OUTER BANKS, NORTH CAROLINA …. SEPTEMBER 2012
We are now in the process of building a separate page for the Family Drive project. We take off driving around Oct 1 for an online version of the process, but of course I am shooting all the time on it. This body of work has been modified a few times in the last three years and is even a traveling exhibit , large prints/ medium format film, yet evolution of idea and stance and raison d’être are in constant flux…Why? Because I change my mind.
Rather make up my mind. Do what will come most natural. Reflect the feelings I have about family in the broadest sense. This new project will absolutely not be what you might imagine it would be. I just cannot do, will not do, a traditional look at American families as I originally intended. An evolution of an idea is not the end of an idea and I always knew I needed another “moving part”. Not more moving parts, less moving parts, but a different moving part. Simple.
Driving across country to take pictures is a really really old old idea. Everybody’s fantasy , and almost everybody has done it. Including many non-Americans, starting with Robert Frank. Kerouac, Pirsig, Steinbeck, Thompson, Twain, Least Heat Moon, Kuralt, hell American travelers are many. Still the road beckons somehow. Crossing America North is a THING. Hard to explain, but a real thing. I guess it is because it is the WAY the place was “discovered”. Folks went West. Guns blazing. Kick ass. Wagons packed. Mud, blood, and beer, all the way, the American way.
Who among us cannot get caught up in the current election process? I mean, this time it really is a defining election. Oh I doubt the country would really change no matter. I lived in Washington for 15 years, and I know for sure that Washington is Washington and protected by all who reside no matter red nor blue. It really is one big club. Yet still this moment is as defining as I can remember. It will set a tone one way or the other. So my journey will blast right into the heart of it and will be over just as a prez is chosen by “we the people”….
The trip across will NOT be the whole book of course…It is just for others to join here online and see a thinking process. Like my riobook online , intended to be a bit of a workshop or educational experience. Unlike riobook , this will be open and free.
So join us online. Jump in with questions. Show up and buy us lunch (please).
Or, show up first at the Bubble Lounge in New York on September 24th. A Rio blast with all the characters from (based on a true story) live and present and dancing and well, be there! Not to be missed if you are in New York. Oh yes, a cast of characters present that you might imagine if you were imagining…This is a manifestation of my last online adventure. I try always to turn my fantasies into realities…Oftentimes a real mistake, yet sometimes just right…Find out :)
-dah-
“American Anabasis” sounds perfect right Cyrus ;)?
Or “DAH and The Band” ?
Or “DAH and The BAD SEEDS” :))
AKAKY
good point…or, hmmm is it? for sure it is a point!!
will stick with Road Trips…i always think of myself going on a road trip…and who cares if it is the same road trips title? the very nature of road trips is that you will find something new…
hey can you come into the city for this Bubble Lounge bit? sure lots of Democrats, but other than that you should be fine….
you would be most welcomed Akaky
cheers, david
Road trips is the perfect name.
but… well… DAH and the bad seeds is also proper :))))
David are you avaiable on this weekend for a skype chat?
Sorry, Mr Harvey, but the Bubble Lounge is not possible. Very few things are on a day I have to work.
and, of course, my coming down to the city would infringe on Audrey and Laura’s bragging rights. Can’t have any of that here, can we? ;-)
Currently catching up on comments, I am full days at Photokina this week.
(based on a true story) nominated? Wow, this is great news!
This book is good stuff, and I think it’ll win!
@ DAH:
Congrats for the Lucie nomination and the issue of NatGeo. Pictures are terrific! Waiting for the postman with the magazine in October in my mailbox :-).
Being a NatGeo photographer, when you “delivered” the story and the bunch of images, you can decided the cover or is up to them to do the final-final edit?
There are strong ones, like the one in the beach at night with the girl jumping into the ocean in the left side of the image or the lady carrying a grocery bag going thru military guys.
Thanks, Patricio, an “e-cheerleader” of the American-going west Road Trip story.
