all i can say is that you rocked my boat……venues for young photographers may be changing drastically and unpredictably, but this new work i have seen over the last few weeks is shaking the ground of possibility for the future…..the clear authorship of these photographers who submitted EPF portfolios to BURN will become apparent to you in the coming weeks….
10 finalists have been chosen out of the over 1,000 entries for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant of $10,000….
one of these finalists will be chosen by a jury of peers as the 2009 EPF grantee….
the funding for the EPF comes from generous donors to BURN and the Magnum Cultural Foundation , a non-profit wing of Magnum Photos Inc.
the essays of these 10 authors will be revealed here on BURN, one by one, in the coming weeks leading up to the announcement of the grant recipient at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia in June…that comes out to i think 2 essays per week up until announcement day…each essay will be labeled as a FINALIST…i should be able to start publishing the finalists starting May 15, this coming Friday….in other words, each week you will know of two more finalists….
i have chosen a prestigious 5 person jury of peers to select the EPF grantee from the 10 finalists….i will not be on this jury….one juror is from Magnum..the other 4 were selected from a wide demographic spectrum of our craft and our art….these jurors will be identified at the same moment as the announcement of the 2009 EPF recipient….
there were a solid 200 very competitive portfolios out of the 1000 entries…..these top 200 will be published on BURN throughout the year….these portfolios will be given special attention by me all year in terms of selecting prints for sale in the BURN gallery, career guidance, recommendations to magazine editors, consideration for funded assignments here, and a general matching of photographer to venue whenever possible….
for those of you who submitted work, i give you my heartfelt thank you…with your permission, your work will be a pillar of what is published on BURN in 2009…my goal here is to launch us into leading edge publishing where the audience IS the magazine and the audience is funded by the magazine….you have proved to me your collaboration with your entries, i will prove my part by reflecting it right back to you on your BURN….
-david alan harvey
p.s.
ALL….
i am hitchhiking to New York today…my friend Medford is picking me up at a designated gas station and off we go for the 9 hour drive up the coast…
i could tell you that i have a book signing for my “Living Proof” at the Powerhouse arena tonight (9pm) during the New York photo fest (Book Soup) and i hope to see you there…that is actually true…(by the way Living Proof now in the MOMA book store…kinda cool i thought..cool for my guys in the South Bronx)
HOWEVER, the more REAL TRUTH is that i must get to the city just in time to try and save the Kibbutz space…the BURN gallery space…
my old loft space and hopefully now your gallery space….a space for showing your work….a space for selling some of your prints……yes, there will be two sleeping spaces in this loft, but all of my personal effects are gone and the walls will be only for your work…the loft will be so “decorated” as to be clearly a gallery….and the loft can also serve as the BURN HOTEL should you be in New York and need a place to crash…
i always have quite a bit of drama in my life, but never more than now….this movie is full of suspense….and you are in this movie…..i often dream of “no drama”, but somehow that just isn’t going to happen…
thanks quite literally to your generous and timely donations, we might just save the Kibbutz by literally hours….no joke..landlords in New York do not wait….
we, yes WE ,need this space not only for your gallery presentations but as a BURN office … i can edit and do most things from my laptop from anywhere, but this ends up being so so stressful and not sustainable in the long run…
BURN needs a real home….
and while the view from the Kibbutz is fantastic, i do not think anyone would describe this small space as extravagant…this space rents out right now to me for $2000. per month…i would like to tell you that i could afford it out of my back pocket, but i cannot…i am struggling along with everyone else in this global financial downturn…as a matter of fact, if i ever wanted to re-live my poor college days, i am pretty darned close…as a student i always loved the stories of starving struggling artists and i have managed to live out that fantasy!!! but, forget my personal woes….this is about US… we must try to survive in this clime….perhaps even thrive in this clime…we do have SOME things going for us…a very popular venue and all of our collected works…and collected ENERGY!!!
ok, practical stuff is HAPPENING…
Anton and i are now scrambling to make the very best showing of BURN for the Look3 festival….we are going to use video programs, not slide show programs, to create a totally cool hi def minute and a half to two minute “best of BURN” show…we are getting a major donation of time and effort and technology from one of Anton’s friends in Belgium……i am editing for this now….and writing a script..by the way, writing a script for a two minute show is harder than if i had an hour..but i do not….besides, two minutes just perfect….
