Sunday Afternoon by Margeaux Walter

Inspired by Georges-Pierre Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.

Website: www.margeauxwalter.com

Foreshadow by Lassal

I remember I was totally curious about Romania before getting there … The workshop with Antonin Kratochvil was called “The Lost Villages of Transylvania” and during the first days of orientation and introduction by our guides we could see what that meant: a disappearing world. People between anguish and hope – with changes that come too fast for most of them to grasp. There was a foreshadowing in the faces that I met, that reminded me of faces I saw in Berlin after the opening of the wall – I was there when the wall came down in Berlin, and the faces I met ate me up from the inside. Especially the ones from the older generation – whilst the younger ones were partying the elderly had already collected life experience enough to know that this was not going to happen without a greater sacrifice …

In Transylvania I saw this expression again, but differently than in Germany I saw it on younger faces too. I wanted to capture that, I decided. But where could I do that without being noticed? In a train, I told myself … passing all the shut down industries, all the signs that sang the happy-Europe-song … In a train, where I could press the shutter of my old and worn down point & shoot without anybody taking note … or so I thought.

Website: http://dark.lassal.de

Sandinos Bar during the ‘Celtronic’ festival, 2004

“Derry” by David Bowen

Over the past 12 years, since the Good Friday Agreement was signed in Belfast, Northern Ireland by British and Irish governments, a thriving electronic music scene has flourished in the city of Derry, due to the extraordinary efforts of the ‘Deep Fried Funk’ Promotion Team. Their inclusive attitude and passionate love for music and people, has helped to regenerate the music scene, and bring some of the freshest sounds from around the world to the city for the ‘Celtronic’ festival.

Jamie drags on a cigarette past dawn leaving an after-party, 2006

And so, as president Barack Obama, following the most recent anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” on January 30th, hails the latest steps in the ongoing Northern Ireland Peace Deal, it is well worth mentioning that young people have been ahead of the politicians in uniting both sides of the river Foyle. Intimate and compelling events, where an open attitude and a fierce desire to get along regardless of the past, are paving the way for greater understanding across the generations to come.

Bio

Since 1998 my main project has been to document the worldwide electronic music scene as it has evolved from free-parties and illegal raves in the U.K. to one of the highest selling genres of music. Today young people are united around the world by a music which transcends language barriers and borders.

I’ve been visiting Northern Ireland since 2004 to document the revitalization of the music scene there, and this is a continuing project.

Related links:

www.bophoto.co.uk

Five #08 by Christopher Young

“five #08″ is part of a broader series that explores the power of ambiguity, minimalism and ‘the frame’ in photography. It develops concepts of implied narrative to communicate, amongst other things, darkness and danger.

Whilst the specific places that were visited to make the work are, conceptually speaking, irrelevant, there is an inherent sympathy for that which is stagnant, abandoned or neutered by various external forces.

In contrast to urban exploration, which is often adrenaline-fuelled, this work has been a controlled, formalised experience. It is much more about absorbing, reading and activating the spaces.

Any ambiguity in the resultant images should enable a new, personalised reading by someone who then views the work. Essentially replicating my original experience.

What or who is not there? What can’t we quite see? How do we overcome the helplessness of not being able to ground an image in a time line? The images are an attempt to exploit this helplessness and the illusion of reality to create a more visceral, rather than intellectual, response to images.

As with many Australasian artists, themes in my work have often been identity-based. I find myself without a set of pre-determined motifs from which I can draw and I instead tend to grasp for an emotive connection.

With this in mind, I typically enter spaces blind, with only a vague idea of what I am about to encounter. This enables me to shoot without too many preconceptions and I’m then less likely to pre-visualise or design images. The majority of the images are ‘as found’ with little to no manipulation. I’m interested in finding scenes that potentially speak to an unknown history of a space.

As a technical side note, all of my work – with the exception of some documentation shots – is shot in natural light on medium format slide film. This allows for a great deal of detail and gives the work a hyper-real feel. A lot of the images were shot in extremely low light and this also generates an often painterly effect.

