it is getting cold here in Rio…fall has arrived…everyone complaining of the rain…temperature has dropped to a chilling 68F….i am wearing a long sleeved shirt, pants and shoes…beach days are over (pictured above from non-NG shooting)..New Yorkers may scoff, but i am freezing….besides,  my time is up on this National Geographic shoot…..i am coming home next week…

i have written before that i do  some of my best work in the first few days of an assignment and some of the best in the last few days…the first ones from raw energy and beginners luck and the last ones from “damn, i had better get something”…i have pretty much been on the case here in Rio since New Year’s Eve, with a short but busy one week break in january…mentally on it the whole time…and, of course, i shall return…perhaps on assignment , perhaps not…for i am not finished..

i was actually secretly hoping i would not fall in love with Rio….i assumed a romantic relationship, but figured it would be over when it was over….i have several other projects to complete and have no time to get involved with any long term body of work, but alas she has me…real love is of course often painful…despite the beach scenes you may imagine as pictured, there is another whole world here…full of intrigue, passion, hate, sex, death, light, darkness, despair, cruelty and kindness…the gamut of human nature all played out on a stage like no other …

i have been sick , scared, injured, and upset…long days turned into long nights often with no result…many moving parts and often with the gears grinding….it is very hard for me to look at the work…but, i must soon….i am not one of those photographers who come home at night and rush to the computer  to see what i have done…quite the contrary…i hate to look….deep deep down inside i am assuming some good work….but any long term results seem now far far away….on top of it all, i must justify all of this to the editors who commissioned me to be here….i need an Advil…

yet now my home front porch beckons….but, will my cat remember me?  has my electricity been shut off ?  battery run down on my truck?  yes, my “real life” has been on hold…even patient family and friends are fed up with me…no responses to emails….missed events…forgotten birthdays…major responsibilities undone…of course no woman can put up with me…i will spend the next week apologizing to everyone about everything…and so it goes…

is this any way to live? or, is this the only way to live? i know my answer…what is yours?

8×10 moonlight photograph by Alejandro Chaskielburg, 2009 EPF recipient, from his essay The High Tide

we now announce on Burn our third annual Emerging Photographer Fund grant …for 2010 we are offering a $15,000. stipend for an emerging photographer to finish an ongoing personal project…the deadline for entries will be April 15, 2010….funding for the EPF comes from generous anonymous donations from our audience here on Burn to the non-profit  Magnum Cultural Foundation…these are very specific donations to the MCF and are apart from the general subscriptions and donations to Burn….

this year we must set up things a bit different from the last two years…we have no choice but to have a $25. entry fee per submission….last year almost killed Anton Kusters and yours truly with the almost 1200 submissions….we cannot do that again…this year the $25. will be well spent…we will be using a program called Slideroom to facilitate you entering and us having the grant juried in a first class manner…..with Slideroom you open a free account and you will literally have a “room” where you can work on your edit for the next two months…i.e. put in one picture today, four next week, change your edit, play with the pictures, do whatever you want, then hit the  submit button on or before deadline..if you decide not to enter after all the editing etc., then simply do not hit submit and you are not charged…the system is way easier to use for all  than anything before and makes it possible for us to have a wide prestigious jury (to be named soon) who can view your work at their leisure online and yet be communicating with each other all along…

so the financial breakdown is:  $8. will go for this  Slideroom program which is of great benefit to all of us (this is their fee to us per entrant)…$5. will go to a Haitian relief agency…and $12. will go to cover our admin costs for the EPF at Burn,and the costs associated with creating a sophisticated slide show and presentation of finalists and winner at this  summer’s one time special Burn/Look3 event for emerging photographers in June…we realize this fee may keep some from entering….we considered this and came up with the lowest price we possibly could and still be able to continue this grant program at all …we do not feel this fee will discourage any serious entrants…

all details for the correct entering of project essay submissions will be seen under EPF 2010 in the right hand column of Burn…

i look forward to seeing all the new work….

-david alan harvey

many of you have seen this book before, but i am sure many of you have not….my first work in print….i publish it again here now only because my friend Masaaki Okada, who was the designer/editor, died on December 21….Masaaki was a tremendous influence on me as a person and as a photographer….my first collaborator…

i met Masaaki my senior year of high school….he barely spoke any English, had few friends, and had come from Japan to help out his uncle who ran a gift shop in Virginia Beach, Va…Masaaki and i ended up as college roommates and close friends…Masaaki was the most talented person i knew at the time …a brilliant man with a sketch pad and painter as well…from Masaaki i learned about Eastern art and about the concept of not making anyone lose face…the single most valuable concept i know….later, i went with Masaaki to Hamamatsu, Japan and met his whole family when i did a story on the Japanese kite fighters….

just after undergrad school, when Masaaki and i did Tell It Like It Is , we were idealists….the $2. contribution was to go to the local church and intended to buy food for the residents of the neighborhood where i did this story… i lived with this family for the better part of a summer….our goal was to save this Norfolk, Va. neighborhood and eliminate poverty  with this book…Masaaki and i were both 22…

Bruce Davidson is leaning on me to re-print this book (it pre-dates publication of East 100th Street by 3 yrs)…for only 4 copies of this book exist…..Masaaki and i threw away dozens of copies of  Tell It Like It Is,  not thinking they were of any real importance at the time…we sold few….after all , we were not important…living in a small Virginia town and not sensing any “place” in the photography world…Masaaki did not think it even appropriate to have my name, or his, on the cover….small type on the back jacket was all he would allow…i agreed…this was not about us, but about the people in the pictures….eastern humility…

a few weeks ago, i stopped by to see Masaaki in Richmond , Va. where he lived, a retired photographer from the Richmond Times-Dispatch…….in recent years i saw him rarely, but we picked up right where we left off….he thanked me for coming and gave me another one of his paintings from the outer banks where i now live…Masaaki was an avid surf fishermen and often painted the land that surrounds me…we talked of him coming down …i knew he would love the house, the space…but, that is not to be….

Masaaki’s paintings will grace my home always…more importantly his influence on me is forever….i did tell him this many times….he always shook his head in disbelief…..i wish i had told him even more…

After a few weeks of conspiracy, Lassal’s and Civi’s unrelated cryptic comments it is time to unveil.

Operation “BURN plot” was made by BURNIANS for BURNIANS and is to celebrate BURN’s first birthday.

Happy birthday to BURN. David, thank you for making BURN a reality and thank you for making it a home for us. 
We present BURNIANS.COM – the site dedicated to celebrate BURN magazine by all BURNIANS. Most of us have put a little into the site and it became big. BIGGER than we could imagine.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO BURN – FROM BURNIANS !!!

Please join and share your day and celebrations with the rest of us by emailing your photos to live(at)burnians.com.

With the rest of BURNworld … With the rest of BURNians …

Click to enter…

dreams, fantasies, and idealizations….all ethereal in nature….and hardly anything one can grasp or hold onto…yet, this is what i live for and form the basic building blocks for anything i have ever done….the starting point….and what always keep me going…my crazy ideas are usually just that…gone with the wind…however, sometimes and only sometimes , does something come out of it….

