Comments on: Brian Shumway – True Men https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Sat, 18 Jun 2016 11:13:02 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: 'True Men' Gets Some Love @ Burn Magazine - BRIAN SHUMWAY https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-973492 Sun, 15 Nov 2015 20:02:04 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-973492 […] Well it only took six months, but Burn has finally decided to post up True Men, my portrait project about men who push the boundaries of ‘masculinity’ and ‘manhood.’ I’ve put this project on hold, but may decide to pursue it again. Check it out here. […]

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By: Tuesday 23 August 2011 https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-98636 Tue, 20 Sep 2011 13:45:24 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-98636 […] 911 (Reuters: August 2011)Michal Chelbin: Prison Portraits (New Yorker: August 2011)Brian Shumway: True Men (burn: August 2011)Andrew Moore: Love in Detroit’s Ruins (NYT: August 2011)Evan Vucci: Killer […]

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By: Frostfrog https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96891 Thu, 25 Aug 2011 07:23:31 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96891 Thank you Carlo and Gordon – the reverse is true as well…

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By: panos skoulidas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96830 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:36:57 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96830 Stay classy Tony.
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lol…
MW,i think its easier for David Blaine to stay breathless for 20 minutes under water than your above “wish”/request to be realized! ;)

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96799 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:40:10 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96799 Frostfrog
Well deserved acolade in the Times.
Thanks for re-posting the others. I’m inspired by what you do, and the no bullshit/no pretention way you do it.

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By: Carlo https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96791 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:35:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96791 Herve,

I was the one who said “I did not like the essay one bit but the photography is so good that I ignored what it said.
They stand out by themselves and don’t really need the context. But of course it’s a project so it does need to be explained.’

I thought it was clear why I wrote that. Not looking for a fight ;-) just wanted to clarify.

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By: Carlo https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96790 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:30:55 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96790 Nice article in the NYT lens blog Frostfrog. Thanks for the link.

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By: mw https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96788 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 13:25:01 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96788 Weak, indeed. Stay classy Tony.

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By: Anthony R.Z. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96787 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:33:27 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96787 sorry: weak instead of “week”…

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By: Anthony R.Z. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96777 Tue, 23 Aug 2011 10:28:23 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96777 It must be so exciting for those west feminists to see these kind of week men…

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By: Frostfrog https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96732 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:19:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96732 Brian: While there are many Mormon bits tucked here and there in my archives, I really don’t have much in the way of Mormon work posted, although I do keep a blog and little Mormon bits work their way into int now and then (along with a whole lot of coffee drinking), such as in the following three entries, the first of which is set right in your own happy valley; the second is the funeral of my best friend, a Mormon Navajo, who achieved fame in Indian country and who, like me, married a White Mountain Apache. My wife, btw, went on the Indian placement program to Pleasant Grove and then Orem, where she graduated from high school. The funeral was a blend of Apache, and Mormon tradition, with some Navajo elements as well.

The third is a few scenes from my father’s funeral, which took place in Sandy.

Last is a little piece that the NYT Lens did on me. They got it wrong about me growing up in Utah, though. I was born in Ogden but left while still an infant.

http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/journal/category/thos-and-delainas-post-wedding

http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/journal/category/funeral-of-vincent-craig

http://wasillaalaskaby300.squarespace.com/journal/2009/11/11/in-honor-of-a-veteran-dad-who-flew-into-hell-again-and-again.html

http://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/06/10/a-warm-feeling-for-the-arctic/

Gordon: Trust me – even if the Mormon connection was not obvious to you, it is much more than a side note to this piece.

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By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96731 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:14:06 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96731 Sorry for the few typos. rith is right, frelly is freely, in now way is in no way…etc….

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By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96730 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:08:47 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96730 It’s hard to imagine for me that someone does not need a text (as I just read), to accompany Brian’s visuals?

These are not just compositions, color for the sake of nice color, and subjects in a frame, and per frame. These people, just like black girls but also Happy Valley, are more a subject matter (collectively, here males, not just, or even not yet, individual subjects as, truly, they actually say very little about them-selves).

I gather Brian is not really interested in decoration, in good use of hues, but uses in most of his work color as information. Even in Black Girls, where this is less of the matter, we are reminded we are after all being shown….. Colored girls!

That is the lesson for me, personally, the use of color as being dedicated to inform the subject at hand. In a way, I even amuse myself thinking that, as important as the genders/duality we talk about here, might be those of color photography vs no color photography, rather than male and female, or blackS and whiteS (for B girls).

