Samba_night01

 

Samba_night02

i hear a sad song…i do not understand the words, but i can "feel" it is sad….deep, melancholy, and goes with the mood of the city…dark, mysterious and sometimes full of dread….i wander São Paulo, with not a clue where i am,  but i am told  that i am now in the heart of Samba….Barra Funda , an "oasis" amid the chaos, the neighborhood  where Samba began…originally the "voice" of slaves, now the musical expression of choice for many Brazilians….

just when i am wondering why, and for how long, can any culture endure one of the worlds most quixotic megacities (19 million), with the highest of all crime stats (5,000 murders annually)  and traffic stats (1000 added cars each day) , the music picks up a beat…sounds now happier and the people dance and sing….joy washes over everyone….in celebration, we drink cachaça …warm, sweet and straight to the cerebellum….whew (how will i get home?)….made from the very sugar cane which promulgated slavery in the first place…but, i am smiling reeling along with everyone else….clapping, dancing….more cachaça…and more more…

suddenly the music stops… é o fim….abraços goodbye….thank  you…muito obrigado …i hope we meet again……….yes, i do…

 

Samba_night03

 

Samba_night04

 

Samba_night05

178 thoughts on “samba nights…”

  1. After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. Aldous Huxley said that, and it is true. As music is pure feeling…. as your pictures!!

  2. david alan harvey

    ANA…

    how are you?? and the family?? i do hope to see you perhaps at the end of the month…maybe not…but i hope so….anyway, sometime soon….

    besos, david

  3. Hello David. Like the mood of these photographs. What brought you into Brazil into the first place? Is this quick “shoot” still somehow connected to your hip hop story…I remember that you chased black music influence or origin all the way to Senegal with the griots etc….Intesresting how the same music influence orginally from slaves etc may have evolved differently into another continent leading to samba etc… By the way, music seems to take an important place into some of your subject…Will there still be a place for music influence into your next project (that you still have not told us about….)? Eric

  4. david alan harvey

    ERIC…

    i just came to Brazil for a few days as part of a photo conference…this work was just me wandering around over the weekend (most shot in about two hours or so) and are not part of any project..i must always shoot something!!!

    yes, i have always worked quite a bit with African descended cultures….starting with my very earliest work….and a good part of that means music music music..

    cheers, david

  5. I’ve been on a communication fast the past month, enjoying rare nights of not checking email, but looking to see how the starry sky has evolved from the previous hours, which clusters the clouds are covering. The Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, floating down river on the back of a boat, night time fires lighting the way back “home.” And there really is beauty in leaving it behind for a bit…

    but the quality of responses to recent posts are overwhelming, how to step into a conversation such as your taking aim post!

    There are somewhat differing sensations between an assignment (self or externally imposed) that can be brought together in a coherent manner, and those days when one goes dancing through the streets, caught on a wire that leads you up and down the paths of wherever…

    Sometimes I just like the feeling of pulling a story together, easily translatable. But then the meandering often leads to so much more. In the end it is all wandering, being allowed to penetrate another space for a while, and capture it in a box that one has designed and built. But there is a difference in inertia. It sounds like a good weekend in Sao Paolo….

  6. Is there anything better than strolling around an unknown city? My favorite activity, the last one was Havana, and who knows what the next one is going to be… I exchanged the ‘secure’, routine filled life for this one, and your post David just reminded me why…
    Best,

  7. David not only did you find that cat, but its in exactly the right place!

    Beautiful, just beautiful…

    I love that lone figure, the green and the red and the fading brown ghost.

    Or maybe I love the man on the outside more…

    Definitely my favorite photos for a long time.

    Thanks for those images, reminds me to go and find my cat again!

  8. ( from a personal letter to Marcin,
    slightly modified, though…)

    “…Nowadays, crazy things happen here in America ( southern cali.)… Recession coming..
    The construction industry slowed down dramatically lately…
    Construction workers remain jobless…
    Las Vegas Nevada, and other a lot of California cities experienced ” booming” and huge expansion the last five years…
    Monster cities, new homes everywhere.. People buying homes like palaces for adjustable rates…
    And then the marker crashed… Two years ago… Depression , people losing jobs, houses… Foreclosures…
    Sad. emptied , little luxurious GHOST TOWNS…
    Thats what I’m trying to record lately…
    The ” desertification” of california …
    People is nowhere to be found….

    http://blog.panosfotografia.com/

    All those model homes on model streets on model towns… “Ghost Towns”… this is what i found myself photographing a lot lately…
    I can walk for hours and see nobody… in those unfinished ” luxurious projects “…
    Virgin towns… nobody ever lived there… they are built the last 5 years as a result of overconfidence and very expensive
    life in the west side ( and dangerously in the south central of L.A)…

    and o the other side,
    you have DAVID’S photos above from Brazil…, full of people, people, people and people….
    and then i look at my “ghost town”….

    no people, no people and NO PEOPLE…
    sad.

    peace
    ps: Thank you David… nice…, alive , vibrant photos…”

    ps2: MIKE, yes, im down of us meeting in LA..
    call me , or email me…

  9. SEPULTURA, FROM BRAZIL CONFESS:

    “…Unknown man
    Speaks to the world
    Sucking your trust
    A trap in every world

    Chorus
    War for territory
    War for territory

    Choice control
    Behind propaganda
    Poor information
    To manage your anger

    Chorus

    Dictators speech
    Blasting off your life
    Rule to kill the urge
    Dumb assholes speech

    Years of fighting
    Teaching my son
    To believe in that man
    Racist human being
    Racist ground will live
    Shame and regret
    Of the pride
    Youve once possessed

    Chorus

    Sepultura lyrics…”

  10. Sepultura is a Brazilian thrash metal band, formed in 1984.
    Their name means “grave” in Portuguese, which they chose after Max Cavalera, one of the founding members, was translating the lyrics of the Motörhead song “Dancing on Your Grave” from their Another Perfect Day album.
    Sepultura was formed in 1984 at Belo Horizonte, the capital city of Minas Gerais, Brazil. …”

    ps: I hope all of the above are really relevant and helpfull…
    and i dont even listen to metal anymore… but,
    thats “good” metal..

  11. I don’t know how you do it David but looking at the pictures it seems that you were friend of those people for quiet some time… the last one is my favorite!!!

    Beatrix

  12. What is it about music that changes human behavior so freely?

    Why does music drive two grown men, wearing expensive ties and coats, to do the chicken dance at a party? Resulting in sweat drenched shirts, pants split at the seams, with a few bits and pieces of vomit splatter on the left pant leg?

    How in the heck did I come up with this from photos & words above?

  13. Oh yes David, I do hope to see you soon too. I’m fine fine fine. My life changed quite a lot since we met last time and now I’m inmersed in a project that I’m sure you will like. Will be great to talk about it with you and know your opinion! (and later, really hope you like the result).

    Besos!

    Ana

  14. david alan harvey

    RAFAL…

    well, the murder rate here is DOWN…from 12,000 murders per year to 5,000 in just 4 or 5 years…so, there is a crack down on crime…but, if everyone didn’t keep telling me how dangerous it is , i might not think so..Sao Paulo does not really feel any more dangerous than many places…but danger is a funny thing…and i have noticed this in conflict zones too..when nothing is happening , all seems fine…but then, “boom” suddenly you are in trouble..same with the South Bronx gangs etc etc..the problem in SP is that guys on motorcycles, operating as a team, will evidently shoot you “without mercy” (as a friend here describes) for whatever you have…laptop, camera etc…it is best to be discreet to say the least..

    ANNA BARRY-JESTER….

    i agree…sometimes i like to have a story out in front of me…sometimes i like to just wander as you describe….check out a little book by Jose Camilla Cela…”Travels in the Alcarria”…nothing happens in this book…no plot…just “observations”…Cela was a writer, but a better image maker would be hard to find…

    VELIBOR….

    nice to hear from you…will i see you in Charlottesville this year??? i see a real “mood” in your work….i do hope we can meet again in person and go over your “directions”…thanks for your comment…

    LISA…

    i saw that white cat wandering around the street where i was shooting all night…i kept trying to get her/him in something…gave up…just as i was leaving the “hood”, the party over, suddenly she/he just got up on the car and posed for me…you cannot tell a cat what to do!!!

    PANOS….

    i need to spend a few days with you…private workshop….i am serious…i just know know know, i can squeeze something out of you…

    your mind is a treasure just waiting to be unlocked….tortured, angry sometimes, sentimental, caring, special….all of us here can see it i think…i just want to get that mind of yours into the camera and into print or multimedia or whatever…i mean DOWN

    you are already OPEN…definitely not shy…but, there is another part to be discovered…or, just needs to be manifested in work or a medium that may or may not be “traditional”…

    who cares if you have people or no people??? maybe it matters , maybe it does not…i do not know…in my upcoming journey we will meet….and something will happen…i do not know what, but something….stay tuned….

    thanks again for all the YouTube links etc etc…i cannot keep up…cannot get “Old Man” out of my head….

    BEATRIX….

    i did not know any of these people at all….and i was just with them about 2 or 3 hours at most i think…but they could see i loved the samba..or, more likely, they were not paying too much attention to me because of the samba…some nice combo of the two…people can tell if you are “comfortable” or not…if you act like you are “at home” in a situation, people will make you feel “at home”…i like to get “absorbed”, not be “out of place”…i do not move much..

    peace, david

  15. “…i do not move much..”

    Eureka I’ve found it!

    The secret of the man who seems to never stop moving is the sheer embodiment of Newton’s 3rd law of motion..to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction…and it seems you there by avoid the first law, the one about inertia and an object at rest remaining at rest, and you capitalize on the 2nd, the one about momentum..

    Bravo!

  16. The red, yellow green color scheme is nice, I had to look up the Brazilian flag to see what the colors were since I did not remember, but close because the Brazilian flag is blue, yellow and green.

  17. David,

    No time to write, I’m still swamped with work, but I wanted to acknowledge your nice little set of ‘Samba Nights’ pictures and the story that goes with them. I’ll be back here in a week or two with, hopefully, more time and energy to write, some new stories, maybe a few pictures, who knows? Meanwhile, I notice that many, many good writers have been keeping up the high standards here. Good onya, mates and ladies!

    Sidney

  18. Thanks for the comment David… I read these pages every day, not much to add since others wonderfully say it all before I can jump in, therefore my comments come seldom.
    No Charlottesville this year since I fly to Sarajevo on June 16th. But I’ll be in NY around May 9, there will be the launch of Aleksandar Hemon’s new book (a novel) with my photographs in it. If you are there at the time maybe we could get together? I’ll post here when I have more details about my NY trip… Don’t forget to go and see a soccer game while in SP, it is a must…

  19. david alan harvey

    JOHN R. FULTON JR….

    hi john…always nice to have you “check in”…and if i can make you smile, so much the better…we go way way back, too far back i am afraid…and my best memories of you are with a smile…by the way, not so long ago i checked your site and see that you are still doing your street b&w…cool..some nice work amigo….pls visit me when next you are in New York…i guess the last time i saw you was in New York last fall…right??