Burn Magazine is one year old today….i have no idea if Burn will ever be two!  but, i take things one day at a time, one idea at a time, and with a combo of fate and hard work will do all i can to keep this audience driven magazine alive and well…

2009 has been a year of surprises (like the Lucie Award) and born from a “crazy idea” that popped into my head for no apparent reason right from the table where i now write here in Durango, Colorado…yes, Road Trips conceived right here, and Burn first published right here on this date last year….from the very room where my father Alan died peacefully on a snowy Christmas morning with family gathered,  and in the house where my mother Maryanna now lives…a room with memories and conversations that speak of the future…of optimism and fulfillment and warmth…in our family, possibility is always the order of the day…

the dummy cover above is such a possibility….well, a bit more than a possibility, and much more of a reality….hard copy….to be published as an on-demand collectors’ print magazine within the next few weeks….Anton Kusters and i are both working  to make this happen….again, the above cover is dummy copy…the final edition could be a bit  different than what appears above, but this gives you an idea…..yes sure, there will be hurdles as usual…but, while the major print publications are scaling down hard copy production and moving to the net, we have already our presence on the net and will move now towards some hard copy production in both magazine and book formats….

any of you who have followed me from Road Trips days knows that i always start with a dream/idea and do my best to make it come true…some ideas fall by the wayside, but some move forward to reality….you can go back and read right through everything that was being talked about and all that has happened…

for our Burn birthday today,  i now announce  a $15,000. stipend for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant for 2010 to be awarded to a worthy young photographer….details and deadlines to be announced by early January 2010…Sean Gallagher and Alejandro Chaskielberg have both been recipients in 2008 and 2009…if you track their work and their efforts you will quickly see the grant has been well placed…a jury of peers from our craft will be chosen to pick the EPF recipient 2010 from a selection of 10-20 finalists…

since this time of year is for taking stock and thanking those who have helped, i want to express my heartfelt gratitude to all of you who have made financial contributions to either Burn or to the EPF in 2009…each of you will receive a personal letter from me if you have not already…our new contribution button will now include the option for subscription, but of course all is totally voluntary and we will work just as hard for those of you who enjoy Burn as a free option as for those of you who are in a position to kindly contribute….we appreciate you all just being here…Anton and i alone cannot do any more than we are already doing with Burn and your contributions have at helped us to survive if not thrive…

we have two grant writers now working to see if we can receive significant support to not only maintain Burn but allow for payment to photographers…this has been our biggest hurdle and going for this funding is a full time job in and of itself……for us to do this is not so much a problem of sponsorship or grants which may come our way, but a requirement for a full time general manager…

the main thing is this…neither  Anton nor i  want to drop our life as photographers…we both have major projects going…for Burn to move forward in a significant way with regard to sponsorships and photographer commissions  will require a  full time full on person to manage these funds and the work flow….we both realized that if even a part of what we are asking for actually came in the door, then our lives as photographers would be over…for Burn to be more than what it is would take full on concentration from a management standpoint, not from a creative one…

the editing and curating and designing of Burn both online and in print can be managed by Anton and me  with no interference to our photographic lives, but the one step forward now of managing significant funding is a full time job for someone…i am interviewing for that “someone” now….that someone is a manager, not a photographer…that someone is a biz person, not an artist…

this is of course exactly how we structure the biz side of Magnum…..and that model is a model that works….a model that most likely will include Burn as a part of the upcoming new online presence for Magnum…while Burn obviously features non-Magnum photographers from this audience , Magnum’s overall interest in the development of new talent, education,  and the endorsement of a wide variety of  authored photography, and the rights of photographers  , falls well within the arbiter role that Magnum has played in general for 62 years…my push is for Magnum to be larger than Magnum….our place in history dictates a magnanimous role …

in one year, Burn has made  its place on the net…we think we have earned it and we humbly pledge to keep it that way…we are a boutique shop and we will stay a boutique shop….we have zero desire to become something we are not…we simply know we can be better…..the Lucie Award was significant only in that it was an endorsement for an audience driven online publication in a world of print and, more importantly, a bit of merit for our educational imperative….my other awards are packed in cardboard boxes in the attic…unimportant to me….the only one sitting on my mantle is this one…and it does not have my name on it…it is your award….a Burn award…..so, Happy Birthday to you!!

-david alan harvey

looks like a burned out rock band doesn’t it? i was playing with my toy Instax instant film camera today and did set up this shot of Anton Kusters, Mike Courvoisier (he does not seem to have moved from his position in the last picture), Chris Bickford and the ubiquitous John Gladdy…all hanging around waiting for you…..you who can make it to tomorrow’s Burn meeting in my loft….i think folks will start drifting in about 11am, but just come when you can….shuffling around some ideas is what we have in mind…

the net seems to come and go in the loft, but we will skype some of you, if for no other reason than just to say hello…….and let’s please see if we can lower the testosterone quotient of this meeting by at least a little…i think you know where live, but if not please come to 475 Kent Ave , Williamsburg between Division and South 11th..buzz 607…please join the band….i look forward to seeing you….

Mike and Mike….yes, there they are…Mike Young on the left and Mike Courvoisier on the right…cold Coronas both and hanging out at my loft..as usual…some of the best late afternoon light that always floods my apartment has been shared by the two Mikes and yours truly…discussing life, love, and yes, books…Michael Loyd Young, the guy on the left, is nervous now…Michael Courvoisier, the guy on the right, is never nervous…Young is nervous  because his first big show, Blues, Booze, & BBQ, opens at the Powerhouse Arena  in New York on Thursday night…and Courvoisier is not nervous because he already printed and hung the show..

Mike Young was a student of mine three years ago..He told me at the time, what so many tell me, that he wanted to pursue a personal project and perhaps do a book…i have heard that before…most let it slide….not Mike Young…a Mississippi good old boy, Mike decided he wanted to document the Blues country which was not far from where he grew up…as a youth he slipped in and out of the Mississippi Delta and now he wanted to get his love for the people and the music down on paper….between two hard covers….he did it….busted it….lived it…Mike made sure this all happened by not only being a fine photographer, but by making sure he had an outlet for his books right off  the top…he convinced the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, Mississippi to be a generous distributor for his book to be…smart move from a smart businessman ….

Mike Courvoisier came to me from Steve McCurry’s studio where he printed for Steve. He now makes collectors’ prints for me, for several Burn photographers, and he printed the Young show which i hope many of you will see on Thursday evening…Courvoisier is cool cool as a cucumber….focuses on computer tech stuff for me, runs my workshops,  and prints with a fervor…while i am throwing my hands up in the air every time i see the color spinning wheel on the computer, Mike stays calm, tells me to stay calm , and simply troubleshoots the problem….Mike does get a little overprotective of me from time to time, and while i have a generally open door policy on my time and my loft, Mike sees the reality….you gotta be nice to Mike to get to me…..a cold Corona helps…

this post is simply here to honor two very good friends….both men are like brothers….and i value my friendships in life as if they are family….if you do not know these two already, please come and meet them on Thursday evening….NYC photo crowd in attendance…Powerhouse Arena, Dumbo, Brooklyn…and if you are nice to Mike C then you can stop by my place for the after party to meet Mike Y and the two Mikes best halves, Maya and Ofelia, patient women both…and oh yes , blues giant  TModel Ford will be playing at the Arena for the show…might even get him over to the loft also….wanna make friends with him? just bring a bottle of Jack Black…….might just take a little nip myself….

