Comments on: anton kusters – as light shines on thy thigh https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Sat, 18 Jun 2016 08:45:32 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: anton kusters – eye of the beholder | burn magazine https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-120781 Fri, 18 Jan 2013 21:54:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-120781 […] – As Light Shines on thy Thigh […]

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By: coffee and tattoos by anton kusters | burn magazine https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-49549 Sat, 05 Sep 2009 15:47:41 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-49549 […] chapters: – Meet Soichiro – As Light Shines on thy Thigh – Eye of the […]

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By: as light shines on thy thigh « anton kusters https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-38369 Sun, 10 May 2009 21:06:21 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-38369 […] and on burn magazine, i will regularly provide visual and textual accounts of our […]

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36904 Mon, 27 Apr 2009 17:27:21 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36904 Kat

Sorry for not thanking you earlier for your response. It helps a whole lot and gives me a better idea about who you are.
I find it fascinating that you choose to go out “heat-seeking” and inter-acting with strangers on the street. This idea is completely foreign to me. My personal photographs are only of people who are part of my life in one way or another. I guess going out the way you do makes your subjects part of your life too.

What we all share is the compulsion to make images, and to use our cameras as an extension of our eyes, and memory to help us make sense of the world. Mirrors and windows and all that.

Give your favourite camera a little hug from me.

Gordon L.

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By: Kathleen Fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36060 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 19:52:13 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36060 Gordon

ohmygoodness, i was kidding you :);):)..Gordon you are so lovably earnest and polite. i kiss you!!! I do know what you mean though. Yesterday i was crawling home in traffic. i saw this photo and that photo and oh crap another photo and no camera. i finally made it home and grabbed two cameras and backtracked the same route and this time, nada..the light had changed and i just saw nothing. I made some half-hearted attempts at a few half-assed subjects but it wasn´t the same. That´s what happens when i go out in a car, kitted out for a safari and look for photos. heh.

Yes, the street is a whole ´nother story because i´m out heat-seeking life or something like it and of course anything can happen at any time and sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn´t. As far as privacy issues, etc. well, that´s a sticky wicket, no? I finally concluded (ok, rationalized) that we are filmed mercilessly and unsympathetically everywhere we turn, our faces and transactions archived who knows where and who knows for how long without anyone asking our permission so, well, so this is what i´m going to do.

As to why. hmm..I am documenting a time, a way of life, socialization, cultural and societal influences, etc. etc. all of it. I have always been fascinated by faces and have always loved seeing photos of people on the street, especially earlier in this century. I study them, scrutinize them for clues, hints, something/anything meaningful that sheds light on what came before. What if that photographer hadn´t been there at that moment, inspired by that scene? Well, i would have been deprived of the opportunity to learn something new. When i was a kid i wanted to be an archaeologist. To me, my photos are artifacts proving that we were here today, in this place, living like this, dressing like that, walking, talking..our hearts beat right here on this street on this day at this moment. Maybe someday it will give the same clues to a future generation that i have been fortunate to receive. As far as respecting the dignity of my subjects, well i´d like to reassure you and say i would never capture my subjects yawning or puking or kissing or looking dejected but i am democratically intrigued by the good, the bad and the ugly. I love babies in their parents´arms, skateboarders and cowboys and convicts and immigrants and rich snobs and ladies who lunch and fat taxi drivers gawking at the girls and drunks crooning an impromptu acapella on the corner, belting down guaro out of a coke bottle. Sometimes i ask permission, sometimes i don´t. Sometimes i shoot from the hip, sometimes i don´t. My one no-no is someone passed out on the street. They deserve their privacy. There but for the sake of God go i and i feel proitective of their vulnerability.

I really do not know if what i do is right or wrong. i do not know what i would do if i could never publish because of the potential for lawsuits. I have no agenda to be famous or rich or notorious. I just have no choice but to shoot what moves me the most and that is the landscape of the human face as it manifests itself to the rest of the world on the street.

I hope i answered your question but i probably just left you with even more questions, concerns, moral dilemmas. oh well..thanks for your friendship Gordon, it is always nice hearing from you, always a special part of my day.

best-
kat-

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By: panos Skoulidas ( protagoras ) https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36055 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:43:28 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36055 Btw..
ANTON..
keep it up…
One of my favorite movies is
the GODFATHER and SCARFACE..
Snoop is one my friends ..
Did Francis Copolla glamorized the MAFIA??
anyway..
As David said..
as long as you’re not getting “used” by the
subject for their promotion then you’re fine..
It’s a fine line and that makes your work more interesting..
Keep it up..
You chose a controversial subject..
Good for you and us..
Thank you…
:)))
( and honestly, living in LA for so many years I found way
More Honesty between the gangsters than the church going hypocrites..
Remember.. Even Jesus loved and embraced the Whores instead of the rich
Leica owner hypocrites…
Jesus loved WHORES..???
hmmm.. My kinda guy.. !!!!?)