in addition, Mike Courvoisier and i are building a more traditional but effective slide show of the EPF finalists…the organizers of Look3 have given me a center stage prime time slot at this festival for BURN…15 minutes…BURN SHOW, EPF finalists announcements…..our logo will appear on the brochures…BURN will be hot at Look3..or, rather should be hot if we can make it hot…or not!!!…right this minute if you saw me you would not think that this is a man who can pull off anything anytime soon….i wonder too….hmmmmmm
by the way, it took me literally weeks to finally push the “publish” button here on BURN for donations…i am totally averse to asking anyone ever for money…i just cannot do it….never could…my parents raised me with a different value system to a fault…all these years as a professional photographer, i always had to have someone else actually ask a client for my fee…hence Magnum….my tendency is to give rather than sell…but finally, out of sheer desperation, and being leaned on by everyone on the planet to have a donate button, i did it….simple survival….
to say thank you to all of you who have just contributed to BURN is not enough….i actually do not know what to say or to write….overwhelmed with gratitude sounds trite even though i am…hmmmmm, how about something like , ok friends with this vote of confidence from you , i am really going to bust it….and make it very clear to you that your contribution is an investment for you and for all of us…make it very clear to you that it was worth it…i promise to make it more than worth it for you…damn, now that sounds like some kind of weird campaign promise or something and i do not like that either…well, ok just thank you…(by the way, i am going to have a CPA draft a complete accounting of all funds coming in and will report all of this to donors by the end of the year…make sense??)
now, that is not the end of this dramatic feature movie….as soon as Look3 is over , i am going to make a rough list of what pictures i know that you have for the BURN gallery (we can have another name if you want)….selecting photographs for the gallery will be tricky, but we will have an online version as well….while we are producing the BURN show, please look at your work very carefully..find one or two or three photographs that you think would work on someone’s wall..this is a very different edit than you might do for another purpose…think think…study the market…think think
for my part, i am also in the process of creating some limited edition books, and maybe work on a handmade book or two over several months….profits from these will be in part used to support BURN as well…you may want to be thinking about what you could do in this regard ….i will do a post on limited editions at some point soon….
ok, now i must go….a long long drive ahead….IF you happen to be in New York please come to see me tonight in Dumbo at the Powerhouse Arena, 9-11pm…Book Soup…several authors signing….cold beer at the BURN GALLERY after, so come and check out OUR space…
please enjoy your day…..thank you again…big high fives all around!!!
cheers, david
Standing ovation for David Alan Harvey! You are a shining example to all of us! Best!
*drum-roll*
good one david.. i kind of envy having the 200 folios to look at, if not the 1200 :ø)
chairs
david
cool cool… this is gonna be so intense… just imagine the anticipation… “who is the next finalist?”
who´s in tents?
Are we going to know who is in the top200 before they appear on the Burn site?
david –
i for one am going to my tent right now :o) way too late here, time to go to bed…
foggie –
we’re still debating that one, but my first thought would be “not just yet”… they will be given the proper attention though, all in due time, so no worries about that one :)
dont hold this against me Herve ;))))))))))))))))))….it’s not really a comment ;))))))…
CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 200!!…….and TO THE 10…..
congratulations to David for surviving 1200 submission reviews ;)))))…..
————————————————————-
===============================================================
from Deepstep Come Shining
Everyone in their car needs love. Car love. Meat love. Money
love. Pass with care.
Deepstep, Baby. Deepstep.
The boneman said he would take the blinded driver to the river. With
a mirror. And then what.
The boneman said he would take the blinded into a darkened
room. And put a hot-herb poultice on their sightless face.
Mellein for this mullein for that. We called it flannel.
Then leave them there.
The baby sister of the color photographer had a baby girl in the
hills. Born with scooped-out sockets in the head. Born near the
tracks they sprayed with Agent Orange. The railroad’s denials,
ditto the army’s.
They would have been blue. The eyes. She did not have. Blue
as the chicory in yonder ditch.
