Photograph by Maciej Mosur
well, i got back late to new york from colorado this evening , but still felt compelled tonight to link you to some of your essays…now, the first thing i must say is that we are not finished…this new website is literally UNDER CONSTRUCTION….you will see a suggested home page layout, which i am actually not fond of at all, and will change or modify drastically….but, i decided to make you a part of this new web "work in progress", so your comments are expected… please accept a few "kinks" until we get it all worked out…
the second thing i must say, is that good old fashioned space limitations at this point had me editing down just a bit tighter than i wanted…but, we are going to figure this one out….more importantly, you will only see right now pieces from the so-called "finalist" essays…but, there are MORE ESSAYS AND SINGLES to come from many of you…two "singles" are shown here ….i have also done some individual critiques for this audience by private e-mail and will do more as soon as feasible…
some of the "sleepers" here may rise in your opinions to the top and vice versa…at some point very soon, i will write my thoughts on "why this ? " for all of the essays presented and will also solicit the opinions and dialog from my colleagues in our craft…and , of course, something tells me that your opinions will be forthcoming soonest!!!
please remember that all of these essays were self-produced , as part of an experiment on this forum, by this audience, between july 15 and november 15, 2007…i was curious to see how this audience would do with an unfunded but "realistic" time limit…the Emerging Photographer stipend was initiated by yours truly after a few months of "mixing" and "inventing" with this community…
my goal is to finance photographers in conjunction with the non- profit Magnum Cultural Foundation… this initial stipend awarded to Sean Gallagher, with others to follow, is intended to support an "emerging" photographer working on a photographic essay who might benefit ….for example, i do not see Gallagher’s essay as "finished" and definitely a "work in progress:..the ultimate intention here is to fund worthy photographers for whom traditional outlets for their work may not exist…. and to have the end result of their photographic work, stimulated by this forum, appear in print and exhibition….no promises, just a sincere effort….
so, please take a look at these new photo-essayists under "forum essays" …let’s talk……
http://www.davidalanharvey.com.temp.livebooks.com/
Photograph by Partha Pal
First comment – WOOOOOOOW!!!!
I can’t possibly comment on the images right now b/c I love too many of the essays and I want to say something about the website while you’re workikng on it.
I really feel for you guys right now – I have a liveBooks site and I think you’re getting a first-hand view of the drawbacks. It would be SO SO nice to be able to click on one name at a time instead of search for a buried title slide to find an essay. But, with liveBooks it’s not really possible. So since you’re stuck with that, I would at least somehow keep the thumbnails visible on the side. When they disappear I feel like someone has just taken the rest of the magazine away and I no longer know where I am or what’s coming next.
….. still looking at the rest..
This will be a great site I’m sure of it!
Fo
LANCE…
hey amigo…o.k. good thought…something i had not thought of (as you can well imagine!!)…now, i just went back and checked your observation out….now, let me ask you, if you could see the thumbnails at all times, would that not eliminate being able to roll through the whole forum section?? i mean, as it is, you can now scroll through the whole section of three photogs per gallery….or, is it more important to just see one photog at a time with thumbnails all the time??
i am not married to LiveBooks, but they have been very gracious and i did think i should give them a chance…in any case, i will work more with them to make sure we have every possibility for us….
going to bed dude…will check on your answer tomorrow!!!
cheers, david
Wow!
David, congratulations with the great results of your initiative.!
There is some amazing inspiring stuff, which will keep me thinking about photography for at least a few days..
Boys And Girls
Just terrific works!!!
Eric, Alex, Kyunghee, Aleksander… Cristina!!!!
And All…
Great essays!!!
What I’m doing there?!
