Archive for the 'dialogue' Category

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spring cleaning

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finally….springtime…i do not know about you, but for me spring just does not come quite quick enough….spring brings hope and promise and well, just warmer weather is just fine with me….and spring is just the time to clean house….throw out all the junk one accumulates over the winter…both physical and psychological ….time for us to begin anew….this spring brings challenges for all of us….with the lovely green of spring , this year brings us to face a world where we might all just have to do with less….

wherever i go now photographers are flat out scared…fearful of the future….businesses are closing down everywhere…magazine circulations have dropped leaving little money for assignments, galleries are not selling as before,  advertising agencies no longer have big budgets for photography, and newspapers are cutting their photo staffs drastically, if not going out of business entirely….i do not know one single professional photographer who is not affected by our global financial crises….

at the very same time i see amazing work being done…one way or another, the best will thrive in the long run….photographers and agencies who can move with stealth will move forward…those with too much overhead will have to do serious “spring cleaning” in order to survive….this is our new reality…

as i start now to look through the 1,029 entries that came in for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant, i am so so impressed with the  high standard of work being done by so many….a truly staggering tour de force of worthy work was submitted to me here on BURN…..to choose only one seems right off the top  somehow unfair, since i would so love to help so many more…..i am not the chooser, and i am pleased to not be the chooser of the recipient for this grant because i would be very hard pressed to make a decision among so many worthy photographers…i will do all i can to at least give those who do not receive this funding at least as much opportunity as i can give them with some solid exposure here on our forum in the coming months…

do i see a solid future for these emerging photographers as we go through these difficult times?? of course i do…hard times befall almost every generation…and harder times than these to be sure….now is just the time to share…band together…for mutual benefit and creative growth….and we must all throw away what we do not need which is historically what led the citizens of Valencia, Spain (above) to create the spring Fallas…

so many photographers and so few resources to finance them as professionals will lead many to search for other sources of income….however, the true visionaries will do just fine….and it has always been so…..

how do you see it??  bad times, or just time to clean house???


Published on April 4, 2009 by david alan harvey. 646 Comments

going to school….

NYU’s Department of Photography & Imaging announces a new program in photography and human rights in partnership with the Magnum Foundation

The Department of Photography and Imaging in the Kanbar Institute of Film and Television at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, has announced a new partnership with the Magnum Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to supporting documentary photography, to create a new certificate program in Photography and Human Rights. The new initiative, comprising four courses offered in two successive summers, is designed to explore strategies to create effective documentary projects linked with issues of human rights.

“We are delighted to be able to partner with the Magnum Foundation to offer this important new program,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, dean of the Tisch School of the Arts. “The role of photography in the global struggle for basic human rights has never been more important than it is today. Experience demonstrates that one image can make all the difference. This program’s emphasis will be on the relevance of human rights law to documentary work, and how the photographer can develop projects that aid in the attainment of those basic rights.”

The program is aimed at intermediate and advanced students, including experienced professionals, who seek to hone their documentary and media skills in the context of human rights. Students will be taught to utilize a variety of media approaches while emphasizing new digital possibilities to create maximum social impact. Each course is four weeks in length and will be offered over two successive summers, beginning May 18, 2009. Students may choose to take the courses for credit or non credit.

Faculty for the program will include: Magnum photographers Susan Meiselas and Gilles Peress, digital media specialists Catherine Fallon and Elizabeth Kilroy, adjunct professor and human rights specialist Peter Lucas, and program director and associate chair of Photography & Imaging, Fred Ritchin, among others.

Concurrent with the program, the Magnum Foundation will organize lectures and film screenings on issues relating to documentary work and human rights that feature a variety of work, including projects by Magnum photographers.

For more information on this program, please visit http://photo.tisch.nyu.edu or call 212-998-1930. For more information about The Magnum Foundation, please visit http://www.magnumfoundation.org. To enroll in the course, please visit http://www.nyu.edu/summer/2009/summerny/enroll.html.

The Department of Photography and Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts is a four-year B.F.A. program centered on the making and understanding of images. Students explore photo-based imagery as personal and cultural expression. Situated within a university, the program offers students both the intensive focus of an arts curriculum and a serious and broad grounding in the liberal arts. The faculty and staff consist of artists, professional photographers, designers, critics, historians, and scholars working from a wide range of perspectives and media.

Launched in 2007, The Magnum Foundation works to bring over half a century of historical and iconic photography to the public and to encourage the work of a new generation of independent photographers.

Published on March 31, 2009 by david alan harvey. 111 Comments

emerging photographer grant

The deadline for the Emerging Photographer Fund grant is officially moved to April 1, 2009….

This is a two week extension from the original March 15 deadline date….

The Emerging Photographer Fund is a $10,000 grant to be awarded to a photographer to continue  a personal body of work….

Initiated by BURN , the EPF operates under the non-profit status of the Magnum Cultural Foundation .

Details for applying for  this grant can be viewed in the upper right hand corner of BURN….

Finalists will be announced on or before  May 1, 2009. The recipient of this grant will be announced on or before  June 1, 2009..

PLEASE  do not send private e-mails regarding this grant nor ask procedural questions on your entry submitted through Photoshelter. The high volume of entries makes it impossible for me to answer.

