I can’t wait to see you at LOOK to tell you in person how happy I am for you! Am at a loss for words these past few days, but know I am cheering you on in my heart. Big Congratulations..

first of all, i was not defending…you are reading a lot into my simple comment..and since when would only positive comments be allowed??? that would be boring…..i was simply giving an example for an alternative way to think about essays since this is a quite common comment on many works…

i have made several comments on various essays here as just food for thought not just this one….and it was certainly nothing personal at all regarding your critique which is fair enough…

i sure hope i did not scare anybody!!! not my wish or intent….

now, if there is more discussion on this , let’s please go to Dialogue….i am already in my own forbidden territory…shhhhh

or, please join me in London on the 25th at the Magnum party….we could discuss it all over a pint or two..several others from here will be joining….

cheers, david

It’s unfortunate I have to waste my single-comment to show you what you should already have read above, but it’s an important rule, so I’ll waste my single comment to prevent more mistakes like yours:

Editor’s Note: Please only one comment per person under this essay.. Further discussions should take place under Dialogue..

Mimi this rule was created specifically to prevent argumentative comments since they typical breed more nasty, artist-irrelevant comments.

I’m sure you’ll see from a quick scan of the thread that you’re the only one struggling with this simple practice.

Best wishes,

Joe

interesting comments i must say…..for those of you critical of all tight portraits as a book or essay, what do you think of Avedon’s American West?? all tight portraits, no “fleshing out”, no mountains, no valleys, no glimpse of the rest of their lives, just portraits..or, is it just PORTRAITS!!!..aren’t the “day in the life of” style stories just that?? day in the life of…so so obvious….none of the really great books offer “complete” views of anything…one view, one vision is usually the benchmark of the very best….variety might be the spice of life, but rarely is the hallmark of the most significant photographers on any specific essay….

cheers, david

It is interesting to see so many of the comments lauding Eric’s “visual style”.

In Eric’s reply to Mark and David, he says, “At the time I started the project, several expressed a desire to see these boxers outside the gym, show (an)other part of their lives. I did initially many photographs of just that but, somehow, these photographs do not look like they belong to the same project.” Eric, you’ll have to get to the place in photography where your personal style is THE powerful unifying force that holds the disparate themes in an essay together.

I have been away from the computer for the past day but thanks to Tom who kindly sent me a message saying that “Lords” was up, here I am… and, as I do not seem to be able to post directly myself, hopefully Tom will be able to post this message on my behalf….

It is with real impatience and a bit of anxiety I must confess, that I have just gone through all your comments. First, I wanted to thank you all for the interest you have shown about this work. It has also touched me to have so many of you from Cathy to Lassal, Gina, Bob, Audrey, Panos, Sean, Patricia, Charles and several I am forgetting for sure, express real joy and satisfaction of seeing me among the finalists. Nothing is more important than to have others engage on your work and respond positively…. So, many many thanks!!! I also want to thank those of you who have expressed more critical points of view…. It is hard to please everyone and I shall not even try but I am still integrating the suggestions and hopefully will continue to learn and grow with the thoughtful feedback from this demanding community. The one think that made my day is that even Jim has expressed a positive feedback JJ so the balance today, all in all, is largely positive.

I have to say that becoming an EPF finalist this year again is a real honor and also a surprise for me. It is an honor first to be among such a fine group of photographers. All other finalists so far have displayed incredible talent and really would deserve to get the recognition and final grant. Ironically, I have really decided to become a committed photographer about 4 years ago after a workshop with David in Rome. In this workshop, there was a young Italian charming assistant with a complex personality called Simona Ghizzoni… I knew of Simona as a great individual but back then, she was very reluctant to show what she was doing with her photography…what a journey for her looking at her bio now and her work. I am so pleased to find myself side by side with her again…

Beyond the honor to be in good company, it is selfishly a great satisfaction to see that David continues to be passionate about this “Lords of the Ring” project that I have started for Road Trips, really because of him in the first place, before it eventually became a very significant part of my life for the past months. I remember myself proposing to him potential projects that I could do a year later, in some distant location, always projecting myself into the future as opposed to the present. David kept telling me, what can you do NOW, right where you live, in Cincinnati… NOW, always NOW… this man has no patience J… well, as it turned out, Cincinnati was not a bad place after all as he once said to me… very true! Beyond the photographs, while working on “Lords” I have found a purpose along the way, became more confident in my own vision, have grown as an individual by being confronted to the issues that these young boxers face everyday, the ghetto, death, the pain but also the pride, the courage, the perseverance. I finished this work different than when I started it and, if only for this, it would have been worth it…

