Psychedelic Wrasse by Mattias Ormestad
Monthly Archive for January, 2009
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Hunger and Rage
Although the Caribbean islands are widely considered as a holiday paradise, Haiti a state lying on the Hispaniola island, in the Greater Antilles evokes a hell and a disaster rather than anything else. The overall situation on Haiti gets worse every year and the extreme, hardly imaginable poverty hits more and more people. The Haitian economics is paralysed, there is no infrastructure, no food supplies, the population suffers from hunger, social and living conditions in Haitian slums (e.g. CitÈ Soleil) are a human tragedy. There seems to be no way out of this misery. Haitian administration is (and always has been) highly corrupted, misappropriation of public funds is common. MINUSTAH (Blue Helmets installed on Haiti by the UN in 2004) substitute the police therefore they are generally not welcomed by the Haitian population. The rage grows and the tension continues with undiminished strength.
Photography: Jan Sochor
Music: Manno Charlemagne (”Banm Youn Ti Limye”)
Website: www.jansochor.com
Meet Soichiro.
He has agreed to us getting to know each other. Through the barriers of different languages and cultures, we will be approaching each other with the broadest possible open mind. To learn, to tell our stories. To gain trust and to share views.
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Soichiro and his family control Kabukicho, in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Not much happens in the streets without his approval.
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After more than 10 months of preparation and ground work by my brother and our dear friend Taka-san, finally, for the first time, we all meet over dinner. At first, Soichiro lays down the rules. Tells us what we want to achieve is near impossible. He says that the things we want to document, no outsider has ever been allowed to bear witness to. We eat, drink, smoke, and exchange gifts.
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He invites us to his office. we talk some more. I show previous work, I show prints of Oaxaca and I show prints of “Sugar”. He tells me I photograph with a Japanese eye. He laughs when we ask if it’s true that all family members have tattoos, and if it’s painful to get one.
Then he shows his.
Each tattoo is so personal, he says, full of meaning to the bearer and his family. Only Sensei Horikyo tattoos for his family.
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No rush. He understands and wants us to take time to get to know his family, time to develop our view. He believes in our way of working, and is confident we will bring this to a good end. He thinks in years, not days or weeks or months.
He does a lot of legwork in his family. Even though he is a boss, he still speaks to his bosses who in turn speak with their bosses. Within two days, we are invited to witness a closed meeting. Four members apologizing to the family for being in jail. My brother and I are nervous as hell going in.
No pictures allowed yet, but now we know. Soichiro walked the walk and committed. Our project has begun for the next couple of years. My brother and I… and Soichiro. Becoming friends, telling the story… I hope everything will work out.
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Anton Kusters, january 2009
Editors Note:
This is a single picture that is soon to be part of an ongoing essay…An essay that could take several years..I am publishing this now to kick off our new section categorized as “Work in Progress”. We are starting quite literally with just one picture. So this is a right before your eyes true beginning. You will be able to follow Anton’s thinking process, photographic process etc. , as he moves through the underworld of Japan. I will take on four other photographers soon for this section as the work presents itself. You will be able to help Anton and others think about their shooting and their editing. You could be one of the photographers for whom this process would be most valuable.
-David Alan Harvey
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The Inauguration of Barack Obama
On January 20, 2009, the world’s attention turned to Washington D.C.
Visitors, young and old, black and white, American and foreign, descended upon the nations capital en masse, braving the frigid cold to stand witness to history: Barack Obama, former junior senator of Illinois, inaugurated as the 44th President of the United States.
Photographs: Mustafah Abdulaziz for The Wall Street Journal on 01/20/09
Website: www.mustafahabdulaziz.com and MJR
one of the worst ideas i have ever had was starting BURN three days before Christmas!! what a bad idea….but, when i get passionate about something, it is hard to hold me back….so, thus it was that BURN was launched just as i was getting on an airplane and heading for Colorado to see my mother who has no internet modum…..hmmmm, and i am here to help emerging photographer’s think?? well, please know that i do not always do the right thing…however, here we are and i just want to take a minute to take stock….
first of all, i want to thank the readers here for submitting so much work for publication on BURN…some of you may not realize, but so far, all of the work published on BURN has come from you….and this morning i was looking at what we have ready to roll and the next weeks and months are going to be exciting indeed….at first, i was really worried about having daily updates on BURN…i could not imagine it…now, i could do two posts per day easy !! we have lots of content coming in and “the bar” is going to get higher and higher …
the internet audience is indeed a fickle one and an impatient one as well….you have so many choices out there and you want what you want NOW….i get that, but i also ask you to be a little bit patient with BURN…i was getting judged after 6 days, when i could see that to really “get” BURN ,in all of its manifestations, would take 6 months….one sentence is not a paragraph and one paragraph is not a book….i surely would not want to be judged on my first 6 days of anything…..photo essays or relationships or anything!! but, i will take the criticism because this is fair enough…i have put myself “out there”, so that is just the way it goes…so expect more flaws, but expect some revelations as well…
i mean, BURN right now is just me editing, writing etc and Anton Kusters managing most of the tech stuff….i have been in about three locations since BURN started and Anton has been in either Belgium or Japan…so, neither of us can possibly get any sleep because of the time zones…and both of us are shooting as well…sitting by a computer editing is not what i envision for life…i am a working photographer and i will stay a working photographer….my number one priority photographically is my next book….and i hope you will see that this is important for me to be a photographer first and an editor second…but, my work is not published here on BURN…..yours is…..and that is the way it will be..