Martin
this is typical lance talking here.. now that i’ve gone through and and i’m ‘familiar’ with it, i like it. but for me, the initial run through felt a little bottomless.. i didn’t really know where in the magazine i was. now that i do, i like how it scrolls and of course the best parts are that the pictures are BIG for a web site and load quickly.. and very clean appearance, all very important.
i don’t mean any endorsements here, but NeonSky (Laura’s site) navigates very well and is much more ‘scalable’ than livebooks. with all the business i’ve sent their way in the last 18 months i should get a free site from them. but that’s for another day.
i think the site overall is on it’s way to being very good. it was just that first run-through that i didn’t like.
but, you have to ask the question of where will yo fit even more essays or singles? you’re running out of room at the top for ‘forum essay 1′ etc. to fit. if you have another stipend down the road but want to keep these showing, it could get tricky with liveBooks’ layout.
KYUNGHEE and MARTIN – i want prints of all!!! (i wish)
wow david, congratulation…to you and to all the essayst bellissimi…
ciao
cristina
Definite authoring from all essayists, just off the press, I have particularly liked the difference that came from natan’s non populated scapes.
From both him and Lance, i really appreciate the superb editing work (color for Natan, mono from Lance) that is part of their vision, not just to make a nice print or beautifying the image. Inspiring, and everyone else too of course but somehow, tonight, both of you, with very different work, struck a special chord in me.
PS: i guess I have to resign myself to never read a title, a text, even a location on any essay, or WS previosuly, posted, David? Is it a complication, using this specific format?
I am also feeling Lance’s selection of Kyunghee and Martin… and Martin, you have no need to doubt why you are here (if in fact that is what you are doing, language barrier aside).
Also, Aleksander’s work speaks to me this rainy morning.
Saperlipopette !
Well I can not say anthing else that has not already been commented, absolutely beatuiful work. I simply could not find anything I did not like. These folks have great eyes.
Liam
I have doubt always. I can’t think other way. I’m one big DOUBT.
Lance
If you want something you will get it….
:)
Martin
David – thanks for the edit, looks consistent now ;-) I couldn’t shrink it that much myself though, too hard, even selecting 20 felt like own limbs amputation sometimes… Anybody feels the same while editing down from a larger work?
Martin: “I have doubt always. I can’t think other way. I’m one big DOUBT.”
Same here. Is it a polish thing or what?… :-/
(btw, Mozdzer – excellent choice!)
Wow! Great job guys!! Just looking at the selected essays makes me understand and learn quite a lot. And makes me even more happy to be involved in this experience!!
I like most of the essays (Andrew Sullivan, Katia Roberts, Eric Espinosa, Kevin German…) but I specially like ERICA McDONALD(fabulous portraits, Erica!! love the mood, format and texture), ALEKSANDER NOWAK (just touching… those kind of pictures with a texture full of ‘touch’ and life), JONI KARANKA & CRISTINA FARAMO…
I still have a big road to walk to arrive to the place I’m looking for….. but will keep walking!!
Peace ;-)
Fabulous stuff you guys! I think there is probably a place for Eric Espinosa over at Oculi for sure and Chris Bickford’s work is just divine! I love Erica McDonald and Bob Blacks people, bravo you two your photos take me inside the world of emotion, where people really are felt if you can follow what I mean!
Brendan Hoffman and Cristina Faramo have beautiful thoughtful humane documentaries and I just love Marcin’s and Khunghee incredibly emotive work.
Congratulations everybody, all the work is absolutely terrific there is not a dud amongst them! Be so proud of this work its just streets ahead of anything I have seen for a while!
Cheers
Lisa
By the way…. looking at the essays a recurrent question came to my mind. Not long ago I talked about that with Aga but would like to know your opinion too…. It is about blur pictures… I do think that some people use this effect too often and, in my opinion, a good and intended blur image can be very artistic but often it remains in a very thin line where sometimes it looks just like an unsuccessful shot… I guess it is a matter of balance and I think now it is too common to take this kind of well-worn pictures…. What do you think? I don’t use to take this kind of pictures although I like some other’s blur photos… but lately there are so many….
Hi everyone,
Looks great. Although I was wondering if there would be any written elements describing, maybe not every shot, but the overall essay?