    ERICA…

    laughing…well, yes it does seem like i have been moving a lot this year (and last)…actually it is almost coincidental with this forum…i did not used to move quite as much as lately…my big problem in this regard is that it is hard for me to say “no” to something interesting…but i do not move if i do not want…so it is all voluntary and i am having a lot of fun…but maybe my next “move” is to a log cabin in the woods and i will become a recluse..what do you think???

    it is true, that when i work, i do not move around too much…i am too tall and too obvious by nature, so i have to make myself “small” by sitting down or not moving…

    VELIBOR…

    i probably will not be in New York much of May…too bad we most likely will miss…but, you never know, so pls remind me again when you get to town…

    cheers, david

  20. david alan harvey

    LARA…

    i will be in New York by wednesday…i owe you some time, so please call…

    SIDNEY…

    we have been missing you my friend….we need that sane solid overall perspective !!!well, come back when you can…we will be waiting…

    AGA…

    well, well, you are back!!!! speaking of missing somebody, i (we) really have been missing you!!! hopefully, this means you have been doing some good work!!! or, you do not love us anymore??? please say that is not true…in any case, nice to hear from you Aga….and send us a link to any new work….

    peace, david

  21. DAVID

    My first thought about your photography when I’m looking at is YOU LIKE PRETTY WOMEN!!!!

    you can’t deny it!!!

    You wrote…

    “PANOS….

    i need to spend a few days with you…private workshop….i am serious…i just know know know, i can squeeze something out of you…”

    great stuff!!! Yes yes very good idea! give Panos some private workshop!!

    running

  22. It’s mind-boggling what this forum has “produced “ over the last couple of weeks.
    I wanted to chime in a couple times but the messages flow swiftly . . . .
    I’m still digesting, contemplating and trying to compose a few lines in response, but the jump from Family of Man to Crewdson, Gursky and Co has already been completed.

    But I’ve got to get this off my chest; bobblack | April 04, 2008 at 07:37 PM wrote:
    EXTRAORDINARY AND BEAUTIFUL EMOTIONAL series of photographs about fireflies! :))) and here the link to the pix http://www.skarstedt.com/index.php?mode=past&object_id=80

    Dear bobblack, for me you just went a bit too far with your compliment for this photograph(s). Hold your horses! If the caption wouldn’t mention Fireflies, it could as well be dust spots on the emulsion or lousy paper development.

    I saw the Gursky show in Munich and was most impressed by the quality of the extraordinarily large print-outs – 8’x15’ (yes, feet!). Certainly decorative pieces for any corporate lobby on Park Ave. What else?

    A fine piece of writing – what one English man has to say about another English man –
    that last but not least speaks about a kind of photography I believe in, you find here:
    http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0804/the-dauntless-spirit-philip-jones-griffiths-1936-2008.htm

  23. from HUNTINGTON PARK, here in L.A…,
    my hommies from SLAYER :

    Slayer Jihad Lyrics

    *** ***
    “…I have witnessed your death
    I’ve seen it many times
    Your tortured screams
    Your decryptet little mind
    A father‘s son
    With pathetic eyes that bleed
    Twins in the end
    Begin and let the brothers fall

    I will see you burned alive
    Screaming for your God
    I will hunt you down again for Him

    God won’t touch what I’ve done
    He cries upon my feet
    A privilege pain
    beneath Buried are your dead
    On splintered bones I walk
    Sifting through the blood
    Besieged to fear
    Await the coming of the God!

    I will watch you die again for Him

    Blood is raining downward
    The stain reflects the sun
    Conquer, divide within
    Terrorize the mind
    I‘ve seen the end it‘s yours
    Rosary in hand
    Your selfish flesh it melts
    Spilling from the sky

    I will see you burn alive
    Screaming for your God
    I will watch you die

    This is God’s war!
    God’s war!
    This is God’s war!
    God’s war!

    War of holy principles
    I’m seekingGod’s help in your destruction
    Slit the throat of heathen man
    And let his blood dilute the water
    Bury your dead!

    F**k your God erase his name
    A lady weeps insane with sorrow
    I’ll take his towers from the world
    You‘re f**king raped upon your deathbed

    This is God’s war!
    God’s war!
    This is God’s war!
    God’s war!
    F**king holy war!!!

    Be optimistic, happy, and calm
    Show no fear or anxiety
    Smile at the face of God
    And your reward will be eternity
    Holy warriors
    Your patience will be justified
    Everything is for Him
    You must not confront the animal before you kill it
    Strike as champions at the heart of the non-believers
    Strike above the neck and at all extremities
    For it‘s a point of no return for Almighty God
    God will give victory to his faithful servants
    When you reach ground zero you will have killed the enemy
    The Great Satan!…”

    SLAYER

    Slayer

    Jeff Hanneman, Tom Araya, Kerry King and Dave Lombardo
    Background information
    Origin Huntington Park, California, USA
    Genre(s) Thrash metal
    Heavy metal
    Speed metal
    Years active 1981–present
    Label(s) American, Def Jam, Metal Blade

    Slayer is an American thrash metal band founded by guitarists Jeff Hanneman and Kerry King in 1981.[2] Slayer rose to fame as a leader of the American thrash metal movement with their 1986 release, Reign in Blood, which has been called “the heaviest album of all time” by Kerrang!.[3] The band is credited as one of the “Big Four” thrash metal bands, along with Metallica, Anthrax, and Megadeth.
    Slayer is known for its musical traits, involving fast tremolo picking, guitar solos, double bass drumming, and shouting vocals. The band’s lyrics and album art, which cover topics such as death, deviants, genocide, insanity, religion, Satanism, serial killers, and warfare have generated album bans, delays, lawsuits and strong criticism from religious groups and the general public…”

    BRAZIL reminded me of SEPULTURA… and they
    reminded me of my homeboys… SLAYER…
    go figure…
    peace

  24. Anybody here ever see the movie “City of God?” It’s about a kid growing up surrounded by violence in a favela in Rio during the 70’s. He turns to photography for his redemption and salvation (don’t we all?). Brilliant movie… up there in my top 10.

    Panos your lyrics from Sepultura reminded me of the film for some reason. Kind of interesting how a country known for its beautiful culture can also be so incredibly violent.

  25. DAVID,
    Great pics! You really tell a short story and I love how you paint with colors.
    A question, what do you do with these random pics? I mean they don’t belong to a project, probably not in a book or exhibition either. Do they end up as stock for Magnum? I ask because you seem to be a “project photographer”. And sometimes I go out and get some decent pics, but they just don’t belong anywhere. Don’t know where to place them and at the same time it’s a shame they’ll maybe just disappear. I guess Erwitt or other photographers won’t have a problem with this because they work with single images and keep collecting them. Well, this is getting long, I’m just interested how you do because I’m a bit confused about this myself..

    Cheers

  26. Hi David,

    I had time only to read your initial post and photographs- thank you for the poetic escape!

    I’ve been crazy busy at work, but I needed your post to get my mind serenely back into the world of photography next month- I’m attending a weekend workshop with Steve McCurry in NYC. I’m really psyched!

    Thanks,

    Asher

  27. David, just to add a stupid question to Martin’s relevant one. Do photographers of your professional caliber (ie. your Magnum clooleagues) take snaps just like “aunt Sally”? Or can’t they help from giving it that “authoring” stamp of theirs? Certainly these above have that authoring stamp from the light treatment, while IMO (I know little about technique though), being snaps, ie. relating to, and shot as, moments. Their quality comes from their unpretentiousness, while still giving out enough of you.

    When the family gathers, do people ask you to take the pictures, or actually, are you the last they’d ask? Do you ever look at Aunt Sally’s pix and think you’d have done a better job?

    I think that there is out there a feeling that guys like you can do no wrong, I mean by that, all their pictures, especially those released, are meaningful, “good”, even the snaps, worthy of being commented in the same breath as their most potent imagery.

    (I am reminded of Picasso who refused to sign a painting someone bought then realized it was unsigned, pretexting that yes, he made it, but it’s not a Picasso)

    I tend to think that many pictures are not about photography, they do not have to fit in a 1 to 10 quality appraisal.

    And what if Photography had been all the time about the billions taken at weddings, birthday parties, vacation, and the likes, and never about the “Art” of photography?

    Bob, help me there, I am in your court for once! ;-)

  28. David, all

    I wish to add that reading what I wrote above, it may sound I am, in an hidden way, trying to get at David’s.

    Please, apologies for the writing, but this is not the case at all, if it looks so. I may be questionning, but no smirk or provocation on my part.

  29. “ANDREW SAID :
    “…Panos your lyrics from Sepultura reminded me of the film for some reason. Kind of interesting how a country known for its beautiful culture can also be so incredibly violent.

    Posted by: Andrew Sullivan | April 07, 2008 at 05:26 PM…”

    Andrew,
    It’s funny how many similarities i see between those two bands..
    SEPULTURA – BRAZIL
    SLAYER – USA…

    VIOLENCE (fear) HAS NO COUNTRY… has no culture…

  30. David,

    Thanks for the e-mail and have a safe journey. It was truly special meeting you in SP.

    Last night Louise and I were talking about subject matter choices and how samba wasn’t the first thing we associate with Sao Paulo (Vinicius de Morais called SP “the graveyard of samba” but that is really more of a Rio vs. SP thing) although it makes perfect sense in relation to your previous work.

    You also went to just the right spot, Bela Vista is the home of Vai-Vai, the oldest samba school in town.

    We also discussed how foreigners view Brazil and the image the country itself exports and sells, and how difficult it is to break away from the amazon+samba+football+bikini mold in terms of perception.

    After spending our sunday photographing in “cracolandia” and some of the most degraded parts of the city, it was really nice to see your colorful and moody images.

    I haven’t posted here before but have been reading for a while, and I am fascinated by the comments.

    It’s also great to see a lot of things mentioned that I’ve previously photographed, like Sepultura (photographed at 9:30 club in D.C., Maracana in Rock in Rio, and in SP), La La La Human Steps (dance festival in SP), and City of God (we photographed Fernando Meirelles, the director).

    Those who enjoyed City of God may be interested in seeing City of Men, (directed by Paulo Morelli) set in the same universe with some of the same characters, but in a lighter tone:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0870090/

    Fernando Meirelles is currently working on “Blindness”, based on Jose Saramago’s book. The film was shot in Toronto, Montevideo, and in Sao Paulo. Meirelles also writes a blog (in portuguese) about the creative experience in a very open and revealing manner, a real lesson for those interested in filmmaking:

    http://blogdeblindness.blogspot.com/

    “Blindness” website:
    http://www.blindness-themovie.com/

    trailer:

    abrazos,

    Ig

  31. David
    if you come to LA, I wanted to ask you if you could make a moment to swing by my studio, so I can take some photobooth portraits.
    I think that would be cool

  32. wrobertangell said:

    “…David
    if you come to LA, I wanted to ask you if you could make a moment to swing by my studio, so I can take some photobooth portraits.
    I think that would be cool

    Posted by: | April 07, 2008 at 08:01 PM…”

    Do not worry WROBERT … i will DRIVE him… there….!
    peace

  33. IGNACIO ARONOVICH ( what a name… !!!!!!!… impressive…hmm!

    “…After spending our sunday photographing in “cracolandia” and some of the most degraded parts of the city,
    Posted by: Ignacio Aronovich | April 07, 2008 at 07:37 PM…”

    panos asks:
    whats cracolandia?
    wha wha what cracolandia has to do with frieda?
    what cracoladia has to bring in the table ?????
    Do you mean “crack”???

    where the hell is HERVE,… to translate to me all that…
    young generations … you see… hard to keep up..
    peace

  34. KELIS-MILKSHAKE

    “…[Repeat x2]
    My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
    And their like
    It’s better than yours,
    Damn right it’s better than yours,
    I can teach you,
    But I have to charge

    I know you want it,
    The thing that makes me,
    What the guys go crazy for.
    They lose their minds,
    The way I wind,
    I think its time

    [Chorus x2]
    La la-la la la,
    Warm it up.
    Lala-lalala,
    The boys are waiting

    My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
    And their like
    It’s better than yours,
    Damn right it’s better than yours,
    I can teach you,
    But I have to charge

    I can see youre on it,
    You want me to teach thee
    Techniques that freaks these boys,
    It can’t be bought,
    Just know, thieves get caught,
    Watch if your smart,

    [Chorus x2]
    La la-la la la,
    Warm it up,
    La la-la la la,
    The boys are waiting,

    My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
    And their like
    It’s better than yours,
    Damn right it’s better than yours,
    I can teach you,
    But I have to charge

    Oh, once you get involved,
    Everyone will look this way-so,
    You must maintain your charm,
    Same time maintain your halo,
    Just get the perfect blend,
    Plus what you have within,
    Then next his eyes are squint,
    Then he’s picked up your scent,

    [Chorus x2]
    Lala-lalala,
    Warm it up,
    Lala-lalala,
    The boys are waiting,

    My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard,
    And their like
    It’s better than yours,
    Damn right it’s better than yours,
    I can teach you,
    But I have to charge…”

    THAT’S A POEM… FOR ME !!!!!
    WHERE THE HELL IS HERVE, AKAKY, ASHER, LASSAL,… and 11 more…
    …All i care about is SOCCER… fuck FOOTBALL…
    kidding…
    viva RAIDERS… CHARGERS… 49NERS..SAN FRANCISCO !!!!!!!!!!!

    peace.. STEELERS!!!!!… wat up.. SNOOPPPPP !!!!

    peace, love and hugs , for ALL… biaatchheeeesssss!

