In Protest by Yalda Pashai-F
I am a 20 year old photography student currently studying at Ryerson University in Toronto where I learn to express my opinions and inner feelings through image-making. Born in Iran, I always believed in freedom and equality. In this spirit, I participated with the protest to close down the School of the Americas funded by the U.S. Army, located in Fort Benning, Georgia. The protesters are composed of various peacemakers and are here dressed as the dead. This particular image is from a series based on this protest.
(editors note: Yalda is a student assistant for the Magnum workshops going on now during the Contact Photography Festival in Toronto….i may also publish some of the best from all 6 workshops running now. -david alan harvey)
Always good to look at the bright side! I guess there could be something “special” about having a Pulitzer Prize winning PJ shoot your wedding. Extra cost if he shoots it with only a Leica M, 35mm lens and Tri-X.
ahahahaha
jim, ive got a QnoA for you on ‘on a roll’..
(making small talk waiting for new pixels)
Jim
Thanks for your long and gracious reply. I am beginning to understand what your thoughts are and that much of what you say here is driven by a passion and drive for excellence. Your vision is clear and straight as an arrow. My thoughts reading your reply is that your vision is perhaps too straight and too narrow and fails to adequately consider the relative experience of a photographer. Adults are not popped out of the womb straight-away and excellent photographers are not popped out of photography 101. It stands that our photographs should be judged relative to our place and progress on a continuum that reflects our experience, talent and knowledge.
It seems to me that you come to Burn hoping, praying and expecting to see Pulitzer quality excellence from a relative unknown. It makes you high to think that with a click you could be gobsmacked into a state of optimistic bliss for the future of photojournalism. When work falls short you are duty bound to say that. Your comment among all the others of soothing ecstatic approval will provide the one source of honest judgement according to sound photojournalistic criteria and principles. It´s a tough job but somebody has to do it. i know, i know. You are Burn´s Simon Cowell. And this courage that you have, this vision is what makes you a leader. But alas, not a teacher. Not a cheerleader. Not a mentor. Not a facilitator and not a friend. Your job is far more imperative, more serious than all that. You are more like St. Peter at the Pearly Gates. But Burn is not YOUR tool for keeping photojournalism safe for future generations. It´s David´s vehicle to develop and introduce new talent with an eye TOWARD excellence; reflecting and balancing current market trends, conditions, tastes, expectations and realistic demands on a photographer´s abilities now and into the foreseeable future.
If David´s goal was to publish Pulitzer quality work then why would Burn need to exist? We could just go out and buy Time Magazine and even then there are precious few photos that meet that quality standard. I am thinking that you set yourself up for a pretty frustrating level of disappointment as your standards of excellence and your vision for Burn´s raison d’être fail to be realized. And because we really are a social unit we absorb, respond and reflect your disillusionment. That´s when i think the problems start. If you could accept that Burn is developing talent instead of being merely a glitzy showcase for the end product then i think you could wrap your arms around David´s vision and help him and us to achive nirvana. But as long as you soldier forward alone like Don Quixote then there will always be this disgruntled atmosphere where most comments start with the word Jim as someone mentioned above.
I ask you again, Jim, from the bottom of my heart, please accept and judge work here relative to a photographer´s experience level and personal vision. It doesn´t mean that you have to be all kissy-kissy. Just that you consider the fact that the photograph or essay is a snapshot in time of the photographer´s experience and that your comments be constructive and hopefully foster the potential for personal understanding and growth. You cannot stop the march of time and change. But you can be a part of bringing more Pulitzer prize photographers into the spotlight where they belong. Or you can dash any hopes they have at a vulnerable and perhaps pivotal moment when they are published here. Your choice. You have that kind of power.
best
kat-
Kat,
what a wordsmith! Fantastic.
Kathleen, work is presented here from photographers from a wide range of skill levels, and from young photographers with little experience to published photographers with a lot of experience. Perhaps David should point out the experience level with each photo or essay. Otherwise I don’t know how to comply with your wishes.
The problem is that, as David as said, he considers all photographers as “emerging.” Without a declaimer, what you ask would require lavishing praise on everyone and assuming they are all on the same level.
If he is not showcasing the best work around in the hope of opening doors for them, then what is he doing? I understand he is developing talent, but that seems to be a back end task. If critique is unwelcome, good or bad, then why allow posts in response to the photo?
Kathleen, I just say what I think. If you want to project some kind Don Quixote persona on me, then you are welcome to do so, understanding, of course, that Don Quixote was quite insane.