If you follow the very simple guidelines for entry,  your work  will be received and viewed and considered carefully.

You may ask any last minute questions of me right HERE in the comments box….


-david alan harvey

Published on March 9, 2009 by david alan harvey. 208 Comments

times and timing…

i have been suggesting recently that it might be easier for discussion here if all comments came under Dialogue…this seems to be the right time to give it a try….as with all things, it is timing, timing and timing….

when i read Laura El Tantawy’s comment under the Chiara Tocci “selected single”, it seemed perhaps this was the right time to publish her essay “Fervent Spirits” which has been “sitting on my desk” now for awhile….i have closed  comments directly under her essay , but i am wishing that  it works for all of you to simply comment on Laura’s essay right here, and comment on the two singles by Chiara Tocci and Stephen Burrows in the context of a “whole”….after all, they seem quite related….

certainly history and the results of history play into everything we do and all that we believe to be true….truth is the mantra of journalists, but i think we can see clearly that there are many ways to unlock our minds and our vision and  to accept the myriad of styles and juxtapositions a photographer might employ to get to the meat of history via the present….

we are bombarded daily with news…”breaking news”…pretty hard to keep up….television does not give us much time to think things through despite the incredible advantage of being in the NOW…however, our “stills”craft does allow for reflection….this is not to take away at all from those who devote their lives to bringing us daily knowledge of world events….journalists pay with their own blood almost everyday in this pursuit..but, here we have something else…a certain poignancy of  “behind the scenes”…..the results of history, the effects of politics and , of course, religious context  always (against it’s own will ) becomes embroiled in both…

my questions for you are  simple…..does “news” affect the way you think about history or do you prefer written “think pieces” to help you shape your thoughts??  is photography just in it’s infancy as a language and can it editorialize the way words do??  do photographs which exist only because of their historical context help us coalesce our collective conscience and “sensitize” us to help us move into a new day???

Published on March 3, 2009 by david alan harvey. 699 Comments

clear eyes…

i read carefully all of your comments on our last two essayists, Michael Christopher Brown and James Chance….both received almost unanimous “thumbs up” votes from the readers here on the essays presented…both are working in the documentary style of “bearing witness”, and yet this seems to be a good time to point out how quite different are these two fine photographers….

first i would suggest that Mike created his own narrative out of simply his own desire to make an essay out of Sakhalin…there was no inherent or obvious “story” to be told….there was no editorial reason for an editor to jump up and say “yes, let’s do a story on Sakhalin”…it would not be number one on the IMPORTANT  list…but alas, the essay succeeds quite simply because Mike decided to do it…period….Mike made it important…..and he used his approach and his visual authorship to create a mood and a  “style” and  because of the power of the “vision” itself , a story has been told…

this is quite different from James, who had  a “built in subject” in editor’s parlance…..tell an editor that you have found a place where people live in a cemetery and eyebrows automatically raise….the subject is obvious…James just might pique your curiosity about the Manila cemetery even before you have seen picture number one….we are shocked automatically  because of the subject matter…period…the “story” is not created by James’ vision , but by the nature of the topic at hand….this is not to say that James was not “seeing”, but i think you can see the wide difference from an editor’s point of view…..

James photographed something that was THERE….Mike photographed something that was in his HEAD…i could easily imagine so many different approaches to the cemetery that would work, because no matter what there are people living in tombs…interesting by nature….i could also easily imagine many a photographer going to cold stoic  Sakhalin and coming back with absolutely nothing….in other words, it really takes a photographer with a point of view and a real “look” to pull of a Sakhalin style essay…and it takes a good journalist to create the multi-media piece James gave us…both totally valid..

James used pictures to TELL a story…..Mike used photographs to MAKE the story….

when editors at magazines choose one photographer over another for an assignment, these are things they think about…who is going to do THIS story best?  some stories are suited for one photographer, while others would be best done by someone else…in “movie speak” this is called “casting” and this  is not much different in photoland…matching photographer to subject and the expectations of results is what “assigning” is all about….if you were an editor, would you send James to Sakhalin and Mike to the cemetery?  do you think both would do great essays in both places?  hmmmm, something to ponder for sure….they of course would both be “good” if they traded places, but a magazine editor might think long and hard about this one…

now these are subjects that i have discussed at great length with both men…i have had the opportunity to sit down in person with James Chance on several occasions to edit cemetery , so he knows what i think….the same for Mike Brown…we edited Sakhalin at my apartment just before i published….both men studied photography at almost the same time from the same university and with the same teachers….Ohio University has over the years been a leader in producing talent for newspapers and magazines…and is probably the largest rival school for the famed University of Missouri….both schools go competitevly neck and neck with a long list of very successful graduates ….i have no doubt that both James and Mike will be two photographers on the “A” list for top editors to choose, despite their differences……who gets chosen for what will be interesting to see…

so i have a question for all of you, albeit oversimplified for the purpose of discussion…..

do you see yourself as a photographer who needs a strong clear subject in front of you in order to work,  or do you prefer to “invent” the concept in your head and carve interesting photographs out of “nothing” ???

