burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey.
photographed by Candy Pilar Godoy
HEY AMIGO…MISSING YOU HERE IN RIO….THIS IS A TOTALLY CRAZY SHOUT OUT FITTING FOR THIS OCCASION
Since you cannot be with us today, please join us theriobook.com
YOU are a star there right now. Anyway, behind the scenes today in Rio we are thinking of you. Hope I did not embarrass you. Again
Abrazos, Roberta, David, and Renata
I take a camera everywhere. On assignment of course and to the grocery store too. Everywhere. In my camera bag, in a little waterproof bag that contains my passport etc, are the three items pictured that I would never go anywhere without.
A poker chip. Yes a Harvey family designated set of poker chips for our late night family reunion poker games where I always lose. My son Erin had these made for us.
A golf tee. From my father’s last golf shot. When my brother Gary and sister Patricia went out with my father Alan, we knew it was his last game. On his final drive, I picked up the tee and have held it for the last ten years since his death.
A faux carabiner. Yup for keys etc. I use it for clipping the aforementioned bag to my camera bag. So I don’t lose it. A little gift that became a big gift from my son Bryan that has become the oldest of my good luck talismans for over 25 years.
Superstitious? No , just sentimental. Couldn’t travel without these super precious items.
What does this have to do with my photography?
Everything.
Join the happening right now with me real time adventure in RIO and you will find out why theriobook.com
This is not much of a picture to be posting on BURN. It is only a “proof of location” picture. Yup I am at gate D16 in Miami over where everybody gets life power by plugging in their mobile devices. I am one of them. On my way to Rio and only now officially announcing my one month long reportage. My final book chapter for Rio. Two years in the making. Ok now seated on plane and I will have to turn phone off soon.
Go please to: www.theriobook.com
All should become clear..Next picture on that site upon landing.
See you soonest in Rio
© Stefanie Mueller from her essay in BURN 02
THINKING OUT LOUD:
Who has tiger blood? Well, tigers have tiger blood. While drinking the blood of tigers and cobras and rhinos might be considered an aphrodisiac for some, it would seem to me that a bit of exercise, a good night’s sleep, a full moon, some good wine, and candle light might be a better way to go. My feeling is, leave wild animals alone. Reaching in vain for an elusive romantic notion has probably had everyone one of us make a mistake or two. Learning is of course the name of this game of life.
While I mostly feel I have so much to learn, I spend a whole lot of my time as a mentor. Not with huge quantities of knowledge. My only job as a mentor/teacher is to give those who seek it a solid dose of energy. Get ‘em fired up. Make them THINK they drank some tiger blood. Drive them just a little bit crazy. Make sure they do their very best work..
If you think it, if you believe it, then you are 90% of the way to having it. Most of my mentoring I do gratis. One of my responsibilities on this planet. Self imposed and as pay back for being lucky. Some of my mentoring I do for a tuition. As altruistic as I tend to be, I too must face earning a living. I do not need much, but my workshops do have a tuition attached. Any astute person, and there are many here on Burn, can certainly over time get on Burn whatever I teach in a workshop.. for free. Send me a link and I am going to give a review, some thoughts, and hopefully get you going on a project. Audrey Bardou, Panos Skoulidas, and Erica McDonald, all with significant essays published on Burn are just three examples of emerging photographers I mentor with no compensation expected.
Others here have guaranteed my time by taking a week long shooting workshop. In New York, in Thailand, in Mexico. Wherever. Education usually does cost. Books, college fees, etc. If most of us feel that education is one of our most valued commodities, then we should all be willing to consider education as worth the price, assuming the stuff that gets learned is worth it. I always try to make it worth it for those I mentor gratis just as much as to those who compensate.
So I think I will use this same model of give most away, and be compensated for the rest on my work now in RIO. I would like to take this Burn audience vicariously with me to Rio. Yes as an educational exercise. As reportage. This 4th trip to Rio in the last 2 years will finish my last chapter for my personal book. I have already completed my National Geographic assignment. I am taking you with me with daily updates as i finish the book. How I how think about a book, and a fast paced walk on the wild side in RIO.
For it is this “behind the scenes” approach I am taking by presenting a subscribing audience with a real time real view of “this is how it is”. A very personal look at play that is work, and work that is play . A party, too much fun to be serious? The party, well , yes. But a serious effort? Absolutely. My whole reputation as a photographer will be on the line. The National Geographic piece will most likely be out in late spring of 2012 and my RIO book and exhibition opening in Sydney , Australia at around the same time.
The NatGeo piece will be one thing hopefully of great value for one demographic , and my personal book will be perhaps my very best work. We will see. I am feeling it. Deep down. Anyway the process , both the physical and the psychological, will i think be educational for those who seek it here on Burn. We may also do a super limited workshop experience. 2-3 students max. Details to follow.
Some of this will be regular programming here on Burn. Yet the deepest behind the scenes will be a daily updated subscriber section. For a month. Those who choose this option will get a serious discount on the book. I must work out the exact numbers formula , but the one month subscription will be less than a cup of good coffee and the discount on an expensive book will be about 20%.
In other words for example you invest 2 dollars for the WHOLE MONTH (that is like 6 cents per day) for daily how to do it updates …then later get say 20 dollars off the price of the book. Or 10 or 15 , depending on exactly how expensive a book i do.. The exact numbers are now in flux, but I will have it all locked down in about a week.
So you will see what I am doing in Rio now for a nominal monthly fee, and save serious money if you want the book. A good deal for you and might just help me get the book done. OR don’t subscribe, don’t buy the book , and you will get much of it here anyway. No hard feelings. I am going anyway. This is going down no matter what. But of course I will try to make the behind the scenes so damned compelling, you will go for the subscription !! Use your imagination.
My case in point, and my next big feature, is to see what is up in RIO through my daily picture/text postings and dialogue with you. I am leaving in about two weeks for a month of free style rocking crazy serious shooting. Gonna be intense. Can you handle it?
Better drink some tiger blood first!! Smiling…
BURN 02 and BURN ONLINE:
Everyone is trying to figure out ways for photographers to earn a living in the digi age. At Magnum we are working on this , as a member photographer I am doing the same. The main thing is to have original content. The model above , if it works, could be then used with many photographers. The readers in effect vote on content. In general, Burn in 2012 will have all content you will not have seen prior. We will pay for this of course. Hopefully with your donations which do keep us going already with EPF and original commissions as we did for Burn 02 with Paolo Pellegrin and Bruce Gilden. This is the model we want to use for everyone. This is our goal.