  35. david that third image is so ghost-like and the trees and the colors saturated so much make it really look otherworldly…is that a word?…do you really not even know how to use photoshop…? it can be a crutch for me sometimes, knowing it will be there for me later and then i wish i didn’t know how to use it! that might make me shoot better!

  36. …All i care about is SOCCER… fuck FOOTBALL…
    ————————

    I will drink to that, Panos. Cracolandia= Sao Paulo crackland. Sounds like a place you can really lose your camera at the very least. I know nothing, panitos, just googled it….

    Getting ready for the Olympic torch protest here in SF, next Wednesday. I am going to be a P E A C E photographer…ahahaha… No, really…. PJ Herve!!!! And no fucking press pass. we don’t need them in SF, it’s always free for all here.

    BTW, I met a hero of mine (back then in 1968) last Saturday. John carlos. He is one of the athletes who raised his fist on the podium in Mexico that year. That is iconic photography, so not quite off blog, telling you that. I was a big track fan, I think these guys gave me my first political conscience, and a few hints that living in the States would be a lot less boring than collecting retirement for 40 years in France.

    Took a few pix as well:

    http://www.pbase.com/uc/gallery/httpwwwhumanrightstorchorg

  37. david alan harvey

    MARCIN…

    i suppose i cannot deny….as a matter of fact, the book after next that i plan to publish will be photographs to go with a short love story i wrote “You Made Me Leave” (novella, fiction) that will include about 20 photographs, my best portraits/vignettes of women…stay tuned…

    as for “private workshops”, most of the workshops i actually do are totally one on one and not “official workshops”…about 90% of the teaching i do is gratis…yes, i do the organized ones too, so i can be guaranteed of “showing up” at a particular time and place….but do not worry, if we meet, i will work with you as much as possible..

    GERHARD….

    nice to hear from you Gerhard…i hope we meet soon again..

    you may have missed all of the tributes here to Philip Jones-Griffiths…go back and check them out if you can…

    still, i do not think it contradictory to do perhaps one kind of photography , but totally appreciate another…

    Phillip certainly made his mark doing something in which he totally believed..he sought for photojournalism to affect change, and i believe he succeeded…or at least, made a difference to many…

    Gursky or Crewdson, for example, do not have that goal in mind at all…but does that make their work less “valuable”?? they are not trying to affect social change, but to pique our sensibilities with a unique vision…art is not trying to “fix” anything…but, i think the best of art represents humankind in it’s highest element…war represents man at his lowest….wouldn’t Philip actually be pleased if man could always “rise” to his artistic best and not have to deal with war at all???

    MARTIN BRINK…

    good question…

    most of my long term projects have within them a series of short projects…Divided Soul, for example, was compiled from a whole lot of short essays which later turned into one very large one…yes, i was always working within the context of the migration of Spanish and Portugese culture, but at any given time i may have been doing a “short” on something as simple as Easter processions in Seville..

    very often a “random” piece may spark my interest in doing something more..such is the case with all of my Italy work which has come out of a series of brief essays mostly done while teaching in Italy..i do not know what may come of the Italy work, but it is a growing “body”…

    i already have quite a bit of work from Brazil, mostly from Bahia and Rio but this new work certainly “fits” in the sense that it is Africa migration derived..again, who knows what will come of it…but, i am always thinking thinking….at it’s worst, it was just a truly nice way to spend the weekend..i learned a lot, made some new friends, and heard some terrific music…isn’t that enough? at its best, i could get hooked on samba and come back down to do some more..book??? shooting and playing and playing and shooting is what i do…the manifestation of it all is always unknown territory….unknown but beguiling…in my mind, if i know “exactly” what i will do, for sure that “exactly” will be probably fairly boring…to be “bored” is the worst sin against yourself of all….

    HERVE…

    well, i really like “aunt sally’s” pictures…i can be mesmerized by the “work” on a refrigerator door…and i certainly do not look at those “snaps” and think i could have done better…i love to see what people love….

    my two son’s have often pointed out that the pictures i took on Christmas morning were among the worst of the lot!!! unfortunately , if i do not “try”, there is nothing which automatically comes out of my camera that would indicate anything other than snapshot shooter…

    history may yet judge all those billions of snapshots taken that you mention to be the REAL ART of photography…good…i will try to have covered all the bases!!!

    IGNACIO…

    i thank you again for your hospitality here in SP and it was a pleasure to meet you and Louise…it is so cool that both you and your wife are able to work together as professional photographers…a real “dream team”

    surely samba is a cliche i suppose for many foreigners who come to Brazil…as you well know, i did not come here to shoot samba, but drifted into it almost by accident and led into it by your fellow countrymen who INSISTED that i really listen to samba..the soulful sounds are hard to resist..i might be hooked, cliche or not!!!

    thanks for the links…you have kept me very busy and i have a long way to go….

    WROBERT….

    that would be cool…i will do it for sure.

    ..do you and Panos know each other?? if not, i am sure you will!!

    peace, david

  38. David, not sure it’s about history, taking one’s kids pictures is timeless and will always stay uncatalogued, ie. out of history and artistic/ journalistic appraisal.

    Indeed, I meant something more along the lines of what photography really means te most to people, all people, outside of the history of the medium/art. Just one example, and something that I think matters a lot, that speaks about photography beyond, or along (trying to avoid another “vs” point) , the museum/published type:

    When people lose their house to fire, save any human/pet loss, The most deplored loss (or celebrated save!) is often the family pictures. That is the other side of photography that we take quite obviously for granted, but carries also weight for the potency of the medium to each and evryone of us.

    At the same time, no one will go back inside a burning house to save pictures meaning nothing to them, though the world to others. They might if there is a museum piece photo. I dunno, I am coocoo maybe, but that kind of differentition within the medium, gives me pause for thought.

    I do recognize with evryone you are one who does know the real price of a photograph has little to do with what the sticker or auction amounts to, and that a photo does not always have to be Photography.

  39. David,

    I am really glad that you went and had a good time. Photographing while in SP makes perfect sense and within your africa migration work samba is anything but a cliche. I am happy they insisted and that you were able to capture it so well. You know you are always welcome in Brazil.

    “You Made Me Leave” is really fantastic and I love that it is fiction. The music and the photos go very well together and I wonder if you would show the photos with the audio in an exhibit or if that would be just in presentations or even online.

    Panos,

    >what cracolandia has to do with frieda?
    >what cracoladia has to bring in the table ?????

    Yes cracolandia is a open street crack dominated area of a couple blocks in downtown SP the city is unable to change for some time. It is just a more visible wound in a very infected patient. It has nothing to do with frieda and brings nothing to the table, but it was Really nice to see David’s colors, joy, and movement after seeing the grey and i saw it in that order, so it meant a lot.

    Panos it’s almost a full circle reading about Slayer while mentioning SP as the “pixação” letters (SP’s unique tags) derived from heavy metal albums from the 80’s and have dominated the city.

    Abrazos,

    ig

  40. david alan harvey

    HERVE…

    yes, now i see what you meant…it was really late when i read your note, and i did not totally “get it” or , at least, all of it..

    i think you have just now answered your own query quite well….the family album as the first thing rescued (after life itself) in a fire, is the best and most common example of the “value” of photography outside of either art or journalism….

    i have not had my first cup of coffee…i must go downstairs now to find one..head fogged in…..maybe i will think of something to add aprés café, but i think you have it..

    cheers, david

  41. David

    Essentially I’m after your “private workshop”, I was the frist one on this blog who get your review if i’m not wrong. And I still paricipate at your workshop here at “DAH’s home”… But if you will want give me more advice I’m always open for your critque… but how I will render for all your help? what you could need from me?
    But I like Panos and I will glad if you will help him and paid him more atention…
    “You Made Me Leave”… I remember… and I’m waiting for!!…
    marcin

  42. Gerhard:

    No time for anything substantial (no desire, flat out exhausted, physically, emotionally, traveling), so i apologize up front if this sounds “short”, it’s now my friend, so just only this:

    The Fireflies….it’s cool if you have not emotional, aesthetic, intellectual, physical reaction to Crewdson’s work. I will also say this: that work is gorgeous in real life (have seen a print) and it works as a fulcrum: he’s written about where and when and why that work came up (which is nearly the exact antithesis of his work prior, or after): but it came a significant and heart-wrenching moment in his personal life…maybe if you read about what he has to say about the work, it might ofter a way into the work itself…by the way, dust on emulsion or poor paper (i know some remarkable photographers who are now using old old old, outdated paper, ’cause the result, aesthetically, is drop dead gorgeous) can be gorgeous…it sometimes seems to me that in our embrace of the “gorgeous” modern digital technology (precise glass, precise printing, precise “look” of most pics), we’ve forgotten the world looks much different, especially emotionally and sensorially, indeed ;)))

    but, we all have our own horses to hold indeed ;))))…

    cheers..

    b

    Herve: I’ll try to follow up something later in the week…just now emotionally spent….

    David: got the note, obrigado amigo :))…will let you know when the thing gets published…

    off now for a few more…carry on ;)

    hugs
    bob

  43. ps. ANYONE WHO LIKES THE WORK OF SARAMAGO (ie, Blindness), can i also recommend THE OTHER BRILLIAN POET/NOVELIST of Portugal

    anotonio lobo antunes …

    he’s my man and an extraordinary, angry, funny, insane, melancholic writer…If Saramago is “classic” European novelist…for me Antunes is everything Portugal: funny, melancholic, memory=-licked, angry, drunken, broken, undiminished….

    b

  44. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  45. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  46. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  47. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  48. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  49. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.
    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  50. Yes!! David I remember wery well the “You Made Me Leave” presentation in Oslo! It was really great for all of us. After the “quite boring” presentation of the day before it was an explosion that wake up us.

    When should it be possible to see it, may be.. In motion?