Published on February 23, 2009 by david alan harvey. 336 Comments

one month BURNing…

one of the worst ideas i have ever had was starting BURN three days before Christmas!!  what a bad idea….but, when i get passionate about something, it is hard to hold me back….so, thus it was that BURN was launched just as i was getting on an airplane and heading for Colorado to see my mother who has no internet modum…..hmmmm, and i am here to help emerging photographer’s think??  well, please know that i do not always do the right thing…however, here we are and i just want to take a minute to take stock….

first of all, i want to thank the readers here for submitting so much work for publication on BURN…some of you may not realize, but so far,  all of the work published on BURN has come from you….and this morning i was looking at what we have ready to roll and the next weeks and months are going to be exciting indeed….at first, i was really worried about having daily updates on BURN…i could not imagine it…now, i could do two posts per day easy !!  we have lots of content coming in and “the bar” is going to get higher and higher …

the internet audience is indeed a fickle one and an impatient one as well….you have so many choices out there and you want what you want NOW….i get that, but i also ask you to be a little bit patient with BURN…i was getting judged after 6 days, when i could see that to really “get” BURN ,in all of its manifestations, would take 6 months….one sentence is not a paragraph and one paragraph is not a book….i surely would not want to be judged on my first 6 days of anything…..photo essays or relationships or anything!!  but, i will take the criticism because this  is fair enough…i have put myself “out there”, so that is just the way it goes…so expect more flaws, but expect some revelations as well…

i mean, BURN right now is just me editing, writing etc and Anton Kusters managing most of the tech stuff….i have been in about three locations since BURN started and Anton has been in either Belgium or Japan…so, neither of us can possibly get any sleep because of the time zones…and both of us are shooting as well…sitting by a computer editing is not what i envision for life…i am a working photographer and i will stay a working photographer….my number one priority photographically is my next book….and i hope you will see that this is important for me to be a photographer first and an editor second…but, my work is not published here on BURN…..yours is…..and that is the way it will be..

my choices for essays and singles are just that…my choices….choice comes from either something i really really like  OR  photographs that i think will invite discussion….and there is certainly no lack of discussion!!  i like photojournalism….i like conceptual photography….frankly, i like whatever is truly compelling….again, the work published here has come from the pool of submissions from you, or from photographers i have mentored online or in workshops…..i was thinking at first to cast a wider net and i will  do that  too, but things are coming in so fast and the essays are getting so good, that it is a full time job just to view it all….

plus, we will start soonest the “Work in Progress” section for  developing essays…i will take on 5 new photographers for this and work with them a month or so and then select 5 more…i predict many of you will be hanging around “Work in Progress” over all other sections…i will continue to profile  so called iconic photographers as a way of mixing it all up on the same pages…not only Magnum photographers as some would expect, but photographers from all agencies , galleries , etc etc…this is my nature…i do this in my workshops…my student show always follows the show of one of the greats…this honors say an Alessandra Sanguinetti or a Eugene Richards, but gives a special cred to the emerging photographers who will soon become the “greats”….this is my whole point of mentoring….to discover the next great photographer OR to provide a meaningful way of making photography an integral  part of your life…

your ideas and your work are BURN…..i am just a moderator….BURN may be likened to “talk radio”…participation is the message….as you know , i have ideas for funding beyond the Emerging Photographer Fund grant….to give some of you the funding you need to finish your projects and ideally to create from “scratch” content specific for  BURN…it would seem that  a financial recession would not be the ideal time to do this…i think the opposite…sponsors are looking to the net…content is king….for a fraction of what sponsors are spending now, we can give them THE place to be…..and photographers rights are always paramount in my mind and my life philosophy….

if you tap into your passion, if you create something special,  and if that appears here, then indeed the audience will become the producers……we have a chance for the ultimate collaboration…a chance to invent something…joining something can be terrific…inventing something is the ultimate…

your thoughts???


Published on January 24, 2009 by david alan harvey. 308 Comments

Steve McCurry

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there is probably no photographer alive with quite as recognizable a photograph as the Afghan Girl by Steve McCurry….maybe just maybe he is rivaled a bit by Dennis Stock’s image of James Dean walking through Times Square…i would have to think about that one, but both images can be seen hanging in the finest art museums as well as faded torn copies hanging just over the bartender’s shoulder all over the world…i wish i had taken pictures of all the places i have seen the Afghan Girl…and the paintings and sketches derived from it…EVERYBODY knows this picture….

originally published by National Geographic Magazine in 1985, Steve’s icon graced the cover …the most famous cover shot of all time….obviously it is the EYES that just kill us….stop us dead in our tracks….and even though i have seen this photograph thousands of times in the last 25 years, i still have to stop and take a look….photographically it is just a simple portrait…..taken straight on in just flat light (in a refugee tent)….there is nothing so remarkable about the picture, until her gaze simply bores a hole into your heart….

i meet many a young entry level photographer for whom Steve McCurry is certainly their favorite photographer….his work is clean, straightforward, features dramatic color , and has a clear journalistic sensibility…Steve says of the Afghan Girl, “not a day has gone by in the last 25 years when someone does not ask me about this picture”….