More work from the same series, a more extensive statement and a supporting essay can be seen on my website: http://www.zebra-factory.com/five

Bio:

I was born in small town New Zealand in the mid-seventies. My first experience with Photography was with a very nasty Diana-clone in 1982. It felt incredibly empowering to have my own camera and to be able to express, however crudely, how I saw the world. I enrolled to study Applied Arts in the early 90s and realised through that process that I really wasn’t that interested in being an ad man. I was much more into making images that moved both myself and others. I majored in Photography with a Fine Art bias and exhibit on a regular basis in Perth, Western Australia where I now live with my artist wife. In terms of influences I’m a fan of Stephen Shore, Jeff Wall, Craigie Horsfield, William Eggleston, Walker Evans and Todd Hido amongst others. Ultimately, I’m inspired by people doing almost anything extremely well. My images and the processes involved have always been solitary, very personal and have a therapeutic nature to them.

Website: www.zebra-factory.com/five

Untitled by John Gladdy

Website: www.john-gladdy.com

Untitled  by Imants Krumins

… thought about it………… I should buy a pair of goal posts for the backyard ………….. instead of kicking my soul aimlessly
.
.

Bio:

…………………. lived most of my life in Australia

Exhibited on the Continent, The New World and The Old World ………. No awards prizes etc

Author of some current Visual Arts textbooks

Limited interest in pro·to·col \ˈprō-tə-ˌkȯl, -ˌkōl, -ˌkäl, -kəl\

Imants Krumins

El Dia De Los Muertos by Juliette Mills

This image came out of a recent trip to Oaxaca, Mexico, during the Day of the Dead celebrations, and for me, captures so much of the spirit of the children during this special time. These girls proudly put on their hats for me, when I came across them at a graveside, whilst spending the evening in a village cemetery. Hundreds of families gather by candlelight around the graves of those they have lost, once a year, to remember and celebrate all night long with food, music, costume, laughter, offerings to the dead like their favourite drink or smoke perhaps, and so many flowers… the smell of marigolds and incense will forever bring back the people of Oaxaca to me, living the moment of remembrance to the full and sharing it with me. A passion for the dead it may seem. More a passion for life I think.

Bio

Juliette Mills is a British photographer based in Devon, South West of England and has been taking pictures since the age of 12. She graduated from Kings College London with a degree in French & Spanish, where she specialised in South American Culture & Literature.

She has traveled widely and until recently focused on wildlife and travel photography and writing for magazines. She had her first photographic exhibition in London in 2001 – a collection of wildlife portraits and has exhibited since in local galleries in Devon. Having children and photographing her family for the past 5 years has taken her somewhere else with her work, and this, along with a recent experience in Mexico, photographing the Day of the Dead celebrations in Oaxaca, has given her new inspiration and energy to pursue documentary projects.

www.juliettemills.com

victims of police tear gas attack  (below), and  fires started by protesters (above), choke  the citizens  of Athens as riots grip the city

Athens on Fire:  Photographs and text by Panos Skoulidas                                                           Athens, Greece   December 7, 2009

a YEAR AGO FROM TODAY…POLICE SHOT AND KILLED A 15 YEAR OLD KID…
point blank..
His name was ALEXIS…15 year old…
Last year was on fire for a whole month…
A year later…in his memory..
All schools are closed..Thousands of students protesting in the middle of Athens..
The “Kratos”…the state … ( GOVERNMENT )named all those students as “ANARCHISTS”…
900 ARE DETAINED SINCE YESTERDAY…
i was briefly detained two nights ago… but my American citizenship helped me out..
The police ( ordered by the Greek government )…are out of control…
THEY VIOLATE EVERY HUMAN RIGHT POSSIBLE…
let me explain:..They stop you in the middle of the street…ask for id or passport..
if you  do not have one you get arrested..
if you  are an immigrant..you are jailed for 3 months at least…
Greek police with no authorization .
interrogates, harasses and jails “illegal” immigrants…
If you are a student , poor…or look “weird”  you are immediately detained and charged as a terrorist..
All that because Greece is close to bankruptcy…
Despair,high rates of unemployment… corrupted politicians…
dirty church leaders…etc..
If you dare to protest….then you go to jail…
you are a terrorist…
Greece is the only European country that still send to jail drug users…
The only country in the western world that fails to understand that drug use is a disease and not a crime..
What a shame for the country that gave birth to Socrates and invented Democracy..
shame…

Panos Skoulidas

(editor’s note: the above photo and caption provided by Skoulidas and is considered an editorial..few facts on this are known by Burn at the moment of publication..dah)

Associated Press report:http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20091206/athens_riots_091206/20091206?hub=World

Brigitte et Bernard by Audrey Bardou

New images as part of the “Brigitte et Bernard” essay, previously featured here on BURN:
www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/03/audrey-bardou-brigitte-and-bernard/

From time to time, we will feature updates from previous stories as “Work in Progress”.