So our whole point, both with live “broadcasts” and with online and in print is original content. Seen first here. Perhaps a part of the new upcoming Magnum system of individual photographer “channels”. Stay tuned, more information later.
It is most likely to your personal advantage to give our small crew here at Burn your support. After all , we are only here to discover you. To find new work , from new photographers, and to light a candle as well to some icons who may lead the way for you. You will spend your earning on photography one way or another, and I can honestly say you will be doing yourself more good keeping the flames at Burn on blue hot level…We are photographers at Burn. Not businessmen. Yes we need funds to keep going. Why wouldn’t we? We are not rich photographers. Burn struggles every month to survive. Mostly we want to be able to create fine objects. Fine books. Fine workshops. Give you good spirit.We want to stand for the high end of photographic pursuit and we intend to earn it.
You can easily see we have no advertising and our only sponsors are generous donors. We only owe you.
I am guessing that Burn 02 (available below) will be sold out or close to it by Christmas. I believe last year that 01 was gone by mid January. My friends at the traditional publishers of photo books tell me that Burn is rocking the boat. The few copies of 01 we did hold back are now selling for double the original price. We did not hold back any for that reason, because this has been a total surprise. We expect 02 to be a collector item as well. Limited edition anything is always of best value.
Anyway, check us out. Hang out. All of you just being here helps us. Give us your ideas. Give us your pictures. No wait, SELL US your exclusive essay!! Photographer’s rights are my mainstay philosophy. Our whole constitution at Magnum is about photographer rights.
So yes help out my staff with a bit of support if you possibly can. If you are a committed photographer this will come back to you in a very real way. Or if you simply enjoy looking at leading edge photography , then it will come back to you in a real way as well. Our donation button is in the right hand column. Buying 02 is another way to help all of US. Thank you.
BURN 02 PURCHASE
USA, Canada, Mexico |
Rest of World |
(For volume puchases (over 10 copies), please contact Diego Orlando directly at diego@burnmagazine.org) |
RIO WEATHER REPORT:
the man is a teddy bear….a family man…he would much rather talk about his teenage daughter Nina and French wife Sophie than about photography…honesty is his best policy…. you never never have to worry about what he “really thinks”…i live in Brooklyn…..but, Bruce Gilden is Brooklyn….
many think Bruce “attacks”…i do not know this for sure, but i am imagining Bruce has had a least one of his subjects “attack back”…but, Bruce and i are as much on the “same page” as anyone i know in Magnum …we surely have opposite personalities and ways of working, yet we have exactly the same “code” for life regarding fairness, transparency, and family….
Bruce is now working on a project on foreclosures in the U.S….a hardball look at one of the primary reasons for the financial collapse in America and the folks who “lost it all”…his new Magnum in Motion digs in deep and gives us a vision of a side of this country that most ignore…when Bruce went to Florida for the opening series on foreclosures, he showed us a certain kind of sympathy that i just do not recall in his previous work…
my first impression of Bruce came with his book on “Coney Island”…then “Haiti”, then “Go”….i thought Bruce harsh , but irresistibly fascinating…and funny…i can never take my eyes off of Bruce’s pictures even though i might feel a bit guilty for “intruding”, even as the viewer….if Bruce appears somewhat cynical with his work , when you know him personally , he is more “realist” than cynic….there is a difference…..the man’s work reveals a part of his personality, but not all…there is a straight up kindness in Bruce Gilden..and nobody but nobody has a better sense of humor…
please keep your eye out for Bruce’s continued work with foreclosures….anybody can smell a book in the making…
i am only hoping that i do not become one of his subjects…..
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nothing happens until it happens , but things are happening…cracking, buzzing, and yes burning bright…we will launch soonest a working model of BURN magazine (or journal or??)….the house will not be finished…we still need to get in the wiring and plumbing and it will be a long time before all the furniture is chosen and the interior is decorated and we all feel “at home”…but, at least you will have a sense of it….and you will have a “place at the table”….
i must right now thank Anton Kusters for his tireless efforts working on design and function…the boy flew all the way from Brussels to spend four days here sleeping on my floor…..in the next sleeping bag was Tom Hyde and tossing and turning on the sofa was Chris Bickford…my place looked like a homeless shelter rather than a home for a wellspring of ideas…reminiscent of my grad school days or some version of a camping out road trip….
all i can say is that i was totally humbled by all of the hard work from Tom Hyde(flew from Seattle), Eric Espinosa (flew from Cincinnati), Erica McDonald, Andrew Sullivan, David McGowan, and Andrew Owen from Look3..and i will never forget Kelly Lynn James who gets total credit for suggesting BURN as a title…many thanks to all of you who wrote, phoned in, and sent constructive emails..but, it ain’t over yet….
today and tomorrow i must attend our Magnum board meeting…our winter interim gathering of the tribe…who would have ever thought i would be on any “board”, but well life has its twists…i might be able to get an interesting post out of it , but in the meantime all of you will have time to chew on this…..
oh yes, if you are in New York, we have our annual Magnum book signing at Aperture tonight…please join us…
back soonest…..
Diego (Creative Director of Burn 02) and i are sitting on my front porch…sipping a tequila, enjoying the total quiet…Burn of course comes up even though we have both agreed not to talk about Burn…but we have a question…for you..our question to all of you is this, and it is a serious question as we often think about in our comment section, which is always the topic of conversation when it comes to change…
anyway, the question is this: why are the numbers of comments often in direct inverse proportion to the quality of the essay? exceptions of course….yet think about it…go back and look…do some quick research…not a challenge, just a real interesting thing to think about…probably a simple answer…now, sure we all to give and take a bit on my tastes etc etc..but what i am talking about are stories over time of all tastes…
by the way, this magazine would be dead as a doornail if i actually set out to consciously please this audience…the more time goes on, the less i am interested in any kind of outside support…all the more reason for me not to try to over please….yes of course i want you to be happy…but that is another concept…whomever wants to be here will just be here….no advertising, no weird pressure… the bullet: i think in the very near future i can pull the top pro talents together to create a serious tour de force and still have Burn be an all important first step for an i really want to get there photographer….seems needed doesn’t it??