i asked Steve if his fame for this picture was any kind of artistic burden (in the way “Satisfaction” might be for Mick Jagger)…he said “absolutely not”……enough said….Steve continued ” I love what I am doing and just want to keep doing it”….and for those of us who know Steve , we know that nobody never stops working like Steve never stops working…..all of the photographers i know are pretty much fanatical workaholics, but all of us look lazy compared to Steve…..the guy does not stop….ever!!

i recently photographed Steve in Union Square (below) and he has the same impish chuckle that he has had all of the years i have known him … besides being one of the world’s great photographers, i count Steve as a good friend…long before i moved to New York, Steve allowed me the use of his apartment many times as a crash pad…..and i am sure many of you already know that Steve’s  cover shot for the Magnum book on 9/11 of the crumbling Trade Center tower was made from this very rooftop…..

there is no way to imagine where Steve will go next…..but, wherever it is, we can count on something uniquely McCurry…

Steve will be on line from time to time in the next 12 hours to answer your questions….


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INDIA  1984

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KABUL,  AFGHANISTAN  2002


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Steve McCurry                                                                                                                                           Union Square , New York City 12/08


www.stevemccurry.com


Published on January 19, 2009 by david alan harvey. 194 Comments

goodbye andy

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Andrew Wyeth                                                                 July 1917 - January 2009


every once in awhile you meet someone who really kicks you in the gut….has a lasting influence ……someone you know is just a little more special than everyone else…. sure, all men are created equal, but some seem  more equal than others….

the minute i met Andrew Wyeth , i knew he was such a man….or , should i say in reality, a child…..or childlike at best…..impish, precocious, a prankster, and having zero sense of the so called “real world”, Andy struck me immediately as an artist who lived in his own self made world….and that is what he painted…he painted his imagination….he painted the world around him in Chads Ford , Pennsylvania ….mostly landscapes with characters from his “real life” (neighbors, friends, family) thrown in because those were the folks he knew…. Andy did not venture far from home….he saw no need….

back in the early nineties i had an assignment from National Geographic to photograph Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s foremost painters…..i convinced the editors i needed to shoot this story in black & white… my reasoning was that the Wyeth paintings, which would certainly dominate the article, were so monochromatic that anything i did in chrome color of Wyeth and his family would clash on pages of the magazine….so with my M6 and some Tri-X i set out to photograph the man who everyone said did not want to be photographed…..it was reported that he absolutely hated to have his picture taken…and so he did….in my several weeks of befriending the Wyeth family i quite literally do not have more than a few rolls of film with Andy actually in the frame….the rest of the family yes, Andy no …..even when my son Bryan and i managed to get invited to the Wyeth family Thanksgiving dinner, Andy remained shy… friendly, but avoiding being photographed at every turn….and his mystery subject, and neighbor,  Helga Testorf had never been photographed by anyone, ever (please note the Helga Paintings)…..my skills as a photographer were totally secondary to the skills necessary to try to get “inside” and just make any kind of photograph at all of the elusive Wyeth….

shooting Wyeth almost made me feel like a “paparazzi” of sorts….i always wait ….waiting is what i do…but, waiting for Andy Wyeth was well beyond anything i had ever experienced before….at some point i realized Andy was playing with me…he wanted to see how i would react to his elusive nature….he was testing me ….he wanted to see how bad i really wanted my pictures… so, i was bound and determined not to give up…never show frustration….never complain…and never go away either!!!

some days i would be invited to his studio….well, sort of….i had to wait outside in an empty room…for hours in an empty room….. i waited… trying to imagine what in hell he was thinking leaving me outside with absolutely nothing to do but HOPE that at some point he would invite me all the way in  to the “inner sanctum”….. one day when i was just about to go crazy (and the editors at Natgeo were wondering when i was going to take some pictures), Andy came out and started showing me some toy soldiers he had sitting in the window (he collected toy soldiers)….at that moment ,  off to the side,  suddenly  there was standing shyly  the heretofore un-photographed Helga…she would not come near Andy  or me and was just barely barely barely in the frame if i “slammed” Andy way to the left and her way to the right…there was no time for good composition , or to think, or to play with light, or anything at all…it was just “take the friggin picture Harvey”….. i took two frames and she was gone….. i mean gone…..

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after several weeks, an eternity , i did manage to have enough photographs of Andrew Wyeth and his family for a piece in the magazine….and in the process Andy befriended me….i swear i only because he saw me as a bit playful myself…and he did hang one of my photographs i had brought as a gift on  his living room wall….

at 91 Andrew Wyeth died yesterday morning….right there at home where he belonged….with his family and neighbors gathered around….Andy did not get the recognition as an artist that some felt he deserved….he was not hip…not “cool” at a time when the “other Andy” (Andy Warhol) was the darling of the jet set and the elite social New York art critics….but frankly, i do not think Andy himself cared much one way or the other….he lived the life of an artist…and he painted exactly what he wanted ….on his own time and in his own way….

in my mind now  i see Andy as a young boy,  running across those farm fields he loved… hmmmm, is Andy really gone, or is he just playing a trick on us and hiding in the barn???