Bobby Davidson (www.untitledproof.com) likes cutouts….representations…..it is not too hard to figure out what this Parson’s School of Design student is trying to say with the above created cardboard cutouts image….it pretty much says it all in our current landscape of everyone taking pictures of everything….does this symbolize the end of photography as we know it (or should i say knew it)??

not on your life…if young photographers do not see today/now/ this moment as offering them more than any previous generation’s wildest dreams, then they should just go back to bed….every generation has to re-invent something…whatever my generation had, they pretty much built themselves…it only looks now like perhaps it was handed to them, but alas life just ain’t like that…sure there are problems now and yes there were problems then…different problems,  but things needed to be revolutionized, changed, modified, re-worked, then as now..so what is new??…

most problematic today is simply figuring out how to finance our passion….but, this will be done, this will be done….the smart ones, the positive thinkers, the doers, will figure it out…they already are….personally, i am so so pleased to just be able to lend a small helping hand to the next generation…what could be more worthy in life than the passing on of knowledge to the next in line??….leads to the big warm all around….give it away is what i say…please do it the first chance you get…this time may come sooner than you think….

Burn is almost one year old…a lot has happened since our original powwow in my loft just before Christmas last year….go back and search for the photos taken at the time….read what we were thinking…how we came up with our name, who said what to whom,  who took the lead, who gave the time , and who created this organism…who is the who? you is the who that’s who…

right now our repository of distributable content from Burn contributors would rival potential output of most medium sized agencies….young photographers have clearly chosen Burn as one of THE places they want to be published along with MediaStorm, 100 Eyes, NYT Lens blog, Aperture, Foto8 , PDN, Digital Journalist, etc etc…today’s online photo world is no longer a zero sum game….instead of competition it is co-opetition….like minded peer groups often supporting the other…an umbrella under which well meaning serious communicators in the arts and journalism can co-exist and thrive…it is about trust…it is about authenticity….this affirmation from the young generation gives me only one thing…a sense of responsibility….dammit, i have dug myself into a hole…i cannot quit now!

in the last few weeks i have been working to establish relationships with the established giants of the media as well as keeping things operating with stealth….for it will be stealth that will save us…the giants do not have stealth, but they know it when they see it….they may be welcoming partners after all….not necessarily out of altruism, but out of a combo of a sense of the right thing and practical production costs….we are in the right place at the right time , the right connections , the right content, and the ability to produce on demand…  a bridge to the future…..beyond those types of relationships, i have also now a grant writing team in place as well as other funding possibilities soon to be announced so that photographers published here receive a fee and commissioned work is well funded…both for the emerging and the established photographers…obviously my goal is to make the emerging, the established…and the established, keepers of the flame…

i may be asking a lot of you, but i surely plan to pay you back..with an on demand print magazine by the end of the year, with a possible Burn book imprint,  alternative gallery shows, $15k grant, international seminars, and with cold beer in my refrig for any of you who stop by…who doesn’t know that??

the other morning at 3am, i woke up out of a deep sleep and was wide awake instantly…sometimes, maybe always, my ideas come to me at the weirdest times and for no apparent reason…lightning bolt….always simple, nothing complicated, obvious, pretty straight forward ideas….i am not an intellectual, but i do think about things….esoteric and utilitarian concepts coming together….yes, a dreamer forever, but i do like to see product on the table so to speak…anyway, i woke up with an  idea and title for a new magazine(as if i needed more work! and Anton hates me for this!)….anyway, four hours after my “wake up call” we bought circusmagazine.org…

Circus …the online magazine for the REAL EMERGING PHOTOGRAPHERS…..

young photographers aged 15 and under…..not a kids magazine…the opposite….

an international magazine produced by the very young generation that would appeal to “adults” as well as to their own peer group..sophisticated…leading edge….

when you think about it for even a few seconds you can see it…killer…

yea, yea kids with cameras is nothing new….that is the point…we will  work with schools, aid organizations, inner city groups, NGO’s,  etc etc to create a child safe site and allow a real home for all this work which is being done worldwide….just as we know that the walls of grade schools are filled with great art , we know that the purity of the very young will manifest itself in something very very special….i will ask Burn photographers to help …with their ideas and with their time and with their curatorial efforts…so now i am digging a hole for you!! you can’t quit now…..told you.

with the combination of Burn and Circus we have nothing but interesting things to think about….and work to do….if you do not see it that way, i suggest you log off now….if you do stick around,  i plan to continue nurturing  this audience as much as i can…i can only do so many Skype calls in a day, or portfolio reviews in a day and your patience is appreciated… but, many of you know that i do give it a good try….

why would i do this?  simple…if i discover even one strong talent out of a thousand , then i will have done my bit…

if i can mentor one book, one show, one photographer who makes a mark, then all is well…and the work in progress nature of Burn allows all of us to see a cross section of what is being produced today…for better or worse…and the more good photographers who are inspired here, or developed here, will only lead to stronger content ,therefore making us more viable for support with each passing day…and Burn will pull Circus, and Circus will push Burn and, well,  you get it i am sure….smart crowd….

why i am writing this just before a 24 hr marathon flight is beyond me…avoiding packing and paying last minute bills could be a reason…not having written a Dialogue post in a long time could be another….or, more likely, i just have built up energy and it has come out somewhere…this is too damn long, but i do not have time to really edit…so this is raw…..like a contact sheet or whatever…please just remember the good parts…laughing.

oh by the way, remember the story from last july on my stray cat, now constant companion, Simone?

well,  Simone is pregnant…now what??

No cameras allowed at the ceremony, but Kerry Payne managed to sneak out a tiny iPhone pic…

Needless to say, we are so very humbled by this award…Photography Magazine of the Year 2009

www.lucieawards.com

-david alan harvey (editor), anton kusters (creative director)

Anton Kusters (above) is one of the hardest working collaborators on the planet….Burn does not exist without Anton…the fact that he is jet lagged and needs a “time out” should be of no surprise….he jets back and forth from his home in Belgium to Japan, and his Yakuza project, and now just as easily to New York where he is crashing on the Burn office/gallery/crash pad sofa…he is here to work on BURN…we can do a lot by Skype, but one on one we can really get some work done….

what started out as an extension of my Road Trips blog and just a fun project with and for our audience here, has now blossomed into a seriously considered online media outlet/producer….all that has happened to Burn in the last few weeks is humbling to say the least….our nomination for a Lucie Award is  flattering considering we are just a two person lap top from wherever operation at the moment… this was predicated by a nice mention of Burn on the New York Times “LENS” blog last week, whose progenitor, editor/ photographer James Estrin, just left my loft after meeting with my students for two hours…..David Walker, Senior Editor at PDN,  this month  did a nice, accurate, to the point Q&A interview with me  in their magazine which always makes a strong push in the direction of young emerging photographers….The Digital Journalist guru Dirck Halstead at the same time wrote a strong editorial about the state of affairs for young photographers, and suggested that large funding operations direct some of their efforts in the direction of Burn, MediaStorm, 100 Eyes and other online efforts who pledge to pump lifeblood into a sagging industry….

so all at once, Burn has a place at the table ….organic…based on personal history and trust….working with the best people for all the right reasons, and all of it audience driven…..all of it…..funding for EPF, from you….donations which have kept our loft alive for office and gallery space, from you….submissions which have us now with more content than we can handle, from you….incidentally, i apologize for not being able to respond to every submission of photographs and every kind donation….we are way behind in viewing submissions and will soon employ a professional experienced editor to help, but i assure i view each and every submission…for those i like, i make contact as soon as possible, but please be patient…many many thanks to those of you who have given support….we could not have survived this long without you….

if now is the time for Burn to receive funding so that commissions can be given to the young generation and original work can be produced here for Burn from the iconic to the youngbloods, then OUR  efforts here will be deemed someday to have been significant and historic… i just think that way….

so, let’s take this audience one step further….do i need your help?  yes…. more pictures of course…but , what we all need now is to have a small first class team of grant writers and/or sales people to at least get me to the right person at the right kind of sponsorship venue…Burn is easy for me to pitch….really easy….first of all, it is not about me or my work(that is another problem!!)….Burn is about making a contribution to the new generation of photographers who express themselves either journalistically or artistically or both…..if you have any thoughts about potential funders and grant writing talent,  please send them to Kerry Payne (photo below) who celebrated her 40th birthday at the Burn loft last night with our students toasted with Veuve Cliquot and Orios …Kerry is a hard core Aussie and should be recovered from last night’s modest bash by the time you send her an e-mail – kerry@burnmagazine.org….she is a biz person….do not write to Anton or to me, we are not….please please..

