Comments on: sara katz – the man behind the curtain https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:31:04 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: Sara K https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87869 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 16:39:20 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87869 Roguewave: I really enjoyed your comment.

David: My dad actually had the same comment. There is an energetic side to him, and I didn’t get to that.

A general response to the Fink comments: If you saw the range of work by people who at some point study with Larry, you would realize he’s not one to impose his aesthetic. I only got to know him during my last year, and I’d say his main influence for me anyhow was his energetic way of living. Both in terms of photography and life in general, I’ve met few people as alive as Larry.

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By: Jeff Hladun https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87699 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 12:54:54 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87699 Imants, Larry Fink doesn’t look anything like Mr. Katz…unless Sara’s father is a fly-fisherman:

http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/5428

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By: Imants https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87698 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 11:51:23 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87698 Yea sorta accounts for all the fink look alikes

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By: Jeff Hladun https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87694 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 10:45:47 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87694 David Bowen:

were it not highlighted on your site that you were taught by him, sara, i would have drawn no comparison to fink whatsoever..
a complement maybe.. ?!

Sara did mention Fink does his best not to unduly influence his students. So yes, you are quite right…his teaching in this case was complementary.

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By: Frostfrog https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87692 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 06:49:25 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87692 Gordon – It most definitely IS the voice of experience. Fortunately, though, the claws never reached that part.

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87686 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 01:16:19 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87686 I love Fink’s vision, and his use of flash is brilliant.

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By: david bowen https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87684 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:44:21 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87684 “Seems unwise for photographers to over study “photography”.Choke.Pictures are abt life.Get lost get found.Feel alive, take a picture.Chill”
1 day ago”

who said that?

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By: david bowen https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87683 Sat, 26 Mar 2011 00:39:52 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87683 although i like the idea and some of the photos, i find the work too contrived..

the mention of fink actually bemuses me, since i see his work as much more instinctive and of-the-moment..more honest.. less knowingly constructed.
were it not highlighted on your site that you were taught by him, sara, i would have drawn no comparison to fink whatsoever..
a complement maybe.. ?!
who knows..

i adore work which illuminates the personal life.. family life..
none of us know what we have lived through until we get a handle on relative reality and see how others have been taught.. however –
to me this seems a little too theatrical and staged.. flash doesn’t bother me in the slightest – tools for the job, whatever they be..
although the sense of dull fatigue i feel from the series could be intentional, i think there must be more.
i can almost hear “hold that”, being said through this series.. which might be just fine.. not read many of the other comments.. for me though, it gets in the way.

i photoed my dad only once..no documentary.. a simple portrait when i was 18 – the 2nd to last time i saw him alive actually.. it’s warm.. so warm.. and i’m glad i photographed him when and how i did because it is genuine, not concerned with photography, and he is looking at me.. not playing a role.

in any case – i really did enjoy meeting your dad, and photo-nonsense aside, hope he is enjoying meeting us here.
d

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By: roguewave https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87671 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:25:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87671 Sara tells her story in the print section of the essay. I don’t see any congruence with the words & her set of images. I’m not judging the images, in & of themselves. The photographs are staged & the flash codifies this for me.

By telling us how close they have always been, it seems to me that these portraits tell a different story. Their collaboration appears in the service of hiding what has actually happened & how they feel about each other.

I’m not a professional art critic, but these stilted images are like vessels, clamped down tight, holding back the real flood of emotions, conscious & unconscious of the collaborators. I do think it’s important to give equal billing to the subject as to the auteur. As Sara states right up front, she & her dad have been an “act” for some time, with her mother as the audience.

I applaud Sara for diving in & trying to find a way to process what’s real & meaningful for her. Not an easy thing to undertake.

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By: Imants https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87668 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 21:34:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87668 I do wonder about the Finks of the world and their undue influences on students………….

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By: Jeff Hladun https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87665 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 19:39:51 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87665 Sara, DQ:

Now the penny drops; I was thinking last night how much this essay has in common with the work of Ruth Kaplan http://www.ruthkaplanphoto.com/personal.html , who is my professoressa, mentor and friend. Larry Fink is a huge influence on her, and she has recently interviewed him for her classwork.

Good instincts, DQ!

