Jason

I’ve been thinking about the same thing for while and I really agree with you, it’s so important to have something like that. It’s a great idea and I hope it can happen.
I think the news out of the news is a really important thing. A lot of people forget what is happening in all the various part of the world as soon as the subject disappear from the news. I think that this sort of thing will start with the help of local photographers that want the world to remember them, and the work would probably be more powerful for it. A bit like what is happening in afghanistan with youn afghan photographers. I’ve read this article about the work that Reza and other photographers have been doing over there for a long time in helping younger generations to develop their talent and telling their stories is just brilliant.

Tom, Has something like this existed before? Perhaps. In a sense would LOOK and LIFE have been publications that dealt with this sort of news? Mother Jones kind of is, but they are kind of marginalized as a leftist publication. Perhaps more discussion is needed to investigate the value of such a publication and to investigate alternative avenues for news to be distributed. I feel like the general public in the U.S. is so closed off from the world outside they have no clue what is really being done to them. It’s like a political revolution is in full motion at the pace of speeding molasses. So slow, few recognize it and are instead caught up in the “sense” it seems to make for them… We must be free right? the rest of the world is full of socialists and commies. We’re a bunch of free people here in the states and really, we’re just free of the realities of the world. and free of culture… BAH!

I do believe print still has a future, especially for sincere and thoughtful publications centered around community, and for publications that reconnect the best of the visual language with the best of the written.

Magnum was created in part to protect the interests of creatives, centered around the copyright, and BURN was created as a vehicle for emerging artists that gives back, centered around a community. I like to think there is a next step. If you can’t find the right house for your family, you build one. Right, David? ;))

David, I began writing a letter to you yesterday regarding this. While I’ve been exploring these ideas with others in the context of a regional publication, I wonder …

Has anyone at Magnum or other agencies (VU, VII, etc) ever considered creating an “emergency publication” of sorts – A magazine, online and in print that would be for sole purpose of publishing important and timely work? Something like Burn, but at a greater scale.

It could cover news not in the news. For example what is going on right now in Haiti? How are they recovering? What is the significance of the dump in Rio closing? Unless one knew about it before hand, which I doubt many Americans did, what is the importance of it’s closure?
A look back with images of life in Rio by Nachtwey, yourself, Gordon Parks perhaps, and others to could show the area’s history with poverty, how the poor survived by picking in it and more. Such a publication might fuel other projects, and be able to contribute to the MF and other opportunities…

The pictures of Susan above are very beautiful. :)))

Thank you, thank you, thank you…! For having this conversation, for having these thoughts, for your dedication and commitment… and for sharing all of of that with us on BURN. And thanks as well to whoever did the grunt work of transcribing this conversation. Cheers to all…

Thanks for sharing this David and best of luck to the Magnum Emergency Fund.