Anton and i cannot do any more than what Burn is now by ourselves…with just a little bit of help we can revolutionize….hey , is there anything better than the start up of a rock band in the garage?? yes, that is us….underground…underdog….full of enthusiasm…the best combo for creativity…

tomorrow we will go on with a live Q&A with Martin Parr…he will answer thought provoking questions from the readers here for two hours….Martin wants to do an original essay with first publication on Burn….i want to make that happen….and at the same time give concurrent commissions to two or three young less known photographers….i will make this happen….Martin, and Magnum , support this effort….a story on Alex and Rebecca Webb will follow soon behind, and they will be presenting at the Burn gallery event this friday evening where about 30 Burn audience photographers will be hanging on the same walls with Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Gilles Peress, Susan Meiselas and Chris Anderson….we will try to invite likely print buyers and hope that someone who might collect an Erwitt would also buy a print from an emerging photographer…anyway, a nice thought…..oh yes, my loft students for the week are the highlight of the evening when they present their efforts for the week….we are hard at work on this show now…

so, this is a 24 hour time out from our normal programming….essays and singles from you will up again by tomorrow afternoon….but, this should give you all something to chew on….for one thing, do you take a time out right in the middle of when things are busy???

i am not a fisherman….if you want to catch a fish, do not go fishing with me… i bring almost as much bad luck to fishing as i do to computers…i did catch a pretty good sized bass once with my grandfather, but that is about it….but, never mind, i  do love the thought of fishing….and i live in a place where if the talk is not about surfing, it is about fishing…and i end up staying  pretty silent on both…down here on the Outer Banks, my trade is just not in the conversational mix…in New York of course, photographers have some clout, but here, well, if i wanted to talk photography,  i would have to take a picture of the locals with a big fish, or riding a big wave…

i do however gravitate towards the 7 fishing piers here, and most often the Avalon Pier….if this pier did not exist, then it would have to be invented…a classic structure from the 50’s which has survived many a storm and not survived many a storm…but, this old pier just keeps getting re-built and is a cultural haven if fishing, pool playing, fuzbol competition and people watching are your game…the latter is my sport of choice…someday i suspect this primo waterfront property will end up covered with time-share condos or whatever, but in the meantime i can go have a beer and watch the waves roll in between rounds of 8-ball…

the beauty of Avalon for me is that it is a total diversion for whatever i am supposed to be seriously doing…i suspect all of you have your Avalon…an escape from the must do activities of your day….a place where nobody really knows what you do, nor cares,  and you are only judged by whether they like you or not…well, in the case of Avalon, if you have a big jacked-up pickup truck, that helps, but i just have to go on eye contact and a decent game of pool….

now, i basically have not worn shoes for weeks….but the  summer of my content is almost over…..and the timing of the sun working its way towards the south each day pretty much matches my mood to get back to New York…funny, but when i tell the guys down here that i spend lots of time in New York, they really give me a look of sympathy…..and having spent weeks here this summer i am starting to see what they mean…

it is a good thing i had so much leisure time this summer…because now i go full bore into a very busy fall….i receive so many private emails from readers here asking for my schedule, so here is the official dah program…

first order of business will be your Burn gallery shows in New York and Washington (contact for you: Michael Courvoisier)…simultaneously i have my fall workshop schedule starting in San Francisco where i do a short weekend shooting seminar – starting September 25th – with the Momenta folks organizing(see Workshops)……

then comes  my annual loft seminar  “At Home” in the now historic “kibbutz” where about half the readers here have been at one time or another, and the other half are on their way…we will also do your Burn gallery show right around that time … incidentally, i have our first Burn intern, Vivek Manik, who has come all the way from Calcutta, to give us a hand with the show….Vivek will be a work/study student in the loft class….from now on i will always choose someone from the readership here on Burn to be an intern either in New York or with me on assignment…

after the  New York Burn show, i  roll back down here to the Outer Banks for my first gathering of photographers at my beach home who want to publish books or work on an essay …we will do hand-made books and discuss and prepare layouts for mainstream books as well….others may just want to shoot instead of make a book…their choice…my darkroom will be set-up…the pigment printer at the ready etc….my Outer Banks beach cottage will become for sure my #1 workshop location, but for very small selective classes…

at the end of October, i roll down to Oaxaca, Mexico for the colorful Day of the Dead class (see work from students last year on workshop link) …. and finally, capping off my month of mentoring, i will join my friends Ira Block and Kris LeBoutillier, both NatGeo photogs, in Bangkok and Phnom Penh in early November…

so anyone wanting to join me with my obviously eclectic lifestyle has a few choices……afterwords i plan to disappear into a magazine assignment….shhhh, secret…. and  work only on my book project which is a bit behind…well, i am always a bit behind on book projects……anyway, lots going on…

all this world travel and setting up of exhibit space for your work is hard work , but fun work…but, without Mike, Michelle, and Marie,  i just could not make it…Mike Courvoisier  makes my collectors prints, will manage the Burn shows,  and runs the New York loft workshop … Michelle Smith and Marie Arago run the OBX beach and Mexico workshops respectively …Michelle has produced ad shoots for me which is the test of all production tests…Marie worked for me every day in NYC before she moved to the warmer climes of Miami…. now, all of this has to do with balance….my main mantra…balance…making hard work fun and making fun hard work….or, actually , just getting the most out of life…

ok, enough said…. it is about time to head for Avalon…the wind now is starting to clock around from the northeast…that means  good fishing, poor surfing,  and winter is coming…

do all of you have your Avalon???  i do recommend creating an Avalon if you do not have one…to catch a fish??  maybe…but, that is not the point…the act of fishing is more important than catching fish…or, at least that is what i tell myself when i am fishing with my camera and it just is not happening…

-david alan harvey

one of my old camera bags goes to the first person who can name the movie that featured this house….

i am not a cat person….never had a cat as a pet…never wanted a  cat…..i was always a dog man ….dogs were always happy to see me, followed me around…dogs responded to commands…..cats always just seemed aloof to me….now, i have a cat…..

on the fourth of july,  a hot summer night, little Simone just showed up….my son Bryan and his love Michelle and i were sitting on my porch having a glass of wine and  pretty much minding our own business ,  when along came little homeless Simone (sometimes Lulu) who just jumped into my lap….end of story…..or, should i say, beginning of story…..

now i am dealing with raccoon proof cat doors, dry food vs. wet food, auto feeding machines  and worse, yes, AFFECTION…damn!! ….the last thing i need in my life is a cat….i do not have time for a cat….i travel too much to have a cat or any pet….but, now i have a cat….or, rather she has me….she now owns the place….runs the show….wants affection sometimes, and shuns it other times….does what she wants when she wants to do it and my job is just making sure she is happy …and i now trip  all over myself to make sure this is so…..hmmmmm….