-David Alan Harvey

Published on January 17, 2009 by david alan harvey. 48 Comments

visions for 2009

David Alan Harvey Photograph © Robert ClarkVISIONS 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


Published on January 1, 2009 by david alan harvey. 288 Comments

welcome to Burn…

now , this feels strange…

why??

i just cannot tell you…for one thing i felt more than  a little bit of sentiment as i closed down “road trips” and our old blog platform…i mean, we all hung out there for almost two years and she served us well…we all made new friends , got a lot of work done and, well moving out of an old house and into a new one always leaves one with mixed feelings…

however, i feel we will easily continue our community  here…the most obvious thing  is that you will now have a real venue…a place to be published….and with many more watching than you may realize…it will take us some time before we will have a significant amount of content of yours up, but that really is just a matter of  YOU getting us material we request…

there is a new e-mail for you under “submissions”…this will be used primarily for you to submit for our ever changing “selected photographs”…..

instructions will come soonest for  how “work in progress” will be applied…basically, i will take on up to 5 photographers as a special mentored group….just as i have mentored online  with Patricia, Panos, and Rafal …..we will use PhotoShelter as a place to “hang” , edit your stories etc…

“photographic essays” will be the place for final finished stories, text, videos etc etc..this will be THE  place to aspire as well as will “selected photographs” which may change daily in the very near future…your .”photographic essays” will be on the “front page” for probably one week each and will always be easily accessible…these essays will also evolve….for example, “Sugar” could end up with a video component at some future point as could Patricia’s “Falling Into Place” and so on…

the nature of our forum has always been like a darkroom print in the developing tray…we have always watched the print develop so to speak…our new Burn will be no exception….

if you do not see your name on the “photographic essays” to come list, do not despair….i know there are several others coming…some are just more ready than others….you know who you are, so get your material together please!!!!

yup , Anton has his story up first….damn right…the boy deserves to be up first (please DO NOT MISS THE RED BUTTON right hand corner for full screen viewing and turn your speakers up)…for one thing, he and i have been working nonstop for days and days…..there is no time of day  or night when Anton has not been available for my questions and has not been willing to work and to tweak things out…plus, i  just love starting with “Sugar” …..Birgit is a light burning bright….inspiration for us all….

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concept and photograph by Patricia Lay-Dorsey








Published on December 21, 2008 by david alan harvey. 323 Comments

who is this??

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the man is a teddy bear….a family man…he would much rather talk about his teenage daughter Nina and French wife Sophie than about photography…honesty is his best policy…. you never never have to worry about what he “really thinks”…i live in Brooklyn…..but, Bruce Gilden is Brooklyn….

many think Bruce “attacks”…i do not know this for sure, but i am imagining Bruce has had a least one of his subjects “attack back”…but, Bruce and i are as much on the “same page” as anyone i know in Magnum …we surely have opposite personalities and ways of working, yet we have exactly the same “code” for life regarding fairness, transparency, and family….

Bruce is now working on a project on foreclosures in the U.S….a hardball look at one of the primary reasons for the financial collapse in America and the folks who “lost it all”…

his new Magnum in Motion digs in deep and gives us a vision of a side of this country that most ignore…

when Bruce went to Florida for the opening series on foreclosures, he showed us a certain kind of sympathy that i just do not recall in his previous work…

my first impression of Bruce came with his book on “Coney Island”…then “Haiti”, then “Go”….i thought Bruce harsh , but irresistibly fascinating…and funny…i can never take my eyes off of Bruce’s pictures even though i might feel a bit guilty for “intruding”, even as the viewer….if Bruce appears somewhat cynical with his work , when you know him personally , he is more “realist” than cynic….there is a difference…..the man’s work reveals a part of his personality, but not all…there is a straight up kindness in Bruce Gilden..and nobody but nobody has a better sense of humor…

please keep your eye out for Bruce’s continued work with foreclosures….anybody can smell a book in the making…

i am only hoping that i do not become one of his subjects…..

Published on December 17, 2008 by david alan harvey. 54 Comments

teaser…..

Burn3

nothing happens until it happens , but things are happening…cracking, buzzing, and yes burning bright…we will launch soonest a working model of BURN magazine (or journal or??)….the house will not be finished…we still need to  get in the wiring and plumbing and it will be a long time before all the furniture is chosen and the interior is decorated and we all feel "at home"…but, at least you will have a sense of it….and you will have a "place at the table"….

i must right now thank Anton Kusters for his tireless efforts working on design and function…the boy flew all the way from Brussels to spend four days here sleeping on my floor…..in the next sleeping bag was Tom Hyde and tossing and turning on the sofa was Chris Bickford…my place looked like a homeless shelter rather than a home for a  wellspring of  ideas…reminiscent of my grad school days or some version of a camping out road trip….

all i can say is that i was totally humbled by all of the hard work from Tom Hyde(flew from Seattle), Eric Espinosa  (flew from Cincinnati), Erica McDonald, Andrew Sullivan, David McGowan, and Andrew Owen from Look3..and i will never forget Kelly Lynn James who gets total credit for suggesting BURN as a title…many  thanks to all of you who wrote, phoned in, and sent constructive emails..but, it ain't over yet….

today and tomorrow i must attend our Magnum board meeting…our winter interim gathering of the tribe…who would have ever thought i would be on any "board", but well life has its twists…i might be able to get an interesting post out of it , but in the meantime all of you will have time to chew on this…..

oh yes, if you are in New York, we have our annual Magnum book signing at Aperture tonight…please join us…

back soonest…..

