VISIONS FOR 2009
Just as we cross the seemingly imaginary time line into 2009, the world appears to be in turmoil. We are all wishing each other Happy New Year while more and more attacks are levied into Palestine, the world financial crisis gets worse by the minute, and our most immediate world of print publishing is in a virtual state of panic. Most of us are now facing the biting jaws of winter and spring flowers seem far far away.
Well, we are not in control of any of the above. We must just do what we can do with our talents and make the most immediate space around us a better place. Since photography is what I seem to do best, and since my role as a photographer has extended into the photographic lives of others as a mentor, I will just do what little I can here on BURN to push all of you to use your eyes, hearts, and intellect in the most constructive ways. Either as documentary photographers or conceptual artists or whatever category of photography you may identify. Labels tend to be just that…labels. I do want BURN to have the windows wide open for whatever leading edge photography and writing may come our way.
Many of you may know that BURN is a spinoff of my two year old blog “Road Trips”. This blog/forum was almost exclusively intended as an online workshop or mentoring program for those who logged on. The essays I have published here so far are indeed works in progress from “Road Trips” or from my students from the four or five workshops I do every year. My primary goal as a mentor is to lead photographers towards their own books. To become authors. To celebrate the vision of a photographer unfettered by preconceived notions of commercial publishing. Commercial publishing has certainly been the lifeblood for my livelihood and education , yet it has always been the struggle between personal vision and editorial “needs” that have forced me to light a candle for independence, without biting the very hand that has quite literally fed me. This is a delicate balance for me and I am sure for most of you.
One of my goals here on BURN is to finance some of you so that this can be a source of income and a room where you can grow. In a downsliding economy , this may be difficult for me. OR the timing is just right. As advertisers flee the traditional print media, they are looking for content on the web. While their budgets are down, we here on BURN would only need a very small piece of the old pie to rock n’ roll right off the proverbial charts. Why not have sponsors directly finance a photographer for a specific body of work?? The idea is not to give funding to BURN, but to give in the form of stipends or grants funds directly to the photographer.
This may prove to be a silly dream. This may be a new wave to ride.
To kick things off, and to prove to you and to potential sponsors that I am serious, I now announce on this New Years Day the Emerging Photographer Fund grant for 2009.
A $10,000 grant will be given in a few weeks to one of you.
Any photographer anywhere in the world is eligible.
Generous private donors, who have believed in me and my mentoring programs have provided this funding for you, the readers/photographers of BURN. They are able to donate tax exempt funds into the Magnum Cultural Foundation, a non-profit wing of Magnum Inc. Inside this umbrella of the MCF, I created in 2008 the Emerging Photographer Fund and was able to give a $5,000 grant last year to Sean Gallagher for his continued work on the desertification of China. I am still holding funds for additional stipends.
I will not be on the jury. I will choose the jury from the best talents I can find. One of the jury will be from Magnum, but I want to cast a wide net. For example, James Nachtwey from VII will be one of the jury. This will be a five person jury representing the magazine world, the art gallery world and the book publishing world. Details for entering , jury selection , and deadlines for entry will be posted under “Emerging Photographer Fund” in the column immediately to the upper right.
Some of you know that in the last two years I have developed strong online friends based on “Road Trips”. I mentored several books with these friends. Turned online friends into “persona a persona” relationships and have in general tried to take online into “the real world”. While the early essays on BURN do represent the relationships built from “Road Trips”, the door is wide open to anyone reading now or to anyone in the future who so desires to submit work here or become part of my editing/mentoring world. Like any magazine editor, I will have some photographers I know and develop and collaborate with and yet keep my eyes open for new talent at all times and from any direction.
Simultaneous with this New Year’s story , I present now (below) the work of Patricia Lay -Dorsey. She is one of my online prodigies. We have met in person during the year, but most of our collaboration has been online…Patricia is not a professional photographer. Patricia has had multiple sclerosis for 20 years and before she discovered photography she was obsessed with being a painter. Patricia does not aspire to become a magazine photojournalist, yet she is every bit as brave as iconic war photographer James Nachtwey. He would be the first to say so.
Patricia is a free spirit in the best sense. We have wrangled, scrambled and collaborated in the most amazing ways. Please appreciate Patricia, and then let Patricia appreciate you in the future.
Please stay tuned…..2009 could turn out just fine after all….