Website: www.audreybardou.eu

Walmart by Martin Parr

Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world and as such should be documented seriously.
We would like to find out more about this large and impressive retailer. What sort of customer do they have, which is the biggest Walmart in the USA, what community initiatives do they undertake?

All these questions and more I intend to explore.

If we think about recent documentation of American society , you rarely see images from Walmart, yet they are a recent American success story and are now an integral part of American life. It is impossible now to think about contemporary America without considering this company. This should be celebrated and documented.

EDITORS NOTE:

i think Martin Parr needs no introduction….he is undoubtedly one of the most respected and popular (and imitated) photographers  of our time….and a true renaissance man excelling in making a mark in the publishing world, the commercial world, the art world, and the curatorial world….

my invitation to you now is to ask Martin Parr some well thought out questions…..he will join us  “live” in the next few hours, most likely 6pm GMT…..he will spend two hours answering the most thought provoking questions…..

…COMMENTING MAY BE CONTINUED….MARTIN  PARR  WILL JUMP IN ON THE DISCUSSION FROM TIME TO TIME

oh yes, by the way, Martin plans on shooting an extended version of his Walmart work exclusively for BURN….

-david alan harvey

Website: www.martinparr.com

Coffee and Tattoos by Anton Kusters

Kaicho lies motionless, silently enduring the pain. Sensei Horiyoshi applies the tattoo manually, according to ancient traditions, and with his own prepared colors. Although it is said to be less painful than a modern tattoo, the sheer size and complexity of the artwork is daunting. The skillset involved is immense: at precisely 120 stabs a minute with hand-made needles, and at an exact angle and depth, depending on the skin thickness in that particular area, the artist applies his design. Any mistake will show up immediately, and permanently, as an imperfection.

—

Early morning. A long row of cars stops in front of the hotel. When we enter the bar in the lobby, i notice that the place has been cleared completely. As a security measure. The bosses are having a meeting and a coffee. Other family members, sitting at surrounding tables at a different positions, form a physical barrier. I am the closest i can go, in front of a someone staring right at me. Soichiro tells me the man at my table has been in prison for the past 23 years, and recently released. He doesn’t tell me why, but i’m guessing that it wasn’t for shoplifting.

—

Anything below the heart is painful, Soichiro tells me, while we watch Kaicho’s tattoo being completed. Personally, recalling his own tattoo, the inside of the upper leg hurts the most, Soichiro says. Kaicho was once the proud owner of a full body suit tattoo, and had it removed several years later, only to have this new one made. Once complete, he will have spent about 100 hours, in sessions of 2 hours at a time, to get this tattoo.

—

In the hotel bar I am only slowly starting to understand the minutial social order that is continuously happening, the micro-expressions on the faces, the gestures, the voices and intonations, the body language. Everything seems to be strictly organized but at the same time seems to come naturally: strangely, I don’t need anyone to tell me what to do, where to sit, when to talk or when to shut up… it’s like I feel the boundaries, the implicit expectations, and I am slowly learning when i can do, and when to best hold back.

—

As much as they are allowing me to photograph, it as well seems to me that Soichiro is trying to teach me about the subtle Japanese cultural intricacies, and the relation of their family to society. It’s clear to me that they are most definitely not operationg completely “outside” of society. They are, so to speak, one leg in, one leg out. Why is this? How is this possible?

—

About the Work

Soichiro is the lead character of the story that i’m starting to tell, about a Yakuza family in Japan. After more than 10 months of preparation, my brother and I have been granted access to start a long-term project to document the visible and hidden life of that particular family. All names used in the account above (and previous and future accounts) are fictional.

Here on burn magazine, and on my own site, i will regularly provide visual and textual accounts of our adventures.