Jim
Yes, i know and i wrote about how to spot the level of experience in my comment and deleted it as being too vague. I agree it is a problem to know when to say, ¨NEXT???¨ and when to be a bit more gentle and encouraging while also maintaining honest critical standards. I regret commenting on a self-portrait once here, ¨Sorry, I hate it¨. eeks..i found out the guy was just shy of a novice without really great equipment and wow, did i feel like a schmuck. John Gladdy who is usually so blunt was far more perceptive than i was. He kept asking the guy to talk about his technique. He reserved judgement as he probed for answers to his questions. I just judged and wham, ended up feeling like the ignoramus. I guess without the benefit of introductory text by DAH or Bob we have to kind of feel our way around. But don´t you think you can usually tell when someone´s been around the block a little or a lot or not at all by their website, technical expertise, text, responses to questions? Just asking because that´s the way i generally get a feel for where someone´s at and how much and how strong i can be with them. And i don´t have anywhere near your experience. It should be second nature to you after all these years.
Also, i don´t think the choices are only harsh judgement or sticky sweet praise. A black and white photo has a million shades of gray. As a matter of fact, in your absence that was what i missed so much. The comments pretty much all made me go into sugar overload. We NEED you here!!! But a little middle ground would be a nice improvement. Ask questions for one thing. Get answers, invesitgate. Look at the website (yeah, Herve, i know, but i learned!), look for clues, balance your gut reaction with a deeper analysis based on discovery. Critique is what being published here is all about. That´s why DAH asks the photographer for permission to allow comments and they all say yes. Because to a one they all want to learn and improve. And we learn from each other´s comments. And sometimes the only thing we can say i ¨I love it¨, ¨I hate it¨ but the one line assasinations, man, they cut to the quick.
kat-
Jim…
mmmm….i never read Don Quxote, i am sorry to say. So i am going on my perception of his mssion. Strike that from the record if you must but please don´t disregard what my point was in the first place.
best
kat-
Ian
thx
Interesting picture really reminds of the film Dune.
Yelda you are a great work in progress. Your eyes are open. Follow what interests you and you will find your voice. It’s clear that you reacted to what you saw. How cool. Passion, good training and a willingness to let others comment is how it grows into that voice.
Paul
wow. stunning.
JIM…
laughing…every day you ask me what i am doing and every day i tell you and every day i show you….hmmmmmm…not sure what it would take to make things any more clear….pretty funny really….and i am sure you are laughing too …..
ok, deep breath..and one more time (just in case you are not laughing)…..
these are emerging photographers published here…as opposed to the so called legends…some emerging photographers are more emerging than other emerging photographers as are some legends more legendary than other legendary photographers… emerging photographers may one day be legendary photographers….and the best legendary photographers are always emerging….emerging photographers work should be critiqued on the same level as legendary photographers work, but emerging photographers work from a picture taken two weeks ago might not be comparable to a legendary photographers work from 25 yrs ago which has been deemed now “famous” nor can a legendary photographer who shot a picture two weeks ago necessarily have a picture any better than the emerging photographer’s either best or worst…..call it as you see it of course Jim…
now, just because someone is emerging does not mean that their photographs should be handled with kid gloves……since these emerging talents are seeking to be legendary talents, they need to know the truth..and speaking the truth and your own mind is the language you say you speak….so, in the spirit of truth and your own mind, will you please go to any magazine/newspaper stand and peruse all of the top print magazines you can possibly find and their weekly output..i mean TODAY literally..just as i did today while traveling…i looked at everything today at JFK airport magazine store…from Rolling Stone, to New Yorker, to Time/Newsweek, to NYT, , to Harpers etc etc….out of all the print magazines i saw today (and maybe it was a bad day, but go see for yourself) i could only find two pictures which would pass muster on BURN from my point of view and none that i feel would pass muster from your point of view…..just go look NOW…today…imagine whatever you see right now at these magazines above and pretend it would be up here on BURN right now…..after you do that, and please do that, look at our three front page pictures right now..In Protest by Yalda, Safekeeping by Lori, and Uganda’s Forgotten War by Dima and tell me honestly if you can find any three better pictures in any of the media listed above…in other words Jim i am asking you to compare our week in pictures here with the week in pictures from the weekly media listed above…
you will never get it through your head no matter how many times i say it that being published here is not “pretend”….this IS being published…these pictures are not being seen in a hypothetical way, they are being seen in a real way by real people …it is just a new way from your point of view…i think you see it as an exercise towards a viewing experience, when it is in fact the exact same experience from the viewer standpoint as a picture appearing in your newspaper or in Life Magazine and with more viewers than both….provable numbers Jim, provable numbers….