Cheers, David
yes, interesting that idea that “bucket” is more observational of the real world, whereas the earlier work was more interior, more of a process of looking for dream-images within the real world. And so much of the shift seems to come from having to deal with the “reality” of raising a family. I’m sure in one sense Trent was kind of forced to step outside of his dream-world and had to confront the realities of modern suburban life–but with the kicking-and-screaming (and puking) resistance of an artist. Yes, definitely a David Lynch kind of treatment…
Still, I think this is a stepping-stone piece–the “sophomore album”, as it were…it is brilliant, and I can appreciate it for sure, but the difference between this piece and his earlier work is that the earlier work was unprecedented; it showed a completely original vision…whereas the new work has loads of “influences”, or at least has a lot of similarity to other photographers–and other Magnum photographers at that. There is no fault in this; as I always say, a good artist borrows, but a great artist steals…In order to grow beyond the spark of originality that “makes” you an artist, you have to throw your native tendencies to the wind and try out new things, step out of your comfort zone, learn new languages, travel the earth, whatever it takes…but hopefully, eventually, you come back home.
Anyway, the thing I love most about the piece is that it has a real sense of humor to it. It’s like, yeah, suburban life is creepy, but it’s fucking hilarious if you can let yourself laugh at it, and you gotta laugh at it if you want your soul to survive it…
Yes Chris; spot-on.
Mike.
chris :))))…
now, RENT INLAND EMPIRE!!!!…you’ll see ;)))
running
b
Hey all,
Look3 2009 website is live:
http://www.look3.org
Plachy, Parr, Peress..
Platon, Pellegrin…Bruty
Heh, thought we were stuck with alliterative “P”s there for a minute….
A.
and then, disappear’d and moving, like a thin’d skirt of curtain across the face of an open window, goes Wyeth….
for whatever reason, and all reasons, I have loved Wyeth….have never quite understood the disdain blanketed upon him by the modern art world, but maybe i have too personalized his work, since it has been apart of my own life, my own childhood. As an artist convinced of the necessity of introspection and the need to sharpen this, the need to pulley over the hermetic and abstract winding of images and words as a way to speak about that which remains nearly unspeakable, my entire life as a writer and a reader, my life as a maker of things and carnivorous nibbler of things, my heart has always belonged to the modern, to eschew easy dilectics or easily understood objects, for all that is wonderous and dark in this world. Is it possible to love joyce and perec, beckett and kathy acker, kline, rothko,, beuys, duschamp, viola and still need Wyeth. For me, the answer is of course. Maybe it is the childhood that i have not yet been able to transcend. I grew up in love with Wyeth and wobbled at the pull of my parents inside the rooms of the Brandywine museum, in love with the strange and singularly personal paintings of wyeth since i was a kid and long long before Helga splashed across the coffee tables of the country, the beginning not at all Christina’s world, but the gold and austere landscapes, the haunted and unmistakably ghost-licked interiors, the algebra of loss and recalculation….though beuys, eventually, would be come one of my heros, just as those twin giacos (giacometti and giacomelli), just as Antunes would occupy my heart, rothko the moments i felt alone, pollack when i was drinking and at a loss to express anything but violent, earthy gesture, still there was always those landscpaes, those interiors, those family dramas of silence and earth and white wind and black hares….and still, for whatever reason, the paintings, both the egg temperas and the watercolors, resonate inside me….maybe it is obdurate arrogance, maybe it’s the inability to jettison my childhood wonder and started surprise as those paintings, but a part of me feel bereft with his death….his politics, as depicted by others and often his embrace of ‘for america” politicians, left me confused, one thing is for certain, the paintings till come back to me in dreams…he painted my dream life, o r a part of my dream life…is it possible to tell that my dreams were composed of both his interiors and experteriors just as Duchamps “Etant donnés” live inside my head too…..
a part of my childhood gone…the peeling away of all things….
What is the purpose of Burn….what is the purpose of what each of us in our own way sets a course to investigate, reflect, argue, auger, and place small made objects up for viewing….
at least for me, it is twined….all those things which speak to us of what we are….no matter the course or language or appearance of them…
i feel grieved with his death, just as i feel a boney hurt when thinking of Wilmarth, or beuys or joyce writing his life out when the world turned aside….
all those things….the interior and the exterior…and how fucking arrogant we are to think that we know….
a simple picture from Editor Harvey….and then the goodbyes which stay with us, long after the disappearing….
that is, for me, the language of what shall remain….
http://tinyurl.com/8zz99a
running
b
You tube
New strong information media. Maybe will be most powerful.
And of course full of propaganda. But anyway who need cnn?