    ” Personal and free workshop”… really interesting! :)

    Have you seen Preston Gannaway just won the Pulitzer ?

    Writing a post after B.B. what a responsability..

    City of God… I’ve seen it during a long night.. it was a strange sensation.. like been involved in the young photographer life..and I remember I had the urgence to go there

  51. Severe cabin fever has set in here in Michigan. Actually we finally had our first 60 degree day of the year yesterday. Still nothing compared the thought of drinking cachaça (for me, with a half of lime and sugar on ice) in a hot city bustling with rhythm. Lucky cat!

  52. Bob – you’re a one eyed cat, a peeping in a seafood store!
    I just met a cool Canadian guy called Ed , he takes pics of Quarries , ask’ed him if he knews you !
    DAH – how do you not flog yourself for daring to photogaph hope? I go to some prettyb ordinary places here in Australia and O/S and if I have a picture of something positive that is growing in a world of shit I fight to get that picture published ( well! I file it at 2 minutes to deadline so thers no choice)
    What’s going on here on my beat is not so much a war – yes it is a war , a war on souls , on self worth , on why the fuck are Australian citizens living like this!
    The shocking pictures don/t work anymore , they have done their job – do you think that peiple who need a hand would find more use for representations of themselves that convey a sense of hope , of progress , of achievement than pictures of the squalor that they are subjected to day after day?

  53. Bob – you’re a one eyed cat, a peeping in a seafood store!
    I just met a cool Canadian guy called Ed , he takes pics of Quarries , ask’ed him if he knew you !
    DAH – how do you not flog yourself for daring to photogaph hope? I go to some prettyb ordinary places here in Australia and O/S and if I have a picture of something positive that is growing in a world of shit I fight to get that picture published ( well! I file it at 2 minutes to deadline so thers no choice)
    What’s going on here on my beat is not so much a war – yes it is a war , a war on souls , on self worth , on why the fuck are Australian citizens living like this!
    The shocking pictures don’t work anymore – do you think that peiple who need a hand, would find more use for representations of themselves that convey a sense of hope , of progress , of achievement than pictures of the squalor that they are subjected to day after day?

  54. PROTESTS ( they don’t let the OLYMPIC TORCH to go through)
    London, San Francisco… Everywhere… AGAINST CHINA..
    CHINA’s GENOCIDE attempt against TIBET…
    STOP NAZI CHINA
    ENOUGH WITH THE KILLINGS OF THE MONKS…
    SUPORT DALAI LAMA’s efforts for freedom and fee TIBET…

    Go back in the history of the olympic games…
    when the GREEKS invented the games…
    primarily served the purpose of stopping the war…

    TAKE AWAY THE “OLYMPIC GAMES”
    from BLOOD THIRSTY CHINA…

    Remember how ONE MAN, ONE MAN ONLY
    ( and that was GHANDI)..!
    HUMILIATED, defeated., literally destroyed and
    mocked the mighty BRITISH EMPIRE…

    LET US ALL HELP THE DALAI LAMA TO REPEAT THAT VICTORY
    BUT THIS TIME, AGAINST THE BIGGEST, SCARRIEST, FILTHIEST,
    AND MOST DIRTY TYRRANT OF ALL TIMES… CHINA

    AGAIN, take away the OLYMPICS from china…
    the ancient Greek soul inside me … forces me to do that…

    STOP THE GENOCIDE IN TIBET…
    And if , his holiness the DALAI LAMA prefers peace???!
    I say WAR!!!!

  55. Damn, where is PHILIP BLENKISOP
    when you need him???
    I also need to see JAMES N..
    new work… about Tibet’s GENOCIDE..
    this time…
    not like the recent “TIME” magazine ..
    bull…

    Paolo Pellegrin…!
    where are you???

  56. Damn, where is PHILIP BLENKISOP
    when you need him???
    I also need to see JAMES N..
    new work… about Tibet’s GENOCIDE..
    this time…
    not like the recent “TIME” magazine ..
    bull…

    Paolo Pellegrin…!
    where are you???

  57. david alan harvey

    ANDREW SULLIVAN….LAURA

    yes, “City of God” was remarkable…i have worked in those favellas and i thought the film totally captured them in an almost documentary way….i would like to see the film again…

    DAVID MCGOWAN….

    will you be in New York any time soon??

    GLENN…

    there is always “hope” albeit very “buried” sometimes…i found this little neighborhood in SP to be representative of hope amidst a plethora of dangers, pollution, traffic etc etc…music has always been a “breakout” for people….often the last “hope”…how pictures of hope vs. pictures of despair “play” in the press etc, i have no idea…but, i have noticed this…at photo fests, in photo contests etc etc., the “shocking” is no longer shocking…among some photogs, merely “contest material”…hmmm, is this a new discussion???? for myself, i just photograph what most interests me and let the “chips fall” where they may…for whatever reasons, even when i am in the worst possible environments, i tend to see the lyrical side of people..this is not RIGHT , it is just me…

    PANOS…

    what do you REALLY think about China??

    hey amigo, i will try to get Jim and Paulo here for you soonest…

    peace,if possible….david

  58. david alan harvey

    ALL….

    i will be “off” until tomorrow morning NYC time…traveling all night from Brazil…

    david

  59. The original Olympic Games (Greek: Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες; Olympiakoi Agones) were first recorded in 776 BC in Olympia, Greece, and were celebrated until AD 393. Interest in reviving the Olympic Games proper was first shown by the Greek poet and newspaper editor Panagiotis Soutsos in his poem “Dialogue of the Dead” in 1833. Evangelos Zappas sponsored the first modern international Olympic Games in 1859. He paid for the refurbishment of the Panathinaiko Stadium for Games held there in 1870 and 1875. This was noted in newspapers and publications around the world including the London Review, which stated that “the Olympian Games, discontinued for centuries, have recently been revived! Here is strange news indeed … the classical games of antiquity were revived near Athens”.

    also…

    The Games gradually declined in importance as the Romans gained power in Greece. After Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity became the religion of the Empire and banned pagan rites, the Olympic Games were outlawed as a pagan festival in 393 AD……..??????? ) THANK YOU JESUS…….

    Now read this..
    CHINA BOYCOTTS THE OLYMPICS IN 1976
    Also in 1976, due to pressure from the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Canada told the team from the Republic of China (Taiwan) that it could not compete at the Montreal Summer Olympics under the name “Republic of China” despite a compromise that would have allowed Taiwan to use the ROC flag and anthem. The Republic of China refused and as a result did not participate again until 1984, when it returned under the name “Chinese Taipei” and used a special flag.

    There have been growing calls for boycotts of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in protest of China’s poor human rights record and response to the recent disturbances in Tibet. Many people are being urged even to boycott Chinese goods which, coupled with the in-balance of trade between China and the western world could mean bad news for the Chinese economy

  60. DAVID (may I?),

    Looking at your Samba Nights pictures,I’ve learned something right now: small story with a few greats picture is enough. I’ve just spend three days in New York, to shoot all day long, looking for a big story, searching the soul of the city. I was wrong.
    I have 10 black and white rolls to edit.I’m going to try to make smaller story. Read this realy help me. Thanks. Hope a day participate at one of your workshops.

  61. GENOCIDES IN HISTORY..

    Nazi Germany and occupied Europe

    The term “the Holocaust” is generally used to describe the killing of approximately six million European Jews during World War II, as part of a program of deliberate extermination planned and executed by the National Socialist German Workers Party in Germany led by Adolf Hitler.[80] A majority of scholars do not include other groups in the definition of the Holocaust, reserving the term to refer only to the genocide of the Jews,[81] or what the Nazis called the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question.”

    Ottoman Empire (Turkey)

    Armenian Genocide
    On 15 September 2005 a United States Congressional resolution on the Armenian Genocide “Calling upon the President to ensure that the foreign policy of the United States reflects appropriate understanding and sensitivity concerning issues related to human rights, ethnic cleansing, and genocide documented in the United States record relating to the Armenian Genocide, and for other purposes.” found that:
    “The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 800,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland.”

    Assyrian Genocide
    The Assyrian Genocide (also known as Sayfo or Seyfo; Aramaic: ܩܛܠܐ ܕܥܡܐ ܐܬܘܪܝܐ or ܣܝܦܐ, Turkish: Süryani Soykırımı) was committed against the Assyrian population of the Ottoman Empire near the end of the First World War by the Young Turks.

    Greek Genocide
    Pontic Greek Genocide [96][97][98][99] [100] [101] is a term used to refer to the fate of the Pontic Greek population of the Ottoman Empire during and in the aftermath of World War I. It is used to refer to the determined persecutions, massacres, expulsions, and death marches of Pontic Greek populations in the historical region of Pontus, the southeastern Black Sea provinces of the Ottoman Empire, during the early 20th century by the Young Turk administration. G.W. Rendel of the British Foreign Office noted the massacres of Greeks in Pontus and elsewhere during the Turkish national movement,[102][103][104] which was organized against Greece’s invasion of western Anatolia.[105]According to various sources the direct or indirect death toll of Greeks in Anatolia ranges from 300,000 to 360,000 men, women and children….

    Soviet Union

    Victim of the Ukrainian Famine, 1933
    Main articles: Human rights in the Soviet Union, Population transfer in the Soviet Union, Famines in Russia and USSR, Decossackization, and Gulag
    There are several documented instances of unnatural mass death occurring in the Soviet Union, mostly in the 1930s. These include the famine of 1931-34, which Ukrainians call the Holodomor, and lethal deportations of national minorities such as Tatars, Chechens, and Volga Germans…

    AND THE LIST KEEPS GOING…

    AND FINALLY…

    Tibet

    On 5 June 1959 Shri Purshottam Trikamdas, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India, presented a report on Tibet to the International Commission of Jurists (an NGO). The press conference address on the report states in paragraph 26 that
    “ From the facts stated above the following conclusions may be drawn: … (e) To examine all such evidence obtained by this Committee and from other sources and to take appropriate action thereon and in particular to determine whether the crime of Genocide – for which already there is strong presumption – is established and, in that case, to initiate such action as envisaged by the Genocide Convention of 1948 and by the Charter of the United Nations for suppression of these acts and appropriate redress;] ”
    On 11 January 2006 it was reported that the Spanish High Court will investigate whether seven former Chinese officials, including the former President of China Jiang Zemin and former Prime Minister Li Peng participated in a genocide in Tibet. This investigation follows a Spanish Constitutional Court (26 September 2005) ruling that Spanish courts could try genocide cases even if they did not involve Spanish nationals. The court proceedings in the case brought by the Madrid-based Committee to Support Tibet against several former Chinese officials was opened by the Judge on 6 June 2006, and on the same day China denounced the Spanish court’s investigation into claims of genocide in Tibet as an interference in its internal affairs and dismissed the allegations as “sheer fabrication”.