Cheers
steve
Pretty amazing work, considering these folks are “emerging,” and not hard-boiled pro’s. Professionals, look out!
As for the website, “not so much.” You’ve got your work cut out for you DAH as you move forward. You’re talking about information management, now… how to get this work in front of people and make it easy and pleasant and engaging to look at, which right now it certainly ain’t — in fact, i find it to be beyond frustrating — how to find a certain person, how to get back that person… can Magnum give YOU another $10G to hire a web designer?
This is what happens when you do a favor for someone (US!) — you find yourself swamped and juggling criticism.
Work: AMAZING.
Website: less than amazing
but THANK YOU, we feel you.
WOW.
Absolutely Great Work!
I started looking at it with Sean starting first and immediately noticed that his images when viewed larger or perhaps on the new site looked much clearer to me and even better than I perceived them before.
I thought about jotting some notes about essays that I liked so I started writing on a piece of paper the names of the photographs and photographers that I liked…about 10% percent into this I gave up…I was writing down everything…basically I loved every essay, every photographer and pretty much every photograph.
David, I have sent a few e-mails to you that were unanswered…understandable…you can’t possibly serve so many of us with your busy schedule but I just have to say that I have got my answers when looking at the essays.
Ohhh David..why do you do this me?? I have to go to my day job and I cant possibly look now….and I want to look so badly! I will be late for work….
Went through the essays very quickly… MARCIN, that is beautiful work, just the way I like it. As for the DOUBT, that is often a Slavic thing… But that’s good, it’s all good.
Seeing what DAH is doing around here I’m sure the website presentation will improve with time. Too much pressure and anticipation from this forum for things to get published ASAP. Yes, would be great to be able to see the photographers name and get to the essay through that shortcut…
Best to you all,
David, what an amazing series of essays… There is such a diverse set of styles and photographers…and this is such an interesting community. I am just at my day work right now so will have not have too much time to comment on all essays but cannot wait to get home tonight and spend quality time looking at all essays…I have to say that just glancing this morning, I really liked the work of Martin, Aleksander and Erica…with Lance and Christina also having great essays… Why do I need to work today? I will reconnect this evening. Thanks David for all your efforts in doing this! Seeing the work of many will make this community an even closer community, you can now see the eyes and feelings of so many…Simply great! Eric
KYUNGHEE, do you have a website where we can see more of your work ?
and please NO thumbnails… that would spoil all the fun… this is not Digital Railroad archive or Magnum where there are buyers and they are looking through thumbnails… this is about STORY, narrative, photography… I don’t want to know what is next before I get to it…
i took my time to go through all the essays many times before saying anything here and i must say i am amazed and moved seeing the works of my friends here. the photographs have really been an eye-opener of sorts for me.
but before commenting on the works that i personally liked most, i must put in on record that i could not see the essays of of the following photographers:
1. Alex Reshuan (his story: Guayaquil Ecuador 2007),
2. Andrew Sullivan (his story: Harlem Jazz), and
3. Aleksander Nowak (story not known)
because the photographs simply refused to appear on-screen on repeated attempts. i don’t know whether others faced the same problem.
now on the +ive side, i take my (virtual) hat off, amongst other, for
1. Brendan Hoffman (for his moving essay on the drug addicts – story, notes, photographs, i love all)
2. Marcin Luczkowski (on his Hometown series-i liked your style so much Martin)
3. Lance Rosenfield (for his story styled “Thirst for Grit”-real gritty photographs)
4. Katia Roberts (Seattle Homeless Street Kids-your closeness with your subjects could be seen even without written words)
5. Erica McDonald (New Yorkers-i LOVE those faces).
CONGRATULATIONS ALL for such unique and moving essays and THANKS for sharing.
