28 jan. Hoje é o aniversário de meu irmão. Ele passou quatro anos atrás e eu posso ver sua cara forte no seu glorioso trabalho. Estou trabalhando em um projeto semelhante ao seu focalizando os inquilinos de um hospício onde passou seus últimos dias. Eu aprendi muito durante os meus últimos seis meses cuidando do meu irmão. Seu trabalho me ensinou muito mais.

Valeu

Tim Ripley

I like very much your work, your portraits are very respectful, I feel quite their sadness and pain even if I do not see them… I did not know that the portugual was so touched by the disease…

all the best, audrey

It really should not come as a surprise that the same problems exist in developing and developed places: after all, we are all Human Beings and as such display the same hopes, fears and contradictions. In my opinion the key factors to access are empathy with your subject, time, that they can trust you, and a recognition by both parties of your common humanity. When this is in place, then you can photograph.

When we see some of the outstanding, milestone, photographic essays we may well wonder how the photographer got so close and so intimate with his or her subjects. The answer probably is, with great difficulty and at considerable cost to his or herself and family in terms of being apart and of experiencing the trauma that accompanies some essays. The reader can turn the page but the photographer must witness first-hand.

Good light Miguel,

Mike.

Yes, access is the key and it’s never easy. Building a rapport with trust on both sides is crucial. A Master of access must be Eugene Richards: how he manages to enter secret worlds such as drug abuse and knife-and-gun crime with such depth and sensitivity is amazing. And he gets to photograph inside the hospital!

David, how would you describe his work? Straight PJ but good straight PJ? I’m not demeaning anyone’s work here; it’s a term that David has used before and I’m just curious.

Best to all,

Mike.

you are thoughtful and articulate….i will try to make good use of you on BURN…soonest i will come up with a way for the readers here to participate in article writing as well as shooting…awhile back in my old blog we did discuss conflict photography, but it is always a good subject to bring up again since we have many new readers….it does definitely tie in with access in developing cultures and the rights of photographers to do what they do and the equal human rights of the subjects they photograph…

we are also going to have a series of weekend workshops in New York…in the spring when it warms up a bit…let’s stay in touch with each other on this…

cheers, david

clinics/hospices don’t really like to photographers in general because it’s happened that the photo has ended up in the local newspaper and doctors, social workers don’t want to break the patients trust. people go to these clinics because it offers them some level of privacy, some safety from others finding out and if they feel that having a photographer there is going to break that trust, then people wont even go to those clinics for treatment.

just some of my thoughts after reading a few of the above posts.

srinivas

My question about access was not meant to diminish anyone’s efforts. I was wondering if developed world bureaucracy adds another obstacle to be overcome e.g. you finally find someone brave enough to tell their story and you then have to get permission to photograph in a hospital etc.

I can’t imagine that photographing your subject (or anyone else) on a railway station in India would be a problem whereas taking a photograph at NYC Grand Central Station; especially using a tripod, is (I believe) a big no-no without a license. These are the kind of issues I am referring to.

Best wishes (and where is Panos?),

Mike.

Apologies for my not making New York earlier this month but I live in England – also, NYC was minus 6 degrees celsius and I don’t do minus 6 !! Maybe later in the year or even a workshop?

Please feel free to contact me at mrawcliffe@mac.com if I can assist in any way. Don’t worry, I won’t spam you.

Best wishes,

Mike.

Thank you, Miguel, for bringing Roober Fisk into this discussion. To my mind he is our time’s most truth-telling and historically-aware journalist. Before I visited my friends Rabih and Sulaima in Beirut, they recommended I read Fisk’s “Pity the Nation.” It helps to experience a new–to you–place and people within the context of their recent history. Robert Fisk gave me that context.

I also want to commend you for entering so actively into this discussion of your essay. By doing so you have brought it to life and deepened our understanding of why you created it. That enriches the work and its impact…

peace
Patricia

one of the reasons i was interested particularly in Miguel’s story was because it was done in the so called “developed West” (i do not like all these labels either)…i have never done an HIV story, but i do think in general, access for all kinds of stories is easier in the “developing” countries….this does bring up a whole new topic for discussion….please remind me to wrap a whole post around this issue….

cheers, david

Here’s a question for all who have any experience of the matter: do you find access to stories such as these easier in the Developing World (I don’t like the term but at least it is better than Third World – there is only one) than in the West (another separating term)?

Mike.