also automate data extraction. They help you to update any system depending on the current trends. This provides a competitive advantage for traders.

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Exchange platforms

There are a number of platforms for exchanging currencies. You can use these to gain access to information on currencies according to Rates. They provide both historical and current insights. This makes an exchange platform a good option for anyone looking to improve the rate of success.

One of the best features is customization. So users can choose features that would be useful. For instance, you can set alerts for certain parameters. If the value of the US dollar reaches a certain amount, you will be notified.

Tailoring features according to individual needs allows you to get only information that would be useful for decision-making. Platforms such as Blumberg are useful for anyone who wants to stay up to date with the latest international rates.

Calendars

Because currencies are impacted by many events, it is important to stay informed. Calendars provide information such as inflation reports and economic events. You should be informed about any event that is likely to affect the exchange rate. These are likely to have value shifts and may offer new opportunities.

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This lets you know all about international rates. It allows you to set reminders and stay up to date with the latest trends and any upcoming events. Other important events to look out for include:

  • Central bank changes
  • Geopolitical agreements
  • Economic trends

The goal here is to stay up to date with any potential price movements. It allows you to modify any existing strategy to make it more successful.

Indicators

There are other features that provide various indicators to keep track of. An example is volatility indicators. These show periods when a currency is most likely to be unstable. By looking at how the price has changed over a few months, it is easy to estimate how it will fluctuate in the future.

This feature is important for those looking to invest in an exchange. Additionally, if a currency becomes very volatile, it may be wise to sell a position. Managers can use these indicators to modify their strategies before suffering huge losses.

Analysis tools

Having accurate information is not enough to guarantee success. The next step is to perform a good analysis. This helps traders to come up with effective strategies. Analysis websites can help you do this. They not only help you monitor rates but also look at the overall performance. Examples of such websites include Blumberg and CNBC.

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These also offer expert insights and opinions. This is great for those that may be new to Forex or any other market or those looking for different strategies. Aside from this, you will have access to the latest events that impact international rates. With more accurate predictions, it is easier to make informed decisions. Information should be taken from various sources before creating a report.

Automation

There is a lot of automation in many fields. As a result, the market value is about 244 billion US dollars. Automated systems are a great addition for those that want to improve monitoring. They use preset algorithms to search for patterns and execute trades on your behalf. This is once a set criteria is met.

These can pick up on volatility as well. However, success will hugely depend on the settings. So make sure to test out the algorithm before applying it on exchanges.

Mobile apps

With the majority of people opting to use mobile apps, it is no surprise that traders want the same. With the fast-paced nature of Forex and other different markets, you can now access crucial data through mobile apps. These provide real-time insights on:

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  • Changing rates
  • Estimated exchanges
  • Convertors

Most of these apps are focused on helping you get better results. They come with converters that you can use on the go. These are always updated, therefore providing the best conversion rates. There are so many benefits of using apps including:

  • Convenience
  • Updated data
  • Customization

Users can set the criteria on all international rates. This ability to filter through data allows you to save time and focus on things that will impact your strategy.

Conclusion

With all these changes, you don’t want to stay behind. Various mobile apps and websites have simplified the way traders transact. Now you have information at your fingertips. It is more convenient to make decisions on the go as prices change. AI tools offer a better way to make predictions. They also promote automation, making it easier for investors to perform more trades in a shorter time.

If you are concerned about all about international rates, then keeping up with the latest tech trends is important. It will lead to more effective strategies in a highly volatile market. Capitalize on all the opportunities you get by investing in the right tools, and Rates.fm will help you with that.

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Indonesia and Russia launch first joint naval drills

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Russian naval corvettes docked in Surabaya, Indonesia on Sunday for five-day military drills this week

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Indonesia and Russia have begun their first joint naval exercises, as Jakarta’s new leader Prabowo Subianto seeks a bigger role for the south-east Asian country on the global stage.

The exercises off the eastern coast of Java island, come just two weeks after Prabowo, a former general and defence minister, took over Indonesia’s presidency.

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Prabowo has vowed to maintain Indonesia’s long-standing neutral foreign policy, but he is also seeking a more influential role for the world’s fourth-most populous country, whose natural resources have put it at the centre of global clean energy supply chains.