LAST BUT NOT THE LEAST, i must say that i am so so so happy for Partha Pal, who happens to be a personal friend and a close associate, for his photo being selected for this particular post. exceptional photo…PARTHA’DA!!! now you owe me a dinner at your place …what say??? :)
AND DAVID, thank god i don’t have any question for you at least this time… ;)
great motivation this blog is becoming day by day…
My faves are Espinosa, McDonald, Kyunghee and Nowak. Although my praise if fairly much for everyone! Lots of variety in there and all the essays are quality ones. I’m also dying for feedback on the editing.
Nice job, David! Even with the technical oddities.
MARCIN LUCZKOWSKI – thats a beautiful piece of work. congrats and keep going.
Jason.
It’s a photo essay tour de force for sure.
I’d prefer neutral grays all round. Colored back round block colors can often adversely affect an image’s color balance wouldn’t you say?
Even with just grayscale there’s a lot to play with. It would serve monochrome and color work very well and enhance the potential impact of each image. Everything not concerned with photographs should be in shades of gray, I think. However, I do appreciate that the soft pastel shade is in keeping with your homepage.
In fact, just pure black or white would be best of all but a black backround is suggested to be more energy efficient.
As regards the work, I’m not sure whether I should be excited or depressed. Many of these fine photographers may well be competitors soonest. On the other hand, I’m always thrilled to see exciting, envelop pushing photo making.
You’re a good egg, Mr. Harvey.
Fuck me what a lot of good work
Hi David,
I received a call from My friend subhrajit that You have chosen one of my photographs in your blog…………I am amazed..enthralled…..that…DAVID has chosen my photographs…..he had evaluated my photographs……This must be and remain the best award and reward for me in this year…I know I have do a lot of work…I don’t want to complain anybody …anything….except myself if I cannot produce good shots.
Thanks to David to show the right way of photography…….This blog is becoming my best friend, philosopher and guide.
Hi Subhrajit…….Welcome to my home at anytime………I am ready to share a dinner with you.
Partha Pal from INDIA
I am watching the ESSAYS and I must comment upon it after going through a no of times…..I will come back and put my comments regrading the essays…..
I know it must be a fascinating experience.
Partha
i always knew that Partha’da…and am coming asap …let me get a holiday first!!! :)
Must admit, the more I return, the more I become curious as to the story behind Martin’s work, the context of the Mosur image and the more I want to see of Partha’s images.
L.
(First one techie question, any chance for a more specifically named URL, like something referencing the Magnum Cultural Grant or DAH Emerging or what have you? I think it looks fantastic.)
Wow! Really great work all around! How do you shoot like that? I love love how we all see so differently.
Especially to to my eyes, the work of Kevin, Cristina, fantastic! Cristina, really, how do you shoot like that? Kevin, I don’t have words, but I could look over and over..Lance, love that last one, and you really are getting in there, love it.
Sean, I don’t know if I ever sent you proper congratulations..bravo!
Andrew, I saw some of your work at David’s loft when Elliot was there, and loved it then as I do now..18 cracks me up. I want to come with you sometime and do my bw squares if you think it makes sense, that is if you wouldn’t mind and you think I’d be a welcomed addition to the groove. maybe you can PM me thru LS?
Bob my friend, it is so great to see your faces here, and one after another..somehow I had become accustomed to one at a time, but I like the flow.
Katia, I can see how much you care for your friends, you really use photography as a tool to communicate.
Eric, love them, I want to come swim..I’m from the inner city of Cleveland..spent most of my childhood in a pool. Actually my first ‘photo essay’ was when I was about 7 or eight and we had our very own pool put in ground, and I shot the whole thing on polaroid!
Natan, talk about a road trip! You covered a lot of ground in our little window if time. Were you moving, or did you make a special voyage to shoot these? Terribly jealous, I so want to wander and stumble on the unknown, I love your sight.
Alex, and Marcin, mysterious, I want to see more..
Kyunghee, so lyrical and playful..
Aleksander, I am touched..
Brendan, great, love Ira..
and everyone else, I am running out of steam, but congrats and thanks for sharing your vision
I woke up this morning KNOWING the new site would be up.
