Comments on: jacopo quaranta – naomi https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:29:52 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: MH https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-65223 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 20:05:16 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-65223 Jacopo,
This is a great essay on a very sad story.
We are too often focused on tragedies in remote places, and cannot see the ones at our next door.

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By: marco https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63971 Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:49:42 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63971 very sweet little story, emotive and honest, captures the spirit.

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By: jbnightingale https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63583 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 09:07:29 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63583 I have to agree with so many here. Somehow you’ve managed to capture such compassion. I can’t help be moved to tears myself. I wouldn’t change a thing, except to say that the captions don’t help, so I would leave them out and let your images stand on their own.

Thank you so much for sharing. I think we’ve all been touched by this story and how such a common story can be photographed and retold in such a unique way. So rarely can we say that, and so rarely does it move us like this has. Thank you.

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By: aliciavera https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63564 Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:23:33 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63564 absolutely blown away

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By: Steve M https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63452 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:39:11 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63452 What an incredible essay; the everyday, the mundane, the relational… each in bright colour and beautifully held… I don’t need anything like a concluding image, rather I prefer your work remains open, raw, unfinished… as her life…

One of the best pieces of work on Burn that I have seen. Thank you.

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By: Gillian https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63437 Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:32:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63437 I liked the captions. Although I agree with the commenters, your photos did a brilliant job of telling the story on their own.

The shot of the kitchen sink, tells so much. Naomi broke my heart. Thanks for a wonderful essay on this woman.

xo

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By: bear cieri https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63421 Sun, 21 Feb 2010 19:10:12 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63421 Wonderful essay.

Great access, compelling imagery with an aesthetic that matches the subject matter.

Thank you.

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By: benroberts https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63391 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 10:17:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63391 good photography. thanks.

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By: When you feel lost in the snow… « Photojournalism Program at ICP https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63384 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 05:42:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63384 […] Naomi by Jacopo Quaranta on BurnMagazine […]

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By: Jonathan VDK https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63383 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 02:44:20 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63383 superbly crafted and interestingly executed.
one of the best i’ve seen on burn!

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By: Gordon L https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63378 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:42:27 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63378 Jacopo

I’d just like to join the chorus of praise for this work. Powerful stuff.

Yes, the theme is familiar, but there is something very special here that make this essay stand out. For one thing, we are not looking at a standard issue photojournalistic approach, which can make every essay look like every other essay. The compositions are very clean and avoid some of the too clever compositional devices that photographers often rely on. Each photograph delivers its message simply and powerfully. Colour?..absolutely, yes, it is hard to imagine this series without it.

Congratulations Jacopo.

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By: Charles Peterson https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63377 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 22:42:21 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63377 Interesting and moving little piece. Like Michael though I too feel as if there’s something missing. It’s like we never really get to know her but of course that may have been her reality. I would assume in addition to having a substance problem she had mental illness issues (often both go hand in hand or really could be considered one and the same) and if one were truly to enter into her chaos that would be the end of that person too.

The broken window at the end is a misstep for me. Too cliche. I would rather have had a strong picture of Naomi. She was a beautiful tragic figure. No metaphors needed.

Did you ever get any photos of her out and about in Brixton? Brixton is so gritty. I would have liked to see her in the larger context.

Best,

CP

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By: Frank Michael Hack https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63376 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:42:34 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63376 Really wonderful essay. Very touching and intimate, sad. Beautifully photographed. Loved the color and high ISO. I think many would have shot this is B&W but you have succeeded in making the mundane, small details come alive.

Congratulations.

Frank

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By: michael webster https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63372 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:37:33 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63372 Regarding editorial decisions, I dislike telling an artist what he or she “should” do, though I think it’s okay to suggest people consider alternatives to what they’ve done.

But speaking in general terms, I’d say a photo essay should tell its story with photographs. To paraphrase Paul Strand, if you’re gonna tell the story in words, why lug around all that equipment?

(Sorry to break the one comment rule, anything further I’ll take up elsewhere)

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By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63371 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:21:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63371 No. No gravestone picture needed, much more powerful this way.. and I don’t think it lacks emotional punches..
Of course it’s not her complete life, but it is what she shared with the photographer, what she trusted him to take.. and I bet what he gave in return is not less.

Grazie per averci fatto conoscere Naomi, Jacopo!

