Michael William-Paul director and photographer’s work revolves around current issues and international development goals.
Michael William Paul’s works revolve around current issues and fashion world
By MARINA SUWENDY
WRITING my second Power Lunch interview that was conducted in New York City, while I’m back in Kuala Lumpur for all of five days, was a little bit testing.
Is my interviewee a Malaysian? No, He was raised in the US Midwest and is now based in New York. Is he running a Malaysian– based business? No, he’s based mostly in the United States. So, why him and how do I justify this? Quite simple, for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve heard a lot lately about changing perceptions, and it has been a broad generalization that the fashion industry can be all glitz and no substance, so, hopefully, this article will shed a little light and open minds about how fashion is not always one-dimensional, and it is unfair to assume that it always is.
Secondly, and more importantly, I personally feel that there are some quests in life that transcend nationality, and that are important enough for us to highlight them.
My interviewee for this week is Michael William-Paul, a gifted New York-based international fashion and portrait photographer, who has also for the past 10 years been working as an information and media consultant for various groups within the United Nations. With determined effort he has been working hard to support and bring awareness to the UN Millennium Developmental Goals of 2015 (www.un.org/millenniumgoals).
Between hectic Fashion Week schedules William-Paul spoke to me at his midtown studio about his career to date and the current projects he’s involved in.
He has, in his capacity as a fashion photographer, shot international advertising campaigns for various leading brands, and for numerous international fashion publications like Elle, Flare and Harper’s Bazaar, just to name a few. Yet, he has also been part of projects that are seemingly in a different world altogether from fashion. He has worked alongside heads of state from different governments and with groups in the UN focused on humanitarian and world development projects. “I also have a photo project that I’m working on right now that is an on-going collection of women’s portraits, and I hope to collect statements from the women who I have photographed — influential women, from celebrities to heads of states. I would like this project to help raise awareness toward the UN’s Millennium Developmental Goals of 2015,” he said. But, what exactly is a information and media consultant? And, how did it come to be that the UN recruited a fashion photographer?
When asked about his beginnings and first involvement with the world outside of fashion, William-Paul said, “I did a big project in Russia in 1998 when I was still a student. It just so happens the ruble crashed the year that I was there. It was only five or six years after the collapse of communism. So, while I was studying there, I brought a bunch of cameras and created a television documentary on transitional economics. I was there with graduate students, but I was an undergraduate. I was filming it and got a lot of really good footage that I composed into a television documentary. I interviewed members of the Duma (Russia’s lower house of parliament), former communists, American professors. I had a great mentor from my university, Professor Sergei Plekhanov, guiding me along the way. So, that exhibition went on till 2001 and the opportunity really influenced my desire to want to get more involved in this work officially, whether through journalism, photography or film.”
And, from that exposure, in addition to shooting for the largest women’s lecture series in North America, which included personalities such as Jane Fonda and Maya Angelou, William-Paul started his journey onward and upward. He was initially recruited as a photographer. “After graduating university, I was working for an international organization in Brussels. I went to a conference at the European Parliament for young entrepreneurs. I was invited to be a media liaison and photographer at the 8th World Summit for Young Entrepreneurs,” William-Paul said. However, since those early days, he has taken bold steps to further his work and relations within the international arena.
“I work with international governments, commonwealths, the UN and other NGO’s. I’m not so much a journalist, my work is more official – people who have access are the governments, special publications, historical documentation, and so on. I am often considered by others to be more of an information and media consultant. As a consultant, you’re collecting the information, and trying to get something through, whatever you might be focused on at that time.
“Many of the groups we work with are focused on economic development in developing countries. I work on the interest of focusing on the purpose of particular assignments, or advocacy or relating to the press.
“I’d studied political economics and comparative world politics, specifically focusing on countries in transition. So, for me to get involved with groups or countries that are focusing on partnering between themselves and, or between other alliances, makes sense for me, I’m attracted to that. Working closely with organization that are writing and developing the policies that are creating the grassroots, empowering less developed countries, to create for
Themselves the things that they need. Because, I do believe in the cause of development,” he explained, stressing the importance of realizing that there are issues out there that need to be promoted and supported.
William-Paul subsequently did work in China.
“I was fortunate to sit on a panel of what they called eminent personalities. It was a big honor for me to be invited. I was the official photographer, and travelled with a group of diplomats, professors and other dignitaries. It was an honor and a privilege to be on a panel with eight other such notable people.