We see a little further now and a little further still
She said her lights would be on and they were
Groping around the sleeping house in our gowns
Peeping into the unseen
Beautiful things fill every vacancy
–c.d.wright
EEEHAWW…it´s coming down to the wire now..good luck to all of you who ranked in the top 10, congrats to all who earned a place in the top 200..and a prayer for the winner..because that´s when the fun and work will really launch you into the stratosphere..many thanks DAH on behalf of all the hopeful applicants, on behalf of the one person who will get to fly, on behalf of all of us at Burn and on behalf of all who are watching and waiting for an exciting photographic tomorrow..
hugs
kat-
oh my god this site is powerful. DAH…you’ve got yourself some cool ju ju. watching, waiting, with a huge smile on my face for the photographer who shines in the end.
bravo bob.
watch ¨i see¨, all.
http://2point8.whileseated.org/2009/05/11/bravo-moma/
DAH – YOU FUCKING ROCK!!! this is very exciting and look forward to finding out the winner at LOOK3!!!!
still on the edge of our seats.
sounds like an exciting years viewing here with all.
a trillion thanks for the motivation.
Hello DAH,
I created and shared with burn magazine a light box before March 15. Burn magazine clearly appears in the lightbox sharing list but I can see that the image public views counter has not moved.
(the counter’s location is: Photoshelter homepage > my website > stats & analytics > public image views)
I was just wondering if something went wrong.
I understand that you can’t answer on a personal basis but I am torn between not being an extra pain and the regret of not having shared my work…
Anyway, thanks for organizing all that,
Bruno
DAH,
you are SUCH a tease :)
BRUNO…
your entry is just fine…..i would have done just as you did….asked….
cheers, david
Thanks, David.
David,
can’t wait to see the essays, it would be great if non-finalists were allowed to drop a link to their submissions too. the more, the merrier, and I am sure there are pearls in these “also ran”.
Looking forward to the announcement, what an achievement for DAH, the team at Burn, the finalists and the recipient of the grant. This is a real milestone for photography and I fully believe will be a beacon to photography for years to come.
Congrats
Ian
ALL
Its pretty amazing that this has come into being in such a shitty financial climate and I gotta say that MR HARVEY is one extremely special dude for putting this together.
I know that BURN is a ‘love’ job and sure its got lots of online support and I hope will eventually reward the team behind it (David, Anton, Bob and I am sure heaps of others I don’t know about) with lots more than just love, but I know the effort these kinda things take and well all I can say is thanks David.
The generosity that you have shown is really unparallelled in this industry…
And look I just love it, cos for someone as opinionated as myself it really gives me a venue to vent…hehehehehehehe!
Cheers and congrats to everybody who got their act together to put something in the EPF, but most of all congrats to BURN for actually making it happen!
Sounds like a heap of exciting work to be seen…………..it’s got to be compulsory viewing for digital and art students alike, a great resource of the future
Hello there,
I don’t usually write here on this forum although I come here and read almost everyday.
I’d like to say thank you to David and all the stuff of Burn for putting this together, to have the patience of going through 1000+ essays and for your generosity…as Lisa Hogben pointed out this is quite rare in this industry.
Thank you again for giving us this great possibility to show up our work.
Ciao!
g
After a negative day yesterday, I awoke this morning feeling rather positive for some reason. And the excitement rising from the upcoming EPF announcement enhances that positivity no end. And I didn’t even enter. I wasn’t ready.
So, today is going to be a good day. On way or another.
Huge congratulations to all who placed well and most particularly to whomever secures the big award.
imants – bang on.. burn is already a great teaching aid ..
Am I blind? Where is the list of the 10 finalists? Or are we still waiting?
Not to steal thunder from the EPF finalists, but I was wondering if perhaps there could be a fund we could contribute to associated with Burn involving smaller sums of money. For example, if one of the finalists or semi-finalists needed a smaller amount to complete a project? I know what it costs to feed my Epson 3800 ink and 17×22 paper, so maybe a photographer was at the point of exhibiting and only needed $1,000 to print or whatever? Something David could tap into for these kinds of things without great fanfare? I dunno, just an idea.