Previous chapters:
– Meet Soichiro
– As Light Shines on thy Thigh
- Eye of the Beholder

Photographs: Anton Kusters
Website: www.antonkusters.com

Wall of Death by Jonnek Jonneksson

This photo is taken at a traditional motorcycle show that takes place since 1930 in USA, Great Britain and some countries in the Balkans. It’s called “Wall of Death”, as the man who rides the motorcycle and overriding the law of gravity climbing on a vertical wall, risks his life.

This specific show that I have photographed took place in northern Greece, at a traditional popular fun fair. The show with its material components is passed from father to son since 1950 and it runs through 3 generations so far. They are supposed to be the last “Wall of Death” showmen in Europe and one of the few that perform it in the world.

Website: www.jonnekjonneksson.com

Self Portrait 1 by Carrie Roseman

This photograph is part of a long term self-portrait project that I started during David Alan Harvey and James Nachtwey’s LOOK3 workshop, aptly entitled “The Art of the Photographic Essay”. The subject of the essay that I would create eluded me until the start of the workshop. Really wanting to challenge myself, I decided to point the camera to myself, and create images that reflect this exciting time in my life. After having experienced some hardships over the last few years, I wanted to celebrate the good that is happening and show a beautiful hopefulness in this project. My goal was to create fine art photographs that hold a dreamlike quality and emit an ethereal feeling. I knew that I wanted to capture myself in a very artful way, and I feel that I really got into a groove when I made this picture. This photograph was the shining moment of the start of this self-portrait project.

Website: www.carrieroseman.blogspot.com

Miss Kim by Eric Lafforgue

Miss Kim is a guide in the War Museum in Pyongyang, North Korea. She speaks perfect  French as she lived in Algeria when she was a kid. So in 2008, she took care of the 25 French tourists who came in her museum.

Q
Do Americans come to visit this War museum? What do they think of the visit?

R
They make excuses!

Q
The American tourists?

R
Yes, at the beginning of the tour, they won’t admit it, but after visiting the museum, they admit their crime, and apologize.

later…

The guide:
This helicopter left South Korea, and went over the military demarcation line, there were two pilots in the helicopter, one died and the other survived, this is the confession he wrote, it’s an apology letter from the United States government.

Q
Do you think that the two American journalists who were recently captured will have to endure the same fate, that they will have to apologize for entering the territory?

R
I don’t know…

Q
The (NK) government said that they will be sentenced to ten years manual labor.

R
Ten years? We have received a letter apologizing, we have sent him (the helicopter pilot) back to his country… ten years? (She seems very surprised)

Q
Last month, two American journalists, two women, were caught by the government.

R
Last year?

Q
No, this year, a month ago, did you not hear about this? All the media are talking about it, in France, in the US.

R
Two women journalists? Americans?

Q
Yes yes, they wanted to film and take photos at the border, and the government said that they would get ten years manual labor. You hadn’t heard of this story?

R
No, it’s the first time I’ve heard of this, but they deserved it, no?

Q
They deserved it?

R
Yes, they deserved it. Spying is not good.

Website: http://www.ericlafforgue.com/

The Church Tent by Paul Russell

Taken at the end of the day at The New Forest and Hampshire County Show. Part of the series, Country Show, www.paulrussell.info/galleryshow/01.html

Website: www.paulrussell.info

Kite Board Lift Off  by  D. Ude

Avid kite boarder Wendi Palmer, “lives, breathes and dreams about kite boarding constantly” she says.  “There is no feeling as free as being pulled into perfect wave by a kite and being able to shut the kite off and surf the wave, then pull out and do it all over again”.  Wendi practices her art around Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, on both ocean and sound side, where the heritage of pirates, shipwrecks, and violent storms segues into the present summertime warm lusty winds and choppy waters.

The Saboteur by Todd R. Behrendt

Incorporating elements of collage and expressionism, The Saboteur is my response to hucksters who ruined the world economy with their rampant greed. This image is a silver gelatin print created in a traditional wet-process darkroom utilizing non-traditional techniques.

Website: www.trbehrendt.com

Tuscany Street 2009 by Clara Rojas

Pick up Lines by Kurt Lengfield

Under the watchful eyes of Mr. Miyagi, party animals seize the moment at THE BOX, a hip Charlottesville , Virginia nightspot for some fun, photography and a little bit of tail wagging. This image was taken for one of the LOOK3 Festival of the Photograph workshops in June of this past year. I hope this will  grow into a photographic essay on societies night owls.

Website: www.kurtlengfield.com