yes, as usual i have crazy ideas…but as you also know i make at least some of them come true…when i was a kid , i always wanted my imagination to be real….and so thus i have lived…..now i have an idea, actually easy to do, that if i laid it out right now, some might just steal it….maybe nobody can steal it…all of my ideas for Burn have always been transparent….and i am sure this will be too…just need to sit on it for a few days….anyway, all to good end is always my motive….i do not need any more stuff…my porch good enough forever….i just want to work to make cool things happen….squeeze the most out of talent and knock viewers between the eyes or spawn a subtle visual sensibility….
ok, back to the porch…
-dah-
Miss Favela bar scene in Brooklyn, NY. Photo by Isabela Eseverri – One light off camera
Rooftop party in Manhattan, NY. Photo by Madeleine Stevens – One light on camera
We just did a one day small strobe lighting class in my loft in NY where I will be spending the next two weeks guiding photographers into taking their personal next step. Both Madeleine and Isabela were out in the Saturday night scene practicing as seen above what they had learned from us during the day. I encourage photographers to “get personal” so even a one day tech class like this one becomes after all an exploration in doing work that is somehow a mirror of individual predilections.
The students who are here for a week, will take this process much further and show their work on this Friday evening at the loft in front of a cast of the best and brightest in photoland and let off by shows by both Chris Anderson and Bruce Gilden.
I will post work from time to time this week from this essay class. Stay tuned. You will see some very nice work shot right now by these very serious photographers.
From new book coming, HOW TO TAKE BETTER PICTURES : USEFUL THOUGHTS FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS EVERYWHERE
Every time i get ready to quit Burn, something happens which keeps me in the game for another 5 minutes…I am sure you can imagine I often have to ask myself “is all this really worth it?”…a pretty typical thought for all of us , most of the time, regarding wherever any of us are putting our psychic energy…so, I really came into Burn 02 thinking , ok this is it…done..finish with flourish
Then I actually held 02 in my hands. Hmm, THIS is something…THIS is it…and I honestly can say that I could easily (well not easily) rock out at least 10 issues before my feet even hit the floor from a content standpoint…I am in touch with just that many photographers and have so many of the iconics and emerging ready to throw their best efforts into this pot…so that’s nice…at this point in my life, that’s just nice..…i like that….a peer group after many many years can love you or hate you….
At the same time, oddly I have some buying into my “future”…that’s a new one for me…yes, buying work, actually paying me for work that I have not done yet…no, not commissions/assignments, but prints out of my darkroom… selling and the darkroom is still not done yet..a show and book launch at the Australian Center of Photography booked, done, on for their fall 2012, and I am on my way out the door to go shoot a chapter of this show/book in a few weeks…(simultaneous piece in NatGeo same time) ..yet nobody is this crazy…curators will be nervous, my friends will abandon me, all stuff I love of course, and then I will ride into town with the show…whew..with work that could have been better if I had just been organized!!! smiling…
Point is: my time is going 100% into you/Burn and 100% into me and my work…somehow it is possible …I am on it..somehow doing it..comfortably..learned to zen it…minimal stress….not much sleep , but the minute I fall asleep I wake up with a new idea…yet still I cannot help succumb to temptation and let my mind drift into total selfishness to manifest the hell out of my own work ….and yet just about the time i get ready to drop the hammer on Burn, something happens…
Five minutes ago it happened…dammit,yes, one of dozens of emails i get a day to open a link and look at work and 99% of the time it is hard work to look carefully and rarely a spark and lo and behold tonight i open up our friend Jukka Onnela work and just got blown away..I looked at it for maybe 30 seconds tops…ok maybe two minutes tops tops…fast anyway…and I KNEW right away, that I had to publish his book…no, not right now nothing else is right now, but next year or whenever the time is right….Jukka tells me I am the only one who has seen this particular sequence of work…maybe I have that part wrong…but never mind, not important …so dammit, now i am stuck putting all of my energies into somebody else!! his is brilliant work, you will see, you will see…a powerful extended version of what he had in 01..
So what exactly is the photo/life lesson here?
Isn’t is obvious? Time worn. Works. Every time. Do what you love passionately and pass the baton to others as often as possible. Makes for a better day. Or rainy night.
Or, looking at it another way:
If you can get to a stage in your work and believe you are playing the piano, then you ARE playing the piano.
Just a state of mind, just a state of mind.
-DAH-
yes, Bob Dylan had it right..answers for life tend not to be empirical but rather instinctive gut level decisions based on the moment and circumstance…we TRY to have rules to follow, methods, reason, and sage advice…any of that really work for you? most likely instinctive decisions seem to play the largest role for most of us…things seem to either go good or bad based as much on the alignment of the moon and stars as on any reasonable “planning”…there is no doubt that man has always tried to “stack the deck” in favor of good outcomes, and surely this is a noble effort, but i think we all know that fate, whatever that is, has center stage…whatever actually happens can be justified or vilified by any number of philosophies, religions, political beliefs, and/or coins tossed into the fountain…
those of us who rode out hurricane Irene on the coast of North Carolina indeed did have the feeling that we had cast our fate to the wind…yes, we followed all the rules(well, except the “rule” to evacuate)….boarded up our homes, stocked up with food and water , extra candles and flashlights, and then just waited…and waited..and listened ..and felt….and finally became a part of the power of nature…a spectacular and most beautiful power…a power that was actually only destructive for those who had homes built in the known path of hurricanes..those of us who live here take our chances..this cost some their lives, others their homes…
yet all KNEW the worst could happen…intellectually likely to happen in fact…they just hoped and/or prayed it would not happen…Billy and Sandra Stinson are friends on my street and i suppose now ex-neighbors for they surely will not be allowed by town rules to build another vacation home out over the water where they were..their house was totally destroyed by a fast moving wall of water…last year i photographed Billy and Sandra in their moments of best family joys in their home and now also of greatest despair, but i will not publish this last moment without their permission on Burn , or in National Geographic where my assignment is indeed right now the Outer Banks..maybe by next spring when my story is due in NatGeo will i seek to publish, for storms are indeed part of the story…but now my role is friend and neighbor more than journalist….the picture i took for FB and Twitter of Billy and the destroyed house is not the picture to which i refer…
Michelle Madden Smith, above, lives just a few hundred yards from the Stinsons who lost it all…Michelle, who runs my workshop program and my son Bryan’s partner in life, also rode out the storm, but with a happier fate….here shown in 75mph winds in Nags Head….a joyful moment amongst tragic moments for others and part of a 10 picture series i did publish on FB and soon to be part of a new book….in any case, i have ridden out many hurricanes in my life and IF you are not in a vulnerable position from flooding or wind damage, then it is truly one of the most dramatic living experiences one can have…so, exhilarating for some, and a tragedy for others….
indeed Mr. Dylan, the answer my friend is blowin in the wind, the answer is blowin in the wind…
I have a very playful side. Some get this side confused with my so called “serious side”. Often the two blend. Surely my intent. So, right smack in the middle of Burn 02 production and also when I am focusing on two major projects, RIO and FAMILY DRIVE, I come up with this idea now called COMIC BOOK, which spun spontaneously yesterday out of nowhere while I was playing with the Instagram bit. The beauty of COMIC BOOK is that I can do it while doing other things.