I like your idea Jim. I reckon we could all chip in small amounts if a chosen project was advertised that needed a financial “group hug” from Burn readers.
Thanks DAH for everything you did making this happen, i am really looking forward to seeing who is at the forefront of this game, and what type of crazy stories they’ve been in the midst of–
I can’t wait to see the selects! Very special thanks to DAH for making this happen. Burn has become a daily morning pilgrimage for me – a place to reflect on the Flin Flon nature of photography and the reasons we all do it.
JIM
first of all, bless you…thank you for thinking like this…i have been trying to figure out for awhile exactly how to do something as per your suggestion…smaller stipends given throughout the year…and specific assignments as well….
donors to EPF receive a tax break deduction because of the 501c3 non-profit status we have through the Magnum Cultural Foundation…monies distributed through this channel come under very careful IRS scrutiny and it is impossible to just start passing money around from this fund to whoever you and i may think need it most…
however, starting this week, we are going to have a donate button for BURN….this will be just to cover the costs of running BURN and making the improvements we would like to make here…at the very same time, i am also seeking large sponsorships for assignments for the photographers here who would also be in a mix with the so called “legends”…for example, i would like to put 2 “legends” and 5 “emerging photographers” to work on assignment to produce original photography for BURN…i think this mix, even if only done once, would then attract even more sponsorship…original production with perhaps specific sponsors for specific projects….
all of the finalists here will receive lots of special attention….at least three will receive tuition free advanced workshops, to study with whomever they want, at the Tuscany Photographic Workshops, Santa Fe Workshops, Magnum Workshops, and my own personal mentoring program and workshop….others will receive the ink and paper you suggest….gift giving seems to be tight these days from the big camera companies, but i suspect we will be able to garner for one of our finalists at least a gratis camera from one of the “biggies”…
deciding who gets what is always the problem with fund distribution…while my goal is to support as many photographers as i can, i will no doubt receive some vicious hate mail from those that i do not (yes, that happened last time and i almost gave up this effort completely)…this is the downside of running BURN …no matter what you do to try to do something positive, you will pick up enemies as you have never known..the dark side of human nature…however, i just have to look towards the light….
Jim, i think i will try to get you on a small committee i will create to specifically see how we can best serve these young photographers with funds distribution……for all of your sometime crusty image here, i wholeheartedly applaud your altruistic thoughts this morning….thank you…
cheers, david
DAVID BACHER…
i thought i worded the post carefully, but i will take another look…the finalists are announced one by one by publication here on BURN right up until the stipend recipient is named at Look3…each week you will know of two more finalists….more clear???
cheers, david
DAH
you are a rock star!!!
waiting….
eagerly….
once again,
you
impress
encourage
and
initiate….
what a gift…..
waiting…..
xox
**
d
now could your donate button on burn be tax free too — with a receipt? or should it go through the magnum cultural foundation? (coz i dont want it to)
the shadows of the dark side of human nature get engulfed in the shadows which heavily bear them. yes, if you look towards the light, shadows would be all behind you….
(singing indiana jones theme – kissing katiecakes whip)
Jim Powers
BRAVO!
k-
Gracie
¨if you look towards the light, shadows would be all behind you….¨
You are a one and only..
k-
Jim, David
Excellent idea.
Very neat, exciting unfolding plan! But i am not a patient person, this is going to hard / fun!
DAH..a question..
Will (or do) the finalists themselves know beforehand? If so, will they be able to give you a tight presentation to show, or will you and Anton create the presentations from the submissions directly??
GRACIE…
i will set it up so that you may do as you please…get the tax break and support EPF, or contribute straight away to BURN , no tax break…
remember also that by purchasing prints/books from the upcoming gallery will also lend support for BURN which will in turn lend support to our colleagues here…
many thanks for your good spirit always…..
cheers, david
ERICA…
all finalists will have a chance to write more material and re-edit as per necessary…Anton and i always give the photographers the chance to approve any edit that appears here on BURN or in a festival slide show….i totally forgot to mention that we skipped over the original idea of doing Blurb style books for this final judging…it was just going to become unwieldy……the jurors will view the work as submitted with a chance for the finalists to write more if they think it is necessary…
cheers, david
DAH..