my choices for essays and singles are just that…my choices….choice comes from either something i really really like OR photographs that i think will invite discussion….and there is certainly no lack of discussion!! i like photojournalism….i like conceptual photography….frankly, i like whatever is truly compelling….again, the work published here has come from the pool of submissions from you, or from photographers i have mentored online or in workshops…..i was thinking at first to cast a wider net and i will do that too, but things are coming in so fast and the essays are getting so good, that it is a full time job just to view it all….
plus, we will start soonest the “Work in Progress” section for developing essays…i will take on 5 new photographers for this and work with them a month or so and then select 5 more…i predict many of you will be hanging around “Work in Progress” over all other sections…i will continue to profile so called iconic photographers as a way of mixing it all up on the same pages…not only Magnum photographers as some would expect, but photographers from all agencies , galleries , etc etc…this is my nature…i do this in my workshops…my student show always follows the show of one of the greats…this honors say an Alessandra Sanguinetti or a Eugene Richards, but gives a special cred to the emerging photographers who will soon become the “greats”….this is my whole point of mentoring….to discover the next great photographer OR to provide a meaningful way of making photography an integral part of your life…
your ideas and your work are BURN…..i am just a moderator….BURN may be likened to “talk radio”…participation is the message….as you know , i have ideas for funding beyond the Emerging Photographer Fund grant….to give some of you the funding you need to finish your projects and ideally to create from “scratch” content specific for BURN…it would seem that a financial recession would not be the ideal time to do this…i think the opposite…sponsors are looking to the net…content is king….for a fraction of what sponsors are spending now, we can give them THE place to be…..and photographers rights are always paramount in my mind and my life philosophy….
if you tap into your passion, if you create something special, and if that appears here, then indeed the audience will become the producers……we have a chance for the ultimate collaboration…a chance to invent something…joining something can be terrific…inventing something is the ultimate…
your thoughts???
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HIV in Portugal
They were all caught by surprise. They never expected such a diagnosis, being the carriers of the HIV virus. Almost all thought being infected was impossible. In their minds they never had risk behavior. In general they have an idea that the responsibility of the infection isn’t theirs, but from the “other”. The “other” is a husband, boyfriend, a father, a mother and even doctors, responsible for blood transfusions. There are few that recognize the risk . But the big responsibility for such a high rate of HIV infections in Portugal is the lack of prevention campaigns. This would enter the world of the “other”, the common person, not only the usual group risk: drug addicts, gays and prostitutes. In fact it’s proved today that such HIV stereotypes do not exist. We can only talk about risk behavior, not groups.
Portugal is the country with more infections per million (205) in the west of Europe, according to the latest studies of EuroHiv.
The “other” can be you and me.
Photographs: Miguel Ribeiro Fernandes
Website: www.miguelrfernandes.com
there is probably no photographer alive with quite as recognizable a photograph as the Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry….maybe just maybe he is rivaled a bit by Dennis Stock’s image of James Dean walking through Times Square…i would have to think about that one, but both images can be seen hanging in the finest art museums as well as faded torn copies hanging just over the bartender’s shoulder all over the world…i wish i had taken pictures of all the places i have seen the Afghan Girl…and the paintings and sketches derived from it…EVERYBODY knows this picture….
originally published by National Geographic Magazine in 1985, Steve’s icon graced the cover …the most famous cover shot of all time….obviously it is the EYES that just kill us….stop us dead in our tracks….and even though i have seen this photograph thousands of times in the last 25 years, i still have to stop and take a look….photographically it is just a simple portrait…..taken straight on in just flat light (in a refugee tent)….there is nothing so remarkable about the picture, until her gaze simply bores a hole into your heart….
i meet many a young entry level photographer for whom Steve McCurry is certainly their favorite photographer….his work is clean, straightforward, features dramatic color , and has a clear journalistic sensibility…Steve says of the Afghan Girl, “not a day has gone by in the last 25 years when someone does not ask me about this picture”….
i asked Steve if his fame for this picture was any kind of artistic burden (in the way “Satisfaction” might be for Mick Jagger)…he said “absolutely not”……enough said….Steve continued ” I love what I am doing and just want to keep doing it”….and for those of us who know Steve , we know that nobody never stops working like Steve never stops working…..all of the photographers i know are pretty much fanatical workaholics, but all of us look lazy compared to Steve…..the guy does not stop….ever!!
i recently photographed Steve in Union Square (below) and he has the same impish chuckle that he has had all of the years i have known him … besides being one of the world’s great photographers, i count Steve as a good friend…long before i moved to New York, Steve allowed me the use of his apartment many times as a crash pad…..and i am sure many of you already know that Steve’s cover shot for the Magnum book on 9/11 of the crumbling Trade Center tower was made from this very rooftop…..
there is no way to imagine where Steve will go next…..but, wherever it is, we can count on something uniquely McCurry…
Steve will be on line from time to time in the next 12 hours to answer your questions….