These are to be three picture fiction sequences based on real life. Or, are they even really fiction? You can decide. Just like the way I always saw the comics in the paper as a kid, and smiling as an “adult” as well. Anyway, fun and I keep trying to think of legit creative ways to use Twitter and Facebook, which is where these sequences will appear first. The “reality show” is now being built by introducing the characters. Two characters have been introduced so far on the FB/Twitter platform, and I will have up to ten interacting characters. These “stories” will evolve over time and are intended totally as a retro spoof on the so called “picture story”. But who knows where this goes?
Well, for one thing I hope it will spawn some ideas for you. I really want you to start thinking in terms of packages of pictures, sound, music, or whatever media you like and wrap it all into little units we can plug right here into Burn. Just as I have here. Yes, this is mine , but I am waiting for yours. The sky is the limit. No restrictions, just come up with a totally fun or totally serious concept. We will play you right here if provocative enough.You must produce the entire idea and package it for use. We can help of course, but the point is independent production by you. Yes, we already do this to some extent, but we want to max out this idea. So my “play” is just to get things rolling.
There is one thing I really need for you to do right now. We are late for this idea for Burn 02, but I think we can still make the deadline. Anyway, let’s try. Go NOW and take a self portrait using a window, any window, to frame you. No more instructions. Just you in a window as a self portrait. We need 100 of you to do this for it to work as a spread in BURN 02 which we are scrambling to have in print and a debut at Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, France by the end of the month.
Just drop this picture into Submissions right here and mark it Self Portrait. If we can collectively make this happen cool, if not BURN 02 will rock it no matter what. If you do this, it must literally be done in the next few days. Should be fun and the designer of 02 has an interesting concept for these pictures. A surprise for you of course.
Hey, its summertime. Time to do things just for fun. Of course if you do anything you enjoy, it might just be taken seriously. I think the point is, and I try to get my students to open their minds way way way up, is that everything you do should be some sort of self portrait. Not literally, but figuratively. A point of reference to who you are, not who you are supposed to be. Photography can be used in so many ways. I never cease to be amazed by the possibilities. Wishing you feel the same. Show me.
-dah-
Dasha wants to see California. Los Angeles specifically. She knows L.A. from the movies. New York police car chases a la television shows she wants to see as well. In the meantime, she and a few hundred other Ukrainians are biding their time on the Carolina coast filling in all sorts of jobs. Dasha and her friend Katya work at a miniature golf course. Galaxy Golf. A golf course where you might immediately look around to see if Martin Parr is indeed doing a book on it. Has crossed my mind too. Classic kitsch.
I have spent the last three days photographing the Ukrainian community that paradoxically lives here side by side in the land of rednecks and tourists and fishermen and construction workers and surfers. Most return to the Ukraine after a three month summer stint, but some have married and raised families with the local crowd. However, Dasha and Katya see themselves raising their families in Kiev.
The Carolina shore and L.A. and New York are simply passing fancies. A growing up adventure and a first time, maybe last time, flirtation with America. My best pictures of these women and men mixing in the local environment must be saved for my upcoming essay on this coast for NatGeo and book following, yet I can never resist simple portraiture just because, well, I just like to do it.
Summer jobs. The best of times, and maybe the worst of times. How about you…Ever now fantasize your best summer job?
Before I start, I should point out that summer is not usually a particularly silly time here in our happy little burg. It’s true that the kids are all out of school now, save for those who find the modern curriculum of pabulum and political correctness too educationally challenging to qualify for social promotion, and so the kids are out doing the things that all normal, healthy kids do at this time of year like robbing liquor stores, beating up old people, and setting fire to stray cats. While this sort of thing is occasionally unsettling, it does little to upset the calm and orderly progression of life here; the kids take their cues from their parents and in the main parents here in our happy little burg do not act in a radically silly manner. There are always exceptions to the rule, of course, but they are few and far between.
It is summer, after all, a time when few people want to behave in a seriously silly way, except at the beach, where the intense sunlight has the unfortunate effect of making large numbers of people who should never be seen without their clothes on suddenly decide that the one thing in life that would make them happy is to display themselves to a horrified American public in all their avoirdupois magnificence, thereby scarring the psyches of many a small child for life and permanently blinding large numbers of family dogs. The vast majority of people, however, simply want to kick back, mellow out, and enjoy the long sunny days and maybe take in the occasional movie at the drive-in or bring the family to see a ballgame. Even our civic affairs take a back seat to the demands of the season, as our local solons usually decide to not decide anything until after Labor Day. It therefore came as a bit of a surprise to all and sundry when one member of the city council proposed that henceforth all public housing built here shall come equipped with environmentally sound dry toilets instead of the flush toilets that have made American civilization the envy of the modern world.
The economic rationale behind this proposal is simple: the ecofriendly dry toilet will save water and will, as a result, save the city millions in sewage treatment costs. At least, this was the explanation given at the city council meeting; the vast consensus of opinion at Don German’s Hair Cut and Hand Gun Emporium, as well as at most other tonsorial establishments throughout our happy little burg, is that this particular member of the city council is a jerk and a jackass, when he isn’t actually aspiring to the elevated status of complete moron. I do not hold this somewhat low opinion of the councilman, although in the interests of full disclosure I should mention that I did go to high school with him and that when I was a senior his first wife gave the varsity football team a particularly nasty case of the clap, costing the team a place in the semifinals for the county championship that year. I know that the councilman is a serious environmental activist and always has been; even in high school he led clean-up drives and recycling efforts years before it became the thing to do; and I believe that he made this proposal with every intention of making his community and his planet a more environmentally safe place in which to live. I also think he is full of toads’ gonads.