I must say we in Poland have most stupid information tv on the earth TVN24 (something like cnn for kids and housewifes)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Zd55Zhj5gQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=UN9WzUc7iB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=fLIdxF-GHWw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqravOE9q90
CALLING FOR ENTRIES:
On this, George W. Bush’s LAST day in the White House, I invite you to create a farewell image for America’s 43rd president. You can be ANY nationality to participate.
Here’s my submission:
http://www.pbase.com/windchimewalker/image/108307687
Patricia
Tomorrow will be a very special day I am sure Patricia…. I wish I would be in Washington on this historic moment…. I think few of our friends might be there. I look forward to seeing what images we get from the inauguration here on Burn!
Eric
hello david,
i just saw that you have updated the information for the epf. is there a limit on how many images can be submitted?
thanks for the clarification.
srinivas
ALL…
TO ALL MY SEATTLE FRIENDS..
Charles P,
Tom H,
Tim R,
Katia R..
I will be doing a ROADTRIP
to Seattle next week..
from the 1st till 6th of feb..
I will also have a car…
Please send me info here how we can
all meet up at some point …
;-))£
SRINIVAS…
no limit…BUT i would recommend as few as possible…10-20 is probably about right….most photographers really kill themselves when they just cannot edit down tight..please try to do this…no juror wants to see ALL of your good pictures…they can “get” who you are and what you are doing with a good edit on your part….repetition is your enemy…be clear , succinct….
cheers, david
PATRICIA…
funny…i am just seeing this….good work!!
David, I could be wrong but something in the back of my mind says the images had to be acquired in the 2008 calendar year. I thought I read that on Road Trips at one time. I did not see that stipulation on your EPF page this time.
I think that was becuse the 1st EPF was basically an assignment deal. But Im pretty sure theres no restriction this time around.
KURT…
i think the jurors are going to be looking for something contemporary….that is just logical…but, there are no time frame restrictions per se…i am by nature “restriction averse”…
i would imagine the jurors are more likely to choose a project which has been started recently and they can see that funding would lead it to completion in the near future….however, i could imagine exceptions where someone started a project years ago and funding would help to make it whole…
bottom line: you have all the freedom in the world…
cheers, david
This is one persons opinion, but an opinion nevertheless – Having someone insulting people left right and centre does nothing for Burn.
It’s embarassing, and there is no place for this person’s style of commentary (particularly when high) in any kind of educated discourse.
Its obvious that there is some affection for this person, but I (and I think others) find this person’s tone particularly unpalatable. While I wouldn’t suggest banning this person from the forum, some aggressive moderating of the individuals venomous comments might be appropriate? perhaps the ones littered with obscenities?
Ben
BEN…
you are not the first person to make this suggestion…..
when i first read Panos here a couple of years ago, i thought the same thing..when i met him in person, i realized it was all kind of a Lenny Bruce style joke…others who know him think the same…photography is quite literally saving the man’s life…but that still does not give him the right to use expletives in a way offensive to the rest of the readers here who discuss photography here with style and decorum…
i invite freedom of speech above all things, and BURN would die if everyone agreed with everyone else, but yes yes we do not need offensive words to grasp a differing point of view…i do not want to literally censor anyone and it would be a shame to have an editor read first the comments and then “approve”, but i am hearing you loud and clear….
Panos, if you read this, please take note….you are my friend…you know that..you also know i have extended my hand… and i do not know Ben at all…and i do not always agree with what Ben says …but, Ben and others have a point…you have come a long way Panos ….a long long way….i know you have a big big heart….and you would befriend Ben in person in a minute….and your rambles can be right on….but, if you would be kind enough and large enough to just cut down on the obscenities, you would show yourself to one and all to be the man that i think you are…when you do your text for your book, you can and should do whatever you want….expletives actually are part of your essay on Venice….but, in this forum i would most appreciate Panos lite, or better, Panos as intelligent as you are …ranting cool…opposition to the norm cool..overdoing obscenities not cool….please take this paragraph as my ultimate expression of friendship….
cheers, hugs, peace, david
David:
I started to read essay responses, and then gave up. I don’t believe that this should be an IM exchange, nor a place for banal comments. What it should be is an area for criticism of the essay. (Crit-i-cism Noun 2 The analysis and judgment of the merits and faults of a literary or artistic work.)
The criticism I do see consists of one of three basic comments:
1. Hey, I love your stuff
2. Remarks on specific images
3. Hey, I hate your stuff
In a nutshell, essays are the personal expression of subject matter (person, event, idea, etc.). The most successful elicit an emotional/intellectual response and the viewer forms a new perspective about the subject and/or the photography. A comment on one of my personal essays was a one-word review — “disturbing”. I have often wished that all of my work is found to be that provocative.