Published on December 15, 2008 by david alan harvey. 134 Comments

how will we finance BURN ???

Burn-tees

Published on December 13, 2008 by david alan harvey. 118 Comments

live from the Kibbutz….

some of you might be interested in what is going on right now in my loft…the assembled below are gathered at my space to help make some decisions on the future of our forum…we are buzzing buzzing on the potential of an online magazine..so many good ideas (and a few bad ideas) are zipping around the room…

we are interested right now in any input you may have….very soon we will be working on all the titles you so kindly suggested….and i think we have a nice clean design that will set up selected essays in the most special way and will also include a “behind the scenes” or “the making of” element that so many will find invaluable…

you will now have about four or five  hours to make comments…to me, or to anyone you see below….we should be able to have at least a pretty decent preliminary site within a week or two..or maybe sooner..

i cannot believe that Anton Kusters  flew here from Belgium, Tom Hyde from Seattle, Eric Espinosa from Cincinnati …i also cannot believe we stayed up ’til 4am for a pre-meeting meeting….and this was air mattress/sleeping bag  central around here last night…

please ask us some questions..give us your thoughts….we will respond immediately…..

Burning session

Erica McDonald, Andrew Sullivan, Chris Bickford, Tom Hyde, Anton Kusters, Eric Espinosa and on screen via webcam,  David McGowan

Published on December 11, 2008 by david alan harvey. 242 Comments

tonight…..

Trolley_ny_xmas

nobody loves books more than Gigi Giannuzzi….he loves them so much that he publishes instinctively and without any thought of "commercial appeal"…he does not do "readership tests"….he goes by his gut and then scrambles like a madman to try to sell enough of his little masterpieces to be able to go on to the next….

Gigi claims he was "conceived in Sicily,  born in Rome, and never grew up in Turin"..if you know Italians, Gigi pretty much has it covered..Trolley Books, his mastermind and "baby" has for ten years created quite a stir in the publishing world…"unconventional wisdom" comes to mind when i think of Gigi….and his authors form a prestigious list..

Philip Jones Griffiths, Carie Levy, Stanley Greene, Nina Berman, Deirdre O'Callaghan, Tom Stoddart, Alex Majoli, Paolo Pellegrin,  and Alixandra Fazzina just to name a few…please go to: trolleybooks.com to see Gigi's entire lineup of artists and titles….

you may not find Trolley Books everywhere….like many fine objects, you have to look to find…and Gigi is the first to recount the trials and frustrations of the book publishing world….if you wanted to go into a business , you would not try to make photo book publishing your business…nope, only love gets you to do what he does…

last night Gigi slept on my sofa…but, not for long….he stayed up late and got up early..my kind of guy!! tonight in my loft will be presented the above listed shows and the new books will be here and some of the authors as well…Gigi always comes to New York right before Christmas to launch his books…and i suppose it is "my turn" to help him do this…like all of us in this business, we do indeed get by with a little help from our friends….

tonight will be just the kind of event i like to have in my space…like minded folks looking at pictures…in addition to the listed slide shows, there will be others…i will show Anton Kuster,  "Sugar"; Patricia Lay-Dorsey, "Falling Into Place";  and Bob Black, "Bones"…

this event came up at the last minute , and i just do not have powerful music slide shows for some of you who do indeed have books near completion…but, please please do not feel left out if you are not being shown tonight….there will be other times, other venues….any of you who i am mentoring now for a book to be published, please be assured that i will get you in front of the right publisher at the right time…i think you already know this…

if you love books, buy one from Trolley…do i sell books?? no, of course not…but , i do know that photographers should always buy other photographers books…i remember Eugene Richards telling me years ago, that if photographers all bought each others books, then the circle would be unbroken…i think this is true…

Hannah Watson, Managing Editor of Trolley, just told me that if you send her an e-mail saying that you are part of my forum, she will give you a 40% discount on any Trolley books…hannah@trolleybooks.com  ….

ok, that is about as close as i ever get to selling anything…but, you know what?  i will stand by Trolley…these are special books from special photographers…..you will not be disappointed…

if you are in New York, come and meet Gigi's and some of his authors tonight…after all my friends, you could be one of them someday…

Gigi 

GIGI GIANNUZZI        FOUNDER/PUBLISHER        TROLLEY BOOKS

Published on December 9, 2008 by david alan harvey. 104 Comments

plans….

meetings are not really my thing….a career in photography has afforded me a natural escape from meetings…looking at graphs, flow charts, cost projections, etc etc. is  generally better than a sleeping pill for me…if i start snoring, just roll me over!!