it is always the unexpected in our lives which seems to govern….all of us work so hard to plan plan plan and then , well, the “plan” becomes whatever “just happened” with perhaps a very slight twinge of the light of  original agenda….most of us i think then take whatever circumstances evolved and then turn it into our “plan” as if we had thought of it all along….pure justification or acceptance or , well, what else can we do???

certainly there must be adjustments in our creative spirit as well…if we all did what we started out to do, then i am sure that the results would be a whole lot less exciting then if serendipity rules…..yet, we also know from experience that not having any kind of plan in the beginning usually leads to no action at all…so, strange as it seems, we need a plan or a thought or an idea at the beginning that we know surely with change as we move forward…we should not be surprised that we become surprised with what actually happens , yet this is the ultimate surprise!!

perhaps we all have different proportions of planning vs. serendipity……and , of course, this is all related to being able to FINISH what we start out to do…i think many of us do not finish what we start because a Simone shows up….changes the equation….priorities get scrambled……what we want today, may not be what we want tomorrow….

i do spend a lot of time with young ambitious photographers or photographers who are trying to make a mark….the single biggest difference i see between those who “do it” and those who do not is simply the ability to finish what one starts….

yes, of course,  talent is a must…visual acuity, sensitivity, spacial awareness, timing, balance….but, given two equal talents, the one who can actually complete a body of work  is the one who will rise….sounds simple, but it is the most complex compound  of all things facing any creative person….i see it over and over with photographers i mentor…..i have fought this with myself all along….i suspect a solid 80% of what i start goes unfinished….folks know of the other 20%, but i coulda shoulda woulda done more….blame it on Simone??

what about you??  do you finish most things, or sooner rather than later give it up??  be honest…we are all in this together…

ok, while you take on this question, i have to go feed the cat…..no joke…she is an hour away , and i am going to go feed her instead of taking a picture….woe is me….

Alessandra Sanguinetti and her daughter Catalina

please ask Alessandra Sanguinetti any questions you may have….Alessandra is a Guggenhiem Fellow, a Magnum photographer and the author of On the Sixth Day…..she is with me now for the next two or three hours……she will be “on” soonest……

i am now sitting in the back of a room in London where the male dominant crowd is palpable….i can see Cristina now sitting smiling at the other end of a long table….but between Cristina and where i now sit is Larry Towell, Martin Parr, Bruno Barbey, Costa Manos, Peter Marlow, and Richard Kalvar….over to the left i see Lise Sarfati sitting next to Alex Webb, Eli Reed, Joseph Koudelka, Elliott Erwitt and Steve McCurry….right next to me is Alessandra Sanguinetti who is standing next to Jim Goldberg , Trent Parke, Mikail  Subotsky , Alec Soth and Jonas Bendikson….you get the picture….

Magnum members took an initiative about 10 years ago to help change this equation….the Inge Morath grant was initiated by Larry Towell,  and all Magnum members contribute from their own pockets to give out the annual $5,000 grant to an emerging woman photographer….this year we gave the award to Emily Schiffer to continue her work with Native Americans, ” Cheyenne River”….we collectively juried this award two days ago from four finalists….congratulations Emily….

we also have a first runner up….this year it was Jenn Ackerman, whose work most of you know here as an EPF finalist with her work “Trapped: Mental Illness in America’s Prisons”….there is no money in our Inge Morath account to give anything more than the one $5,000. grant…..since the vote was so close, and since i feel that Jenn could use some funding to continue her work, i have decided to move some funding from the EPF account in the direction of Jenn…..

BURN will now give $2,000. to the first runner up of the Inge Morath award….Jenn Ackerman

to be clear…this is BURN funding, not Magnum funding….i am assuming Jenn will use the money wisely on her important effort….in my opinion, both Emily and Jenn deserve this support….i do not know Emily and only met once Jenn briefly, so i am making this contribution simply based on the work in front of me….all of you are part of this , since unlike the Inge Morath grant, the financing for the EPF part of this equation comes from you…yes, it is generous donors here on BURN who provide the funding for EPF….i have never asked for any of this funding, so this comes to us out of the sheer generousity of the readers here….many many thanks….

none of this will change the balance of women to men in our business….but, as most of you know, i am a “brick in the wall” philosopher….in the workshops i teach it is almost always a woman whose work rises to the top of the class…usually out on the edge, sensitive and non-linear work….why we do not see these women with cameras later on in the craft is  something i cannot explain…..maybe some of you can….

in any case, keep an eye out in the future for both Emily and Jenn….i do hope they will be around for the long haul….Cristina needs company….

-dah

WARNING – QUICKTIME MOVIE – LARGE DOWNLOAD (112MB)
THIS PRESENTATION CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

evolution…..yes, gradual and logical steps from one thing to another….dynamic….yes, bold and edgy steps that revolutionize….dynamic evolution……..and yes , timing , timing and timing……

the above “infomercial” is intended to help all of us here at BURN move forward to a place where photographers can  receive commissions for their work on the net…right now, the only funding BURN has been able to provide is for the recipients of the EPF funding….certainly a good thing for one photographer per year, but not enough for all of the worthy talent i see….

fate has brought us to an interesting point where i think we can create sponsorships for photographers to produce original work for BURN….i think an interesting ratio  would bring in new talent and yet also appeal to sponsors, would be to  have one iconic photographer on commission/assignment alongside three new “youngbloods”…..this lends a certain credibility to the content here by using the established photographers to do “first time seen” stories and pull up some new photographers who will then become in time “iconic”….

my overall “pitch” to sponsors is that we are now in a position at BURN to produce content that is equal to or  better than what now is coming from the large media companies simply because the “giants” can no longer  afford to do what they used to do….

we can move with stealth using all of the same talents they currently use  and also giving the photographer full distribution rights and control over their essays….

for example, if i were to announce on BURN that on September 15, 2009 at 8pm readers here would see a brand new essay from James Nachtwey  or Martin Parr or Trent Parke and in the very same time frame would see essays from our talent pool of emerging photographers, we would melt the servers down…..

again, original commissioned work…….

stories of interest to photographers of course, but stories which would reach out to a wider audience…..solid visual essays with solid well researched and well written text…

we are in a unique position at BURN to make this happen…..

i have at least 10 well known established photographers set to go on assignment for BURN right now…..we need these names….mostly, we need their actual ability to  produce on demand which is exactly why they are “names”……from our pool of talent here we will find out who among the “emerging” can actually take a commission and “make it happen” within a given time frame….and i do not mean we will try to cover the world…i mean we will become a wellspring for the best photographic essays around from both the worlds of journalism and art….we will match sponsorships with the specific talents and interests of the photographers….we will try to reach outside the now photography based audience by producing work of interest to many….

we are looking for one primary sponsor and perhaps four other smaller sponsors…..we are offering our sponsors first class content at a much better price…simple  business equation..best product at lowest price….the shift from print to the net has everyone floundering…..the business strategy  right now among the large media companies is to reduce staff, cut expenses, try to get content cheap….we can totally reverse this trend by simply being “small” yet able to provide the very best content….for the net as first outlet, for print as a secondary vehicle….whoever sponsors a story or set of stories will have their brand reaching way more readers in a quality way than they now have anywhere…..in others words, THE symbiotic relationship in communication….

this does not mean that every reader of BURN is going to be commissioned tomorrow….this does mean that every reader of BURN has a chance to do so….with  sponsorship will come more opportunities for readers who may have more modest requirements to further their photographic exploration…for the educational imperative and the other values shared by everyone who works with me on BURN will not falter…..at this point in my personal development and career i can stand for no less than the ultimate in both content integrity and clear respect for a photographer or writer’s work….

i would not be able to guarantee the lineup of the “iconic” photographers if they did not feel their rights would be protected, nor would i have the audience of young photographers had i not spent an entire career always looking for the next new talent….these two “givens” are what have us in this unique position……

even regular readers of BURN may notice in this presentation, premiered  last week in the Paramount Theater at the Look3  Festival of the Photograph,  that we have published more photographic content in the last few months than can be found in any media…..of course, we can make improvements….what we have done up to now is just with basically Anton and i working…i have now several new editors which will make us much more sophisticated in our presentations … with BURN as a Magnum channel  and perhaps “channeled” elsewhere, the sky is the limit….

stay tuned…..more ideas coming soonest…..some of them will be coming from you….