And some unsolicited advice to the photographers who in answering questions about their work start sliding down that slippery slope of explaining what the image was supposed to do in the first place. Stop. I have never heard Jim Nachtwey comment on any of his images.
So please, let’s reserve the Responses Section for the essays, and find some other place on the site to post rants.
BOB…
good advice….and your observations so so true…we have been bantering back and forth behind the scenes on whether or not to have selected photographs and essays open to comments at all…as an editor, would you do it?? the comments for photographs could all be in the upcoming “work in progress” where constructive critique could be most useful…anyway, thanks for your critique of the critique…i think you are right on it…
cheers, david
Well put Bob.
I need to offer another perspective here.
Yes, there are lots of I love it/I hate it comments posted about essays. And yes, some people simply focus on individual images and critique them while ignoring the context. But–and this is a BIG “but”–enough of these comments lead to interesting discussions of larger photographic questions and issues. And that’s what keeps me coming back to check out the latest comments.
On Road Trips David usually got the ball rolling by asking questions when he’d post a new thread. And David has said he’d like to do this here on BURN as soon as he has time, but I’d like to say I am finding the organic way our discussions have evolved to be most beneficial. I like that they are community generated and elicit marvelously different points of view. Rather than depending on DAH to come up with significant topics to discuss, each essay and selected photo is serving as a jumping off point for the community. To me, this is a healthy development.
If comments were eliminated from essays and selected photos, I fear that would close down a lot of possibilities for discussion. I’m afraid it would also put David in the position of having to come up with new questions/threads on Dialogue. As if the man doesn’t have enough to do already!
I vote for trying this way awhile longer and see what happens. I personally think BURN is really burning!!!
Patricia
i need to wholeheartedly agree with Patricia.
i am learning a lot from the discussions that
help me to think in different ways about my
own work.
the dialogue under essays and photos is invaluable.
i vote for keeping things as they are.
katia
Ok… Cigarette break..
I also agree with Pat and Katia!!!
… ok, gotta go back..
I don’t wanna let Vixen all alone waiting!!!
;-)
Big day for me mañana ..
I’m meeting Charles P..
and then Katia R…
Can’t wait…!!!!!
Didn’t say to eliminate the Responses, I suggested to make them relevant. Sorta like panos’s latest response…Not.!
Please put the diarrhea of the printed word in another section.
Bob, many of us have been online & in-person friends for a long time. On Road Trips I guess you’d have described many of our posts as “diarrhea of the printed word” but it was how we kept up with one another’s lives, both professionally and personally. Some of us have missed such opportunities since BURN was launched. However, David has made it clear that such posts as Panos’ belongs right here in the Dialogue section.
Hey, Panos, give Katia and Charles a big hug for me too!
Patricia
PATRICIA…KATIA….
i will take heed to your wishes and keep things as they are…what i do think we may all want to consider is how this will all go down once we have a lot of material in “work in progress”…at that point you may want to drop commenting on the main essays, but maybe not…let’s see…in any case, if this works for you , then so be it…
one of the things i also want to do is to have at least three things going on the front page at once…i just cannot technically do this now…that would take a full time web designer by my side at all times….Anton just does not have the time to be full on with managing a multi-faceted front page…in the coming months we will be trying for some funding to keep BURN not only alive but pushing out to the leading edge of publishing..what we have now is still a very crude operation compared to what i envision….so if you two know of anyone with an extra half million dollars, we can really get Burn rolling!!!
cheers, david
p.s. oh Patricia , i really got mad at Jesus…i had not read his comment to you until my most favorite Laura pointed it out to me…i really try hard to control myself with the anonymous snipers, but Jesus got to me!!! and , by the way, to both you and Katia, i would never in a million years deal with a blog and the inevitable failed photographer trolls and naysayers (which i really do not need in my life) IF it were not for photographers like both of you who are committed “doers”…bless you both…
BOB…
i agree with you on “relevance” under comments for essays, but Patricia’s point is quite correct also…HERE (under Dialogue) is exactly where a comment like Panos’ can be just fine…in this case , Panos is meeting up with some of our online friends in Seattle…all in all it has been quite amazing in the last year Bob how so many of us have had the chance to meet in person, do some serious editing, and generally put faces to the names…two things have made Road Trips and now Burn unique i think…(a) the face to face real time meetings (b) the actual production that comes from this group….chat yes, work yes…
follow us closely my old friend and you will see what i mean..and we want you to join us..as a matter of fact i will put you to work picture editing…wanna do???
cheers, david
David, one thing I do do well is grantwrite and fundraise. If you have good leads to pursue, I’d be happy to lend my talents in the fundraising department to your wonderful effort here.
hope all is well – I keep thinking about my various “lessons learned” in Oaxaca – thank you again.