however, i have called a meeting..what is my world  coming to when i am the one who actually organizes a meeting??  this meeting is a meeting of the minds…at my apartment this thursday…things have been brewing behind the scenes for awhile regarding our new site forthcoming …the amount of input  recently by Anton Kusters, Tom Hyde, David McGowan, Kerry Payne, Marie Arago, and Pete Marovich and wife Jenny Jones, humbles me beyond belief…these forum members and friends have gone way way beyond the "call of duty" to help design a new looking, interactive "magazine" of which i believe we are all going to be most proud…

if any of you will be in New York on thursday and want to participate, please let me know…and even without actually being here , i will be expecting thoughts from you…i think it is too early to actually launch a full blown regularly updated online magazine with all of its ramifications, but what we will soon have will at least be the first stage…it will certainly "look like" an online magazine…whether or not we actually go on to a serious active online magazine remains to be seen…there are so many factors to consider, not the least of which is the time and manpower it takes to produce one…not only from the "editing team" which would be required, but from all of you as potential photo essayists…

Emerge-0-logo-mini-color-palette

Kerry Payne (a very astute lurker) must have spent days creating a brilliant potential business plan and our Anton Kusters (above and below design/ graphics) has gone beyond the beyond  as our web design guru..David McGowan is on the case designing  a print version….Marie Arago is working non-stop creating a special web page for our workshop student essays…. and the advice from Pete Marovich and  Jenny, who both previously created an online magazine, American Journal,  is so well taken…Tom Hyde, whose career is in publishing,  has researched every online magazine out there and if he sends me one more link i will go crazy!!!  you guys are just the best!! many many thanks…..by the way, both Tom and Anton will be sleeping on my floor (air mattresses) , both flying thousands of miles just for this meeting…

we have assembled here on our forum  quite a team of photographers and writers…and unlike some other online magazines,  i would envision some truly creative text essays to be just as important as the photographic essays….in theory, people are not supposed to enjoy reading on line…i would have been an antagonist myself…but,let's see if that is true…in any case, i want to give it a try….

right now, i need everyone's help on just one thing….a title….what do we call our online magazine??

David McGowan came up with Emerge…this  is the best title we have so far..can anyone better that one?

All of you who produce fine photographic essays are going to have one really nice place to show your work, IF that work is of the highest standards…this will NOT be a site where anyone can randomly post any picture or essay…there are already a plethora of such sites and they are terrific for what they are……..but right here, we will have a  carefully curated/edited  photographic and literary forum…quality content will reign supreme…

kindly  give us your best title thoughts….and please stay tuned….

Emerge-1

Published on December 7, 2008 by david alan harvey. 197 Comments

basic instinct….

Basic instict 2

i feel the bar band drumbeat beat shaking the floor and it flows through my body up from my toes… so i slide in close…physically close, in their space… total strangers …and somehow quickly, inexplicably , become "one" with them….for a few moments i am "transported"…they do not know me..i have not spoken to them…and yet, an instant  "relationship" has been established and  exists in real time and space , but only for a precious minute or less…but, i know something is "happening"…

we have written a lot here about being the "fly on the wall" and not being "noticed" when photographing people…. and then we have also spoken much about  the other extreme… the  making of  long term friendships/relationships associated with any truly extended photo essay involving interaction with people over the long haul…

but what about the intermediate interconnection???    the "fast hookup" , photographically speaking….where circumstances allow us to move quickly into situations that  might have otherwise seemed impossible…this sort of "speed shooting" is most likely to happen at events, fiestas, weddings and parties…places not likely to cause alarm at someone with a camera…generally friendly atmospheres from the get go…

yet there is still a "ballet" for doing this type of shooting….and how to move confidently but politely is the key to moving in fast..

i was in a live music bar with some of my weekend seminar students the other night in Venice Beach…i had spoken with the owner, so my students had clear permission to shoot freely…it was an alcohol enhanced assemblage of the "best and brightest" from the Venice Beach boardwalk scene  where total strangers who can barely talk from over imbibing  want to rattle off their life bio..my oh my, everyone wants  to be "famous" here one way or the other…very annoying…nevertheless these folks do not mind being photographed….that is, if you do it the right way…

i held back from shooting right away, just to watch my students work…what struck me was how tentative they tended to be and how quickly they would turn away from what i saw as picture opportunities…they would "lose interest" quickly or just not anticipate that what was going on in front of them, albeit "temporarily boring", was about to turn into a true "photo op"…still they were having fun and doing well and it was great fun to be shooting "side by side" with them….this was all happening after our final slide show and we were not "officially gathered"..

so, rather than go in and coach each student, which i had already been doing for two days , i decided to move in a make a few photographs for myself…just for fun..no project intended…right after i made the photograph above,  one of my students, Dallas,  told me she learned more from watching me shoot  than in the entirety of presentations in the classroom…i could not have been "on" for more than a minute or two …fast in, fast out…..

i was not aware of doing anything unusual,but she told me she could not believe how i moved in so close so quickly  to the dancing, beer drinking young women… they seemed to be totally aware of me, yet unusually tolerant as well…later, when talking to my students during our after the shoot let's get a beer and talk it all over meeting , i allowed a few observations….

how did i move so fast??? first, as i mentioned before , i was known by the owner from the day before…i had also earlier befriended the lead singer in the band, so standing almost on stage was not a problem …i made sure that i spoke to and shook hands with  the two or three customers who were front row to the band and in whose way i was standing ..i got their implied " permission"….most importantly,  i think the young women, who i am sure were not averse to being photographed anyway, were particularly accepting of my extreme aggressiveness because i think they could sense i was serious…i was obviously "in the zone" intent on doing something even though they surely could not imagine what that something was!!  this manifested itself in a nice hug (always welcome) by both young women after their dance  who i think realized  that we had all three  been in some kind of unidentified collaboration….but no questions asked…

obviously, i am the type of person/photographer who enjoys close contact, either attained quickly or after weeks of growing relationships…i do not think that is a mantra for  photographers at all…it just happens to be my way….so, i have a question for you…how large a role does "public relations" play in your work???  do you spend lots of time building rapport with your subjects, or do you prefer to be the more dispassionate objective observer???