The five-day joint exercise will be conducted in Surabaya, a port in the east of Java, and its surrounding waters, the Indonesian navy said on Monday. Russia has brought four warships, one helicopter and one tug salvage ship for the exercise, it added.

Indonesia has held joint exercises with Russia in the past as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, but this week’s drills are the first bilateral effort between the two countries. Jakarta also holds annual joint exercises with the US and its allies.

“Indonesia’s first-ever joint naval drills with Russia mark a significant shift in how the country engages with the world,” said Dedi Dinarto, lead Indonesia analyst at strategic advisory Global Counsel. “Rather than solely focusing on interactions with major powers like China and the United States, the Prabowo administration is embracing a multilateral approach . . . that allows Indonesia to work with a diverse range of partners.”

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Russian naval corvettes docked in Surabaya, Indonesia on Sunday for five-day military drills this week
Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto called Russia ‘a great friend’ following a meeting with Vladimir Putin in July © Indonesian Fleet Command/AFP via Getty Images

Analysts have noted that Prabowo has shown a more active inclination than his predecessor Joko Widodo to engage with world leaders and explore avenues for defence co-operation.

As president-elect, Prabowo travelled to more than a dozen countries and met leaders including Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping. Last week, his administration announced its intention of joining the Brics grouping of major emerging economies that includes China and Russia. 

“We consider Russia as a great friend,” Prabowo said in a statement after meeting Putin in July, calling to deepen ties with Moscow.

Prabowo is preparing to embark on his first official overseas trip this week, with Indonesian media reporting that he will head to Beijing, which was his first stop after winning Indonesia’s presidential election in February. He is also expected to visit the US and UK.

But Julia Lau, senior fellow and co-co-ordinator of the Indonesia studies programme at the Iseas-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, warned against interpreting the naval drills and overtures to the Brics bloc of emerging economies as evidence of a tilt towards China and Russia. As president-elect, Prabowo also met Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and France’s Emmanuel Macron.

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Prabowo “is trying a balancing act vis-à-vis the US, China and Russia,” she said. The military drills with Russia are “part of the new administration’s strategy to show that they are not aligned with any great power”.

Evan Laksmana, senior fellow for south-east Asia military modernisation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, argued that the naval exercise “benefits Russia more than Indonesia”.

“Russia is able to say they are not isolated” despite Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, he added, and “to demonstrate its regional presence” as a defence partner.

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“It may even help Russia to eventually further its ability to collaborate with China and North Korea in the event of a regional contingency.”

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The Morning Briefing: Trade Body 2.0 – Does the platform sector need a new voice?; MainStreet Partners hires new funds research director

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The Morning Briefing: Phoenix Group scraps plans to sell protection business; advisers tweak processes

Good morning and welcome to your Morning Briefing for Monday 4 November 2024. To get this in your inbox every morning click here.


Cover story: Trade Body 2.0 – Does the platform sector need a new voice?

The platform sector is a diverse and fragmented industry in need of unification and greater collaboration.

In the past, many attempts have been made — unsuccessfully — to bring providers together under an umbrella group. The setbacks have always been attributed to the competing interests of platforms and, until now, there has been no formal trade group to represent the community.

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The sector’s views have instead been represented by various organisations, including the Association of British Insurers (ABI), the UK Platform Group (UKPG) and The Investing and Saving Alliance (TISA).

However, all that is about to change with the formation of the Platforms Association.


MainStreet Partners hires former Abrdn ESG analyst as funds research director

MainStreet Partners has appointed Sophie Meatyard as funds research director.

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Meatyard previously was at Abrdn where she was senior environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment analyst, “overseeing proprietary ESG ratings, regulatory updates, and manager engagement on key sustainability themes”.

Before Abrdn, Meatyard worked at Hymans Robertson as investment research associate and FE fundinfo as a fund analyst.



Quote Of The Day

Investors are bracing for a week of potential volatility, with the highly fractious US Presidential election in focus and key interest rate decisions looming. For now, the FTSE 100 has shaken off nervousness and opened in the green, making fresh gains after Friday’s recovery

– Hargreaves Lansdown head of money and markets Susannah Streeter on the FTSE 100 still opening in the green despite the US elections being held and UK interest rate decisions being made this week.

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Stat Attack

Research from St. James’s Place shows why the majority of individuals that receive professional financial advice across the nation have remained with the same adviser throughout.