    AND SPEAKING OF BRAZIL

    Brazil
    The Helmet Massacre of the Tikuna people took place in 1988, and was initially treated as homicide. Since 1994 it has been treated by the Brazilian courts as a genocide. Thirteen men were convicted of genocide in 2001. In November 2004 at the appeal before Brazil’s federal court, the man initially found guilty of hiring men to carry out the genocide was acquitted, and the other men had their initial sentences of 15-25 years reduced to 12 years.
    In November 2005 during an investigation by the Brazilian authorities, code-named Operation Rio Pardo, Mario Lucio Avelar, a Brazilian public prosecutor in the city of Cuiabá, told Survival International that he believed there were sufficient grounds to prosecute for genocide of the Rio Pardo Indians. In November 2006 twenty-nine people were held in custody for the alleged genocide with others such as a former police commander and the governor of Mato Grosso state implicated in the alleged.
    In a newsletter published on 7 August 2006 the Indianist Missionary Council reported that: “In a plenary session, the [Brizillian] Supreme Federal Court (STF) reaffirmed that the crime known as the Haximu Massacre [perpetrated on the Yanomami Indians in 1993] was a genocide and that the decision of a federal court to sentence miners to 19 years in prison for genocide in connection with other offenses, such as smuggling and illegal mining, is valid. It was a unanimous decision made during the judgment of Extraordinary Appeal (RE) 351487 today, the 3rd, in the morning by justices of the Supreme Court”.Commenting on the case the NGO Survival International said “The UN convention on genocide, ratified by Brazil, states that the killing ‘with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group’ is genocide. The Supreme Court’s ruling is highly significant and sends an important warning to those who continue to commit crimes against indigenous peoples in Brazil.”

    peace…

  62. David – I wish – actually I’ve got to settle down here and make some cash if I’m going to make it to Look3 – speaking of making cash, if anyone knows of a need for design services, check out my design page – http://www.humanfiles.com/pages/design.htm – shameless, I know, but I happened to be living in the worst economy in the States, surviving by freelance so I can keep an open schedule to shoot – but I promise to be in NYC the moment I can!

  63. David saked above

    “…PANOS…

    what do you REALLY think about China??…”

    Honestly, David… it doesn’t matter what i , individually think of China…( today )… nor that i can change the world with my stupid
    views and idealistic positions…

    … but what REALLY matters… is theTRUTH…
    … as long as the TRUTH comes out, then im happy…
    and by the way, i have nothing against the poor people of china…
    ITS THEIR MONARCH… or regime…
    TYRANNY AND OLIGARCHY…

    TYRANT= DICTATOR, DESPOT, AUTOCRAT,AUTHORITARIAN, OPPRESSOR, SLAVE DRIVER, BULLY, MEGALOMANIAC….

    that’s what i think of china, today…
    peace

    their retarded government practices

  64. HI ALL

    I have a question for all…
    Gilles Peress have a quote:”I don’t care so much anymore about ‘good photography’; I am gathering evidence for history”.

    My question… it is something what I don’t understand… Why so many photojournalists make “good visual” photography, but they always enhance “I don’t care about good photography, only news and ‘history’ I care”
    They using black and white films, original sophisticated frames but they persist I DON’T CARE ABOUT GOOD PHOTOGRAPHY!!
    so why they don’t use snapshoot cameras … I know majoli… but majoli make good photography but only used snapcam…
    why they use pro cameras if images quality is not important?
    and what it’s mean “good photography”??
    pictures show important moment in history… isn’t it a good photography???
    pictures show a drama … isn’t it a good photography????
    Yes … Abu Ghraib pics vs. magnum photos…
    Yes… family snapshoot are more important as a “gathering evidence for history” than any pictures in magnum and VII and UV and getty images all archives…
    So…
    Why Gilles Peress show his best pictures in portfolio… visual best!
    Why weak press photography pap are not eternal and permanent than photos from “good photography” magnum archives???
    Why young people don’t care for history if they don’t see colorful images or… my god… good photography!!! In their books?… from WWII or vietnam for example…
    I ask againe what is “good photography”???
    Why they afraid confess that photography is also their life… their passion… not only news and history?????
    peace

  65. I am gathering evidence for history”.
    ————-

    I remember reading that, Marcin. It sure sounds full of shit and pompous, especially from Peress, who got famous for shooting little evidence and little History (not the only war photographer like this, BTW), but evrything around them, and good at it!

    Though he may have said it in a way that was not as pompous, imperious and singled out as it does once written, oft-repeated, then erected as his profession of faith by writers.

    Photography is an easy media to reduce to luminously sounding catch phrases, it does not take a photographer to do it. I can do it easily, then sign Cartier-Bresson or whoever, no one will bat an eye!

    Good of you to assault the “citadel”, I am quite intrigued by the total lack of critical approach from the interested audience (us, if you will) to a photographer’s work once she/he’s achieved recognition. Even if t deserves praise overall.

    IMO, I do not know any other craft like this.

    I think it’s important to show photography we like or ponder about, to people who have much less interest in photography than us but still know photography when they see it, for living in the same century as us.

    IMO, with these people is where the real pereniality and potency of the medium/art/craft of photography endures, and draws its “lettres de noblesse”.

    Also, in no other other craft do I feel this huge trench between being in and between out, the pros (published, working) and the amateurs (non-published, not working). Mind you, it seems the amateurs are the ones digging harder. It would seem that their photographic worlds reside more around singular (as in “I” am not…) negatives than positives, ie. most photography amateur live on the wish (fantasy for the huge majority) to be in, to be a pro, to be “one of them”!

    Maybe just an impression, but it keeps lingering.

  66. yes, yes… i am back :-)
    I can not leave that place without a word :-) just sometimes i have less time :-(

    I have been in Turkey (working on my project)and than in England working as sim cards seller on the streets of London … it’s quite long story even i was doing it only 3 days ;-) … hehe… as you know i wanted to stay in London, but i didn’t even see this beautifull city…i didn’t even speak english (one of the most important things for me was to practice english in England) because i was only with Poles all the time… I was only working, traveling in underground, going back home to sleep… i felt i am missing something (i didn’t do my photography, I was far away from my familly and friends)… the life is too short to stand on the street and selling cards…

    In Turkey i started my project on young women in turkish religious society. Before i wanted to shoot story about Islam in Turkey but after my meeting with Tomasz Tomaszewski (you know him very well as i know :-)) i decided to make a story only about women in “turkish” islam (it was his suggestion, and i really like that idea!) Here is a link to my gallery (some of the pictures are old)
    http://www.lightstalkers.org/galleries/contact_sheet/11082
    The project is not finished yet. Next week i will travel to istanbul again and i wil stay there at least two months. I have opportunity to work for newspaper and to continue my story and the most important thing i will be with my second familly there (my boyfriends familly and him).

  67. Glenn.. are you taking about Ed Ou? I know him to.. when you will see his say hello! I have been with him in one teat during eddie adams workshops last year! :-)

  68. TURKEY TODAY
    …STILL ILLEGAL TO SPEAK KURDISH IN TURKEY…
    …THEY STARVE YOU TO DEATH IN PRISON… AND THEY CALL THIS
    …SUICIDE…!!!!!!!

    this is how the turkish government (again, not the people…)
    still exterminates KURDS today…
    Does that sound kinda “Hitler-ish”???? to anyone????

    The Kurdish Genocide

    Desmond Fernandes, who has worked on the Kurdish Genocide extensively, continued the seminar with a powerful discussion of the persecution of Kurds in modern Turkey. Fernandes pointed out that the Turkish government adopted a much more sustained genocidal program against Kurds, aimed at the assimilation of this community as ethnic Turks. Often the engineers of the destruction of Kurds were the same people who destroyed Armenians a few years earlier. Fernandes outlined the Turkish genocidal policy under the following categories:

    (1) forced assimilation program—banning of the Kurdish language in Turkey, denying the existence of Kurdish history, the forced resettlement of Kurds in non-Kurdish areas of Turkey for assimilation, the indoctrination of Kurds through the Turkish education system, radio and television channels;

    (2) banning of any legitimate opposition to the Turkish government’s programs—e.g., Kurdish cultural organisations, political parties, media outlets, etc.; and

    (3) the violent repression of any Kurdish resistance. Hundreds of thousands of Kurds have been murdered by Turkish state authorities over the past eighty years—the Sheykh Said and the Ararat uprisings in the 1920s, the bloody suppression of the Dersim in the 1930s, as well as the PKK campaign in recent years. The Turkish state has imprisoned Kurdish members of the Turkish parliament, various human rights activists, as well as many academics advocating Kurdish rights such as the Turkish sociologist Ismail Besikçi. The Turkish government has also assassinated scores of journalists and intellectuals over the years.

    [For a detailed analysis by Desmond Fernandes–including a thought-provoking discussion of the definition of genocide–see “The Kurdish Genocide in Turkey, 1924–1998,” Armenian Forum 1, no. 4 (Winter 1998–99), pp. 57–107.]…

    But, you see noone gives a fuck about the KURDS today…
    everyone uses them to gain territory in Iraq and the middle east..

    but since turkey and iraq snatched and stole and RAPED the KURDISH country… forbidden them to have a government..
    they turned a whole country into an illegal zone…
    Twillight zone…
    If you are a Kurd, then you simply DO NOT EXIST…

    it is illegal to be YOU in turkey… you are going to jail, if you dare to be YOU or speak your language…

    KURDISH CIVILIZATION IS WAY OLDER THAN THE TURKISH…
    IN OTHER WORDS THEY HAVE BEEN THERE WAY BEFORE… the turks… but who cares ??????

    I really wonder who is going to photograph all that…
    Turkey in 2008…
    Again, one PHILIP B. is not enough… we need more…
    not just good photographers (only) but educated enough,
    to know how to recognize the truth, and also willing to TALK THE TRUTH…
    peace…
    and china, turkey and any other dictator out there…one more word for you…

    “WE ARE WATCHING…”

  69. Chinese water torture

    A reproduction of a Chinese water torture apparatus at Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial
    Chinese water torture is the popular name for a method of water torture in which water is slowly dripped onto a person’s forehead, driving the victim insane. This form of torture was first described under a different name by Hippolytus de Marsiliis in Italy in the 16th century.
    The popularity of the term “Chinese water torture” may have arisen from Harry Houdini’s Chinese Water Torture Cell (a feat of escapology introduced around 1913 which entailed Houdini being bound and suspended upside-down in a locked glass and steel cabinet full to overflowing with water, from which he escaped), together with the Fu Manchu stories of Sax Rohmer that were popular in the 1930s (in which the evil Fu Manchu subjected his victims to various ingenious tortures, such as the wire jacket). Hippolytus de Marsiliis is credited with the invention of a form of water torture. Having observed how drops of water falling one by one on a stone gradually created a hollow, he applied the method to the human body.

    “Victims were strapped down so that they could not move, and cold water was then dripped slowly on to a small area of the body. The forehead was found to be the most suitable point for this form of torture: prisoners could see each drop coming, and after long durations were gradually driven frantic as an increasing hollow would form in the center of the forehead.”

    …ANYWAYS , MAYBE all of the above is just “science fiction” or
    a myth or a lie…..

    …ANYWAYS lets play some music… now


    peace

  70. DAVID (may I?),

    Posted by: Jean-Sébastien Bréault | April 08, 2008 at 12:36 PM…

    … please , JEAN-SEBASTIEN BREAULT… do not forget to show us too,..
    all the photos from NY…
    I wanna see, touch (prints) and learn…
    peace

  71. Hey David,

    Hope you have a safe trip back from Brazil. I was in Sao Paulo briefly in about 2001 and have to say that I was a little overawed at the scale of urban humanity there. I much prefered the slow ways of Salvador and Praia Do Forte up north. Looking at your photos in Divided Soul from those parts takes me right back there!

    By the way, I have some good news. Have just booked some flights from Beijing to Charlottesville, so I shall be seeing you in June. Am quite excited as it’s (a) my first trip to the States and (b) first ‘big’ photo festival, as I haven’t made in to Perpignan or Arles yet. Shall be there from the 11th to the 15th then have to rush back to Beijing as my sister is visiting. Will be a short but hopefully fruitful and enjoyable visit!