A more dispassionate observer than I, however, might choose to question the motives of the councilman and all his plumbophobic ilk. Why this sudden demand to do away with indoor plumbing, surely one of the hallmarks of a civilized society? Why, in this day and age of incredible scientific advances, should our modern post-industrial information age society turn away from Sir Thomas Crapper’s gift to the world and return to the outhouse? Let us look first at the outhouse, or rather, let us smell the outhouse, since we will be able to smell the place well before the outhouse comes into view.
I know this for a fact, for my family home once came complete with an outhouse. This was long ago, of course, when my family came up to our happy little burg from the great metropolis to the south for the summer, an annual trek we made every year in order to keep my brothers and me off of the streets and out of trouble, and a removal that became permanent when I was eleven, at about the time when my ability to turn the five-fingered discount in bulk was becoming somewhat notorious with the merchants on our block. Although my father plumbed for a living, he hadn’t actually gotten around to putting in a toilet in our house until the summer before we came here permanently, and so every year we marched through the high grass in the back yard (Pop disliked mowing the lawn, and he especially disliked mowing the back yard, his reasoning being why should he expend time and effort on something nobody would ever see) to the outhouse. It would be hard to imagine a filthier, more disgusting, more feculently crapulous and noisome hellhole than that outhouse, the overpowering stench of which made my brothers and me evacuate our bowels with a single-minded determination and alacrity we seldom displayed beforehand and have never displayed since, and get the hell out of there forthwith and in a hurry, too. It is difficult to imagine the sighs of both psychic and physiological relief we expressed when Pop first tested our brand new flush toilet in the summer of 1969, and it was with no end of fraternal glee that all the brothers together pulled down the old outhouse and set it on fire, and then filled in what had to be simultaneously the most loathed and the most fertile spot on the property.
So why, you ask, would anyone possessed of all their wits actually advocate a return to such a primitive method of sewage disposal? To understand the war on the flush toilet, you must first understand the mindset of those who want to ban this paragon of Western inventiveness. The modern environmentalist is, in our current political climate, most often associated with those who believe in the power of the state to correct all of society’s ills. There are many reasons for this, one of which is that environmentalists like to tell people what to do, and the state’s ability to make the populace do things they don’t want to do is even greater than your mother’s, if you can believe such a thing. In order to get you to do what they want, they have to nag and nag and nag, and sometimes they’ll make you fork over a stiff fine for not listening to them, and at other times they’ll send in SWAT teams, but mostly they simply annoy you until you do what they want you to do. But to annoy you, they have to get at you, and they can’t get to you if you’re in the lavatory copping a squat on Sir Thomas’ pride and joy.
This is true, believe it or not. The vast majority of Americans own more than one television, but they don’t keep one in the bathroom, and until the cell phone came along, most people didn’t have a phone in the bathroom either. The bathroom was a place of solace and rest, where the harried citizen could simply sit and read and go about his business without the constant pressure to do one thing or another, simply because they were already doing one thing or another and they had to prioritize. The bathroom was the one place where an American teenager could read without their friends knowing that they were actually looking at a book, because books are gay (actual quote, people, I kid you not) and not at all cool, and social standing, as we all know and remember from high school, is everything to an adolescent. One can only imagine what will happen to the collective American grade point average when students can no longer use the bathroom for any prolonged period because of the room’s intense crapulence, or what will happen to the social life of teenaged girls when they are no longer able to use the bathroom for so long that you wonder what the hell they are doing in there? It seems clear, therefore, that this push for the ecofriendly toilet is little more than an attempt to rid this our Great Republic of the last bastion of personal privacy left to the common citizen.
And for what? To expand the already increasing power of the state to interfere in the ordinary lives of the citizenry, and yes, to serve the interests of those with a vested interest in increasing that power, such as all civil service unions, most Democrats, some accordion manufacturers, and my classmate the councilman. As I said, I am sure that in making this proposal the councilman is doing what he thinks is best for the people of our happy little burg, and indeed, for the nation as a whole. That being said, and again in the interests of full disclosure, I must say that I never liked him or either of his wives, and let me be among the very first to say that he can have my flush toilet when he pries it off my cold dead ass.
Story: AKAKY
Photo: DAH
Joseph Koudelka gives a winsome Martin Parr a pat on the back after the Paris portraits session
John Gladdy emerges from his Paris hotel executive suite, only to be met by the dreaded Burn paparazzi
Like most photographers, I have a bunch of ideas about half cooked….Only some very few of my many on going projects actually get finished…I write about finishing often on Burn because it is the one single element most holding most photographers back..They just do not finish..I have often described a one in ten “finish rate”, which sounds low, but might actually be high….In any case the above two pictures, along with hundreds of others will fit into my now 4th book in progress tentatively titled: PHOTOGRAPHERS (I have known)..
You will have to use your imagination on the typography and layout, but you can probably imagine the scrapbook look that would contain all the pictures I have made of my colleagues over the last 40+ years. No not just now as in Paris with the Magnum crowd and a piece of the Burn crowd, but all the way back to my college days, newspaper days, NatGeo days and 15 yrs worth of Magnum days and from seminars and photo fests world wide and all of my students and on and on and on…
Yup, I have pictures of probably everyone reading this text right now…Right? Or pretty damned close to it. Everybody shoots these “extended family ” pictures , but I might just have been doing it longer and over a wider demographic of our photographic community than most…
This is not so unusual , for photographers seems to love taking pictures of each other. I saw it at Look3 and I see it at the Magnum meetings like the one we just had now in Paris. Photographers will often say “don’t take my picture, I belong on the other side of the camera”, then give a silly grin into the camera just like everyone else getting their picture made. C’mon let’s face it, we all like being in a “memory picture” …Not a good picture. Not an intentional picture. Just a snapshot for the memory book. Well, this memory book might just be a real book. So unselfconscious and so not “trying” that it might just have an authenticity to it that would give it some lasting value. A little piece of history. And of course I will sell a copy to all the photographers who are in the book! Hot sales figures right there. :)
Of course, the cynical response could be, and will be, “who cares about a bunch of pictures of photographers?”…. a fair question of course…Well, I would sure buy a copy if someone else did it..Assuming it was done in a really interesting way…Just a bit of text, a few identifying captions, and well ..done…
Above are just two of the many I took around the Magnum annual gathering of the tribe. The first is of an unusual moment when Martin Parr arrived at the HCB Foundation cocktail party after photographing dozens of Parisians who had been lined up around the block to have a Parr Portrait as part of a Paris office fundraiser. Who could be more different than Parr? Koudelka, that’s who…Yet this is classic..Two photographers who see the world so so differently, and who might disagree on some issues, yet blend in a family way in the long run of our cooperative..This is the extended family of photography that I have always seen since my youngest days. Here played out on the same time stage with a late night Burn crowd reunion in the room of John Gladdy who decided to show us work at 3:30am after a diet of champagne, red wine, and tequila…All of this is part of my photo mix. What I have seen since starting to shoot this sort of thing during my grad school days.