now, will it make it more real to you if original photography came in here from an assignment??? i do not have that YET for Burn, but that is exactly what i am working on….for both emerging and legendary photographers….this cannot be a promise, for promises MUST be kept….but, this is a sincere effort on my part…as is the effort to get BURN to print for a once a year special edition….photographs and words edited carefully….so please Jim , cut me some slack for at least TRYING and a bit more slack for needing the time to do it…you got no patience dude!!!
yes, yes of course Jim, i will leave your words of wisdom totally intact in print as i do here…been censored by me Jim ?? i didn’t think so…and there is nothing ,absolutely nothing , i would like more than to present Jim Powers as an emerging photographer….er, yes, i mean, a legendary emerging photographer…..
cheers, david
Hi,
This is the terrific image, it tell me so… some years ago, I read “Iranienne et libre” of Shirin Ebadi, I also had the luck to be present at one interview, I became aware of the condition of the women in Iran… this image translates me all this… thank you for your engagement…
all the best, audrey
DAH, Bravo.
Mike.
DAVID- it was a pleasure working with you. I have learned a lot from you in the past week. I admire you and your work. Hope to see you soon in NYC…… GEMINIS RULE!
As an ‘emerging’ photographer, I do need professional feed backs to help me grow in my field; so Thank you everyone for your honest opinion on my photo.
YaldaP.
As an ‘emerging’ photographer, I can tell you my “emerging opinion”…
Very strong and great photo. I like the spiral that leads the eye to the girl.
Alberto
“i think you see it as an exercise towards a viewing experience, when it is in fact the exact same experience from the viewer standpoint as a picture appearing in your newspaper or in Life Magazine and with more viewers than both….provable numbers Jim, provable numbers….”
It resembles nothing of the viewing experience as a photo appearing in a newspaper or magazine. It floats isolated in a dark background on David Alan Harvey’s Burn website, the importance of the image given greater credibility because DAH chose it to be there. Don’t get me wrong. Having you on their side is a huge asset to these photographers. But to suggest the viewing experience on this website has a real world analog in newspapers and magazines is not, in my opinion, accurate. Perhaps the analog is closer to having a photo exhibited at a major gallery with Harvey there with his arm around the photographer.
Having said that, there is a lot of mediocre photography out there in newspapers and magazines. When you have to produce dozens of photos day in and day out and produce them when you sometimes have no interest in the event you are covering is a challenge for everyone. But, this site is not a daily newspaper. The work shown here represents “greatest hits,” as of course it would be in this venue.
Fantastic picture, I totally love the colours and composition!
Jim Powers,
What’s the difference between DAH/Burn and any Picture Editor for a paper or magazine?
Jim what do you think about the publication Dispatches:
http://www.rethink-dispatches.com/about
?
I’ve never looked at any photograph here and thought “DAH likes this”. Never entered my head.
I’ve never considered anyone who contributes in any way here as somehow “A friend of DAH”. Never entered my head.
If DAH left Burn, and Burn continued; I’d still look every day.
Mike.
Jim,
I really think that if, for example the Eddie Adams vietnam photo of the general shooting the vietcong was shown on Burn you would say the same thing you do about almost everything here. There is no pleasing you, is there?
Joe, Jim’s main interest is to bring out your prejudices…….. common! agreeing with one another makes for boring reading. So maybe re word your questions into statements and hold onto your convictions…………http://etrouko.com.au/art/gtr08.jpg
http://www.etrouko.com.au/art/gtr08.jpg
Mike, if this weren’t DAH’s website, you would have never given it a second (or, likely, first look). Probably would have never heard of it. It’s not a bad thing that a famous photographer is using his name recognition to draw attention to these photographers. My only point to David was that this is not just another newspaper or just another magazine, nor are photographs here viewed as though they were.
Rafal, even Adams was troubled that the photo misrepresented the general. Actions pictured in photos are not always what they seem.
Yes he was but thats not really the point. The Adams shot was just an example and in any case he was displeased with it for a very different reason Jim is displeased with most photos here. You could use almost any shot really and Jim would sing the same tune. Which to me is very strange coming from a newspaper editor. I still dont understand where Jim is really coming from.
JIM….ALL…
just to be clear, print in hand is way way different than anything online…i was referring above only to the numbers of people viewing, potential impact, and the realities of publishing today…yes, the QUALITY of print is a totally different thing and much better….again, this is the primary reason i would like to see a collector’s edition print version of BURN….
this site is not a daily newspaper for sure…but it is an almost daily update from a finite pool of presented work…i will stand by BURN week by week with matched imagery from the best on press..and while the press budgets are falling, we are at zero, so they have no excuse!! the “best of BURN” in printed version, and in the movie upcoming, will be exactly as the name implies…
Jim, did you actually do what i asked you to do??? hmmm, didn’t think so….
cheers, david
DAH – Again, very well expressed. But you have had much practice repeating it to Jim…. Who I fear will just never get it. I can’t help but think there is something deeper troubling him.