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By: panos Skoulidas ( protagoras ) https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36053 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:34:18 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36053 GORDON..
totally agree..
You make sense 100%..
excellent point..
We have to “make” the photo in our head/soul first..

I also get KATHLEEN’s point..
Since she is doing “street”
photography it make sense for her to go out
Seeking for photos..
Because she already “decided” about her subject..
Same coin different sides..
(20 years ago I used to do the same thing..
Walking around hoping something extraordinary will happen..
and never happened because the extraordinary was happening
under my nose but I couldn’t really see it..
Sometimes I see photogs armed with 20 lenses and the latest autofocus
hoping they will “get ” the unexpected..
They don’t sense, no tactic, they don’t get involved neither anticipate..
No connection..
Just trigger happy..
Balloni..
Morning y’all from Orange County..
Shooting more families today..
:))))

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36048 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 15:48:36 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36048 Hey Kathleen

I know I did not state my thoughts in a very elegant way “it’s not enough”.

Way back in 1969 as a photo student I remmeber going out with three other students on sundays looking for photographs. We’d literally drive around all day, crammed into my Austin mini, without seeing anything to photograph.

We had no clear intent, no idea what the hell we wanted to say or why. We of course were all consumed with the mechanics of making the photographs. Mouths full of words and nothing to say. No agenda.

I don’t personally do street photography like yourself, but I’m sure that you have a pretty clear idea of why you are there, what you want to say, and have thought about the issues of being respectful of peoples privacy, personal space dignity etc etc etc. Actually I’d love to hear how you street shooters feel about all those issues.

The points I was so clumbsily trying to make was first, that the more clear our intent and focus are, the better likely are our photographs, and second, that moral issues are present no matter what we choose to photograph.

Makin’ any sense here Kat?

Gordon L

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By: Damon Coulter https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36044 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:22:32 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36044 Love the idea of this story, it is something every photographer in Japan would love to do but most cannot get such access. It is hard to express how much admiration I have for Anton and his brother for doing this, it is just about the most difficult thing you could do in Japan. yet this is a great story for the reason is it is all just so damn visual from tattooos to the glittering thighs of Kabukicho. Morals: you know what you believe and you will always believe but let`s not forget just as photographs of subjects we cannot know ourselves at intimately inform and mould our opinions of that subject the process of taking them must also do the same to the photographer. Perhaps Anton`s compass will shift, as it should when he learns things that he didn`t expect about the family and this life. I agree with Sidney that the Yakuza are over all not very nice people, but they are people nonetheless and they do have some humanity and they have their own morals and culture and if that exists alongside the grit and gore of criminality then it must be shown. Let`s not fool ourselves, japan is one of the most media savvy populaces on the planet of course the family have an agenda, they want legitmacy as David said: they have pride in their successes of their “business” and what we might find objectionable they find mudane. Even a veto of images will not hide all that and we know more than we think almost at a subconscious level, perhaps we cannot see the worst but we know it exists and if we see the “good” it will just make the unpleasant aspects more harshly lit, more ununderstandable thus raising questions about how this could happen that are the ones we need to ask. Damon

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By: Kathleen Fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36031 Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:43:29 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36031 Gordon:

” it’s not enough to just go out with a camera and start blasting away looking for “good” photographs”

It’s not? Ut-oh…

Funny you mention German, i actually thought about that a day or two ago..how German it is to put words together. Thanks for even reading what i write, let alone enjoying it :)..thanks she said~

Anton..

phew..glad you weren’t mad!

bestest
kat~

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By: anton https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36029 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 22:54:58 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36029 Thodoris –

you hit the nail right on the head there my friend… thanks for reading through all the comments :-)

cheers

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By: Thodoris Tzalavras https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36026 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 21:49:27 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36026 Just went through all the posts in this discussion.

Fascinating.
I find myself debating such issues in my head all the time, and even though these debates are an integral part of my mental process helping me understand what my motives are, why I’m interested in a certain subject, how I feel about it and dictate—to a point—my approach to it, I usually find myself in a closed loop. It’s hard to tell the winner when you fight yourself…

That’s why I’m always in awe of people who can break that loop and go out and actually try to do projects like the one Anton is doing.

