From a good start to a big trauma: the first half of 2024 (part 1)

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while… hope you all are doing well.

I’ve been through many different emotions during this first half of 2024… from the joy of attending EVERGLOW’s concert in Paris to deep sadness with one of the toughest moment in my life after my journey in Made in Asia in Brussels, but then two amazing experiences at Japan Tours Festival 2024 and Japan Expo 2024 !

I will share how I am doing these days and how I’m feeling about the second half of this year and more…

2024 started well for me with three concerts in a row. Starting with MCND, followed by Rolling Quartz where I took a tons of good photos. I was particularly excited for the next one: EVERGLOW’s concert in Paris on the third day of this busy week. I’ve been following EVERGLOW’s activities since their debut (even before for Yiren and Sihyeon who participated to Produce48) and I’m very receptive to their music style, so being able to photograph them for their first-ever world tour was an honor. I was really nervous and it affected my concentration, so even though I’m happy about my photos of this concert, I could’ve done better.

February was also a good month with xikers, the little brothers of ATEEZ. Only six of my photos were approved by their management but I’m happy to have them in my portfolio. Finally, the month ended with DREAMCATCHER’s concert in Paris, the second one for me as photographer. I’m very proud of this series, especially because Dreamcatcher is the group for which I resumed concert photography last November 2022.

All of these shows were covered for ab(CDE), here is a sneak peek!

Right after that, I served as staff and official photographer for the idol group BANZAI JAPAN at the event ‘Made in Asia’ in Brussels. As always, it was a pleasure to work with such an amazing group, all girls gave their best and all their fans were delighted to see them on stage in Europe for the first time this year. Every step of the event went well, and all members and staff of the group returned safely to Japan. However, a significant incident happened to me on the way back to Paris. My photography bag containing all my gear was stolen at the train station in Brussels. I lost my two cameras (Nikon and Sony), three camera lenses, a MacBook, an iPad, and all the accessories like batteries, cables, SSD, and memory cards.

I was truly traumatized and shocked, but me and my friend went immediately at the nearest police station to report the theft while I was trying to contain my panic attack and a tetany crisis.

Thanks to my Belgian of many years, I stayed in Brussels one more night to calm down and collect my thoughts, before returning to Paris the following day.

I knew the chances of the Belgian police finding my stolen bag were close to zero, so I took the initiative and created a crowdfunding campaign on my social media without knowing what impact it would have. Thanks to the generosity of everyone around me (friends, family, acquaintances, etc.), the fund reached a total of 2500€.

Thanks to this, I have been able to buy a new MacBook the week after the incident! The trauma was huge and recover from this to bounce back was very hard for me, although I had some concert accreditations approved in the meantime. And without camera, I had to borrow my friends’ cameras and sometimes rent out camera lenses.

In this way, I’ve been able to photograph Eric Nam for the French media KARAOME, BamBam (from GOT7) and THE ROSE for ab(CDE).

After much hesitation, I finally bought a new Sony camera with a Tamron lens (Sony A7 IV + Tamron 28-75mm f2.8) in June. Once again, I helped BANZAI JAPAN during their journey at the Japan Tours Festival 2024 at the end of the month, which was held in Tours—a place I visited many times during my youth. Seeing an idol group perform there was really important and emotional for me!

Additionally, Japan Expo (July 11th – 14th) employed me as one of their official photographers for this year’s edition! On top of that, I had the incredible opportunity to hold my own photography exhibition there, focused on my KPOP artist photos! More details in the next part of this article!

All these unfortunate events were really difficult for me, and I fell into a period of deep depression and denial. But fortunately, all my friends in France and from all around the world helped me stay strong, and some good opportunities came my way. Moreover, in my last news update, I mentioned that I would try to pass the TOPIK exam Level 1-2, and I successfully achieved Level 1!

See you in the next article where I will talk about my experience at Japan Expo 2024!

Nathan Gey July 29, 2024

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