INDIA 1984
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN 2002
Steve McCurry Union Square , New York City 12/08
Andrew Wyeth July 1917 - January 2009
every once in awhile you meet someone who really kicks you in the gut….has a lasting influence ……someone you know is just a little more special than everyone else…. sure, all men are created equal, but some seem more equal than others….
the minute i met Andrew Wyeth , i knew he was such a man….or , should i say in reality, a child…..or childlike at best…..impish, precocious, a prankster, and having zero sense of the so called “real world”, Andy struck me immediately as an artist who lived in his own self made world….and that is what he painted…he painted his imagination….he painted the world around him in Chads Ford , Pennsylvania ….mostly landscapes with characters from his “real life” (neighbors, friends, family) thrown in because those were the folks he knew…. Andy did not venture far from home….he saw no need….
back in the early nineties i had an assignment from National Geographic to photograph Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s foremost painters…..i convinced the editors i needed to shoot this story in black & white… my reasoning was that the Wyeth paintings, which would certainly dominate the article, were so monochromatic that anything i did in chrome color of Wyeth and his family would clash on pages of the magazine….so with my M6 and some Tri-X i set out to photograph the man who everyone said did not want to be photographed…..it was reported that he absolutely hated to have his picture taken…and so he did….in my several weeks of befriending the Wyeth family i quite literally do not have more than a few rolls of film with Andy actually in the frame….the rest of the family yes, Andy no …..even when my son Bryan and i managed to get invited to the Wyeth family Thanksgiving dinner, Andy remained shy… friendly, but avoiding being photographed at every turn….and his mystery subject, and neighbor, Helga Testorf had never been photographed by anyone, ever (please note the Helga Paintings)…..my skills as a photographer were totally secondary to the skills necessary to try to get “inside” and just make any kind of photograph at all of the elusive Wyeth….
shooting Wyeth almost made me feel like a “paparazzi” of sorts….i always wait ….waiting is what i do…but, waiting for Andy Wyeth was well beyond anything i had ever experienced before….at some point i realized Andy was playing with me…he wanted to see how i would react to his elusive nature….he was testing me ….he wanted to see how bad i really wanted my pictures… so, i was bound and determined not to give up…never show frustration….never complain…and never go away either!!!
some days i would be invited to his studio….well, sort of….i had to wait outside in an empty room…for hours in an empty room….. i waited… trying to imagine what in hell he was thinking leaving me outside with absolutely nothing to do but HOPE that at some point he would invite me all the way in to the “inner sanctum”….. one day when i was just about to go crazy (and the editors at Natgeo were wondering when i was going to take some pictures), Andy came out and started showing me some toy soldiers he had sitting in the window (he collected toy soldiers)….at that moment , off to the side, suddenly there was standing shyly the heretofore un-photographed Helga…she would not come near Andy or me and was just barely barely barely in the frame if i “slammed” Andy way to the left and her way to the right…there was no time for good composition , or to think, or to play with light, or anything at all…it was just “take the friggin picture Harvey”….. i took two frames and she was gone….. i mean gone…..
after several weeks, an eternity , i did manage to have enough photographs of Andrew Wyeth and his family for a piece in the magazine….and in the process Andy befriended me….i swear i only because he saw me as a bit playful myself…and he did hang one of my photographs i had brought as a gift on his living room wall….
at 91 Andrew Wyeth died yesterday morning….right there at home where he belonged….with his family and neighbors gathered around….Andy did not get the recognition as an artist that some felt he deserved….he was not hip…not “cool” at a time when the “other Andy” (Andy Warhol) was the darling of the jet set and the elite social New York art critics….but frankly, i do not think Andy himself cared much one way or the other….he lived the life of an artist…and he painted exactly what he wanted ….on his own time and in his own way….
in my mind now i see Andy as a young boy, running across those farm fields he loved… hmmmm, is Andy really gone, or is he just playing a trick on us and hiding in the barn???
-David Alan Harvey
Injured Protester by Laith Al-Majali
An injured man is placed into a car after Gaza protesters clashed with riot police in Amman, Jordan
In the Light of Crises by Lassal
Behind the church lies the city of Frankfurt. It is after 6pm and all offices in the bank towers are still brightly lit. On these days of financial crisis, people are working overtime – especially in the banking sector.
It is freezing cold – a minus temperature record night lays ahead of us. Snow is coming later – but for now the cloudy skies merely reflect the light of the crisis throughout the night.
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