If only because I am not sure this is about genders, but more about identities parading as aspects of one gender. After all, we can see they are males, and even though some see our societies as living on reductive social or cultural ideas, I am certain these men do not live in “backwards” AMerica, but in places, where their choices of appearance and behaviour (which might not be quite identities revealed visually) are totally accepted and for a while already. Plus the bonus of being “recognized” and “seen” publicly, which few “normal” males (gay or straight) have the privilege or inclination. As I would argue that norm these days is less a sign of intrinsec birth-given rith of domination than anonymity.

That is a lot of places (I am thinking of Eric Espinosa’s pix from Belgium on Facebook. The cultural diversity just won’t allow us to know where this is taken. even after “Norway”, it says a lot how we frelly mix diversity in our western societies).

Also, has anyone noticed none of these males smile? Which in one way, does confort us that they are not just “half-men”, but that their stance is as forcefully, NORMALLY, projected as would be that of a normal (raised to be “male”, says Brian I think) hetero sexual guy wishing to project maleness. That or they are not very happy people (and a lot less than the “black girls”, even though I am ready to bet the girls may have cause to be less happy, as to the social role/image expected of a black woman if strictly within an economically challenged “black” community).

The Black girls have dreams, it is what makes them so sympathetic to us, even “stupid” or unlikely ones, we feel they are about tomorrow, their (use of their) bodies in the pictures have written on them not today (which is what helps the ssay eludes all sense of erotic, lustful titillating) but tomorrow. That they are aware of themselves and that will use which that they are aware of and belong to them . In now way, does it mean, they cannot as soon be brought back to being used, rather than using, but that is another subject.

With the males here, well, we are being told, or rather shown, there is not much to go beyond the representations. They are not smiling, not really friendly too, as confrontational as they can be (given the absence of real conflict) because they seizing us, not us them. Obviously, they have a male ascendant on us, and to be frank, I do not find one of them sympathetic/nice for the same reason, paradoxically that a macho hetero idiot never did. So, the essay has become a damned interesting way to see that new constructs of what it is to be a male might not take us much further than usual, if only more vividly due to these men’s choices of affects.

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By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96722 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 17:03:40 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96722 Brian..

That’s a pity.. I sure do hope you find a publisher, for both Black Girl but also the Kid’s book.. the photographs deserve quality.. and while I have seen some nice colour stuff done through Blurb, bw so far has not convinced me much..

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By: brianshumway https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96716 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:34:34 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96716 tom great point. you’re probably right. i should write something a little more personal, timely and relevant and perhaps there could be interest….

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By: brianshumway https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96715 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:31:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96715 eva i published black girl thru blurb (but trying to get that published by a real publisher) and the quality is pretty good, but very pricey. you can’t really sell books to people via blurb because anything even remotely close to the quality of a real publisher is 60, 70, 80 or more, and that’s not for a fat book, just normal length. so if i get the high-end everything, i’m sure kids are ok will look great, but at too high a cost compared to bookstores.

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By: eva https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96711 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:05:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96711 Brian..

Thanks for showing the whole book.. simply love it.. how’s the quality though? Are you planning on having a ‘real’ book, or is Blurb the only option?

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By: tom hyde https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96707 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 15:20:45 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96707 Brian, perhaps I got carried away, perhaps :)) But still, since you lived it and looked back in and can offer a unique perspective on growing up in a homogeneous, “perfect” America, the place not too far from the vision being offered by the would-be contenders for the political leadership of this country, and quite a few already well ensconced, a place that mixes policy and faith in a repressive stew as never before, then yes, I see your work in Happy Valley gaining significance in the current political and cultural climate in this country. It is relevant, and I find it fascinating that this is one of the most depressed communities as well, and am quite surprised. A publication with some guts, and there are still a few, should surely see this as well, especially if you combined it with a very strong personal essay of some length. Perhaps what I see and what editors see are quite different but this just seems such an obviously perfect cultural exploration of broader significance to me.

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By: ‘True Men’ Gets Some Love @ Burn Magazine | A PHOTO BLOG / BRIAN SHUMWAY https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96706 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 14:57:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96706 […] and ‘manhood.’ I’ve put this project on hold, but may decide to pursue it again. Check it out here. Brian ShumwayBurn MagazineDavid Alan HarveyEffeminateFeminineMenNew YorkNew York […]

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By: brianshumway https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2011/08/brian-shumway-true-men/#comment-96701 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 13:53:01 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=8123#comment-96701 ooops! here’s the real link:

http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/2390783

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