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By: michael webster https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63370 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 12:56:17 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63370 In a different thread, David Alan Harvey speaks of the challenges involved in shooting a mundane reality and that is, I think, the challenge you were up against. I know that will seem counter-intuitive to many, but the sad fact is that an upscale happy gay couple is exponentially more rare in this world than a poor, troubled young woman on the margins. So what do your photos tell us? What could they tell us?

From a storytelling perspective, you hit all the notes: Drinking, crying, dirty kitchen, heaps of clothes, toast in the filthy sink, sentimentality — the stuffed animals, inspirational sayings poster, daughters toys and pictures — fighting, anger , the pathos, the pathology. Everything promised in the statement is delivered in the slideshow (though I would like to have seen a closeup of the yellow eyes). Still, I’m struck by the feeling that something is missing. Can’t exactly say what it is, but I feel it. There is a lacking.

Two things you might consider, and maybe you have. Since the situation you are photographing is so commonplace, find something anomalous and make that a subtext. I don’t know if this qualifies, but I was struck by the fact that she makes her bed. A little island of order in all that chaos? Does that tell us something? Also, and I suspect this will strike many as sensationalistic or maudlin or manipulative, I’d consider getting a photo of her tombstone, or scan the obit or the story in the tab (particularly if there were photos) and ending the essay with that. It would give it an emotional punch I think it lacks . I agree that one should take care in these matters, but think in this case it would be honest rather than manipulative. It’s not like you don’t tell us anyway and shouldn’t the emotional punch come from the photos, not the text?

Bottom line is: I very much like your effort and much of the result. “Good work,” is what I hope you take from my comments. That, and my hope you are able to briefly enjoy the accolades, but let that pass and consider how you could have better told that story. Because it could have been better. Just about all of them could, true, but you’ve really got something here.

On a technical note, I’m curious why you chose to go with the gritty look? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not at all opposed to gritty looks, just curious. Was it a question of making do with the available equipment or was it a choice?

Thanks,

mw

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By: gaetano belverde https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63364 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:43:46 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63364 Cool. Pleased to see a colours essay! Very nice theme… Love your colours. congrats

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By: Jacopo Quaranta https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63361 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:09:06 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63361 Thank you very much Frostfrog, Liam, and Peter Grant, and all the people who wrote wonderful things…I thought I would never cry again for Naomi, but with the things that people wrote from the heart, made me cry again… :)

David Ryder,
I wish I had documented the funeral too, but I think the family didn’t wanted, because when she died all the breaking news photographers were after them, so I think they were pissed off, and I have a sensibility to leave people in their space when they need…it’s a choice, a wrong choice from a photojournalistic point of view, I know…
(It’s not an upset answer, sorry if it looks like my english it’s not still really good, so it’s difficult to express myself well, it’s just to answer why I didn’t photograph the funeral).

Jacopo

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By: mnm https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63359 Fri, 19 Feb 2010 00:03:31 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63359 Number 15… my god.

Jacopo, this is the best essay i have seen on burn. Honest, unpretentious and genuine. Nothing about these images tell me you judged Naomi, you seem to have treated her as a freind you happened to take photos of, not a photo subject. Your wanting to help her resonates through the images and your words.

My father is going down the same track as Naomi. I usually can’t look at images of alcoholics because it makes me so angry. I had to walk out of Richard Billinghams’s show “rays a laugh” when I saw it, it was too raw too familiar.

That’s the funny thing about photography- you always leave traces of your predjudice and who you are all over the images. If i had shot this I know I wouldn’t have been able to focus on Naomi like you did, I would have been blind to the sadness of it all. But Jacopo, your images have taken me there. To another mindset where I can see the tradgedy of this, not just the selfishness and the remnants of my own childhood weaved into her story. And that is probably a bigger acheivement than you will ever know.

I can’t say congratulations, because although your images are incredible it just doesn’t feel right. But thank you for affording some dignity to Naomi, and thankyou for showing them to us. This image will stay with me for a longtime.

mm

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By: David Ryder https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2010/02/jacopo-quaranta-naomi/#comment-63358 Thu, 18 Feb 2010 23:59:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=4498#comment-63358 Damn. Sad, tragic story. I wish you would have documented the funeral. Otherwise, great work.

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