Can’t wait to spend some time looking closely but I am one day behind you David, leaving the “higher ground” of Santa Fe to return to San Diego this afternoon. It’s been great here but sliding thru an intersection yesterday in my car on the icy road was a bit scary…luckily no one around…
Congrats to all until I can be more specific.
As far as the site. I would just say “cleaner” if possible.
Cleaner meaning clearer…It’s a little too confusing to navagate. This would be a good time to combine the different blog chapters as far as I am concerned. Too many places to look for information and no way of knowing where there has been new info posted so each time we log on we have to go thru the entire site. My two cents worth.
Dear David,
Just wonderful, I am floored…!:)
Great learning experience this blog is.
One question:
Were most of the essays edited by you? Wonderful work all over…just stunning.
Regards,
Siddhartha
WHAT AN AMAZING SUCCESS!!!!
i found myself practically yelling “yes, yes, yes” on every frame … an astounding affirmation for everyone involved and the medium in general … exciting, fresh, beyond words which is of course as it should be …
this has become … important … not an easy thing to do to say the least … i am humbled, i am in awe, i am inspired, thank you :)))
YES, YES, YES !!!!
MORE, MORE, MORE !!!!
Interesting work indeed.
DAVID-
In the future, when time permmits, it would be fascinating to understand your editting process with the submissions. Nothing fancy, just a desciption of some of the steps taken by you, from first general edit to finalist essays.
thanks
Chris
HELLO ALL…
i must run down to washington this afternoon and spend two days at the annual Natgeo photographers seminar…alec soth and larry fink are the featured outside speakers with a retrospective showing of work by jodi cobb…i will report on all of it…
this means i am going to be just a little behind in fixing the glitches on the new website…i can do some of it by remote control, but i realistically must expect this will take a few days…
one of the biggest problems i see is that on the home page there are four galleries listed, when in fact there are five galleries of your work once you open up any one of the individual galleries….we are working on this, as well as coming up with a satisfactory looking home page…
also trying to set it up so that each photog has her or his own gallery….i do not know if this is going to be possible with LiveBooks, but we will give it a try..
in any case, we should be able to have everything nice and clean and easy to use by next week (i think!!!)…this whole web biz is new to me and subject to all sorts of opinions , thoughts etc etc by everyone…this is fine and good and i am learning….
and yes, chris richie, i plan to do exactly as you suggest…..
cheers, david
David and Essayists and blog members/lurkers/ghosts ;))…
First of all, CONGRATULATIONS to all the essayists above and all the photographers whose photos we see above (love both the single photographs very much, the 1st is a mad-brilliant and iconic one). I’ve looked at all the essays at least half-a-dozen times (some more) and, I feel slightly bereft with words….
Let me say, this small thing: I thing they’re all an example of the magnanimity and beauty, the sadness and collision, the unending breadth and depth of photography: in other words, photography is simply another voice to show the extraordinary reach of the human voice and vision: it’s endless hunger to see and understand and speak: to speak out against the rhyming light-ticked darkness…I really cherish, for very different reasons, and I cannot nor shall not isolate any of them or the authors, for it is their vision and the vision in song with the others that make it so gorgeous to see…again, i congratulate all and hunger to see the rest, deeply…
above all, to David. I want to personally thank you for your generosity. Not this time for your generosity for showing work, but for the generosity of your vision, your reception, the length and width by which you are able to look at and upon and into a variety of visions and ideas and languages and ends in order to embrace all…
this is a rarity, for most people and most photographers, though they often possess brilliant vision about their own ideas and work and work in which they are in contact, are often, lamentably, myopic and blind when it comes to seeing the work of others, or work that is different from their own. That you, again and again, embrace and swallow and shift work and all the varieties and vegrities of what photography is, to me, the singular meaninful belief i gather from this exercise:
that you embrace and support the entirety of the photographic voice, in the face of it all, refuse to define or delineate or describe…
you possess fertile imaginative eyes and those most be, surely, connected to your fertile imaginative heart…
it takes a talent of disproportionate size to seize and understand the specrtum of work, and not to define by one’s own ideals….