62%

have never switched their financial adviser.

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72%

of those aged 35-54 and those aged 55 and over (74%) have never switched their adviser.

39%

said the main reason for not switching advisers was trust.

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35%

said being happy with the advice and financial returns their adviser has delivered was the main reason.

34%

said their adviser understanding their financial situation followed by having a good relationship with their adviser which has been built over several years at 33% being the main reason.

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Source: SJP 



In Other News

EFG Asset Management has announced the launch of the New Capital – BlueOrchard Global Impact Credit Fund in collaboration with the specialist impact investment manager BlueOrchard.

Part of the Schroders Group, BlueOrchard is an impact investor. This is EFG’s second product focused on sustainable investing following the launch of the New Capital Climate Transition Equity Fund in 2023.

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The New Capital – BlueOrchard Global Impact Credit Fund, which is an Article 9 fund under SFDR, is a global corporate bond fund that invests primarily in bonds labelled as green, social or sustainable, with the use of proceeds being clearly defined and disclosed to investors.

In the period from 2016 to end-2023, the issuance of labelled bonds increased by 37%.

The fund is a Luxembourg registered SICAV and will offer daily liquidity via multiple retail and institutional share classes denominated in EUR, CHF, USD and GBP.

BlueOrchard CEO Philipp Mueller said: “We are excited to collaborate with EFG Asset Management on the New Capital – BlueOrchard Global Impact Credit Fund, which aims to provide consistent financial returns alongside positive and measurable impact for the climate and society. The Fund focuses on helping investors align their portfolios with their values while driving substantial progress in environmental and social areas.”

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Dollar falters, stocks tick up as markets gird for US election showdown (Reuters)

Bank of England expected to cut interest rates despite looser fiscal policy (Financial Times)

One thousand UK workers to join first four-day week trial under Labour (Guardian)


Did You See?

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National Friendly has reduced and simplified the questions on its Income Protection (IP) application.

The mutual said this cuts the time it typically takes advisers to apply by over half, from 14 minutes to six minutes.

Matt Suddards, senior specialist protection adviser at LifeSearch said: “To sell IP, advisers have to deal with lengthy applications that can be both time-consuming and unclear.

“It’s one of the aspects of protection that puts off non-protection specialists from selling IP. Shortening and simplifying the process is better for advisers and reduces frustration for consumers.”

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National Friendly also announced that it has renewed its long-term relationship with Munich Re Automation Solutions.

The deal includes a five-year contract extension to use its ALLFINANZ Underwriting Engine for IP.

The underwriting tool gives National Friendly the ability to underwrite accurately and make changes quickly, as well as delivering a huge amount of valuable data.

Momodou Musa Touray has the full story.

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What is the future of photography?

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This is an audio transcript of the Life and Art from FT Weekend podcast episode: ‘What is the future of photography?

Lilah Raptopoulos
Welcome to Life and Art from FT Weekend. I’m Lilah Raptopoulos. Earlier this year, I spent a few months in the South Bronx to write a profile of an arts institution in New York called the Bronx Documentary Center. And it made me think a lot about photography. One of the many things the school does is offer free photo documentary classes to middle and high school students, teaching them how to shoot on film cameras and develop their photos in a darkroom.

And the students’ work is incredible. Part of what makes it so great is that the South Bronx is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in the United States. And that means that people have assumptions about it. These photos challenge those assumptions because they’re taken by the people who know it best. Meanwhile, these days, I think we have a pretty suspicious relationship with photographic images. Like, when you’re scrolling on your phone with that photo you just saw doctored? Is it actually an AI image? Is it made to look spontaneous but really, it was staged? This atmosphere now, it makes me wonder if the art that these kids are making in the Bronx still has a place in our jaded world. Our US art critic Ariella Budick has been writing about this medium for years. She actually has a PhD in the history of photography. So I’ve asked her to join me today to help make sense of the landscape. Ariella, hi, welcome back to the show.

Ariella Budick
Hi.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
Thanks so much for being here.

Ariella Budick
It’s a pleasure.

Lilah Raptopoulos
So nice to have you. So I want to start by asking you about your relationship to photography. You did a PhD in the history of photography, right?

