Comments on: monika bulaj – behind the great game. central and western asia project.

By: Monika Bulaj on Burn Magazine « Photo-Berlin

Monika Bulaj on Burn Magazine « Photo-Berlin — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:57:40 +0000

[...] continue reading on Burn Magazine [...]

By: Brandan

Brandan — Mon, 07 May 2012 19:33:32 +0000

First two pictures have hipnotize me!
The rest made me float!

Thanks for this!

Brandán

By: eduardo sepulveda

eduardo sepulveda — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:30:09 +0000

eccezionale!

inmerso nel vostro sitio web in questo stesso momento! che lavoro!

By: Gracie

Gracie — Mon, 07 May 2012 13:45:31 +0000

not really read anything above, no comments, no bio, no captions.
personally i dont want to see suffering… it affects me and also wants me to click to the next page

there is something human/ humane about this depiction.
like there is hope and life after…. maybe the light through unexpected cracks or the upturned faces.

thanks burn for publishing.
thanks monika for taking care to see the human behind the inhumane conditions of day to day life.
your portraits have given me hope today.

By: Charles Peterson

Charles Peterson — Sat, 05 May 2012 03:52:53 +0000

What Bob said!

By: nancyspadaro

nancyspadaro — Thu, 03 May 2012 13:32:22 +0000

The photographs in this essay are amazing, the colors, the light, and each one has a captivating story! And the series as a whole is truly compelling!
Congrats for making it on burn! Another great burn moment !

By: Jamie Maxtone-Graham

Jamie Maxtone-Graham — Wed, 02 May 2012 07:13:07 +0000

Echoing the above comment – the light in this work is stunning; interior or exterior. Subjects etched out of the shadows and rich, deep color which does not betray the meaning or the moment. This might be equally effective, human story telling in black and white. So many highlights here but #8 is a Dutch masterpiece – by way of Warsaw.
I feel the photographers connection to her subject (which as Bob notes seems absent in a good deal of contemporary photojournalism) – I feel her caring, her compassion and it is expressed here in this short series, frame after frame after frame.
Not much more to want from this work. Except a dozen more……

By: bullockphoto

bullockphoto — Wed, 02 May 2012 03:26:26 +0000

So many stunning images in this series… such painterly light – kudos. So glad I saw these.

By: hidden light « ettagirl

hidden light « ettagirl — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:25:28 +0000

[...] Burn Share This entry was posted in photography and tagged Afghanistan, caj kusai, education, Monika [...]

By: Sidney Atkins

Sidney Atkins — Tue, 01 May 2012 17:41:43 +0000

Let me second what Gordon just wrote… I think Bob’s comment is eloquently right on target and expresses my own reactions better than I could myself.

By: Gordon Lafleur

Gordon Lafleur — Tue, 01 May 2012 14:57:40 +0000

I’ve been missing your comments Bob. Thanks once again for the great intelligence and insights.

“the only way to attempt to make sense of one’s own life to to see its connection to the life of others…both its beauty and its ugliness, its calm and its horror, its suffering and its celebration….”

“remarkably humble photographs (and all that empty space and silence in which one hear’s the human hum) considering their formal strength and their insight into a simpler calculus…”

Damn Bob, that is so right on.

By: bob black

bob black — Tue, 01 May 2012 12:10:46 +0000

sublime…

have been a big fan of Monika’s work for a long time….and my only lament is that I’d love to have been shown more, only because I cannot get enough of her humane eye…

about all else, what Monika does so exceedingly well, and it’s particularly true in her body of work on Central Asia is parse the political history and the momentary strife, but a wider and broader story of lives lived….

increasingly, I become only despondent when looking at ‘jouranlism’ and actually get quite angry at the tradeoff of using others lives and conditions (subject) to further one’s own professional/photographic hoolaboloo ($$, awards, prestige, etc), but I’ve never felt that at all about Monika’s work because her work, to me, has always seemed a simpler one, one born of a simple truth and that is, the only way to attempt to make sense of one’s own life to to see its connection to the life of others…both its beauty and its ugliness, its calm and its horror, its suffering and its celebration….

remarkably humble photographs (and all that empty space and silence in which one hear’s the human hum) considering their formal strength and their insight into a simpler calculus…

to reach out is not always about the promotion of the self but the extension of the self and that is all i see here….powerful, humane, and distilled….

for her type of photographic practice, it is be bettered….

thanks for sharing and thanks for Burn for publishing

bob

By: John P.

John P. — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:40:44 +0000

Great photography, not sure about the text and title. Not the first time, nor the last.
Congratulations Monika.

By: Gordon Lafleur

Gordon Lafleur — Tue, 01 May 2012 03:20:17 +0000

This is simply amazing. Thank-you and congratulations Monika. I’ve not been familiar with your work until now. Spectacular is not too strong a word.

By: Chairman

Chairman — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 21:28:00 +0000

Spectacular, beautiful and meaningful.

Will it change the world? likely not. Does that make the work any the less? Not at all.

The photographer does what s/he can, it’s all any of us can do.

By: Carlo

Carlo — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:51:23 +0000

Loved the essay! #14 my favorite. I do have to say that viewing the photos first and not reading the statement I was surprised to read that this was about the Sufis….then again my vision of sufism is the swirling dervishes…

The self immolation picture reminds me of what is currently happening in Tibet…a similar situation.

Again, great work! and a really sad situation….

By: Imants

Imants — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 10:23:18 +0000

Thanks John sure makes a difference

By: John Vink

John Vink — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:57:05 +0000

Imants

Even more palatable because bigger images on the new website :-) :

http://www.johnvink.com/JohnVinkSite/galleries.html

By: Imants

Imants — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:44:21 +0000

It is ugly and bare to the bones ………………… anyway that’s it from me nothing wrong with the photos as photos……. the execution of intent a no from me

By: marcin luczkowski

marcin luczkowski — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:08:52 +0000

Imants,

Yes, poverty isn’t beautiful, but is not ugly or raw also.
but I have to agree with the last two lines.