Jean
Yes, David, BURN is very much a work in progress and it’s going to be exciting to see how it develops. Thanks for listening to the opinions of folks like Katia, Panos & myself and being willing to keep the essays & selected photos open for comments. At least for now. We’ll see how things evolve as Works In Process gears up.
Regarding Jesus’ snarky comment, it was just that. Trust me, I didn’t lose any sleep over it. But thanks for calling him on it. We don’t want/need that kind of stuff here on BURN.
hugs
Patricia
JEAN…
see how fast i get back to people who are using the “keyword” fundraise!! (is that a word??)laughing… no matter, i know what it means…we have a big Burn meeting end of February, so let’s talk before…many thanks…
i am headed back to Oaxaca on the 14th , but with a totally different kind of session than ours… i miss our group..what fun….do you remember the night we were all together in that little town (name??) shooting, drinking, dancing, eating, laughing, shooting some more, and well just soaking up the MOMENT?? these things are great when they happen and even greater in retrospect….
cheers, david
I come back over and over again to what I learned – thank you. Arrazola. I’m trying to figure out a block of time off later this year – either India or Latin America. Can’t decide which.
And I am very serious in the offer of helping to fundraise. You’ve done an amazing thing here. I’d be honored to help…my contacts are in other worlds, but I know how to frame a pitch…
Pat, i will totally give KATIA & CHARLES a big hug…tomorrow..
actually i will do a little reportage too…
hopefully Katia will introduce me to some of her “Street Kids”,
and if im lucky i might meet baby Felix …
tomorrow around noon…
peace and hugs
( and if my good luck continues i might also see YOUNG TOM…
so far its really warm and sunny here in Seattle….am i lucky or what!!!!!!! ???)
peace and hugs
PANOS…
please please give big D hugs to the whole bunch!! sure wish i could be there..you know how i hate to miss a good party…..yes, yes pictures with a link….
it makes me feel terrific that you guys are all together like this..amazing!!
abrazos, david
OK, OK. I get it. BURN is a social site for like-minded photographers. Sobeit.
I will continue to come to the site from time-to-time to peruse the images, but refrain from reading the “Responses”.
BOB…
there is a social aspect to BURN, but mostly there is a production aspect…BURN most resembles your Mizzou Workshop…ideas come in, get developed, get published…the social side of it is a small part…you should not stop reading the comments Bob…and as i said, Dialogue (this part) is for chit chat or responding to whatever story i write….the comments under the selected singles and essays are supposed to be only about the pictures….i think if you were to go back and record the comments that came to us at Mizzou , you would find them to be quite similar to these…few photogs can express themselves in words, particularly when it comes to describing their feelings about pictures…you can, but not everyone can….
what you may not realize also is that at BURN we have created a non-profit fund as part of the Magnum Cultural Foundation to support photographers…please click on the Emerging Photographer Fund (Grant)….10 k goes to an emerging photographer in 2009…and we are working on getting large funding to give both iconic and emerging photographers alike assignments for BURN which in the new communication lexicon is for the world..you of all people should see this potential…
i can totally understand why some comments may seem either annoying or useless to you…but have you ever read all the letters that come in from readers at Natgeo??? yes, they always selected a few to publish..but here, at least the readers have a say ..a real say…participation…the audience is the message….and you should already see that the audience (the readers) are shooting shooting..producing some fine work..at least two books will come out of the assignments from Burn this year…your old world of publishing is gone or almost gone…however, i see more opportunities for photographers now than ever before….i see the glass half full….and with possibilities to fill it up in the most exciting ways…please call me if you have some time….
cheers, david
David, I am not sure if this is the right place for this if not I apologize, I could not find a contact link.
If I remember correctly in one of your Road Trips blogs you said that you were interested in trying to look up the Norfolk Family from Tell It Like it Is for your new project.
My job has me Norfolk for the better part of the next two weeks. I will have some free time and would be happy to do some leg work for you.
Good morning David, I have just read the letter form EPF where I’m not a finalist. Anyway I’d like to know your opinion of my personal work because I’m working hard in this work and I’d like to know a professional criticism. Thanks a lot.