David (and Rio crew), I’ve been looking over the new Nat Geo and the online photos as well. Great work. What I like most about this story, and your storytelling in general, is the range; the way you usually include the rich, the poor, and key scenes from in between to communicate a sense of place. I think I see a similar dynamic in your composition and color. You have close shots, medium shots and far away shots, primary colors, complimentary colors, always compelling colors that work well to carry the viewer from what shot to the next with pleasant anticipation and heightened attention rather than the leaden anticipation of more of the same we get while reading so many photo essays.
I’ve experienced a lot of your teaching, both live and in print, but have never heard you discuss that mixing it up (social-economically, compositionally, color) part of your approach. On many occasions I’ve seen you say you don’t feel it’s necessary to have establishing shots or to cover many bases, but I can’t help noting that in your own work you always do. I know part of that is editorial requirement. A Nat Geo reader, for example, expects an aerial shot of Christ the redeemer in any story about Rio so one must provide. And any work for Nat Geo is to some extent a collaboration. But it seems to me that mixing it up on every level comes natural to you, that you and Nat Geo are a great editorial fit, not that you are submitting to any kind of editorial diktat. Typically, I think the top magazines are set in their ways for good reason. The approach works. Great work pushes its boundaries, takes it in new directions, and wild experimental pieces can work on occasion, but the basic building blocks remain irrevocably the same.
Beyond Nat Geo, I think the Rio project is great in the way it pushes the possibilities for still photography far beyond the limits of paper magazines and typical internet slideshows. The closer look provided beyond the paywall and even through the normal flow of burn served to enhance interest in seeing more rather than being any kind of overkill. And I like that it provided a variety of price points for entry. One could get a lot for free, $2 for the paywall was next to nothing, the magazine could be had for $4 -$6, and the book is a more premium work of art. Unfortunately, none of those methods is my preferred way of viewing photos. I wish you all (top photographers) would sell your work in such a way that all the best images from a project could be viewed in an appropriately hi-res slideshow on a good monitor. I guess the worry is that anyone could then make a decent print, but there must be some way around the problem.
Anyway, congrats again, to you and everybody involved. Right now it’s kind of iffy whether or not I’ll be able to make it to the Bubble Lounge. How late will it go?
MW
hey Michael..not sure how late it will go…i mean it is a monday night, so i cannot imagine too too late, but then again, who knows for sure?? i do hope you will make it….doesn’t the e-book approach what you mean? or an iPad slide show?
ALL
i will make the first post on the new/old Road Trips today…just to see how the tech side works..instagrams etc will go there…videos etc..being set up for the cross country trip but i might just keep it …not sure….
cheers, david
cmon, take a break, follow me at the ZOO everyone… check the prisoners..
Sentence : life in prison
Crime : none whatsoever…:(
click below:
i didnt add any music…play your own ;)
doesn’t the e-book approach what you mean? or an iPad slide show?
Not really, though I suppose there is, or will be, some software that can extract images from an IPad slideshow. No, for me it’s just a question of bigger is better and higher resolution better still and I like looping slideshows. Viewing still photography that way, I find themes and meaning that I would never see otherwise. This often happens when my attention drifts. I like the IPad a lot for showing photos, especially to potential subjects, and to potential publishers as well. It doesn’t do much for me as a consumption vehicle though. Too small.
Don’t worry about it though, I’ve never met anyone who has expressed similar preferences. As far as I can tell, I’m alone in this.
DANNY WILSON AWARD for emerging or early career photographers:
Deadline: November 5th 2012
http://www.photofringe.org/participate/danny-wilson-award
To ALL:
I’m devastated today.. My cousin Helen , lived in Toronto just died in front of her two kids ( 2 and 4 year old)… She felt dizzy this morning , called ambulance ,BUT… died /collapsed in front of her kids right behind front door.. Paramedics couldn’t get in.. MENINGITIS … Only 34 years old.. I’m a mess today
(Thank you for giving me privacy)
Hugs to all… Love your family and don’t take anything for granted..
peace and health to all of you!
Mourning
Plz take care your health
I’m temporarily “out”
http://instagram.com/p/QLS7NZBrfo/
Here’s an image I did from a photo call last night. I don’t usually link to that kind of work here on burn, but thought you all might find this one interesting.