That old famous line “if you remember the 60′s you were not there” is pretty much true. Same for a lot of these gatherings. I sure would not remember 90% of the stuff I see in my contact sheets. So good thing I made a few snaps to trigger the memories. Good ones, great ones, to be sure..
Next time you see me, smile..You just might end up in the book…
Burn editors Diego Orlando, DAH, and Anton Kusters on beach Carolina - photograph by Bryan Harvey
sorry i have not been around here for comments etc…nevertheless i HAVE been doing all things Burn …both at LOOK3 and now at my home…the whole Burn staff and a few crashers and hangers-on did manage to get to my house after the three day non-stop marathon that was LOOK3…Burn officially started off the final day of Look with the slideshow leading to the announcement about Irina being our new EPF recipient…i am so proud of all of the jury for selecting Irina…thanks Maggie Steber, Narelle Autio, Trent Parke and Barbara Stauss…these jurors added to our repertoire of photojournalists like Davide and Sean winning our award but also more conceptual artists like Alejandro and Irina as recipients as well……Burn 02 coming soonest and the reason for the meeting at my home, the book is going to rock it bigtime…we will launch with a special Burn slideshow in the arena at Perpignan this year…an honest too cool European opening of Burn.
anyway, i cannot stay long now, but i just wanted you to know that yes i am having fun and still working all the time to make this an educational hangout for all of you…Anton just left for the airport…next story up will be his Yakuza book official announcement…after all Anton is a former student and Burn colleague who listened and then went and did it with his own special talents…so damn right i will help to sell his book on Burn prior to Burn 02….later i will also do my own RIO, but in early 2012 with a free tabloid for all of you and a book for sale if you choose…all books and printed objects of any kind coming from Burn will be built around their limited edition appeal…Burn 01 has already proven this…as will Anton’s book, and 02, and maybe maybe YOUR BOOK….yes, we will be looking all around the town…for things that will make sense…for things that just MUST be published…Diego is your go to book guy. Bryan, who shot the short film for our upcoming book JOOK is going to be selecting a few new short videos for our attention…we want to start featuring more short films…
anyway, this is the conversation on my front porch…as you all know by now if i am anywhere near you, everyone is always invited into the discussion…we plan to do Burn meetings in Warsaw, Rome, Bangkok, etc. etc..to meet more of you, to look at your portfolios, to consider your work for Burn. we will have to charge something for this but just enough so we can get to you…plane tickets, meeting space, etc., etc…anyway, we can all figure this out….we are thinking of more ways for all of you to participate, starting with a call for self portraits…yes, just like i did for Road Trips…only this time for possible but not guaranteed use in Burn 02…as a portfolio of a hundred or ten…we would have to see…not silly gratuitous gimmicky use of self portraiture, but something totally sophisticated yet edgy…yes, looking nice for 02…anyway, we are working it all out…fun stuff…creative stuff…education stuff…only things we like and care about…figuring we are pretty much on the same page with whomever is here…no pandering to an audience who will never like the way we think but assuming a nice connection with a significant number of like minded folks who just appreciate the visual image…and with photography as a way of living life….hard to knock the combo…
ok nuff said…
Mike Courvoisier, Diego Orlando, Maya Joseph Goteiner, Michelle Madden Smith and Bryan Harvey
part of our little Burn magazine team met tonight over Pizza Hut delivery…thin and crispy Supreme is the suburban delivery of choice..no Coke, only Pepsi..hmmm, now where was i…oh yes, revelations…not necessarily things which can really come true, but well you all know how it is..i start this way, and then try to make it happen…so, revelation now, attempt/work on it to begin immediately…no time to mess around…
FIRST, we think we will try the obvious…keep EPF as is…no change…our Oscars…grumbling is part of it…the nature of it…
however, we will start with a grant of equal size a readers choice for the recipient…all of you literally vote for say one out of 15 finalists for example and for say another 15k ..nothing to do with EPF……at another time of year..in the fall…the Peoples Choice Award for Burn may not carry the weight of the EPF , but it will satisfy the desire of readers to play in the game….and real financing for some lucky recipient who won the hearts and minds of the people…power!
SECOND, a Burn branded camera bag has been born (anyone surprised?)…we will announce at Look 3
THIRD, RIO, yes my RIO will be a super over sized tabloid freebie..free to all of you..free to everyone…maybe postage only ..we will see…but an unbound tabloid on high quality paper that you can take apart and hang a spread/picture on the wall…i will look for a sponsor so i can give it away to you folks……will also be a real book too for sale, but the free tabloid will be a collector item itself no matter how many we print….
this will happen AFTER Rio makes its debut in NatGeo of course …one thing at a time por favor…we are talking early 2012 i think….the tabloid will be the “directors cut” …all stuff that could not be published in NatGeo and the totally behind the scenes rip it up….what you think?
there is a fourth thing, but i will save that for tomorrow…well hell, i cannot give it ALL away right away…
Brazilian model Fernanda Brandao photographed for my YOU MADE ME LEAVE book project in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
i am supposed to be quitting this Burn bit right now….sort of announced that i would a few weeks back…too much work and i need to devote all my time to my own photography…i am doing three different projects with my own work that need my full attention…this is no time to be thinking of others….damn…everything was set for a high five very honorable goodbye until i went to Amsterdam as a guest of World Press Photo…
ok, so i met some young Burn audience, they told me how much Burn meant to them, uh huh, and then to the Magnum education blast in Toronto where i felt the effect of Burn in a very palpable way from both students and my Magnum colleagues, and then finally the coup de grace last week a 16 yr old kid with a camera literally skateboarded into my gallery show in Colorado and said out of breath and without shaking hands, “i love Burn”..