    Best,
    Sean

  72. Panos, you know who wrote that song (China girl), I think:

    (had a busy day and night at the Torch rallies against China. Yet another busy day tomorrow…)

  73. hmm… Panos, i think the case in Turkey is more complicated than you think and you write…
    have you even been there?

    It’s not exactly how you write… i think it’s the problem that western media show things only the way they want…

    I know a lot of Kurds who are living in Istanbul.. they say they are Kurds but same time they feel Turks and doesn’t have problems at all… they say they don’t like when people divide Turks into Kurds and Turks.. they feel same citizens of Turkey as other people…
    I think they are a lot of things which people should see before they judge…
    I don’t want to judge, but i ask only to be carefull before saying strong words

  74. HERVE,
    its amazing how you guys in San francisco (and Seattle)
    are always “ahead”…
    More “sensitive”… you guys care.. and not afraid to protest…
    Here in LA its been 10-15 years we worry, gather money…
    try to wake up people…
    I met his holiness the DALAI LAMA in pasadena I 1999..,
    and since then… I CAN’T IGNORE HIS EFFORTS FOR FREEDOM…
    The Olympic games should stay away from the china bully government…

    AGA
    as a kid I witnessed the Turkish INVASION in CYPRUS…
    With horror…ATTILA movement…
    thousands of the missing Cypriots are in the missing list since then…
    of course you can blame it to the Greek propaganda!!?
    but I witnessed with my own EYES , numerous times,
    Turkish fighter planes ( how can you miss the obnoxious red flag)???
    invading and violating the Greek national airspace across the Aegean sea..
    turkey wants the oil but please remember there 2000 Greek islands and only 2 belong to turkey…
    when I was working in newspapers in Athens I met and befriended two amazing Turkish guys from istanbul…
    They just had ESCAPED…
    I’m not going to reveal their names for their own safety,
    but I know that they were journalists in turkey..
    both accused as liberals communists and terrorists..
    if you could only spend 10 minutes with those two Aga
    and hear their story…of course they seeked asylum in Greece…
    I covered for many years the protests and celebrations
    of the KURDISH PKK party…
    I interviewed real KURDS that had escaped…
    real stories that had no reason to lie..
    I’ve seen pictures of the dead and the tortured…
    why should they lie…???
    of course the last few years turkey tries to come out of the dark
    and join the European Union..
    But AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL IS WATCHING…
    do you think that A. I. Is also lying.. about the numerous violations of human rights???
    I personal hope that turkey will be democratic and free “some day”..
    but until that day Aga you better agree with that Islamist army controlled
    dictatorship in turkey…
    otherwise you might find yourself in a mighty Turkish jail..
    so yes, been there, study that, met a lot of “free” Turks
    and Kurds… And sorry they are not the same…
    but if you want my opinion…
    you need to step out of the region for a while to see things clear…
    You have to meet Turks or Kurds outside of the county ,
    to tell you the truth…
    don’t expect people ( especially kurds) to tell you anything…
    especially when they are only two minutes away from a Turkish jail..
    again ,
    good luck to turkey trying to get into the EUROPEAN WORLD,
    and be accepted internationally…
    its actually pretty easy…stop torturing people, respect human rights…
    because Amnesty International are NOT closing down their offices
    any time soon…
    peace

  75. Aga… Istanbul …
    I was also there when that Turkish Islamist fundamentalist
    set a whole Greek tour bus on fire BURNING 50 GREEK TOURISTS ALIVE!!!
    do you remember that??? Almost 19 years ago…
    and by the way all the previous genocides that turkey committed
    are not in my head..
    These are historic facts…
    anyways , good luck with recording the
    women and Islam project…
    and don’t worry about me…
    I’m too old, exposed and burned by all that..
    I had a friend , soldier in the Greek army,
    that got shot in the borders with turkey,
    trying to provide a cigarette to a fellow Turkish guard..
    he offered the cigarette…
    HE GOT A BULLET BACK, as a thank you..

  76. To be honest, Panos, I hate crowds (and I hate traffic!), I’d be more like the guy who is alone at 3am, cutting wires in the middle of the night. Not a face in the crowd, a soldier!

    But I will do it, for the sake of gathering evidence, and with me you know it’s never about good photography (i am a real Peress-ian!!!), but for the sake of History…. for Photography….

    for P E A C E photography!!!

  77. HERVE,
    GOOD JOB, GREAT JOB…
    keep recording history…
    nice photo…
    Richard Geere…. Always helped,
    supported Tibet and the Dalai Lama…
    I wish I was there too..
    all my support to my
    spiritual teacher…
    SOGYAL RINPONCHE…
    he is a Tibetan monk…
    lives and teaches in frisco…
    In his presence I feel bliss…

    Thanks again Herve..
    I can’t wait to see more.. photos
    peace

  78. Panos… i just wanted to say that there are always two sides of every conflict… in turkish “kurdistan” also…

    I think Turkey is in a very hard moment….there is a huge problem not only between Kurds and Turks, Turks and Armenian people but also between Turks who want to have secular and Turks who want to have religious country…

    I am not sure if we can understand so easily what’s going on there.. and to judge so easily… i don’t support turkish goverment, i don’t support Kurds, also… i try to be neutral…

    i am also not so sure if Turkey wants so much to get into EU…

    what i see last two years Turkey goes more into east, not west… (it’s what my project with women is about)… hope you don’t understand me wrong… i am not turkish activist (btw… I am 00% Polish and christian girl)… i am just observer…
    I hope Turkey will be still secular country because if i decide to live there i don’t want to wear a head scarve like in Iran…
    i just say it’s not so easy to judge

    PEACE! :-) and smile :-)

  79. AGA
    thank you…
    please know, I NEVER, EVER JUDGED YOU…
    actually I LOVE YOU..
    everytime you write here…
    I can see how SWEET you are as a person…
    its my obnoxious way of writing that creates a lot of
    misunderstandings…
    thank you for the info, good luck with your project..
    can’t wait to see your photos..
    and please stay neutral..
    don’t be like me…
    I’m too old and stubborn to be neutral,
    but I promise you I will try and also I will try to
    find my smile back,
    which I lost the last couple of days
    due to all TIBET DRAMA…
    peace and love

  80. HERVE

    thanks for answer… :)

    AGA

    I’m jealous about your trips to Istambul…
    I always miss Istambul when I read your comments.
    I had idea to visit it this year, myself alone… just one week leica and a few films…
    but it almost imposible… for many reasons…
    there is so enegry in air…
    I’m always waiting to see your new works.

    pozdrawiam

  81. david alan harvey

    ALL…

    i am just sitting down at the computer for the first time since i returned to New York this morning (6am and no sleep on plane)….

    there has been no chance to read your comments yet, beyond where i left off…

    in any case, i have to finish off a couple of things and then will try to get back to you…i also want to do a couple of your reviews … i am so far behind…

    anyway, i will read and comment as soon as possible….

    cheers, david

  82. FROM MAGNUM BLOG

    “…Beloved Magnum photographer, Burt Glinn, passed away early on the morning of April 9th.

    Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Burt Glinn served in the United States Army between 1943 and 1946, before studying literature at Harvard University, where he edited and photographed for the Harvard Crimson college newspaper. From 1949 to 1950, Glinn worked for Life magazine before becoming a freelancer.

    Glinn became an associate member of Magnum in 1951, along with Eve Arnold and Dennis Stock – the first Americans to join the young photo agency – and a full member in 1954. He made his mark with spectacular color series on the South Seas, Japan, Russia, Mexico and California. In 1959 he received the Mathew Brady Award for Magazine Photographer of the Year from the University of Missouri.

    In collaboration with the writer Laurens van der Post, Glinn published A Portrait of All the Russias and A Portrait of Japan. His reportages have appeared in Esquire, Geo, Travel and Leisure, Fortune, Life and Paris-Match. He has covered the Sinai War, the US Marine invasion of Lebanon, and Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba. In the 1990s he completed an extensive photo essay on the topic of medical science.

    Versatile and technically brilliant, Glinn was one of Magnum’s great corporate and advertising photographers. He had received numerous awards for his editorial and commercial photography, including the Best Book of Photographic Reporting from Abroad from the Overseas Press Club and the Best Print Ad of the Year from the Art Directors Club of New York. Glinn has served as president of the American Society of Media Photographers. He was president of Magnum between 1972 and 1975, and was re-elected to the post in 1987…”

    another “magnum” death..
    now that we really need them…

  83. BURT GLINN (once said)

    “I think that what you’ve got to do is discover the essential truth of the situation, and have a point of view about it.”

    … from magnum blog…

    DISCOVER THE ESSENTIAL TRUTH…of the situation…

    HAVE A POINT OF VIEW about it….

    … and i ask : HOW CAN YOU BE SURE YOU POSSESSED OR DISCOVERED THE TRUTH?

    …and i answer: THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS HIDING DEEP IN YOUR
    GUT… TRUST THAT VOICE THAT COMES FROM DEEP INSIDE YOU…

    … and i ask again: “HAVE A POINT OF VIEW…” Is Burt Glinn,
    try to suggest that we (photographers) should”take places”???
    Is it possible OR USEFUL to stay “neutral” in a conflict… or a war….
    Is it possible to “cover” TIBET’S GENOCIDE” and not get affected or lose your mind… or “ignore” china’s games, with the world????????

    HOW DO YOU DISCONNECT THE “EYE” FROM THE “HEART” AND THE “MIND” ???????

    IF “NEUTRAL” DOES THAT HELP YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY AT ANY LEVEL ???????

    IS IT WRONG TO “REVEAL” THE MURDERERS WITH YOUR CAMERA..????

    OR IS IT OUR “DUTY”?????????

    I TOTALLY AGREE WITH MR. BURT GLINN (rest in peace),

    “…DISCOVER THE ESSENTIAL TRUTH OF THE SITUATION,
    AND HAVE A POINT OF VIEW ABOUT IT…”

  84. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-tibet15mar15,0,510813.story

    please click on the (REUTERS) video on the middle-right side of the
    L.A TIMES page above…

    “…Tibetan radio reported Friday that a curfew had been imposed. Armed police reportedly used water cannons and tear gas on the crowds.

    “There’s smoke and flames coming from the old city, but I can’t tell what’s going on since soldiers have surrounded the area,” said one Lhasa resident by telephone, who declined to be identified because of fear of repercussions…”

    peace

  85. PEOPLE OF THIS FORUM…
    let us all take a minute break and visit
    MARCIN’S “news webpage” below..

    AWESOME, FANTASTIC PHOTO….BRAVO MARCIN !

    http://marcinluczkowski.com/news/

    by the way.. how do i translate that ??? :

    “…Wciąż pracuję nad serią portretów. Końcowej koncepcji na razie nie zdradzę. Modelami są moi przyjaciele i znajmoi. Czekam na cieplejsze dni by wyjść w przestrzeń, która będzie odgrywała ważną rolę w całym projekcie…” ????????

    peace

  86. Panos…

    I think Marcin says “Still working on a series of portraits. The final concept, for the time being, I will not give away. The models are my friends and acquaintances. I wait for warm days when I’ll be able to go out into a space which will (heat up?) an important (part?) of the whole project…”

    Still owe you an email… planning the la trip…

    Marcin… how was my translation??

  87. Panos, in your “the best of genocide” in this thread, is the genocide that recently happened in my country get at least an honorable mention?… Peace…

  88. MIKE WROTE:

    “…Panos…

    I think Marcin says “Still working on a series of portraits. The final concept, for the time being, I will not give away. The models are my friends and acquaintances. I wait for warm days when I’ll be able to go out into a space which will (heat up?) an important (part?) of the whole project…”

    Still owe you an email… planning the la trip…

    Marcin… how was my translation??