Rafal, again, I have praised a number of photos and essays that have appeared here. Did you miss them?
David, I look at images in newspapers and magazines every day. I really do care about photography, David. It’s what I do every day. While I’ve never aspired to be a famous photographer, photography has been my life for 40 years. I don’t have an agenda. I just care deeply about photography and its future. We just see things differently.
Come on, Pete. Psychoanalyzing pixels on a screen, now?
Editor-at-Large to Publisher & Editor-in-Chief:
:))))))…let’s get this ball rolling…and get these boys something new….they seem to be wallowing in boredom ;))))….it’s become even more tedious than one of my editorials….
let them Go Tell it to the Mountaintop ;))
even i cant believe a far aside this conversation has wing’d….
hugs
bb
JIM…
yes Jim, i know you care….i never thought you didn’t, never said you didn’t, and i am very aware of the work here that you do like…we do share many of the same concerns for the future as well….i think what we are attempting to do here is to take action and try try to do something about it…THAT is my only AGENDA…..we see some things differently and some things exactly the same…hence a healthy discussion…however, it seems we spend more time discussing the medium than we do the message….in any case, perhaps Pete is right…he is a hard working daily print newspaperman too and an online publisher…you two are in exactly the same world….
i care deeply about photography and its future just as much as do you, and i never aspired to be a “famous photographer” either…my only aspiration past and future is to do good work…period…so, we have clear common ground….imo what we are doing now IS the future….so please lend a hand…find a young photographer you admire and bring this person to us…tell me of a thread or discussion you would like to explore….roll up your sleeves and give us some real editorial input that can be put into practice NOW…..thanks….
cheers, david
BOB…
good idea…thanks for the wake up call!!! …..let me get another cup of coffee, get a fire built (cool today) and i am on the case….
gracias for your hospitality in Toronto..good times…
cheers, david
PUBLISHER/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF :))))
what are brothers/friends/comrades-in-arms for ;))))….
my pleasure amigo, my pleasure…it was a delight…even an intense one, when i looked in my pockets and found 30 photog cards…egads, did i sign up for that? ;)))))….will write an Editorial this week on the Magnum Lectures & STudent presentations :))))….have it too you soonest….need some time to digest…
next time: it’ll be on the beach….we’re medicine wont be clouded by needs to talk to so many folk :)))
love,hugs young man.
running
bb
Jim
We Poles have a sentence or a proverb:
If one preson tell you “you are horse”, tel him “you are idiot”
when second person tell you “you are horse”, hit him it the face.
When third person tell you “you are horse”, buy yourself a saddle.
I know you are right in many cases.
But sometimes maybe there is a reason why so many comments is against yours.
Especially about BURN.
I think BURN shouln’t be explained.
BURN is BURN.
DAH
¨find a young photographer you admire and bring this person to us…¨
young? they have to be young? *gulp*
JIM
¨Mike, if this weren’t DAH’s website, you would have never given it a second (or, likely, first look). Probably would have never heard of it¨
Maybe Mike wouldn´t have popped over here and stuck around but i didn´t know the name David Allan Harvey for shit. But i did know photo websites and blogs, from PSIG forward (anybody here at PSIG back in the day?) which were always all about the owner of the site and if you didn´t see eye-to-eye with him/them, your comment was summarily deleted..and for the most part they´re boring as hell, light´s on but nobody´s home kind of feeling..BURN hit me right away as active, dynamic, ON, forward thinking, sharp comments from people who say things other than ¨Nice tones¨, out of the blue surprises from Akaky, passionate discussion (ok, sometimes a little hotter than passionate), fabulous work that i don´t always like, sometimes cannot understand the decision to publish, but are 99% provocative and thought provoking. But mainly, i got the feeling that Burn is not just a place for hobbyists content to have a few strangers ooh-and-aahh their vacation snaps of doors and fresh fruit stands in exotic places. It´s a place where hardworking real photographers come to check out what´s new and to just hang, feeling not so all alone wherever they happen to be. And finally, i stayed because of DAH himself who´s wisdom and vision moves my heart.