So each finalist will only be told that they are a finalist as their publishing time comes close?
Oh my yes, the blurb books!
awww yeah! what a fun way to discover new work! i can’t wait to see the portfolios as they are revealed through the year.
do the top 10 and top 200 already know who they are?
I find it astonishing that you received angry words last time. That’s dreadful.
A gem of an idea, Jim.
I just got word that an image of mine is to be on a book cover so I’m officially back at work. Yippee! Pauly’s back in the game. Funnily enough it’s the same image that was on the last book cover I had in 2003.
How weird. Just as I left work to be a stay at home dad I had an image used on a cover and now that I’ve returned to work, the same image is used again by a different publisher here in Europe. Just what I needed.
A beer tonight I think.
ERICA…
yes, that is correct….
LIZ…
nobody knows who they are….yet!!
PAUL…
good for you…interestingly, the same pictures are often used over and over….same with print sales….sure, treat yourself to a beer…..will you link us to your cover??
cheers, david
I sure will. Haven’t seen it yet. Just got my statement. It feels good to be back in the fray. It has been a long time.
Excuse me a moment. I’m just going to get up and do a little dance.
Thank you for doing this David. It is a stellar example of those willing to go the extra mile to pass on their advice, experience and influence.
I wish everyone the best of luck.
Jeremy
Great idea Jim.
Gracie –
just to chime in on this one: we have set up donations for BURN to be handled by PayPal and they are as such labeled by them as “donations”… of which you will get a payment receipt as well. BURN is not registered as a non-profit organization.
cheers
anton
“totally forgot to mention that we skipped over the original idea of doing Blurb style books for this final judging… it was just going to become unwieldy”
DAH, sorry I have to say this, I’m really disappointed in the swerve away from book-format judging. I was really excited that the true merit of each author’s work was going to be discovered in the comfort of someone’s hands while possibly sitting in a comfortable sofa; which inherently puts someone in a digestive mood, verses now, possibly in front of a monitor, which often does exactly the opposite.
An entirely different type of talent will win in a web presentation verses a book presentation, so I’m saying out loud I think the grand finally has been cheated and a great piece of printed work may not find its way into printed history, but a web-strong presentation may be shoe-horned into print, or maybe it won’t be printed at all as it was never its strength.
Think about it David, how many times have you walked into a book store and sat in a deep leather couch and paged through a prospect photography book, how does that experience compare to sitting in front of a monitor managed for you by slideshow pro?
All the serious purse-seekers weren’t naïve. They knew that the ‘interest factor’ of their single images might get them in the door, but it was going to be the calibre of the book they designed that would allow them to have a chance in the grand finally. For the prize that’s being offered, I’ve got a funny feeling there are loads of blurb books already drafted to be ready for the next step.
I’m also not ashamed to say that I’m personally disappointed for selfish reasons. The format of this contest pretty much guaranteed the creation of photography books; books where there was once just essays that I could only see using my monitor, Books like Brigitte et Bernard by Audrey Bardou, sure they will still get to print when the priorities make it appealing, but this contest made it a priority to get photographs off the hard drive and into print now, a concept you preach most consistently and what I like the most about you David.
So David, change it back to the format you proposed please. And yes, I know you could kill me for being so ungrateful, but I think it was an aspect of your plan that was important both to your print ethos as well as the print culture, and also to instigate people to think about a book as the final stage of their work verses a flash site.
Still Friends?
Good idea Jim. I’ll happily toss in a few bucks. Same idea could apply to the Burn gallery perhaps.
“… for example, i would like to put 2 “legends” and 5 “emerging photographers” to work on assignment to produce original photography for BURN…i think this mix, even if only done once, would then attract even more sponsorship…original production with perhaps specific sponsors for specific projects….”
Brilliant. Same assignment (or project), different facets (or interpretations)?
I have to agree with Joe..and I do know from the word around burn street that many many people have been working on their book in case..maybe the loss of 13 days isn’t as big a factor as it may seem with regard to getting books into the hands of the 5..the reveal method could still hold, all the finalists would just have to stay hush..any way, any chance?