-dah

wherever i went at the recent New York Photo Festival in the last couple of days, BURN was the talk of the town…now yes of course it would SEEM like that to ME…..but, even factoring out the dah pride thing, BURN was buzzing…..

however, forget that….the important thing right now for all of us is the response you have given us starting within seconds of us putting up the donation button…..as many of you know i was reluctant to put up a donate button…..hard for me to ask…but the response has been humbling to say the least….YOU have saved BURN…well, you have saved BURN for another month or so…but, that might be just about right….we are making the big push for responsible sponsorship, setting up a gallery for your work, continuing as per normal my personal mentoring for some of you, and continuing to put out an online magazine (annual print)where we can share our opinions on a wide variety of styles …. where the integrity  and morality of the work is just as important as the aesthetic……

i want us to be on the high ground…as sponsors now view us, each person here is personally responsible for our move into a whole new world of publishing….what you now write is read by many in our craft and in our art…your words are now more than ever IMPORTANT….as you hold me to my responsibilities, i will hold you to yours…..

think before you write and write exactly as you think…

as we move closer to Look3 and the announcement of our  EPF grant recipient, our discovery/promotion  of the new talent imperative here on BURN will clearly be manifested….you may or may not agree  with the finalists and the final jury choice, but i do not want anyone to doubt the integrity of the selection….Anton and i together went through all 1,200 entries…i made the selection of the ten finalists within the context of serious second opinion from Anton….so we alone are responsible for the ten finalists soon to be presented on BURN starting  probably on Tuesday….a prestigious eclectic jury of peers will make the final choice for the 2009 recipient….neither Anton nor i will have a vote towards the grant recipient….there will be other, soon to be announced,  support for the remaining finalists as well…

our potential sponsors will notice our traffic and the loyalty of our audience….mostly they will notice our audience produced content with the emphasis on authorship……they will definitely notice your volunteered financial support for BURN….i thank you for all three from the bottom of my heart….

part of my plan is  to put some respected legends in our craft on commissions specifically for BURN…i want to do the same for some of you……not just the EPF finalists, but for the most talented  of you here on BURN….for example,   one legend producing original photography for BURN and three emerging photographers on an equal commissions doing original work as well….i can put this together with guaranteed photographer’s publishing rights, better than editorial day rates,  and artistic control by the authors….how could i represent anything less??? we are going to rock with this one….

i will count on you to help keep BURN all  it can be, and i will do all i can to help you to be all that you are….

…..david alan harvey

10 finalists have been chosen out of the over 1,000 entries for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant of $10,000….

one of these finalists will be chosen by a jury of peers as the 2009  EPF grantee….

the funding for the EPF comes from generous donors to BURN and the  Magnum Cultural Foundation , a non-profit wing of Magnum Photos Inc.

the essays of these 10 authors will be revealed  here on BURN, one by one,  in the coming weeks leading up to the announcement of the grant recipient at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia in June…that comes out to i think 2 essays per week up until announcement day…each essay will be labeled as a FINALIST…i should be able to start publishing the finalists starting May 15, this coming Friday….in other words, each week you will know of two more finalists….

i have chosen a prestigious 5 person jury of peers to select the EPF grantee from the 10 finalists….i will not be on this jury….one juror is  from Magnum..the other 4 were selected from a wide demographic spectrum of our craft and our art….these jurors will be identified at the same moment as the announcement of the 2009  EPF recipient….

there were a solid 200 very competitive portfolios out of the 1000 entries…..these top 200 will be published on BURN throughout the year….these portfolios will be given special attention by me all year in terms of selecting prints for sale in the BURN gallery, career guidance,  recommendations to magazine editors, consideration for funded assignments here, and a general matching of photographer to venue whenever possible….

for those of you who submitted work, i give you my heartfelt thank you…with your permission, your work will be a pillar of what is published on BURN in 2009…my goal here is to launch us into leading edge publishing where the audience IS the magazine and the audience is funded by the magazine….you have proved  to me your collaboration with your  entries, i will  prove my part  by reflecting it right back to you on your BURN….

-david alan harvey

p.s.

ALL….

i am hitchhiking to New York today…my friend Medford is picking me up at a designated gas station and off we go for the 9 hour drive up the coast…

i could tell you that i have a book signing for my “Living Proof” at the Powerhouse arena tonight (9pm) during the New York photo fest (Book Soup) and i hope to see you there…that is actually true…(by the way Living Proof now in the MOMA book store…kinda cool i thought..cool for my guys in the South Bronx)

HOWEVER, the more REAL TRUTH is that i must get to the city just in time to try and save the Kibbutz space…the BURN gallery space…

my old loft space and hopefully now your gallery space….a space for showing your work….a space for selling some of your prints……yes, there will be two sleeping spaces in this loft, but all of my personal effects are gone and the walls will be only for your work…the loft will be so “decorated” as to be clearly a gallery….and the loft can also serve as the BURN HOTEL should you be in New York and need a place to crash…

i always have quite a bit of drama in my life, but never more than now….this movie is full of suspense….and you are in this movie…..i often dream of “no drama”, but somehow that just isn’t going to happen…

thanks quite literally to your generous and timely donations, we might just save the Kibbutz by literally hours….no joke..landlords in New York do not wait….

we, yes WE ,need this space not only for your gallery presentations but as a BURN office … i can edit and do most things from my laptop from anywhere, but this ends up being so so stressful and not sustainable in the long run…

BURN needs a real home….

and while the view from the Kibbutz is fantastic, i do not think anyone would describe this small space as extravagant…this space rents out right now to me for $2000. per month…i would like to tell you that i could afford it out of my back pocket, but i cannot…i am struggling along with everyone else in this global financial downturn…as a matter of fact, if i ever wanted to re-live my poor college days, i am pretty darned close…as a student i always loved the stories of starving struggling artists and i have managed to live out that fantasy!!! but, forget my personal woes….this is about US… we must try to survive in this clime….perhaps even thrive in this clime…we do have SOME things going for us…a very popular venue and all of our collected works…and collected ENERGY!!!

ok, practical stuff is HAPPENING…

Anton and i are now scrambling to make the very best showing of BURN for the Look3 festival….we are going to use video programs, not slide show programs, to create a totally cool hi def minute and a half to two minute “best of BURN” show…we are getting a major donation of time and effort and technology from one of Anton’s friends in Belgium……i am editing for this now….and writing a script..by the way, writing a script for a two minute show is harder than if i had an hour..but i do not….besides, two minutes just perfect….