Ha ha. Sorry, image is here.
PEACE bro…may the Spirits be with US…All of US…Upstairs,Downstairs…!
Enjoy the journey…MY BURNIANS and keep shooting…
running like BOBBY
Love and condolences Panos – and to you too, wonderful Civi.
MW – very strange – I like it.
CONGRATULATIONS BURN, DAH , EVA and RIO CREW
http://www.lucieawards.com/
CLICK ON THE NOMINEES
SPEECHLESS
http://instagr.am/p/QPzR8HBrYz/
http://www.aperture.org/2012/09/photobook-awards-shortlist-announced/
BURN is FLAMING HOT!
Hollywood on FIRE next Monday night!!!
panos skoulidas
October 1, 2012 at 12:49 pm
CONGRATULATIONS BURN, DAH , EVA and RIO CREW
http://www.lucieawards.com/
CLICK ON THE NOMINEES
http://instagr.am/p/QPzR8HBrYz/
Imants/John , now check a real artist here:
DO NOT MISS THIS IF IN MEXICO
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19792585
(Again big thanks to Thomas Bregulla for keeping me updated:)
Have to toot my own horn a bit. Selections from my Fight Night project and an interview are currently up on the NYT Lens Blog. http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/02/taking-shots-in-the-ring
Floating a little bit right now.
Imants/John , now check a real artist here:………don’t get what you are yapping on about, who was discrediting others work?
Imants :) we all moved on…it gets boring now dwelling..repeating samo samo etc…nothing new to add anyways…
plz check and enjoy NEW Donna Ferrato story/interview (not ignoring you as you can see, just got advised -and i agree with John on this- to hold my horses- and im following advice )…very simple..
hugs
big CONGRATULATIONS TO BRIAN FRANK for being published on NYTimes
bravo BRIAN !!!!!!!!!!!!
well deserved!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks panos!
One for you frostfrog
In a fit of nostalgia having had my 65th birthday last week, I’ve been digging through old negs and contact sheets. I took this photo in 1975 of photographer Nina Raginsky with her cat Dodo in Victoria BC. I no longer have a print of it, and can’t believe I was able to find the negative. Dodo was a big cranky tom cat.
http://www.pbase.com/glafleur/image/146437320
great light Gordon
Congrats Brian. That’s great work. You have earned the recognition.
Regards,
mw
Thanks Michael
Gordon, I tried to take a look but this Internet connection I am on is run by the North Slope Borough School District and they block many sites, including, it seems, phase.
Brian – Big congratulations! Powerful stuff and I am glad to see it get this recognition.
Don’t know who we is don’t know from what maybe you were posting to yourself………….
Thanks Frostfrog. I’m not done with it yet. Still gathering steam for a book proposal push to go out by next week, while to iron is hot.
maybe you were posting to yourself………….
——————-
correct….dont i always do that?
samo samo…speaking of samo, great artist here:
http://basquiat.com/
This undated photo is provided by Sotheby’s which they claim shows an invisible ink signature. Sotheby’s says it has discovered that Jean-Michel Basquiat secretly signed one of his paintings in invisible ink.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/hidden-basquiat-signature-found-on-work-1329245358-slideshow/
DAH and the bad seeds is also proper :))))
—————————
MARCIN ;) you nailed it!!!!!!!!!!!!
sweet
Brian Frank…
Congratulations!!
Gordon…
A little late but happy birthday and lovely picture. Love the light!
Thanks Paul
Thanks Paul, Panos. I shot this in 1975 in Victoria BC. (120 Ektacolor Pro typ S) I’m amazed at how well it scanned with my little $160 Epson V500.
The subject is Nina Rajinsky, not well know outside of Canada. http://www.gallery.ca/en/see/collections/artist_work.php?iartistid=4527
I spent almost every day with her for time. I used to hang out with her, and develop her film and make contact sheets for her. She was very intense, very talented, very fascinating, and incredibly beautiful.