Ariella Budick
Yes, I did. At the Institute of Fine Arts.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
I know you wrote your dissertation about Diane Arbus, one of the most famous photographers in the 1970s. And I was wondering if you could help me reflect on this feeling that I was having while I was reporting on the Bronx Documentary Center. I felt on the one hand, like it was just amazing to watch these kids learn this like very pure form of social documentary photography. But then on the other hand, the world that we’re living in now is just so different than it was then. And like, we’re all making images all day on our phones and we have access to phone editing apps and AI. And I’m just wondering how you see that reflected in the photography shows that you’re going to these days.

Ariella Budick
I think that one of the developments of now is that photographers are putting more thought into constructing their images. I think that there’s always been some doubt about how truthful documentary photography ever was. I mean, it’s presented to us as we’re going to show you this thing that you’ve never seen before and these people are suffering or these people are, you know, living in this city in this way, that’s a certain kind of corrupt city. And they had to pretend or make you think that you were seeing some kind of reality. And I think that now there’s much more openness to the murky borders of what is reality.

And I think this corresponds to a lot of things in our time where, you know, what is it? Is it news? Is it feature? What is this information I’m getting? And can I trust it? You know, and the photographer is saying, well, no, you can’t trust it. They used to be saying, yes, you can trust it. I’m here with my camera to bring you back the proof. But I think that those questions about what’s real and what’s fake have come to the fore in photography as well and with especially with digital photography. You know, it can be manipulated in ways that you can’t even see or you used to be able to see the hand of the photographer bobbing and weaving in the shadow. You know, and right now, it’s less hands-on and it’s less real, but it can also be more real because you can tell you a deeper truth about power relations in this country or in any country or, you know, just deeper truth, but necessarily more staged or more invented.

Lilah Raptopoulos
Right. Interesting. You know, OK, we’ll talk about this more. But first, I thought it would be helpful to go back to the earlier days of documentary photography, like, say we take Diane Arbus. She’s best known for these black and white portraits that she often took at carnivals or freak shows. She died in 1971. Who is she influenced by? Like, what was the sensibility of the time?

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Ariella Budick
You know, probably some of the most influential people in her life were Lisette Model, who had come here as a refugee from Europe, who was her teacher and sort of taught her how to look at things in an unbeautiful way, I would say. And also Model was very political. But you can see aspects of tabloid photography. And then, you know, you have Robert Frank in ’58 taking these very dark pictures of America, being very critical of American race relations and of American consumerism. And then Walker Evans, I think, is another important influence because for one thing, he used a view camera. When you’re using a larger format camera, you’re taking more monumental type images. They have a kind of stasis and they have detail and they’re sort of more frozen or apart from the world seeming.

Lilah Raptopoulos
So, OK, let me unpack some of these names for listeners. So you mentioned Lisette Model. She was mostly a portrait photographer. She was from Austria. Robert Frank is best known for his book The Americans from 1958, which is this really stark commentary on the state of America. And then Walker Evans was one of the photographers that the US government hired during the New Deal. So he used, as you were saying, that large-scale camera, the kind that uses film plates instead of quick 35mm film and the kind you have to set up. And he documented farmers and people suffering during the Great Depression. How do you organise these photographers in your head, Ariella?

Ariella Budick
I would say that you can sort of break down street photography into two sort of parallel avenues. One is the photographer is kind of a hunter, kind of going through the crowd, grabbing images with his or her small camera, finding the unexpected moment or the moment that, you know, what did Cartier-Bresson call it? Not the precise moment.

Lilah Raptopoulos
The decisive moment.

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Ariella Budick
The decisive moment, there we go. Yeah. He was interested in the decisive moment of a sort of serendipity. And the most famous photograph is of a man, I think, at a railway station jumping over a puddle. And you can see the reflection. He’s jumped to the other side or he’s about to jump. But it’s this kind of moment of poetry that kind of comes out of surrealism and the unconscious eye. You don’t go out and find those images. They just sort of appear to you.