so, how do you walk away after that? i mean it was only three or four people who said those things to me, but it is not about how many, but about the glint in their eye…sincere, warm, authentic…while i feel as though i have tried to avoid responsibility for the better part of my life, right here in my moment of total life freedom i have somehow managed to get myself into some sort of position of responsibility…freedom backfired..flipped…where did i go wrong?
and just now, just today, just an hour ago, after a long net session with Anton Kusters, the two of us structuring the way we would play the Emerging Photographer Fund Grant finalists starting tomorrow, we both ended up laughing hysterically…Anton with his own Yakuza book almost hot off the press was with me in thinking we would let Burn go…pass it on to others, or just let it go….and yet the reason we were laughing so hard was because in a moment of artistic and personal clarity, we saw that Burn was not fading for us, but getting ready to take on a new life…
for sure, our ten finalists this year will be our benchmark for now and set a tone for the future….exciting yes, and for sure to be controversial as well…if you have everybody agreeing with you, or have any sort of dogma attached to photography, in any direction, then for sure it would be time to go home…light a few fires, and you might just be getting somewhere…
no, we will not keep playing the same song…we will always be looking for fresh vision…and this year all of our candidates have it …fresh, new vision..yes, some purely journalistic, and yes, some purely conceptual…are we the arbiters of a new age of photography? of course not…in this new age, the readers choose…on the other hand, we have taken it upon ourselves to have a birds eye view of who is doing what , where and why…i have young students from all over the world, see so much work coming into Magnum, all of us see thousands of entries here on Burn, and make sure we see what is going on at all the international photo fests and pay attention to all curated shows and most recent publications of all kinds…
do we miss some stuff? sure we do, but we feel we have a reasonable handle on what is going on as well as anyone and with no attachments commercial or otherwise to lean anyone anywhere for any reason other than to celebrate pure creativity… and we personally see a world where the various worlds of photography blend…something i have tried to do my whole life never being satisfied with labels….for sure we will blend on the pages of Burn all styles and types of photography, both online and in print soonest with BURN02…
our greatest weakness, and yes greatest strength, is that none of us who work on Burn have a full time job with Burn…we all have to do it when we can and if we can…for one way or another, we all do other things…all of us are photographers first…struggling as are all….none of us are business types, and the raw commercialization of Burn becomes less likely day by day….we want to get better, but none of us want to get negatively bigger…so we may do some things which will bring us enough funding to get a new infrastructure web wise etc., to totally display the amazing archive of stories we have for example, but all of us on Burn care more about a clean initiative than about a real biz plan…
we might fantasize a benevolent patron, and all that we do finance here comes from these generous donors (readers here), but Burn will always represent our original core philosophy of celebrating primarily the work of new young talent with just a few iconic candles on the cake from time to time to keep things credible and referenced….and even during the short life of Burn, we have seen our original emerging crowd turn into the established crowd right before your eyes…again, we will soonest make the archive easier to access , so if you do not remember, you will be able to more easily go in and have a peek…..
Every other day we’ll show you one of our ten finalists for the EPF… and on June 11, at 10am, one of these finalists will be announced at the LOOK3 Festival to receive our $15,000 grant….
three distinctive jurors (who will now go unidentified, so you cannot influence the vote by buying them a drink) will decide on the recipient over the next two weeks of discussion and voting….these jurors will be of course identified on the day of the award…
in the coming days, we will also reveal the “short list” of 200 special candidates out of the around 1,000 entrants and the even “shorter list” of 30 or so who came very close and are all very good….all of these will be considered very likely for publication on Burn …
i wish we had enough financing to help more than we do…and maybe someday we can have the equivalent of five of these grants or perhaps more assignments….right now, we are doing the best that we can…it is pretty obvious we are a very small rogue operation ….yet hopefully we are at least setting some examples for the larger media companies who in theory could do what we are doing way way better….but to be the small garage band has an appeal second to none really…suits me for sure…i hope it works for all of you as well…
-dah-
I am totally not up to this…Writing obits is not what I do…This will not be my best of anything. Yet, it is all I can do at the moment.
I found out yesterday, at exactly this time by text message while driving in a blinding rainstorm, that my friend and next door neighbor Tim Hetherington had been killed in Libya along with colleague Chris Hondros. Mike Brown , who lives just upstairs and featured here with his Libya work was thankfully spared…So, two men who hang with me at home, stop by for a beer from time to time, were caught in the same mortar attack and one of them gone forever. I did not know Chris Hondros, but was an admirer of his work. I write here only of my friend Tim.
Mostly Tim and I would see each other rushing in and out of the building. On the elevator. Tim with his bike. Fast chats typical in our trade. My last conversation with Tim was to congratulate him for his Oscar nomination. Gave him a hug. Told him he was a winner no matter what the outcome. Tim is a winner. Tragically gone now , but a shining light of integrity in journalism.
However, it is very difficult for me to defend right this minute the business of war photography. Tim is not the first friend I have lost like this. Richard Cross was the first, John Hoagland the second , and few now can even remember their names at all nor the war they died in or what it was about. Sure seemed important at the time. Nicaragua, Contras. Anybody know about it? Even I who was there have to really stop and remember all the details and the politics and the lies and the propaganda and the pure bullshit and a craving press that led up to those guys feeling like it was their mission and their sense of making a difference to be there with their cameras. Met Nachtwey there and he survived that and many other conflicts and I have heard his speech of justification many times. I listen.
Same with Tim. Tim Hetherington stopped by to talk to my students in the last loft class, he always came to talk to my students. He had a sense of mission as well. So yes, yes I know the peoples right to know and the documentation for the sake of the oppressed etc etc. I know the speech well. Yet, I also know the realities. I will bounce back from this anti war photography mood most likely, but this is how I feel right now. I know that conflicts must be covered, but the repetition of the realities year after year after year just gets me in the gut.
It is just so so sad, tragic, sickening that one of the few who really was trying to make a difference and one of the truly most honorable and creative men I have ever met is gone.
Tim Hetherington, I love you bro. You did what you set out to do. Nobody can ever ask for more.
“Color , grace, gesture. Slipping and sliding through nights humid and intimidating. I am both lost and found in a simultaneous rush of primal feelings and needs.”
