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

I will continue to come to the site from time-to-time to peruse the images, but refrain from reading the “Responses”.

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

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…

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

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

hope all is well – I keep thinking about my various “lessons learned” in Oaxaca – thank you again.

Jean

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

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…

Hey, Panos, give Katia and Charles a big hug for me too!

Patricia

Please put the diarrhea of the printed word in another section.

katia

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

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