And then on the other side are people who did much more sort of formal set-ups where, I mean, they’re also documentarian, but they often used large-format or medium-format cameras. They weren’t trying to take something, you know, grab it out of the air or pull it out of the imagination. They would sort of stalk the people they were photographing and they would frame them, and then they would shoot them. And they have a very strong sort of intentionality and even often a rapport with the subjects. But I think you kind of get the difference, like what this sort of action, you know, composed on the spot and then the other is much more static, much more detailed in terms of what the photos express, operating on a sort of more symbolic level.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Lilah Raptopoulos
You know this is helpful, Ariella. It’s nice to think of these two categories as different ways to get at a similar thing that documentary photography seem to be trying to do at the time, right? Like, whether it was this kind of quick, fleeting on-the-street style or this grand composed style. Like, both were really like kind of earnestly trying to present some sort of greater truth. And then now we’re in a very different world. I wonder if you can catch us up a little about what happened in between. You know, in-between there were photographers like . . . our listeners may know Robert Mapplethorpe or Richard Avedon or Annie Leibovitz, like these portrait photographers that I associate with the late 70s, 80s, 90s. Can you give us a sense of the kind of periods that we’ve moved through?

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Ariella Budick
Yes. I think that the biggest things that have moved photography around have been kind of motivators. You know, one is money. One is art and, art and money. And, you know, the photographers that you mentioned, institutional and gallery affiliations and their work being seen more as art and less as document. And so the people you mentioned, Annie Leibovitz, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Avedon, you know, they were portrait photographers who were me making mostly commercial work.

I mean, Annie Leibovitz now is, you know, trying to sell her work as art. But it was really for the covers of Rolling Stone and for the covers of Vanity Fair. And so I think what you have is a kind of aspiration. You know, it used to be the photographers, their big goal was to do a book, you know, if they’ve got the book, like that would be the thing. But the idea for a photographers being shown on the walls of, you know, museums, let alone galleries, I think as their aspirations grew and the commercial potential of their work grew, gallery owners realised that they could capitalise on photography as something that they could sell.

And let me let me clarify. I think that over a very long time the sort of legacy of documentary photography, it was this idea that, you know, you cropped your image on your camera. You didn’t do anything to it afterwards other than, you know, use the darkroom techniques. You didn’t set up a photograph. You didn’t, you know, interpolate into it. And then, you know, that really changed. And now, you know, you have these much more elaborate set-ups. There’s this photographer, Deana Lawson, who seems to be taking photos of people at home, except it’s not really their home and they’re totally set up and they kind of fool you into thinking they’re intimate, but they’re not, actually. Or Gregory Crewdson who does these kind of cinematic photographs that take, you know, staging isn’t even the word. I mean, they’re directed as much as if they were films, as extensively as if they were films. So there’s a kind of entrance into it of cinema, of spectacle, and that’s not part of traditional documentary photography at all.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
You know, it was interesting to watch one photographer become very popular recently from the past, who is Vivian Maier, this photographer who, like was a nanny in the 50s and she took over 150,000 photos and then they were discovered like 10, 15 years ago. And there was a documentary about her work. And it was just on show in New York. And you look at those photos and you think, whoa, that’s a person who’s probably not alive any more. That’s a moment from like the street of Chicago that like, no one would have known existed if it hadn’t been for this woman who had taken this photo that we didn’t even know existed, etc. And obviously, that’s part of the kind of like excitement and beauty of this documentary photography. But now nothing feels lost because we’re all documenting everything all the time. Or it feels like because we have cameras at our fingertips, we’re trying to make sure that that never happens again, that there will be no Vivian Maier of the future, because, like, we’ve all taken a picture of every meal that we’ve ever eaten. And I guess how . . . yeah, how do you think about that?

Ariella Budick
The irony is that those will not be preserved because technology is changing so fast that unless you print out your 100,000 photos from your phone, you know, you might get another phone. And who, you know, these things that we feel surrounded by and that are so intricately involved in our lives can be pulled away from us. Separated from us. You know, disappeared. And I think it’s probably scary to a lot of listeners to think about this. But, you know, they think they’re collecting all this data, but that could all be ripped away in a moment. It’s all in the ether. There is no actual photograph. It’s just, you know, a figment.

Lilah Raptopoulos
Yeah, and it’s like, I mean, think about all the dead links that we visit and think that, you know, were all the digital cameras from, you know, 2005.

