behind the scenes – the rio book edit

The cool little video clip above by maestro Pete Longworth really is the way it is around my loft right now. Creative juices flowing the way they SHOULD always flow but rarely do. Along with doing my own work, my number one priority, is  to mentor those who seek to marry art, craft, and daily life into one holistic experience. Check this clip out. It is where we are right now with my RIO edit and with the overall mood of Burn. Pete shot this straight up , no staging, fast edit. We are going to do more behind the scenes video to show you when it seems either entertaining or educational or both. Stay tuned.

Music By: Peter Goetz

My place right now. Saturday afternoon and Janet is cleaning for me. Steady stream of collaborators requires high maintenance, lots of cold beer and an open mind. Everybody here is helping me. Eva Kunz flew here from Italy to coordinate printing, Susan Welchman editor on RIO for NatGeo  came up to add some of my latest work to her mix, Chris Bradley, Creative Director of RGA who caught a cab here from across the river, and Kaya Berne one of my digital assistants came up from Virginia where she lives and our connections are on Skype. A few Burnians are dropping by. If you are in the hood come on over. Better bring some beer or wine though because honestly we are busy. We even forgot to eat for two days last week.

 

 

 

 

Published on February 3, 2012 by burning*michelle. 54 Comments

alfredo chiarappa – crossing leningrad

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Alfredo Chiarappa

Crossing Leningrad

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Leningrad, Russia
January 2011

“Stavrogin: … in the Apocalypse the angel swears that there’ll be no more time.

Kirillov: I know. It’s quite true, it’s said very clearly and exactly. When the whole of man has achieved happiness, there won’t be any time, because it won’t be needed. It’s perfectly true.

Stavrogin: Where will they put it then?

Kirillov: They won’t put it anywhere. Time isn’t a thing, it’s an idea. It’ll die out in the mind.”

- The possessed, Fyodor Dostoevsky.

During the winter in Leningrad the night falls in love with time that seems never want to end. And the white mist all around suggests all lovers never to leave each other, and keeps company to the city youth.

After the end of the Communist dictatorship the young russian cultures strongly felt the influences of their contemporary american and european neighbours, so much that 20 years later even the myth of being a city of sex tourism has been lost.
Today in the city of the Great Peter you can breathe european air, and it can be compared to generation dream cities like Berlin and London.

Crossing Leningrad is about post-perestroika youth who wants to go beyond the time they couldn’t see certain films, couldn’t listen western music, radio stations and even wearing jeans.

 

Bio

Alfredo Chiarappa was born in 1982 in Melfi, a little town in southern Italy, and currently lives in Milan. He holds degrees in communication design from Politecnico in Milan and studied documentary photography at Rome School of Photography. His work is focuses on street culture and young people everyday life. Currently, he is a freelance photographer and he works on his personal projects. He also teaches Digital Media at Politecnico in Milan.

 

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Alfredo Chiarappa

Published on February 1, 2012 by burn magazine. 8 Comments

teresa cos – i was there – observations on “the Society of the spectacle”

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Teresa Cos

I Was There – Observations on “The Society of The Spectacle”

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“I Was There” is the first chapter of a long term (lifetime) project which explores western society and its obsession with success. I started by depicting the worlds of art, fashion and culture, where anxiety and struggle for success, together with the desperate need for recognition and approval are ubiquitous; where people live with the constant fear of being considered losers. The images have been taken in 2010 at Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice Film Festival, Milan and London Fashion Weeks, Frieze Art Fair in London and Paris Contemporary Art Fair (FIAC).

I chose these events because they are globalised examples of a bubble (for instance the art industry) that is on the verge of explosion. As wrote Jean Baudrillard: When one looks at the emptiness of current art, the only question is how much such a machine can continue to function in the absence of any new energy, in an atmosphere of critical disillusionment and commercial frenzy, and with all the players totally indifferent? If it can continue, how long will this illusionism last? A hundred years, two hundred? This society is like a vessel whose edges move ever wider apart, and in which the water never comes to the boil.

If one substitutes current art with current society the equation doesn’t really change, does it? And who are these indifferent players, if not us? I want to keep on exploring and understanding photographically the Hyper reality created by consumerism, where people aspirations are dangerously confused with the models of living that the society of the spectacle is constantly selling us and where need has become desire and admiration envy.

To me, it is fundamentally important to understand these social dynamics because, by creating the idea that through a selfish individualism everybody can finally reach extreme forms of wealth and success, one drastically contributes to the social and economic disparities in this world.

 

Bio

I was born and grew up in a small town called Latisana, in the North East of Italy, a one hour drive from Venice, where I ended up living for six years as an architecture student. It is thanks to architecture that I discovered photography, because it taught me to look at the world through different eyes.

After graduating in 2008, I was in the Italian team of architects and urbanists in the international table of consultation wanted by the French government to produce ideas for the future of Paris. I lived for seven months in the suburbs of the French capital, producing my first important body of work, Banlieue 08/09, that allowed me to be accepted last year onto the Photojournalism & Documentary Photography MA program at London College of Communication, where I graduated with Distinction.

I live and work in London and I am also part of the photography collective Five Eleven Ninety Nine.

 

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Teresa Cos

Collective Five Eleven Ninety Nine

Published on January 27, 2012 by burn magazine. 74 Comments

Sydney Photo Fest


We are working around the clock to make this happen. This being an exhibit of the recently photographed ONE NIGHT IN RIO and the book/portfolio to launch simultaneous.  I will probably be here in my NY loft night and day for three weeks . Sequencing, choosing paper stock, size, interplay between photos etc etc.

The RIO book/portfolio is going to be unique. Unbound, unfettered, interactive. The limited edition will have an archival print and comes in a hand crafted box made in Rio. Finely printed by the best in Italy. For those of you interested in the special edition of this  book please contact me directly: david@burnmagazine.org

If you are anywhere near Australia in May or have been thinking of an Australia adventure, now is the time. The HeadOn Photo Festival is going to be buzzing. There are  many great exhibitions including a very special exhibition of BURN 02. Our very own Imants Krummins is going to be mounting a small exhibition of his students in Sydney. I will be doing a one week photo essay class at Bondi Beach. Anyway, check it all out. We will keep you updated on additions to this program.

www.headon.com.au

 

Published on January 25, 2012 by david alan harvey. 136 Comments