    Posted by: mike | April 09, 2008 at 09:20 PM…

    MIKE, thank you for the translation…

    Marcin, it smells like JOSEF SAUDEK…
    family and acquaintances. I wait for warm days when I’ll be able to go out into a space which will (heat up?) an important (part?) of the whole project…”

    “kinky” project it comes to my mind…
    likes it…

  89. VELIBOR, YES,
    but im tired reading my own posts…. please step in…
    I’m not the “wikipedia”, you know….
    You should help me out, and tell the story from the “INSIDE”…
    you were a witness… it would be disrespectful, if I START TELLING YOU, THE STORY.,… so please, tell us, inform us,
    WE ARE ALL EARS…!

  90. ANNA….! bravo.

    YOU ARE A “RECOGNIZED” ARTIST…
    and hardworker…

    “…RECOGNITION

    Center, The Singular Image, Second Prize (Black and White), 2008
    http://www.visitcenter.org/programs.cfm?p=SIBW2008

    American Academy in Rome, Rome Prize Nominee, 2007

    American Academy in Rome, Rome Prize Finalist, 2006

    Independent Publisher Book Award, Celebrating the daring spirit that breaks new ground and instigates societal change, 2006

    American Center for Design, Recognition of conceptual strength and execution, 2000

    American Institute of Graphic Arts, Outstanding example of communication design, 2000

    American Institute of Graphic Arts, Outstanding example of communication design, 1998

    Communication Arts, International distinction in book design, 1997

    Society of Publication Designers, Highest level of distinction in the field of publication design, 1997

    Pauline Hirsh Gallery, Focus on LA Artists, Third Place Award, 1992

    American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association Grant in recognition of exemplary dedication to human excellence, 1990….”

  91. Bosnian Genocide

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

    This article refers to genocide during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War. Other cases of genocide in the same region during World War II are covered in other articles.
    The term Bosnian Genocide is used to refer either to the genocide committed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995, or to ethnic cleansing that took place during the 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
    In the 1990s, several authorities, in line with a minority of legal scholars, asserted that ethnic cleansing as carried out by elements of the Bosnian Serb army was genocide. These included a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly and three convictions for genocide in German courts, the convictions based upon a wider interpretation of genocide than that used by international courts. In 2005, the United States Congress passed a resolution declaring that “the Serbian policies of aggression and ethnic cleansing meet the terms defining genocide”.

    HOWEVER,

    in line with a majority of legal scholars, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have ruled that, in order for actions to be deemed genocide, there must be physical or biological destruction of a protected group and a specific intent to commit such destruction.

    To date

    ONLY

    the “SREBRENICA massacre” has been found to be an act of genocide by the ICTY, a finding upheld by the ICJ.

    Slobodan Milosevic, the former President of Serbia and of Yugoslavia, was the most senior political figure to stand trial at the ICTY. On 11 March 2006, he died during his trial where he was accused of genocide or complicity in genocide in territories within Bosnia and Herzegovina. No verdict was returned. The ICTY has issued a warrant for the arrest of Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic on several charges including genocide but to date they have evaded arrest and remain at large.

    NOW, VEBA, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO INFORM US EVEN MORE…
    please
    peace

  92. Mr. Harvey
    Going back into the posts a little here but was delighted to read that your novella is soon to be among us. Very much looking forward to reading and viewing it. Sounds beautiful.

    I immediately thought of the woman in my life. An exquisite creature she is. She once mentioned to me that she was ever so slightly jealous of my constantly photographing our two lads ( http://paultreacy.com/ChildsPlay2008.htm & http://paultreacy.com/Siblings2008.htm ) and that got me to thinking about how much I’d love to make new images of her. She is, however, camera shy at times. I made some beautiful work when she was pregnant the first time and was awe struck at making such intimate, private photography. I’ll say this, it ain’t easy with a D200. The thing always seems to intrude. Previously I used an Hexar. Seems to me I’ve not entirely been myself, photographically, since selling it and going digital.

    I think that once I downsize my optical artillery I again will make beautiful images of my companion.

    We have difficult months ahead as we face into our move back to Europe but once we’re settled I will again endeavor to portray her as only I know her. Thank you for making me think on this again.

    In the mean time I will make a film about our move. Just for me and mine.

    In May I plan to make a short film about Times Square. This is simply an exercise to learn about the medium of video. The visuals. The soundscape. No talking heads. No narrative. Just impressions. A street photographer does video type thing.

    Many have said to me that my work lacks intimacy. I think I agree. But I’m not about intimacy, really. Certainly not in the work I make public. I prefer to linger in the shadows and watch. I try to find the humor that’s inevitably there. That’s what I’m about as a photographer, I think.

    Now, back to catching up with all the writings here. There’s so much of it. I’ve been away too long.

  93. Panos, I just asked at Lightstalkers if anyone had played with it. I’m most keen, I must say. Otherwise the G9 or a used Epson, such as tested by the man himself. If I can find one. Cash is tight right now. Might stretch to the G9. DP1 would be a push. But if it’s good, I will.
    Cheers Panos. Catching up on your posts now.
    Good night.

  94. Wow! Have I been missing stuff. I’m up to the China posts now. Panos, if I had the authority I’d assign you a shoot in China. Would love to see what you’d come up with.
    Will read on on the morrow. Me sleep now. Me knackered.

  95. I have to time to write…

    Panos…
    thanks, I will write to you soon…

    Mike
    Your translation is more than perfect! :) thanks!
    Are you speaking polish fluently?

    running…

  96. Panos… i don’t know you, never met, but i like you even we argue :-)
    I am sure you are much more experienced (about life) ….i suppose you are much older… i have seen more in your life… i don’t say i know everything .. it’s the reason i never judge anything too fast (i did it few times in my life and it was mistacke.. everything is very complicated, i think only very young people and idealists see the world in black and white colors)

    also… good question about beeing neutral. . i am curious what David thinks about that… i think it is very important to go and see the story with open heart… to not be blind by books and informatons from tv… to have this knowladge is very important but to be abble to change your point of view is even more important…
    my historian in hight school used to say that one source of knowledge is not a good source… also one point of view is never
    enought

  97. david alan harvey

    ALL…

    it is with a sad heart that i write now…my old friend Burt Glinn died yesterday…so first Philip Jones-Griffiths and now Burt Glinn…i will go to Magnum today for memorials to both photographers…

    most of you probably do not know the work of Burt…he did some fine pictures of Fidel etc during the Cuba revolution and some classic portraits of the Frank Sinatra/Sammy Davis Jr. “school”…

    but what Burt did for Magnum was to literally save Magnum as a business many times…most photographers have no “business head”..they leave the business part of their business to others..and all of us always left it to Burt…he believed in Magnum and was the most generous of all members…

    life moves on….with Magnum at age 60 , we are bound to lose our original members…with in the last two years we have lost Philip , Burt, Inge, Leonard, and HCB… they always knew this and therefore set up early on ways for us to always bring in young members and keep the place alive…this is their heritage..still, it is a sad day for us..

    you have given me so so much to read!! i have read most of your comments , but have no time to respond…

    Marcin, i will try to corner Gilles Peress today if possible and get him to answer your question about the “good photography” he supposedly does not care about!!

    peace, david

  98. david alan harvey

    PANOS…

    when i wrote the above, i had not noticed that you had already entered a Burt Glinn obit…many thanks for that Panos…much appreciated….

    peace, david

  99. david alan harvey

    ALL…

    i must make quick trip to London for the weekend…personal stuff…back in New York by tuesday morn…i can and will try to post from London…

    once i return from London, i will embark on my new project and will get you updated etc etc..

    cheers, david

  100. Panos, you did it all (the genocide best of list), nothing to add.

    As for the Gilles Peres quote, it is just a one sentence quote, surely taken out of context, and as such means nothing, nothing so that we should judge the man. For what I know (Bosnia again) he did a very significant work in Sarajevo, see his book Farewell to Bosnia… Also, he was the first one, to my knowledge, trying to present documentary work in a very original form on the web. Please see http://www.picture-projects.com/bosnia.html. This was quite a few years ago. Somehow, based on my very limited knowledge (and purely from looking at his work), I believe Gilles Peres cares, about everything, including good photography.
    Best to you all…

  101. hi david, hi all,

    i’ve been laid low with a bug for most of the week. it sucks big time. but i’m on the mend. its very sad news about burt glinn, he truly was a fine photographer.

    i’m off for now. things to do.

    take care folks,

    Jason

  102. Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Tiananmen Square protests of 1989

    The Unknown Rebel – This famous photo, taken on 5 June 1989 by photographer Jeff Widener, depicts a lone protester who tried to stop the PLA’s advancing tanks.
    Chinese: 六四事件
    Literal meaning: June Fourth Incident

    The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, widely known as the Tiananmen Square Massacre, in China referred to as the June Fourth Incident to avoid confusion with the two other Tiananmen Square protests and as an act of official censorship, were a series of demonstrations led by labor activists, students, and intellectuals in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) between April 15 and June 4, 1989. While the protests lacked a unified cause or leadership, participants were generally against the authoritarianism and economic policies of the ruling Chinese Communist Party and voiced calls for democratic reform within the structure of the government. The demonstrations centered on Tiananmen Square in Beijing, but large-scale protests also occurred in cities throughout China, including Shanghai, which stayed peaceful throughout the protests. In Beijing, the resulting military crackdown on the protesters by the PRC government left many civilians dead or injured. The reported tolls ranged from 200–300 (PRC government figures), to 400–800 (The New York Times), and to 2,000–3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross).
    Following the violence, the government conducted widespread arrests to suppress protestors and their supporters, cracked down on other protests around China, banned the foreign press from the country and strictly controlled coverage of the events in the PRC press. Members of the Party who had publicly sympathized with the protesters were purged, with several high-ranking members placed under house arrest, such as General Secretary Zhao Ziyang. The violent suppression of the Tiananmen Square protest caused widespread international condemnation of the PRC government.

    CHINA KILLS ITS OWN PEOPLE….!
    HOW COULD THEY RESPECT , TIBET ????????

  103. AGAIN….

    The reported tolls ranged from 200–300 (PRC government figures), to 400–800 (The New York Times), and to 2,000–3,000 (Chinese student associations and Chinese Red Cross)…

    200 dead or 3000…?????

    WHO IS TELLING THE TRUTH ????

    THE CHINESE DICTATORSHIP… OR THE RED CROSS ???????

    PEOPLE. YOU MAKE YOUR CHOICE….

  104. David,
    we haven’t met yet. Sorry, the confusion may be due to my chiming in with my first name only.

    Memories: I took a workshop with Burt Glinn at ICP in the 80’s and one of
    his lines I remember most vividly: “I’m always doing better at Republican Conventions than at the Democrats”.
    A true gentleman – my condolences. . .

    Herve, how did the shooting go with the Olympic torch in SF? Liked your snap with John Carlos, he has mellowed a bit since the time I photographed him working out at San Jose State before the Olympics in Munich where he was not allowed to participate for obvious reasons.

    BobB, I can accept your reasoning about the firefly images of Gregory Crewdson. Without the background information it is certainly not easy to find great value in the one image I saw . . .