“At the time of that trip I was the youngest of the group, and it was a tremendous learning experience, which helped me to really grow as a person, opening my eyes through such an incredible opportunity, and I had great people around me. While in China we toured three of the four municipal cities. We were in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai. At the end of it all I was invited back as an honorary citizen by the mayor of the Yangpu District in Shanghai.”
Integrating
So how does he combine all of this with the fashion world? Can it even be combined?
And, having been involved with these matters, does he find his interest in the fashion industry waning? William- Paul’s sentiment seems to be that there is a lot to admire about the fashion business, the flexibility, speed of expression and that it can reach a wide audience.
“The aim is to express something in the over-saturated market place today of constant information and content perhaps as a result of technology and a ‘everybody can’ attitude. There are some people that I admire in the fashion business and there are some artists that I think need a little more time to evolve to truly find their voice.
“It’s a hard world to be different in these days, which may not be all bad. Maybe we have more in common after all, but we should still search for originality, and not make everything a copy of the last.”
He admits that while trying to be a conscious active member of society, and also an artist, he cannot neglect the world around him. In the airy Manhattan studio he grabs a couple of portfolios off a shelf, and shows me a sample of his work, a magazine showcasing striking pictures of models posed amid a protest scene, toting declarations against violence and injustice as they portray sentiment during a fashion editorial that he directed in the middle of an actual protest.
He says: “That’s what you can imagine for me, from an artist’s point of view – how do I properly translate this in my creative work? To have witnessed the shifts in support, from one side to the other, see them come and go, see changes take place all around the world– all from the front row. How can I share and translate over 10 years and beyond through the visual photos I’ve collected and those I have yet to create? I mean, it’s academic history and it’s the history we’ve yet to create.”
Fashion meets global purpose
William-Paul has strived to involve the fashion community in global issues. He founded Universal Models for Peace (www.universalmodelsforpeace.org) and is working on another project called the Model Ambassador Project (MAP). The first of the projects that UMP was involved in surrounded the International Economic Conference in West Africa. William-Paul worked to create a program around the conference.
“I was establishing a project for Universal Models for Peace, trying to find a way to blend the fashion world with humanitarian causes. It focused on demonstrating how models, fashion people, entertainment people and people in pop culture, can be a part of something and contribute. It’s meant to generate a desire for compassion, sharing and giving back, rather than the competition model, which is so often encouraged as the main stream. Our next project is focused on Parliamentarians for Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (PNND), a network of over 800 parliamentarians in over 80 countries, and its global coordinator Alyn Ware. We are collaborating with Universal Models for Peace on media projects attached to international summits and UN events in an effort to highlight UN Millennium Development Goals and nuclear disarmament.”
Exactly what is the UMP group? And what is the Model Ambassador Program?
“MAP is a program where participants can have an outline that focuses a protocol for getting involved with UMP and to be able to get involved hands on. The idea is for them to have a chance to take part and be heard at these major conferences. There are supermodels and actresses who go in and say something related to their non-profit or cause. So, that’s what we’re doing – we want to give a voice because, it is exciting and important.
“It’s to highlight other organizations related to the MDGs and to give them support through our resources and networks. And, also to get our participants involved through advocacy and outreach to shed light on these things, which are of importance to the world. There’s always room to support. There’s room to take a stand on big issues. That’s what more people can do these days. Everybody wants sustainability and eco friendly homes. These are important things, but, we’re still producing massive amounts of nuclear weapons, not to mention landmines and cluster munitions. There’s a lot of things that we need to focus on, that we have to talk about, before there’s a big crisis,” he shares, as he speaks passionately of the objectives of Universal Models for Peace and the necessity for people to be willing to get themselves involved in world issues. With that said, I wished him much support in his pursuits, and we drew our interview to a close as he headed off to a meeting regarding his duties at the, then, upcoming UN General Assembly.
as syndicated from “The Star”
The Star is an English-language, tabloid-format newspaper in Malaysia. It is the largest English newspaper in terms of circulation in Malaysia, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It has a daily circulation of between 290,000 to 300,000. The Star is a member of the Asia News Network.
The Star is majority-owned by the Malaysian Chinese Association, the second-largest party in the ruling Barisan Nasional alliance. Its major competitors are the New Straits Times and The Sun, both tabloids.