in addition, Mike Courvoisier and i are building a more traditional but effective slide show of the EPF finalists…the organizers of Look3 have given me a center stage prime time slot at this festival for BURN…15 minutes…BURN SHOW, EPF finalists announcements…..our logo will appear on the brochures…BURN will be hot at Look3..or, rather should be hot if we can make it hot…or not!!!…right this minute if you saw me you would not think that this is a man who can pull off anything anytime soon….i wonder too….hmmmmmm

by the way, it took me literally weeks to finally push the “publish” button here on BURN for donations…i am totally averse to asking anyone ever for money…i just cannot do it….never could…my parents raised me with a different value system to a fault…all these years as a professional photographer, i always had to have someone else actually ask a client for my fee…hence Magnum….my tendency is to give rather than sell…but finally, out of sheer desperation, and being leaned on by everyone on the planet to have a donate button, i did it….simple survival….

to say thank you to all of you who have just contributed to BURN is not enough….i actually do not know what to say or to write….overwhelmed with gratitude sounds trite even though i am…hmmmmm, how about something like , ok friends with this vote of confidence from you , i am really going to bust it….and make it very clear to you that your contribution is an investment for you and for all of us…make it very clear to you that it was worth it…i promise to make it more than worth it for you…damn, now that sounds like some kind of weird campaign promise or something and i do not like that either…well, ok just thank you…(by the way, i am going to have a CPA draft a complete accounting of all funds coming in and will report all of this to donors by the end of the year…make sense??)

now, that is not the end of this dramatic feature movie….as soon as Look3 is over , i am going to make a rough list of what pictures i know that you have for the BURN gallery (we can have another name if you want)….selecting photographs for the gallery will be tricky, but we will have an online version as well….while we are producing the BURN show, please look at your work very carefully..find one or two or three photographs that you think would work on someone’s wall..this is a very different edit than you might do for another purpose…think think…study the market…think think

for my part, i am also in the process of creating some limited edition books, and maybe work on a handmade book or two over several months….profits from these will be in part used to support BURN as well…you may want to be thinking about what you could do in this regard ….i will do a post on limited editions at some point soon….

ok, now i must go….a long long drive ahead….IF you happen to be in New York please come to see me tonight in Dumbo at the Powerhouse Arena, 9-11pm…Book Soup…several authors signing….cold beer at the BURN GALLERY after, so come and check out OUR space…

please enjoy your day…..thank you again…big high fives all around!!!

cheers, david

the view from my loft is a view that normally only millionaires have in New York…yet i pay little, for the Kibbutz is an unimproved artists loft… there are many writers here on BURN who well know that i live a spartan existence…it is too late in my professional life now for me to make “big money”…for whatever reasons (divorce did not help), i have done everything in my power to avoid ever having too much cash…yet, i have never been out of work…but, i have consistently rejected some commercial work in favor of “doing my own thing”…and, i have not regretted this lifetime decision for one second….i would rather have the pictures than the money…as simple as that…time spent in producing books does not reap financial rewards, nor does all of the personal shooting i do…whatever magazine assignments i have done (40 stories for Natgeo alone), and even the best ad jobs, have all pretty much been tailored in the long run to whatever personal project i was doing at the time…simply put, i worked for the magazines, the magazines worked for me…

well, you may be asking, if this Kibbutz is so damn cool and you love it, why in hell would you move out??? answer: as many of you know, i found an old historic beach cottage down on the Carolina shore that is just, well, just just ME…i had sold my small apartment in Washington which i had owned for 20 yrs….sold it before the financial crises and bought the little beach cottage after the crises…so i was lucky, not smart…so now i own, by luck, my dream house…with the smells and feel of where i grew up and started making my first photographs…the sea, the sea, and the sea…so so sustaining for me my whole life… this house will always need repair….and the old kitchen will probably stay the old kitchen…but the fireplace draws well in winter and the wrap around porch lets you sit outside anytime, and away from wind, because there is always a leeward side…most importantly, this house is very near my two sons, a fathers dream… it fronts a 40,000 acre state park…nobody can ever build in front of me or in back of me…water to left, water to the right, dunes straight ahead…nobody can see me standing on my front porch, even though a tourist area is not far away in reality..yup, t-shirt shops etc are somewhere out there over the dune line…but, never mind, i am in my own little world…as usual…

creating “my own world”  has been my lifelong pursuit…as a kid i played in the dunes not far from here and made prints in my humble darkroom and dreamed of using my camera as a tool for exploration and expression…i refused to let anything interfere with that original dream…it was too powerful a dream to deny….

so, here i am right back where i started…with the same damn dream…it will not go away even if i wanted it to…so yes yes a lot of hard work blah blah blah, but i sure feel just plain old lucky…so lucky that i feel compelled to share with others what i think are the ways to get lucky….to make photography a life, not just a means of technical recording…hence BURN….as i sit in my mostly broken down beach cottage right now, it totally amazes me that i am right this second communicating with so many of you…you are “out there” somewhere just over the dune line…you are not just in my imagination, you are very real…

communicating online was never a dream per se..how could it have been??…that just happened…and after all it is just a part of what i do anyway…BURN is some kind of reflection of my personal life, so it is actually a personal project of sorts, only with your work instead of mine, but it is somehow my work too…so, we are in this together…BURN is just simply what goes on in my loft at the Kibbutz all the time…official workshops yes, but general hang spot for photographers more often than not…as i said, one of THE photo spots in New York…many of you have experienced this first hand at various photo projections and events …and more than a few of you have even slept on my floor (ode to Koudelka)…

ok, back to the point…all my stuff is now out of the Kibbutz…i simply cannot afford to stay there any longer because my primary expense is now the beach house (by the way, the beach place will soon become a place for you to visit…a bit of a trip, but worth it…and i plan to have some limited photo events here as well). anyway, i have just enough money to keep the Kibbutz loft through May…it now sits largely empty…and as i was pulling away from the Kibbutz three days ago, i thought “damn i just cannot let this place go…it is just too too perfect for a NYC space…”

so, the van was packed and it just hit me just as Mike and Tony Skater and i turned on to the highway….my thoughts raced to the obvious…so obvious…..

i thought: why not turn the Kibbutz loft into a BURN gallery for the photographers here??…sell your prints from selected work….

figure out some fair percentage for both of us (galleries usually have a 50/50 split) so that when Tom Hyde sells his tumbleweed photograph for $1000. he keeps half, and BURN keeps half (or whatever we work out)…to pay for the gallery, the office, and Anton, therefore financing BURN and YOU with an infrastructure we already have in place…sell your self published books too…BURN would not be an agency, but BURN could be your agent…there is a difference…and nobody has anything to lose that i can imagine…IF you sell a print, you help yourself, you help Burn…maybe help me to finance shooting some more families for my long term Off  For a Family Drive…i mean, i wanna play too!!

i am soon to be looking for major subsidies for BURN…not advertising…i am talking major support to be able to finance photographers work…the EPF is only the beginning…taking large amounts of funding with minimal strings attached is of course the goal…impossible?? not really…we do it at Magnum with some regularity…

as of last week , i have been charged with helping to develop an online “channel system” for Magnum…Magnet….BURN will become a Magnum channel via Magnet…other Magnum photographers may or may not have their own channel…Magnet can develop its own funding as a larger “brand” and/or BURN can secure its own funding or both… or, perhaps we become a “column” or “channel” on other major sites as well…we are in uncharted waters…this will keep us viable here and help to keep you growing and producing out there just over the dune line…

i will be announcing soonest the new Advisory Board for BURN…an “A” listing of folks respected in our business and who will draw sponsorship and/or donations….i will be announcing soonest the entire list of staff from our audience here…up until last week, i had Anton Kusters and yours truly doing everything…Bob Black has volunteered, at my request, to be Editor at Large (seeking new talent, writing special essays, and well, just being Bob Black)…Kerry Payne has worked hours and hours on a viable business plan (she does that professionally), and Chris Bradley, Creative Director at Ogilvy & Mather has volunteered his services outside of his agency, to study the whole “branding” bit…i am talking with several others of you who have expressed interest in helping us with BURN…you know who you are…

all of this sounds a bit daunting, but all of this will allow us to do exactly what we are doing only about 10 times better…right now we are “one dimensional”…i can see much more “depth” with each photographer whose work is presented on BURN….