  105. Thanks for asking, Gerhard. Nothing extraordinary, photographically. the best part was probably the shouting duels between pros and againsts , both camp supporters around. Quite an unique scene, repeated all afternoon. It deserved its own series. A regret actually, I realized that looking at the pix back home.

    About John Carlos, he was never barred from the 72 Olympics, but if my memory is good, he stopped his chart-topping but unpaying track career in 1971, and tried the NFL. Yes, a flamboyant character back then, with a sprinkle of mythomania. A good account of it all can be had at:

    http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/articles/2004/06/18/1089484304254.html

  106. David: i just purchased a beautiful 1965 mint leica m3 for myself. Now i’m looking for a durable & comfortable camera strap to compliment the camera. Do you have any suggestions on which ones to buy ? If not perhaps you have a camera strap that maybe has been filed away in a drawer that has seen better days ? If so i have 20 or 30 dollars that i would be Happy to give U. i looked on e-bay and i like the new leather ones however my concern is that they are rigid and would probably chafe my skin..please Help me !!

  107. note to Community: if anyone has a leica 50mm summicron f2 dual range or rigid lens for sale please contact me ASAP. my prerequisites are as follows: no fungus,haze,air bubbles,scratches, or cleaning marks on the glass. buenos noches amigos..

  108. David, you were in my thoughts yesterday when I learned of Burt Glinn’s passing..I was about to telephone you to check your schedule but then I heard..it is inevitable as you say, but a loss to you all..and for that I am sorry

    maybe maybe on your return from London we can steal an hour before you vanish into the new?

    peace and safe travels

  109. Hola to the David Alan Harvey family.
    My name is Bear, I’m from the Adirondacks and currently living in Boston.

    Wifey and I are traveling with my father-in-law to Mexico on the 15th. We will be hitting up Mexico City, then off to Chiapas and then to Oaxaca. I would love any suggestions for places to go or meet up with people in the area.

    Any ideas?

    Be well….

    Bear

  110. ROBERT,
    if you are oni a budget, ( even if you are not),
    consider ZEISS (M mount, of course)
    50mm or 35mm or 28mm from B&H…
    website.. Brand spanking new (coded, in case you
    upgrade to M8 later)…
    QUALITY.. Same if not better…
    PRICE:??? You get 2 Zeiss lenses for the price of 1 leica lens…
    really… Check B&H.com
    peace

  111. thank you erica and panos for the info. i still want a summicron lens of the same era as the m3 camera. yes; i have heard wonderful things regarding the zeiss lenses perhaps i will try them down the road on my nikon f3. the reason i bought the leica is that i wanted a rangefinder and the nostalgia that goes with using gear thats 40 years old. i think it’s interesting to combine old technology with new technology. can hardly wait to see the results of my new recipe..

  112. Since the blog is in slo-mo, I will barge in with some good news and still some bad but hopeful, concerning the AP photographer Bilal, starting his 3rd year in jail in Irak under US command, after the good news that his case was dismissed by an iraki court a few days ago.

    http://www.ap.org/bilalhussein/

  113. tossing another log onto the smoldering fire …

    it occurred to me last night at a party that good photography is like good comedy … made so much sense then, trying to remember why now ;-)

    I think the line of thought was geared to street photography and had something to do with the ability to see the unusual in the everyday, to pick up and key in on what others might miss, and to boil subjects down to their essence … present with a new twist and …

  114. AGA,
    I just looked at your images of women in Istanbul. In particular, the ones selected for the publication are very strong. You are most certainly on to something. I am sure you are aware of the book but you should check the book of Alex Webb on Istanbul (City of hundred names). The first picture of your site reminded me of it. Good luck with your project. Eric

  115. Why is good street photography like good comedy? For the reasons you’ve already mentioned, Tom, which are basically Aristotle’s reasons as well, or at we think they are Aristotle’s reasons as well, as no one has ever found his treatise on comedy in which he allegedly says all of these intelligent things about comedy. It is not, however, so much about finding the unusual in everyday life; the unusual is, by definition, that which is out of the ordinary; street photography freezes the usual and shows just how strange it can be. Consider, for example, the necktie. I wear a necktie five days a week, always making sure before I leave the house that the tie actually matches my shirt and trousers. And why do I wear a necktie? Who the hell knows?! A necktie serves no utilitarian function that I know of, unless sometime during the course of the day I need to apply a tourniquet to a gushing artery, and really, how often does something like that happen in the course of the business day, or as a convenient noose if I feel like killing myself because that dope Franklin down in sales has managed to sell a million and nine Chinese-made widgets to a tribe of mathematically challenged Hottentots who dont really need them. With video, the viewer sees their world basically as they know it; with stills, the viewer sees the frozen moment, the moment that essentially gives the game away. Much of what people do during the course of any given day is pretty ridiculous, when you give the matter any real thought, and by catching those moments photography, like comedy, makes us laugh at ourselves, which always a good thing, I think. That’s also the main difference too; photography catches the usual and freezes it, showing us how silly it really is; comedy takes the usual and stretches it to the point of absurdity. That’s what I do most of the time, although the bit about my brothers trying to reassemble a deer happened more or less the way I describe it whenever I tell that story. Sometimes it’s awful hard to improve on reality.

  116. david alan harvey

    BEAR…

    anyone named Bear deserves some sort of reply!!!

    well, i do not think you need any contacts…just show up!! you will find the people of Mexico to be very hospitable…particularly in Oaxaca…just be nice to the first person you meet!! seriously, one thing will lead to another to another..enjoy..

    HERVE…

    slo-mo?? c’mon Herve , do i not deserve a quiet weekend with my girl??

    the rest of you understand, right?

    back soonest amigo….

    cheers, david

  117. Forgot your girl is in London, David. Now, a week-end seems rather short.

    Please, do not follow Panos’s footsteps in metamorphosing, relation-wise, from a greek God to a…Goddamned greek!

    :-))))))

  118. Hey David give your girl big hugs from me too!

    At least you have got something going still, I just churned through yet another and I thought this one might work too!

    Him, a successful muso who also is on tour for 3 to 6 months a year, me, someone who can’t plan and hates to wait, hmmm seemed promising there for a while….

    Just guess I am not a person whose meant to have a personal life.

    Enjoy London David, we only all have such a short time…

  119. David.. enjoy your time with your love and than come back and write please what you think about beeing neutral :-) Is it good to be neutral when you start the story or is it better to hold one of the sides of conflict?

    and everybody… i worked about a week to produce new website, this time it’s my design and i made it by myself with small but very impotant help from two of my friends http://www.agaluczakowska.com Everybody are very welcome to check it :-)
    CHEERS!

  120. david alan harvey

    AGA….

    when i think of all the great photographers who have photographed “issues”, i think they always “take sides”…how could they not? they may photograph “both sides” in some way, but surely they cannot be totally impartial…i think one must not confuse “integrity” with alleged “impartiality”…

    now, Aga, i have not yet looked at all of your new work…and i am totally totally interested, but when i look at work , i really like to take my time and do it right…i have not had this “quality time” to do so…but, surely by tonight or tomorrow morning i will…

    TOM…

    i cannot argue with you on that one!!!

    cheers, david

  121. David.. but don’t you think it’s always better to “meet” with story with open heart not with imagination only from news… and later to decide what side you take…?

    and now David.. go, go away from computer :-) When you will be back from romantic weekend you can write here, not before :-) hihi

  122. David

    I’m coming to the table very late in the game on this one, but I have to take a break from my over-deadline work to offer up condolences aover the passing of Burt Glinn. I want to assure you that, althought I never met the man, I am very familiar with his work and have long regarded him as one of the true giants of photojournalism. In fact, I knew his work long before I knew his name. Many of his images are ones I grew up with, particularly his work in Japan, Russia, and Cuba, and they were windows onto a world I was only beginning to discover second-hand through the eyes of photographers and writers whose names I barely knew. Many, many years later, when I started to actually study photography and its history and came to always look for the credit on images, I found the name ‘Burt Glinn’ over and over again attached to iconic, timeless photographs that were already stored in my memory bank. So then I deliberately sought out his work. His range and versatility was truly amazing, and sets a high standard for all of us to aspire to and measure ourselves against. I never knew much about his life other than his photo work, and never met him, but it pleases me greatly to hear that he wasn’t only a great photographer but a gentleman and wonderful person as well. As long as I may be granted to live, Burt Glinn’s name will be high on my list of the great photographers.

    Sidney

  123. Ana, such a joy looking through your new website! I think the subject is wonderful, pertinent and obviously something you care about … and has such great potential!

    So … can you tell us more about your work in Turkey? Did you have preconceptions that you found were “wrong”? Did you find yourself having more of “something to say” as you progressed? Did you struggle with yourself to be open and not judge, while still bringing your values to the table? Did you yourself adopt local cultural traditions to gain access? How did you feel about that?

    I can imagine many challenges for you doing this work, as both a cultural “outsider” and a woman in this cultural context … but these may be just misconceptions on my part. I do not wish to offend, only to learn a bit.

    Sorry for all the questions but i really appreciate your work and we can all perhaps learn from each other. Please share :))

  124. Aga, I meant to follow up on the “neutral” argument. I think it’s a function of the individual itself, not the photographer to take sides, just on the merits of the conflict itself, or not. Then, should the images show “your” side or both sides equally, well, for me it really depends, but in general, I find it more ethical not to “editorialize” one’s images, ie. put a one-sided text next to it that basically tells people what they should think.

    In a more contemporary note, it seems to me PJs are less and less political, and one-sided, and things tend to be treated with equal strength, when they simply have not equal stength.

    Like the many “essays” on being a US soldier/platoon deployed in Irak vs the story of a country turned upside down with easily 25 times more casualties, civilian at that, than the US army. Access does have something to do with the discrepancy, but ultimately, lack of it is no excuse for a PJ worth his/her PJ-ness.

  125. Aga, just looked at your site, I really like the worker’s strike reportage, you clinged tightly to the story, followed it, and that pays huge “dividends” in the end (unfortunately not the type that end up in the bank, but what the heck!).

  126. david alan harvey

    AGA….

    i just spent about half an hour looking at your new work, mostly reading about and viewing your “Female Islambul” project…this is definitely a subject of great interest for you and for all of us….those first two photographs in particular were very strong and i see that this will be a project where you will be spending more and more of your time…

    i am not quite sure whether you are moving to Istanbul or are in the process of moving…are you there now, or are you in Poland??? in any case, it is nice to have you back here and exchanging ideas and pictures with us…i will stay in touch with you here and by private e-mail regarding your work…

    your work in Istanbul now leads to my next post about how most of us do work outside of our own “territory”….

    cheers, david

  127. Hi Aga, nice, clean website design – lots of strong photos.

    To everyone else: I notice in Aga’s website that she has mixed colour and B&W photos in her Singles galleries. What do people think about this? Can colour and B&W be mixed in one gallery effectively or is it distracting? I ask because I’m planning my own website.

  128. David…i am right now in Poland but on saturday i will travel to Turkey, and i am going to stay in Istanbul for two months. There is a lot to do more for my story… i was working on it only about few days (plus there are some photographs from Ashura from 2007)… so i want to continue and also shoot more about secular women. I will be still as a tourist so i don’t have access to some places (like The Koran schools for example)…
    Also… i checked photographs from my visit in NY… and i wanted to say thank you one more time! A lot of good things happened when i was in states, and one of them was meeting with you, your students and drinkng a beer on the roof of kibutz!

    Nick… i think there is nothing bad in mixing color and black and white photographs in single galleries but i would not do it in story for sure (i had idea once, but it doesn’t work at all)

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