These were my words for a Bravo paper promo for their paper and printing. A commercial use of my photography but the whole concept, design and writing was a collaboration between Polish designer Jurek Wadjowicz and yours truly. Of course the pictures were my personal work from the Caribbean and South America . I cannot publish the whole portfolio here, but it was a labor of love and flat out a whole lot of fun to make. Trust me, the kind of commission you will savor. They are rare. I have never worked with anyone in quite the same way as I did with Jurek. It really was our baby and he made me feel like it was my baby.
Holding the final paper product in my hands now is a certain kind of experience and way of viewing photographs that cannot be duplicated on the computer screen. Yet I and many others scramble every day to make our work viable for mobile devices, like the iPad and Kindle etc. We see our books being reasonably priced iPad books as a secondary offering for the traditionally printed book, or will it be the other way around?
Either way, times are changing. Some top media executives see bookstores closing and all but boutique printing moving to the iPad. Their feeling is that the consumer will happily pay say $5. for an iPad book rather than $50. for a paper book. I will no doubt end up doing both , therefore spending $55., but perhaps I am not the average consumer of photo books. We will see how discerning consumers move on this.
While I work everyday to create a good web experience for you, I also work everyday in traditional media. I live and breathe books. Traditionally printed books. My workshops which always had as the grand finale a slide show from the week of intense shooting by students, will from now on have as the end game a handsomely printed book.
In April during the Juke Joint Festival in Clarksdale , Mississippi students from my small class will start their shooting knowing that we will be producing a book titled JUKE. This will not be an everybody automatically gets 5 pictures in our class book, but a seriously conceived and edited book where each student is going to have to make a truly strong image to be considered for publication. We will start building this book from day one.
Eileen Gittens, Founder/Ceo of Blurb, told me her company will sponsor JUKE and give us very special attention. This will be the first in a series of student produced books. These may become a part of our upcoming Burn library of carefully thought out books of all kinds including upcoming publication of a wide variety of photographic artists from this audience both emerging and icons alike. Soon to be presented on Burn will be series of iPad compatible essays, starting with Chris Anderson and his Capitolio.
ok, QUESTION FOR ALL
So what do you think? i am reading Ross in our comments section whose book budget is blown after buying 4 books…..what about this? Ross could have perhaps had 4 iPad books for say $20. instead of the probably $200. he spent…the profit to the photographer and publisher is probably also better in the electronic version…book stores closing down….are we seeing the end of the printed book game?
You guys tell us…..we are listening
(interview with Alec Soth , above, coming soon…..stuff you never knew)
I have had writers block for the last three weeks, yet I am not a writer. Which is no doubt the whole of the problem. I can do ok with pictures on demand. Not so with pen and paper. Surely it isn’t that I don’t have much to tell you. I have too much to tell you, yet i need to be brief. I will get right to the point.
For those of you who have been readers here for awhile, you probably figured out a long time ago that this is a pretty humble operation here at Burn. While we are in popular terms a “wildly successful new brand” , we make no money and our staff is still an all voluntary army. Now mind you we are not even trying to make money. Yea invest in us! Smiling. Seriously, all of us value independence and freedom more than money. So we are not looking for bosses. Yet we are looking for support. Sure, uh huh, right dude, who gets money without a boss?
In fact we are ninjalike action heroes because we have generated some income from thoughtful donors to pay for our $15,000 Burn/Emerging Photographer Fund grant with funds donated through the not for profit Magnum Foundation. Subscription donations help to pay photographers for work published here. These are donors who simply believe in what we are doing.
Yet indeed, we are scrambling to make things work . There are two possible solutions. First , is to accept advertising. While I have zero aversion to advertising and have done ad photography, I think that for Burn right now we might just be able to survive without it and therefore have a really clean slate for just doing what we want to do and with a particular kind of unencumbered cred. This audience will basically make the decision for funding/donations based on the steps we are making.
So you may ask, what steps?
We want to make more of what we did in the last two weeks. Financially and psychologically supporting an emerging photographer like Egyptian Laura El Tantawy in Cairo and at the same time commissioning an exclusive for Burn essay by Paolo Pellegrin. Both photographers with unique styles and both looking at Cairo.
Both with equal pay, equal artistic control, and one time use only photo rights..
My stated initial goal of Burn was to combine the iconic with the emerging iconic. We have done it now with original photography from both and an exclusive here.
Next we go to firebrand Bruce Gilden who will be in Haiti during elections and a soon to be assigned young Haitian photographer to shoot a parallel story with Bruce. Followed by Alec Soth (shown above during my interview this week) and and an emerging photographer chosen by him. Our aesthetic interests will know no bounds and we will actively seek all individual styles of work.
Simultaneous with these projects sponsored by Burn and the readers of Burn will be a special corporate commission presented by BD who sponsored James Nachtwey with his TB essay published on Burn in 2010. BD will now sponsor in Russia both Nachtwey and emerging star of Russian descent, Alisa Resnik. Frankly we would welcome this type of selected corporate sponsorship for any of the above projects as well. We feel we will get them , but I am willing to bet on it in the meantime with our readers support. BD was happy with Burn as a platform before, and have come back this time with additional support for a talented young photographer. So this is a model. Again all of this original work both by Nachtwey and by Resnik will be featured first here on Burn with a proper drum roll preceding.
All of the above projects highlight four new emerging photographers as well as the established legends.
I think we have taken a large step forward today without losing any of our identity. We just want to do things here on Burn, and upcoming in print magazine Burn 02, that are simply cool. Serious. Fun. Imaginative, and flat out informative as well. If it is not rewarding to do and we are not giving you something unique, then we fold the tent and go have a beer. Already in our short history I think we have helped a few young photographers, respected a few icons, and made a lot of new friends along the way.
Now one of the things I have noticed about creating space, funds, and a platform, is that while some receive , some feel left out. This is a conundrum with no real solution except I can say that I will do my best to pass things around. I cannot support everyone. My honest hope here is only to set an example so that others better equipped to do this sort of thing than I , will take on the responsibility and the effort. I am as accessible as I can be to photographers with ideas. At the same time, I do have my own photography and books to do, so there are times when I disappear into my own shooting as I am about to do in Rio. So all patience is appreciated.
We are struggling in the good old fashioned way. Times when real things happen for the right reasons. Feels like such a time.
-dah-
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