i will not go into details of what we will do now, but believe me the possibilities are revolutionary…let’s face it, it is time for a revolution…throughout history whenever there has been confusion and floundering (which certainly describes our business/craft now) is exactly when something comes along and changes the “face” of everything…

the large publishing companies, with debilitating overheads, cannot move with stealth in this new economic environment…they have now to fire half their staffs…they have big buildings with big monthly expenses…at BURN we have my humble loft ….and we are in close touch with all of the same photographers that many magazines and agencies now cannot afford to hire…and they have to “over please” their readers so that they can attract a circulation which attracts advertising revenue….hmmmmm.…we could build,  at a fraction of the cost, a better mousetrap…we have low overhead and a circulation that produces itself…

the audience is the action…

to point,  we have YOU….the new breed…the new generation…the next bunch to rip it up…and WE are already gathered…we are not making stuff up here, i am telling you all of this already exists….hmmmmm, so put two and two together…timing, timing, and timing…and Chris Bradley’s concept of “co-opetition” is so true in the online community…we are not competing in the old fashioned sense of it….we will not take one dollar away from the established media companies…..we actually will help them…they will help us…funding is going to be shared by many….we just have to be in the game…

these are ideas anyone can have….so, why would it work for us??  because we already have totally in place a whole combination of things that nobody else has…but even if it does not work, what the hell?? nothing lost at all…forget one possible fear right off…my close attachment to all of you is germane to this whole issue….i ain’t going anywhere…and you know damn well i cannot get rich, because it would blow my whole image…survival sounds attractive however…

ok, well sorry, this was a way too long winded comment…but,i am in full thinking mode, so forgive please…and besides, the whole point of this is that i need your thoughts…but just on the ONE ISSUE, the gallery issue, for the moment…a BURN based gallery to sell your prints (curated shows…say, monthly events to do so)…i can hang 30-40 prints at a time…we can have print storage shelves etc etc…you provide the print or work out a deal with Mike to print for you (Mike has very long list of known photographers for whom he has been their primary gallery printer before he came to work with me)…

as with everything with BURN , we are a community with arbiter…just as in the submissions here for publication on BURN, the EPF (recipient to be announced at Look3) , etc etc. not everyone can participate in everything, but everyone sure as hell has a chance…do exemplary work , and you are “on it”…

again, just one more way to turn our online experience into a reality…

your thoughts???

Maria Burns is my next door neighbor…literally….and a photographer….and an erstwhile student at the International Center of Photography here in New York….Maria is Swiss and a finer neighbor one could not have…i just took this picture tonight after returning to NYC from the Carolina shore…..so i was leaving home and coming home at the same time…..as happens here in the Kibbutz, folks just pop their heads in to say howdy…mighty small town feel the Kibbutz…..so just as i was trying to edit something for Burn, in walks Maria….

saying that she couldn’t stay long, because she ,”i have to do my homework”….

in any case, what would you do?? yes, damn right, you take a picture….any old picture..right??

now i want at some point in time to photograph Maria seriously for the “You Made Me Leave” book i am doing…this was just a “warm up” picture…a print to give to Maria…..neither of us is “loose enough yet” for the real thing…but, this is part of the process….and i will show you what eventually comes out of it….

by the way, Maria is a professional “hugger” (see YouTube link below)….i think we could all use one….

what is the point of this post???

why am i not announcing the EPF grant finalists?

yes, ok ok , i will announce the EPF finalists soonest…i am not trying to tease, i am just behind…so, my usual plea for patience will i hope not fall on deaf ears….i should be able to announce the finalists to be juried for the EPF by next week…so, that will be my next post under Dialogue….

well, there really is not much point to this post except it is  just in the spirit of “journal” or “diary”…and i have a pretty good photo diary of snapshots  of family and friends as above  from the time i was 13 to just a few minutes ago when i made this photo…and maybe i just wanted some excuse to write tonight and keep it  “light tonight”  on our forum…while our number one preoccupation is viewing the work of some young photographers here on Burn, the phenomenon of Burn is that so many of us have become such good friends in “real life”…our virtual world has become the real world…cool huh?? …and something that none of us know about yet will happen here on BURN and with our community and the work produced…

we are going to have a tiny little notch in photo history….i believe in that kinda stuff….

i think there are few of us who do not feel the magic in full throttle ,thundering down the road….and while there has never been an intent here to create some kind of social site, the BURN crowd exists in reality …. worldwide…many of you reading this know this to be absolute…of course the writers here form a bit of a dysfunctional family…pretty obvious….doors get slammed……arguing  is heard…..yet, the laughter is raucous….life/photoraphy  is talked about in a special way…the best of Burn will make us all proud…..the respect runs deep……everybody sits down for dinner….nobody really leaves home…..

maybe that is the point of this post…maybe i was just trying to say ..welcome home…..

abrazos, david

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKDsq7l-e5A

finally….springtime…i do not know about you, but for me spring just does not come quite quick enough….spring brings hope and promise and well, just warmer weather is just fine with me….and spring is just the time to clean house….throw out all the junk one accumulates over the winter…both physical and psychological ….time for us to begin anew….this spring brings challenges for all of us….with the lovely green of spring , this year brings us to face a world where we might all just have to do with less….

wherever i go now photographers are flat out scared…fearful of the future….businesses are closing down everywhere…magazine circulations have dropped leaving little money for assignments, galleries are not selling as before,  advertising agencies no longer have big budgets for photography, and newspapers are cutting their photo staffs drastically, if not going out of business entirely….i do not know one single professional photographer who is not affected by our global financial crises….

at the very same time i see amazing work being done…one way or another, the best will thrive in the long run….photographers and agencies who can move with stealth will move forward…those with too much overhead will have to do serious “spring cleaning” in order to survive….this is our new reality…

as i start now to look through the 1,029 entries that came in for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant, i am so so impressed with the  high standard of work being done by so many….a truly staggering tour de force of worthy work was submitted to me here on BURN…..to choose only one seems right off the top  somehow unfair, since i would so love to help so many more…..i am not the chooser, and i am pleased to not be the chooser of the recipient for this grant because i would be very hard pressed to make a decision among so many worthy photographers…i will do all i can to at least give those who do not receive this funding at least as much opportunity as i can give them with some solid exposure here on our forum in the coming months…

do i see a solid future for these emerging photographers as we go through these difficult times?? of course i do…hard times befall almost every generation…and harder times than these to be sure….now is just the time to share…band together…for mutual benefit and creative growth….and we must all throw away what we do not need which is historically what led the citizens of Valencia, Spain (above) to create the spring Fallas…

so many photographers and so few resources to finance them as professionals will lead many to search for other sources of income….however, the true visionaries will do just fine….and it has always been so…..

how do you see it??  bad times, or just time to clean house???