      

Basic instinct 1

Published on November 24, 2008 by david alan harvey. 384 Comments

PATTAYA

Pattaya
Pattaya 2 Pattaya 4
Pattaya 5

                                                      Pattaya 3


a quick reading of comments under our previous post and you will note that our boys Marcin (with his wife Alex) and Herve are now in Pattaya, Thailand…a quick review of Herve's picture diary tells us they are having a good time ….i have re-posted Herve's photo links here for easier review….

several years ago i photographed a short essay on child abuse in Thailand, and most specifically shot in Pattaya…one of Herve's pictures appears to have been shot in EXACTLY  the same location  as one of mine above…small clues will reveal….

match the shot of Herve's with the shot of mine…..yes, of course, one of my old camera bags is the prize for the CORRECT ANSWER ….

nope, that is not the end of my little contest….a signed copy of "Living Proof" goes to the reader who now asks the CORRECT QUESTION…

Published on November 18, 2008 by david alan harvey. 141 Comments

lord of the ring…

story and photograph by Eric Espinosa

I met James a few months ago when starting the
"Lords of the Ring" project, a photo essay on the boxing tradition in
Cincinnati.  James was a young vibrant boxer coming from one of
Cincinnati's tough neighborhoods…the type of neighborhoods that offer little
chance for the present and even less of a future… James had started boxing
when he was 8 years old, following the footsteps of his father who was also a
local Cincinnati boxer.  Father and son had both started boxing at the
Nothside Boxing school, both coached over the years by the Falcone family, a
traditional welcoming "Italian" family that breathes boxing with again a father
and two sons all coaching young kids from the city like
James. 

James' father made it into the PROs with over 30
professional fights… James trained very hard to get there himself… His
father was always there with his coach, training him, pushing him, helping him
become the man he wanted to be…

But, unfortunately, a tragedy
happened.  3 weeks ago, James was shot dead in the middle of the
night…killed by 9 bullets at the age of 18… a senseless "assassination"…
Last Saturday, his friends and his father gathered prior to the start of a local
boxing tournament and, during a moment of silence, James was given the "10
count" by his coach, a tragic tradition which consists of ringing the bell 10
times to honor a fine boxer who has passed away. 

There are no words to
describe the sadness of this loss for his friends, family and coaches, the loss
of a strong young man who was determined to beat the odds and to make it out of
a neighborhood where just surviving seems already an achievement… Hopefully,
the few pictures that I took of James doing what he loved best, boxing, will
help us all remember James' short life forever, a life cut way way too
short….

JamesDavid

Published on November 10, 2008 by david alan harvey. 85 Comments

Obamatime…

in my last post, i implied that perhaps not all was right with the world….yesterday afternoon at this exact  time i was filled with apprehension as we drove across the mountain range that separates Oaxaca city from Puerto Escondido on the Pacific coast of Mexico…twists and turns in the steep mountain road presented at least three near death misses, probably the "normal" stats for a 6 hour drive on this particular road….

my fear however was not the winding Mexican road nor the seemingly out of control cars narrowly missing our van head on nor the fast failing brake system on our Chevy van ….but i was scared to death that Barack Obama would not win…of course i knew he was ahead in all of the polls, but i could not let myself get too excited nor project victory in my own mind…i was prepared for disappointment….i had cast my vote before leaving New York, but i was so so afraid that some who were enthusiastic about Obama would just not go to the polls….

our Oaxaca workshop crew, taking vacation to the beach, and having survived the trip; Anton Kusters, Marie Arago, Mike Courvoisier, Maya Joseph-Goteiner, and Michael Young , could not believe the text messages coming to us within an hour of our arrival in Puerto Escondido….Obama was THE MAN!!!  next President of the United States…we rushed around trying to find a television and saw Obama's acceptance speech and immediately ordered a round of celebratory tequilas…

Barack Obama cannot "save the world", and if any President must face a "twisting mountain road" it is Obama….but, at least some amount of pride must be shared by most Americans and hopefully by our international friends who have been so disappointed by many American foreign policy decisions in recent years…i have not felt proud of my country's leadership  for some time now , and we have a lot to do to restore at least some confidence in America, but i feel so so proud today that my countryman have chosen Barack Obama….

what does any of this have to do with our photography???  maybe nothing, maybe someting…strong leadership inspires people to go to work…to fix things….sacrifice perhaps…possibly put a "brick in the wall" ….some of you will use your work to promote "understanding" , to show wrongdoing or injustice, or  to send any kind of message of hope…we cannot "save the world" any more than can Barack Obama…

but, aren't things at least a little better than they were yesterday at this same time????

Published on November 5, 2008 by david alan harvey. 206 Comments