i feel slightly bereft today, and that is the measuring of something to which it’s not necessary to speak upon, only this:
inside we are an extraordinary, light-breathing, life-swallowing species and I can not think of a better or more sustained way to live…
i’ll take a hibernation now for a while….
hugs for all
b
BOB…
just as i am running, like you, out the door i read your letter…as usual, by all accounts, you are very much an integral part of the lifeblood of this forum…your summaries of life and photography are unparalleled…
as i always say, i look forward to the day we “meet”…i do hope that is sooner rather than later….
running, peace and cheers, david
David…dropped you an email.
Cheers,
Mike
A link to related websites of contributing photographers might be cool idea. And not just the selected few. Expand the web connections.
PAUL…
of course….but, you have not really seen the “selected few” yet!!! there are more to come….some of your singles will be featured soonest….
cheers, david
Bob B:
I feel slightly bereft with words….
…….
That’ll be the day! :-))))
Love to you, Bob, all of us think alike, I believe, as regards David’s contribution that goes way beyond being a published, recognized and Magnum photographer.
Ana Yturralde: “Wow! Great job guys!! Just looking at the selected essays makes me understand and learn quite a lot.
I still have a big road to walk to arrive to the place I’m looking for….. but will keep walking!!”
I think this is great, but I’m learning a lot from your images too Ana! Please keep walking… lo ayuda me con el camino tambien (hope this makes sense…my spanish is still rough) :)
David and all- Finally at home, having time to go over and over all the essays… As always, Bob is right, the most impressive part is to see them all, one after the other, see the different visions… Some of the essays that I only glanced at this morning, look even stronger to me this evening, having time to observe, penetrate into the pictures….The portraits of Erica are really very very special! Also what an amazing picture the single of Maciej Mosur! Overall, kudos to all again and to you David. Bob sums it up like no one “imaginative eyes connected to fertile imaginative heart”….Eric
DAVID:
I think the website looks pretty good, I like the basic set up. I am partial to the color palette of this current website, but maybe that is just because I like your road trip photograph a lot. It would be nice, as others have said, to have each of the essays separate – Possibly a link on your home page that says – ESSAYS FALL 2007, then a link for the photographer and the first page being the essay text. I know you said that part is coming…it’s ironic that everyone has been asking to see the images, now we all want text…
HERVE:
thanks for your kind words.
ERICA:
Yes, I was actually heading back to los angeles after a year long job in New York. I took three weeks to get back, traveling back roads which was quite nerve wracking at times considering my car has 195,000 miles on it, and not too many people keep spare parts lying around for a 25 year old mercedes benz…..I spent a few days starting my car with a coat hanger..I will say that the few times I did break down, it was in towns I may have driven through otherwise…I got some good shots waiting for the car to be fixed.
Also, great portraits. They make me feel privileged to have a glimpse into your subjects lives, very personal.
ALEKSANDER:
Your work is fantastic.
LANCE:
Nice photos. Your essay reminded of Spike Jones’ short documentary Amarillo by Morning, ever seen it?
PARTHA:
That’s really a beautiful photograph.
BOB BLACK:
Love the diversity your images bring to the essays, you must have originated as a painter? Still watching those Beirut videos, they’re fantastic.
great job everyone else, I’m running out of time…Natan
Thanks so much for this David.
I really enjoyed looking at all the essays for a few times now.
There are some amazing stories in there.
I especially enjoyed the portraits of Erica. As usual, very strong work!
Also Alexanders work stuck out to me. It’s gritty, but suits the subject perfectly.
And Brendan’s pictures are just amazing. Very close, very moving.
Totally inspirational to be able to see more of the work. So thanks everyone for this.
Wendy