Being a finalist this year is also a surprise because, as you have seen from my bio, I do have another full time day-job, a very demanding one actually that never leaves me enough time. I am also not into any professional “circuit” nor linked to any photo agency. The EPF is actually the only serious “contest” I have entered in my short life as a photographer. What’s more, I am now 40 (young at heart!!!), have never been published anywhere so surely, I thought, David would prefer selecting a younger photographer that has already made his marks, maybe one who is a working “professional” already as opposed to someone like me who has a career in a completely different profession… So, while I wanted to be a part of EPF, I never really thought I would be here in the running right now… But David keeps surprising me. What I admire most about him beyond his obvious generosity is that there is no “prejudging”…it does not matter where you come from, your age, your sex (also maybe not true, he likes women J sorry David, I do not want to get you into trouble…) More seriously, it also does not seem to matter if you are a well-known photographer or not, as long as you are committed to your photography, able to listen, willing to learn and have a good eye…you are in!!!! So, at the end of the day, you can be an “emerging” photographer like Patricia later in your life or also emerging when you have another “day-job” like me. It is not about who you are really and what awards you may or may not already have won, it is about the work, your commitment, about what you are prepared to do next, sorry to do NOW J… Thanks David from the bottom of my heart for mentoring so many of us regardless of our background and for making it possible for me personally to grow and take my photography to the next level. I said this before and I mean it… It simply would not have happened without you!

Now, some of you have asked some questions and I will try to provide some perspective as best as I can. First to answer MIMI who has been the most critical. I surely did not attempt to make a “fashion statement”…. Obviously, I like using saturated colors in my photographs. The aesthetics are important to me and I wanted these kids and boxers to be beautiful in my photographs with their expressive faces. Really, not many care about these kids when they are in the ghetto but when they on the ring, they “become” someone, in the light, they are the “Lords of the Ring”… In my photographs, I wanted them to look like “Lords”… I wanted to show that beauty despite the dark environment, the pain…

SYDNEY, I have been worried myself about being repetitive with many close portraits. Actually, if it was not for David, you may have seen even many more… Clearly I think it is right to limit the number for a short slideshow but I worry less than you about what this will look like in a book with many portraits. For many of these kids and boxers, like Jim actually suggested, I plan to have some pages of conversation and insights about who they are, what brought them into boxing. The text will hopefully provide a balance that you cannot achieve in a short slideshow…

MARK/ DAVID, at the time I started the project, several expressed a desire to see these boxers outside the gym, show other part of their lives. I did initially many photographs of just that but, somehow, these photographs do not look like they belong to the same project. I think Pat got it right and eventually, it really felt to me that “focusing on the faces rather than the stories of the street home” was more compelling and unique. Sometimes a face says a lot more than a setting. At the end of the day, many stories/ essays can be done about boxing and many have been done in the past. I just selected one angle… Hope I was right…

Again, thanks to all for your engagement and for continuing to make Burn the very special place that it has become. Special thanks to David and Anton!

Cheers,

Eric

I think our past edits were much better. Im just not seeing an essay here with THIS edit. You had an essay before but I think you edited it down so much you lost a lot of dimensions that made it interesting in the past. In the past we could see a lot more about their lives, about boxing. Now I dont see any of that. All I see is a collection of portraits and it just doesnt work for me as an essay. It doesnt give me any variety. I think that portaits could work as an essay but not with this approach. I really dont sense anything about these guys from these tight portraits, other than them being boxers. But nothing about why I should care about them, nothing personal, nothing intimate. Nothing to show me the pain and blood that is so central to them as boxers, nor anything private that is central to them as people. You had that, but it isnt evident here.

In general I like this essay. There are some powerful images. I agree with many of the comments above, both the congratulatory ones, and the ones with some reservations.

I realize that the very dark contrasty look is part of your style. However I find it to be way over the top in that regard. These images, and much of the great work I see on your site appears to be the same. It almost leaves me wondering if you are working on an un-calibrated monitor, which would explain a lot. If your monitor is calibrated, and you like it that way, fair enough.

I also agree with comments suggesting that the series needs fleshing out. I’m left wishing there had been more to it all.

Overall however, obviously very strong work with lots of potential for the story as well as you as a photographer. Good luck.

You know I have praised your work in the past and that I greatly admire what you have done with this series. The current selection of pictures is even more gripping than before. It is as strong a group of portraits as any I can think of. As an essay, it certainly is cohesive, and is consistent not only in style but also in quality and impact.

My question however, is where do you take it from here? If this is to be expanded into a book… and I think that was the idea all along… then more portraits like these would not only be redundant but also would weaken the impact of the ones you already have. I remember back when DAH encouraged you to concentrate on the portraits, but I felt then, and I still feel, that a really impressive book on this subject will have to include other kinds of shots showing us sparring and real fighting in the ring, as well as the wider ambience of the gym and training, and something about the lives of your young Lords outside the ring. I know from seeing some of your other work that you are capable of making such shots just as powerful as the portraits and consistent with them in style. So I hope that the eventual book which comes out of this work will include that much broader perspective. But as a self-contained essay in its present form, I have no criticism but only praise.

Cheers,

Sidney