PETE and DAH
I agree with you, Pete, and the word ¨chip´comes to mind. I think also that this discussion is going back to the same old thing and that´s Jim/DAH´s basic disagreement of what Burn is/should be. The fact is that DAH is an optomist working for change and Jim is a negative curmudgeon beating a dead horse. Far from being a healthy dynamic, it is a burden to the rest of us because as intelligent, thinking individuals, we jump into the fray and get dragged down the spiral of Jim´s negativity which i think suits Jim just fine because it keeps all the attention on him. And when it shifts away from him he tosses in a comment almost completely opposite his earlier comments (witness this very photograph) and we all follow like lemmings into the sea. I am upset by this negative trend and others are as well. Yet when i address that DAH comes in and posts almost beseechingly to Jim—-again. WTF?
grrr
kat-
Marcin
well spoken!!
kat-
KATHLEEN…
good point….i agree…i guess i just keep thinking that there is always a way to get through to someone…..that is the “never say die” persistent mentality i get into when i am mentoring someone…
however, sometimes you just must realize that there is nothing you can do….like the doctor who finally realizes only by looking up at the flat line on the heart monitor that the patient has really really died!!!
ok, skip the word “young” as in the context of chronological age….sorry….actually , most of the books i have mentored into final publication in the last few years have been from “youngins” over 40….but, if you want me to work with you , you just gotta spell my name correctly (my mom insists)….even if “you do not know me for shit”..
peace, david
DAH
Listen to what people are and have been saying. Please listen! This is not about you and Jim or me and Jim..i like Jim! Others do too!! We´re upset by the negatvitiy. It´s not about treating the work here with kid gloves, it´s about not trashing it into five easy pieces just because it doesn´t meet your photojournalistic expectations. ONE photo/essay published at Burn cannot possibly contain all of Jim´s hope for the future of Pj´s around the world. Maybe a ¨Best of Burn¨ could and i look forward to holding such a book in my hands. But one photo, one essay appearing on these ´pages´ cannot possibly sustain the burden of Jim´s wholly unrealistic and highly frustrated expectations. And it is unfair that his venom for what´s going on in the industry is taken out on Burn´s published work. It´s also unfair to the rest of us who come into a photo or essay viewing the unique expression of a photographer who is begging to be taken seriously. This photographer deserves to be received by open and very sharp minds. Their work does not deserve to be loved and adored just because DAH decided to publish it. And we equally do a huge disservice to the photographer by catering to their egos with sticky-sweet words. But it also needn´t be summarily trashed like a dirty diaper.
That´s all i have to say on this subject (cross my fingers)
best
kat-
DAH
i was writing my comment when you posted yours..i haven´t even read yours yet but wanted to quickly tell you that mine is not a response to your latest..
kat
David ALAN Harvey
please, forgive me..tell your Ma i´m sorry..meant no disrespect :))
As to the other, i know, i know, it´s all a part of the very good person that you are and i have seen this from my first days here..i also know what Jim could contribute if he´s just shake off the gloom..and it is true that he likes some work published here a lot..and when he does, none of the rest of us knows quite what to do because the discussion dies right there. heh. That´s why i say Jim has so much power and could do so much here..could be so helpful and useful to Burn. JIM…please hear this! I don´t know if it´s a flat line or if there´s a little upward bleep now and then. i prefer to think it´s a bleep and not a zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…
ok..gotta go..
kat
some years ago….. I became aware of the condition of the women in Iran… this image translates me all this… thank you for your engagement…
—————————-
Oh my God, Audrey…. Courrageous, candid Audrey!!!! :-))))
or :-(((((( ?:
Don’t you know Katleen has forbidden us to think of Iran, or muslim religion seeing this image? ;-)
Bahhh, I am sure she’d say it’s a fine perception as long it’s another young talented woman photographer writing it… Ok, that’s what I want to be too then, an old talented woman photographer. All gain, no pain (post-menopause here!)
:-)))))))))))))))))
KATHLEEN…
not flat lined….wouldn’t be here if that was the case….teasing about the name…i am a teaser if you have not figured that out already…
hugs, david
Herve that was naughty!
I was hoping Audrey would just get a chance to sneak by with that comment :-)
sorry for misunderstanding but I was young, and now since I’ve met Shirin Ebadi, I changed my mind, my readings are less superficiel :))))
terrific image. reminds me a biblical story of some kind, very painterly. love this splashes of red on the “canvas”. it does remind me of the middle eastern women (may be it’s your ingrained personal mythology, Yalda :) however it’s a very powerful image. im happy you take the world peace issues to your heart. your braveness would help you to grow as a photographer. best of luck :)
Herve
Now what i think would be cool is you in a burka with nothing on underneath but a speedo. Even if you are post-menopause, it´s still a provocative visual ;)
my love to Hervette..
kat-
DAH
yuh, i got that..
hugs backatcha
kat-