Ariella Budick
And the photographs that illustrated stories that are no longer accessible to us. So I think that we underestimate or just don’t consider the future of our photographs. And we think that they’re, you know, in some way eternal and preservative, when in fact they are more fleeting than anything has ever been.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
You know, Ariella, I want to go back to my experience at the Bronx Documentary Center quickly, because even though photography is in a very different era and time, there was something still very hopeful to me about the fact that these kids were taking photographs, partially because the work was just impressive and they’re telling incredible stories, but also because it reminded me that, like, we still like objects despite it all, you know, and we’re going through this with a lot of media. You know, people are still buying books. We’re still buying records. We still draw and paint. Those are very old art forms. Like, we want to use our hands. And even if film photography is an outdated technology, like, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist or that you can’t make great art with it. And so I’m curious from you, like, what of this do you think can remain and what are you hopeful about?

Ariella Budick
I think that photography is one of these amazing media that, you know, that a group of people in the South Bronx can pick up and train themselves to use and then turn the lens on their own communities and not just to have like a picture of my grandma but the systems that undergird the community and the way they experience them. And photography is an incredible tool for doing that. You know, it doesn’t require a huge amount of training. Darkroom experience is great and film is great and the object is great. But sometimes you don’t need those things as much as making the invisible person visible or the invisible community visible.

There used to be a very top-down approach to that, and like those photographers in the Depression, they fanned out across the country to take pictures of homesteaders and farmers. But, you know, those people were being photographed by professionals who would kind of come in and swoop in and take their pictures and disappear.

Lilah Raptopoulos
Yeah, outsiders.

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Ariella Budick
I think the thing about this is that these are from the inside of the community. These people are not being exploited by some rich white photographer who’s going to come in and take their picture. And these are taken by people who have an investment in their communities, in their lives, and they’re documenting them in a much deeper, profound, more intimate way. And I think that’s incalculably richer.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
Ariella, my last question for you is one that I kind of don’t want to ask, but I’m told that I have to. And that is about how you think AI will affect photography as a medium. I ask because there’s a lot of talk about this right now. The New York Times recently printed this long discussion among four photographers and its photo editor, and it was called “AI is the future of photography. Does that mean photography is dead?” So I guess I have to throw the same question to you. Is AI, which, to be fair, already can create photorealistic images. Is it about to kill regular photography?

Ariella Budick
No. I think that what AI does from my minimal experience with it is to kind of boil everything down to like average protest photo. You know, AI could generate a photo of a protest march like a pro-Trump march or, you know, pro-choice march. And you could tell it like give me a photo on a pro-choice march and they’ll be sure to be like people with placards and wreaths, fists. And, you know, it’s very good at doing a conventional thing.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
Right.

Ariella Budick
But not one that will stop you in your tracks or make you feel anything or surprise you or give you that authentic human subjectivity that a person can bring. So those are all things that I think AI won’t, you know, I can’t really say will never, but can’t do yet. All they can do is a kind of approximation of the conventions. And I think that the truly important things can never be done by a bot because all AI does is assemble everything that’s already been done. Work off that, but doesn’t create new things.

Lilah Raptopoulos
Yeah. I hate talking about AI in this context of like, will it replace human creativity? Because I don’t know. It’s like, it’s a cool tool in its infancy, but it’s just so . . . it’s just like, not interesting the way people are interesting yet. And the thing we’re all afraid of, like, it might not happen. And so I don’t know. I don’t find it interesting yet in that way.

But Ariella this, on the other hand, it was so interesting and so thought-provoking. Thank you so much for being on the show.

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Ariella Budick
Well, thank you so much. It was a pleasure to be here.

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Lilah Raptopoulos
That’s the show. Thank you for listening to Life and Art from FT Weekend. Please check out the show notes. I have linked to some excellent reviews of recent photography shows by Ariella and also a link to my FT Magazine profile of the Bronx Documentary Center, and it asks the question how arts institutions like it can survive. Also, our next Monday episode is with the great wine expert Jancis Robinson. So if you have any questions for her or want tips from her about choosing wine or building your own wine cellar, please write me. I’m on email lilahrap@ft.com, on Instagram @LilahRap. Those links are also in the show notes. I’d love to hear from you.

I’m Lilah Raptopoulos. And here’s our incredible team, Katya Kumkova is our senior producer. Lulu Smyth is our producer. Our sound engineers are Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco and Jo Salcedo. With original music by Metaphor Music. Topher Forhecz is our executive producer and our global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. Have a wonderful week and we’ll find each other again on Friday.

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