Hi David,
Exciting news! The photo of mine from the workshop that you ran on Burn was used in Life magazine’s 2012 year in pictures special issue. The caption has some really nice things to say about the picture as well. I would never have this photo if you hadn’t told me that my photo of sleeping protesters from the day before sucked and I should keep working it. So thank you, and I’m pleased to say that the investment in the class last fall has already started paying for itself, financially, professionally and spiritually.

Hope all is going well. I really enjoyed reading the updates on Rio online, and can’t wait to see the book when it’s done.

Cheers & happy new year

Andy Kropa

34 thoughts on “Happy Ending”

  6. Frostfrog

    Congratulations, Andy! We all knew you had shot something outstanding the moment we saw it in the Loft – and not just this picture, either, but several. Yes, I saw the process and it is true that had David not pushed you on the lighting issue, you would not have got that shot. Even so, the talent and the eye to do it was always in you. It just took a bit of time with David at the Loft to help bring it out.

    Congratulations David, as well.

  9. Herve

    Wow, last week Panos (and Jared) the prOWStester, was man of the year with TIME mag, this week, Andy’s shot in LIFE, I mean, what was this again that the mainstream media don’t want us to know? :-)))

    Congrats, Andy most photography from OWS were quite insipid and uninspired, so nice to see that the rumours of the death of classic old photo style of telling it just like it is, were greatly exagerated.

  16. dq

    Well done! I remember some comments when this first ran, and while I haven’t gone back to see them again, I believe many were negative, saying that the image didn’t do anything for them, wasn’t special, etc. Obviously, some editors thought otherwise. It looks great here. Congrats.

  17. Roberta Tavares

    Andy! Stealing the wise words of Frostfrog ( hope that’s ok Bill :)) That was an outstanding shot..and everyone noticed it since it was introduced here some time ago. Life did a smart choice picking this image for this special edition. You must be listening it a lot, but just giving my fraction to some emphasis ; -you did a great job, talented precise challenging eyes and for choosing to follow David’s advices (we see that what was given and shared in that loft worked out very well to you) . Im sure there will be more of recognition coming on you way. Really well deserved

  18. Zun Lee

    fantastic, Andy! Not only is the end result a stand-out frame amid the sea of “protesters holding signs” shots, but witnessing the process of how you got to this during the workshop, that was huge. Congrats again, and so well-deserved!

  19. Jeff Hladun

    Bravo Andy, I’m very happy for you. (And I’ll just wager there are many here now recharging their strobe’s batteries!)

    Isn’t it funny that a lesson on a technique of form led to this? Content and Form drives the import of the photograph, with arguably content taking the better half. So often here on BURN we analyze the content of essays to death, but pay much less attention to the form and technique behind the making of the images.

    It’s wonderful that Andy’s experience in the workshop demonstrates that Form can actually drive Content. That it has led to such wide recognition is a lesson for us all.

  22. edite

    Woohoo Andy!!! That’s a killer shot. I loved it back in September when you shot it and it is one of the best ones I’ve seen from any OWS images out there. Congrats :)

  23. akropa

    Thanks for all your comments, you are really too kind but needless to say it was really exciting when my wife discovered the photo while flipping through this issue of Life. Its so cool to hear from everyone in the class as well. I didn’t really have any expectations when I took the workshop, other than hearing it called “life changing” by people who had done it before. And Bill (frostfrog) is absolutely right, it took David and everyone else in the class working together to make the picture even possible. Feeling good that the week of intensity can come back with a great reward when least expected.

  25. a civilian-mass audience

    See?…do you see MY BURNIANS?…together we CAN DO magic…HAPPY BEGINNINGS !!!

    vision is not enough…your heart,your soul has to be there…
    I know,you are gonna say…that the old greek civilian is doing the blah,blah again…
    BUT hey…

    THE UNIVERSE is working…!!!

    ANDY and ALL of YOU…Ouzo and olives on me today…:)good morning from beautiful Greece…
    EVA wake up…

    THOMAS…you sing…I am trying to do some skype sessions…hmm,do I need to load something&^%$@)(WTF)

    VIVAAA BURN…………….I DO LOVE U ALLLLLL…and I will be back

    P.S where is JIM?…Dialog posts are too fast for me:)))))))))))))))))))))

  28. mw

    Andy, I’m a little unclear on this. You didn’t know it was going to be published? Did you know it was under consideration? Did you submit it or did it come to their attention some other way? Did they pay?

    Sorry if any of those questions are out of line. I don’t think so, but one can never be sure. My professional interest is piqued by the clues you’ve dropped.

  29. Mike R

    Congratulations Andy, the photo looks great; nice spread. I love the way the flash has stopped the people in the foreground but, towards the back of the photograph, it hasn’t quite reached one person and they are slightly blurred. Very … photographic.

    Mike.

  31. david alan harvey

    ANDY…ALL

    thanks Andy for the letter…just when i think mentoring is too damned hard, i get a letter like this…

    let me add to all of this for those of you who are interested in process..which is sort of going to be our main topic the next few weeks… Andy is the perfect combo of good listener, very hard worker, and astute observer…what he did here was pretty straightforward photojournalism of a very specific event, yet what i found most powerful about this particular photograph was just how symbolic it was overall..how it reflected modern biz culture layered into the less advantaged or the less involved…so even without the Occupy Wall Street banner, it is quite simply a strong image coming at it from several directions…in other words, perhaps more correctly put, this picture transcends the event it represents…

    cheers, david

  32. Herve

    Many readings for this picture. for me, I like to see that both sides are the same people at different stages of their lives, or maybe even one year. and both sides represent what we have been told being american is all about. On one side, 1st amendment, freedom of speech and assembly, on the other good old protestant work ethics.

    One senses that unlike a sixties reading would have made of it, this is not, simplistically (but conveniently) activism vs silent majority. The guys in the bags will probably work to work at some point, possibly dressed in suits, and the biz types will also express their views and choices in their own ways, or even for one or two, end up washed off on the sidewalk (this is NY after all), looking like protesters, but homeless.

    The most striking aspect of this picture is actually, its normalcy, its normality to someone (me) who has been living here for 30 years. In that acceptance, this is what can make it quite different from other places in the world, including Europe.

    They are the same people (implied of course in the now famous “one size fits all” blanket labelling of 99%).

    Even more, where decades ago, we’d have seen indifference hiding discomfort in the stance of the “biz” types, I see their seeming non-involvement, busy-to-get-to-work strides, as acquiescing, or merely acknowledgement without fuss.

  33. panos skoulidas

    looking like protesters, but homeless.
    ——————————
    not much difference anymore Herve after the full 2008 foreclosure pandemic…sorry…this is where u miss the point…middle class eating at the same shelter with the “homeless” nowadays..u see.. line is getting thinner in some big cities/neighborhoods….

  34. Milli

    “this picture transcends the event it represents”
    I love that statement. I think I can confidently say, it is what is most important about all the best works of photoJ, art, literature, forms of expression in general.

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