23 thoughts on “painting the van”

  1. GIVE THE VAN A NAME, DAMMIT! HAVE CANDY (my apologies, ma’am, for being so familiar without having been formally introduced)SMASH A BOTTLE OF BEER ON THE FENDER TO CHRISTEN THE THING! NAMES ARE IMPORTANT!!! unless, of course, you’re doing a reprise of those Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, in which case names are optional.

  2. By now, surely other observant readers will also have noticed that the ‘golden retriever’ in the window is a trompe l’oeil decal image and not a real dog…???

    By now this is all sounding way, way too much like the “Magic Bus” movie that I recently saw again.

    Since this is a BURN production, if you follow Akaky’s suggestion and christen the RV, I suppose you could call it “CRISPER.” Or “DARKER” maybe???

  3. Maybe you should Burn the camper van and toast with a lovely cold beer and all of you guys go and rent some Harley Davidson bikes and cross the USA in style.

  4. This road trip thing seems to be primarily performance art. I’ve realized that I’m not interested in the process, the details, of this project, just the end result. Hard to find a context for the (in)activity.

    Think I’ll bypass all this and wait for the book.

  5. Jim..

    Not surprised to read this from you.. still, I’d thought you’d know a bit about David and how he works (for “works” I don’t mean the photography, but his character).. this creative (in)activity IS the context.. this is not about getting pictures for a book, but I believe just as Rio was, a journey.. a different one, going to the roots of where he comes from, whereas Rio was more about where life had brought him along the years..

    Setting the stage, the mood.. I do look forward to what the book or whatever the end result will be like, but that is not now.. now is time for the journey…

  6. Eva, perhaps. It just seems to me that this band of merry men (and women) that has surrounded Harvey is more noise than anything else. The logistics simply become more involved. A lot of energy gets expended in the “process.”

    Photography, for most of us, is in the making a solitary event.

  7. Jim, Eva:

    Many creative-types focus on the solitary effort and take great pains to stay away from editors, friends, and critics whose advice is unwanted. But creativity also comes from connectivity, even it is consciously unacknowledged. For others, creativity through connections is needed for their artistic realization. The idea of Van Gogh struggling away in a freezing attic holds a lot of attraction to the solitary artist, but even Vincent understood his connection to the past history of painting, and to his immediate peers.

    Think of the creative approach in modern music, say a rock band. Each musician pings off the others and a sound emerges greater than the sum. The Dave Matthews Band is a terrific example – they understand their individual weaknesses, and the superior sound they create when together. Think of all the great musicals of the 20th century, and the need for lyricists, composers, voice coaches and choreographers. No single individual has ever totally packaged this form of live art, even if Rogers & Hammerstein, or Andrew Lloyd Webber, get all the credit in the end.

    By bringing in old friends and new talent, even if their artistic field is foreign to David’s, he’s practising a standard approach to creativity-through-connection. The approach remains hidden from so many people bent on singular expression, but if you listen to David, it seems to me he’s been talking about it all along.

  8. Perhaps the merry pranksters will add to the photography, perhaps not. Just seems like a distraction to me. I’m sure David will chime in soon.

  9. Jim…

    Hold on a bit and don’t despair! I bet once that camper van gets those piston firing it all will be well worth the wait.

  10. And as morning began to filter into the bus, it was clear the greatest mistake of the night before wasn’t the tequila or the naked swim in the midst of so many photographers or even the packing of so many bodies into cramped quarters, it was the burrito dinner, with refried beans.

  11. one CANNOT separate the living of life from the process of photographing…this especially true with DAH…his work, and his life, exist in just THIS kind of living…the illusion that Jim (and many others) fall into is that somehow, out of moist, unsullied, cloth comes the ‘work’…if anything, the brilliance (courage?) behind what david has always done here is that he exposes the lie, he offers his doing/not-doing to those who wish to see, or rather, he trumps the trompe l’oeil (thanks sidney, have always loved this word)of an idea that artistic product (picture, book, art piece, etc) someone comes through some great ‘active’ heroic struggle (thankyou hollywood bullshit)…when in truth, most of the time those of us who actually do MAKE, spend most of the time (just as everyone else in life) doing absolutely nothing…or rather, fucking around, talking, sleeping, drinking, reading, belching, crying, wasting time…its a miraculous truth that anything ever gets done, ….

    the result (or maybe no result) of this road trip will be very different from the ‘screening’ of it here…

    sometimes, i wonder, why i even read some of the screed that’s scribbled here…

    bbq anyone? i’m hungry

    happy inactive trails ;))

    b

  12. JIM POWERS

    for sure Jim, i am shooting in front of an audience…i had never done that before Rio, and for sure Rio “worked out” even though evidently not your cup of tea….i am a newspaper photog at heart and i can shoot for an audience here on Burn in exactly the same way you do for your newspaper and i did for mine…

    i always of course value your judgement calls, however calling the game while we are still in the locker room seems a bit odd….this is a 6 week trip…i might only get two good pictures the whole time or maybe none which amigo is exactly what some will be here to learn….for some the process is important….and you enjoyed the process of Rio, but probably have no need to see this one…that is fine of course….sure just wait for the book…that is the only thing i ultimately care about as well….

    when i started out as a photographer whose work was seen first by dozens, then by hundreds, then by thousands, then by millions i never let this aspect interfere with how i was thinking about the subject…so performance art was never in my mind…using the net to build audience is a whole different deal of course and some aspects of it are things with which i am not totally comfortable…however, in the long run i am way way happier doing my own thing rather that being under the advertising umbrella of any publishing corporation…

    sure the run up to this won’t have much content…i will be heading to shoot an interesting family this afternoon….so far on this trip we have mostly been dealing with the Lucies and just getting the van, and food , and towels and all that stuff …just getting set up…many readers will appreciate i think that pictures do not just appear for me….and that routine everyday life is all part of it…

    anyway yes, just wait for the book…you are 100% right in thinking that is all that matters….

    cheers, david

  13. a civilian-mass audience

    BURN is Rocking!!!
    BURN is Rolling

    What not to love!!!

    May the spirits of safety,inspiration and courage be with YOU…ALL OF YOU!!!

    Viva BURN,VIVA BURNIANS!!!…may the journey begin…

  14. a civilian-mass audience

    this is for you JIMMY…”are we there yet?”…hihiii

    (to be perceived as a joke)…I will wait for the book too…:)))))))))))))))))

    yes,it’s time for a TOAST…!!!

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  16. ALL

    i think i will do here what i did in Rio….if i see a comment i choose to answer, i will make a new post for it…for those who may have missed the comment..so, i just did that with the Jim Powers comment and response…we will see how that goes…

    JEFF

    what you describe is what i generally instinctively do…absorb the thoughts of many and then make my own decision…a big piece of this puzzle still remains to be found…it will be simple to find it ha ha once i have found it…then it will seem obvious…now, not…..yet i well know that not knowing is part of the process of knowing…

    cheers, david

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