Small world, isn’t it, Sara?

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By: Sara K https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87664 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 18:22:29 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87664 dq: Thanks! And yes, I did have the privilege of getting to know Larry quite well, both as an artist as well as a person. While the choice of flash was my own, he certainly played a big role in terms of the development of the project. He’s not the sort of teacher who ever tells you specifically what to do, but for me he certainly inspired a playful/exploratory way of working. He’s a force to be reckoned with, should you ever get to meet him.

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By: panos skoulidas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87661 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 17:35:09 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87661 dq
March 25, 2011 at 9:47 am
Congrats to Sara K for publishing on Burn, big kudos for a kool katz…
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yes, yes :)

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By: dq https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87650 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:47:07 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87650 Congrats to Sara K for publishing on Burn, big kudos for a kool katz… The comments are all over the place — boring, engaging, not grainy enough, flashy, captioned correctly, or not… and through it all Sara has ably responded, to her credit. Why wouldn’t she? She went to Bard, home of very bright, opinionated and verbal students… where… one of her teachers just may have been the celebrated and widely collected Larry Fink, whose signature flash look is shown here. Coincidence? Maybe. In any case, Mr. Fink’s work is in museums and galleries worldwide, like it or not, and Sara can use that flash any way she wants, too… Keep going, Sara!

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87647 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:58:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87647 Frostfrog

Your comment about cats and tubs sounds like the voice of experience. BTW Apollo is doing fine, and Pepe is happy at a new home on Lasqueti Island.

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87646 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:49:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87646 Patricia

Thanks for your wonderful perspective here.

At first viewing, I did not like this essay. After a few times through, it grew on me. I like this man. I relate and identify with him. In that respect, this series works for me.

The technique? distracting. The off axis flash, large/medium format Weegee/Diane Arbus/Roger Ballen look, is a clunky/lazy basic “just get it on film” technique which can be seen in endless snapshots from the flashbulb era.. It is ugly lighting. It is used for effect, to mimic the look of the cigar chewing speed graphic toting, flash-bulb flashing photojournalists of the forties and fifties.

I like this essay in spite of it.

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By: Imants https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87645 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:43:49 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87645 mountains out of mole hills stuff.

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By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87643 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:31:59 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87643 I can’t help laughing. I think the division between people who are totally appreciative of the essay and those who draw akind of a blank over it is actually making our “Lybya intervention” fence-siding a quibling trifle….

Sara, you are not leaving us indifferent, so you definitely did something right! :-)

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By: Patricia Lay-Dorsey https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87642 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 04:17:07 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87642 SARA

This project works for me on every level. No, it’s not how I would have portrayed my Dad, but I’m not you nor was he David Alexander Katz. In my opinion, you have perfectly captured on film what I read in your statement. Blunt, yes, but that’s how you described your approach in your statement. Unflattering, unsentimental, just your Dad as you see him now that you can see him with more of an outsider’s eye. And your tight close-ups, B&W and rather harsh flash all push me as viewer to see him not as a mythological superdad, but as a 60 year-old man who is living his life exactly as he chooses. His deadpan expressions — except for the “scary” one — just show that he is not posing for the camera, or if he is, it shows he doesn’t give a damn how cool or uncool he looks. I am also struck by the close bond you two share. There is no way he would have continued to participate in this project after seeing any of the proofs if he wasn’t comfortable letting you — and, by extension, us — into his inner space.

I commend you both for your honest and fearless depiction of ordinary life just-as-it-is rather than as we wish it were. I came away from viewing this work feeling that now I know why some of my own attempts at portraying the ordinary life of my subjects had failed. I had not been daring enough to show their warts. “The Man Behind the Curtain” is all about a man’s warts. Love em or leave em…they are what make us human.

Keep going. I want the book.

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By: panos skoulidas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/03/sara-katz-the-man-behind-the-curtain/#comment-87640 Fri, 25 Mar 2011 02:58:28 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=7993#comment-87640 My beloved husband Henry (ooops, i mean Herve)! :))))))
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geezus..the end is near…the second coming…!!! this blog is becoming more and more and more …liberal (to say at least)…by da minute;)..new horizons…but nothing bellicose or jingoistic here…pure love and care:)

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