So, thank you all for a really nice, insightful and thought-provoking late night read.

As for intentions, it’s hard enough trying to keep myself honest about them let alone figuring out someone else’s…

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-36010 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:44:54 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-36010 Kathleen

I just love the way you write, if you can’t find the right word you just invent one, German style.

Yes this has been a great discussion. I learn a lot here, often about myself.

No matter what kind of work we choose to do, be it commercial, landscape, erotica, street, all the way to the spectrum of documentary, we need to examine our motivations, our intent, and ask ourselves what it is we are hoping to achieve (and why). The moral issues are obviously more important in some genres than otheres, but still always present. I believe David Alan had a much more elegant way of stating all this though I can’t remmember it at the moment (‘cant seem to remmember much these days}.

It’s not enough to just go out with a camera and start blasting away looking for “good” photographs. Making photographs begins way before lifting the camera to your eye.

Anyway, gotta go make some photograhs

Gordon L.

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By: anton https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35992 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:30:43 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35992 all –

phew, i’ve just tried to discuss further a few of the topics brought up here, but it just takes me too long to write this up. and i have no time!!!

can i just say that i agree with all that has been said above, love the discussion, and that i’ll continue shooting the heck out of this project to be able to post a new image as soon as possible?

forgive me…. i’ve been writing up for over an hour now, and it’s so imperfect that it will spark so much more discussion… so i choose to agree and Walk the Walk instead

if you guys are ok with it of course :-)))

anton

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By: A civilian-mass audience https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35987 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:56:17 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35987 WHY??
I can stay on track.

LOVE U Anton. DAH is doing ok here…drink some J for me !!

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By: anton https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35984 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:45:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35984 kat –

no worries dear, i’d be quite surprised if us humans could even stay on track some of the time…

:-)

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By: Kathleen Fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35982 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:34:14 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35982 Anton

sorry..Ross and i sorta kinda did a joint hijacking of your thread..but we are very repentant..please forgive our thieving keystrokes! *bows head*..the Yakuza that made us do it.

gnight Anton..great project, waiting, waiting most patiently for the next installment!’

kat~

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By: anton https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35979 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 08:21:09 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35979 all –

just back in. many comments to read again, i’ll get started right away…

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By: Kathleen Fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35970 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:59:23 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35970 ahhhh Ross..

a very inspiring attitude..i am sorry to hear about your recent difficulties..you clearly soak up the healing where you find it, the kids, your camera. You are a resourceful, forward thinking man. In time of trouble you look inward without turning inward. When i am very down sometimes i am apprehensive about going to the streets to shoot. i am afraid that the hard grit of that world will make things even harder for me but so often the smiles and spontaneous conversations with total strangers are more curative than a spa. Sometimes it doesn’t work that way and i find friends in trees, grass, rocks, plants, rough weather. Only rarely do i talk my troubles out with friends. For some reason that just prolongs the stress, drags it out, keeps it from diluting itself into the atmosphere. But when i do turn to someone, well i have often found that it is the one i least expect who is suddenly there in a big way for me.

Anyway, i hope the trouble has passed and that your smiles will be ones of spontaneous joy and euphoric ooohlala, look what life hath wrought!

give your camera a little kiss for me next time you pick it up…i mean it..nobody has to see you, just sorta hug it close, bend your head and give it a little peck on its little black lens cap. Try it..i’ve done it..eeks..i admit it! *grin*

bestest to you Ross:
kat~

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By: Ross Nolly https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/04/as-light-shines-on-thy-thigh-by-anton-kusters/#comment-35969 Sat, 18 Apr 2009 06:43:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=2260#comment-35969 Kathleen.

Yes and no, how’s that for sitting on the fence!!!

Often it’s one of the few people you trust implicitly that pull you through a bad time. If you know five friends that you can trust with your life, then you are very fortunate.

My last three months have been pretty tough (personally, not financially) and the project I’m shooting at the moment has really helped me feel my way through it. The acceptance of the kids I’m photographing has been heartwarming and definitely helps you pull through the other side. They know nothing of my circumstances of course.

So your other “good friend”, your camera can help too. Especially if you don’t want to hassle others with your problems. But the thing is, there’s no point being bitter about things, it eats you up way more than the other person etc.

When you wake up in the morning, check your pulse and if it’s still going then it’s going to be a good day! Many won’t have that luxury!!

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