Monthly Archive for June, 2010

matt eich – carry me ohio

[slidepress gallery=’matteich-carrymeohio’]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

EPF 2010 Finalist

Matt Eich

Carry Me Ohio

play this essay

 

Once known for its bounty of coal, salt, clay and timber, Southeastern Ohio was stripped of its resources by the mining corporations that thrived from the 1820s to the 1960s.  When they had mined all that they could, the corporations left, leaving the communities with little but their cultural identity, which is a product of poverty.

For the past three years I have been documenting the people of this region as they attempt to recover from the aftermath of extractive industry. In photographing their daily life, I’ve explored the culture of the area, as well as on the crippling poverty that threatens to extinguish it. The foothills of Appalachia have been my home for the past five years. I met my wife here and our daughter was born here. Now, the same lack of opportunity that has plagued the residents of Southeastern Ohio for decades has forced us to move.

Rampant unemployment, poor housing conditions, drug abuse and sub-standard schools have left many families here in crisis. In 2006, Athens County, one of the poorest counties in the state, had a poverty rate of 27.4 percent and a per capita income of just $14,171. With the economic downturn of the United States these numbers have only gotten worse.

In this series of images I show the isolated and trapped residents of Southeastern Ohio. From Hercules the German Shepherd, chained to his house in the snow to Timmy, asleep on the couch, trapped in his body and requiring around the clock care from his family. Despite their bleak surroundings there is still a sense of whimsy and beauty in the lives of the region’s occupants. They opened their homes to me and this is my love song to the place I once lived.

Poverty is more than the lack of monies; it is the deprivation of opportunity and has a lasting emotional resonance for the individuals who live within its grasp. These images strive to remember a forgotten place and a unique time in American history.

 

Bio

Matt Eich (b. 1986) is a freelance photographer and founding member of LUCEO. His work is rooted in memory, both personal and collective and he strives to approach every photograph with a sense of intimacy. Matt’s images focus on his own back yard, often exploring communities, the issues they face and their sense of identity.

As a student Matt interned with National Geographic before returning to Ohio University to complete his degree. While finishing school Matt began working for clients such as Newsweek, Mother Jones, TIME, The FADER, Smithsonian, More and Apple. His accolades include POYi’s Community Awareness Award, The Magenta Foundation’s Bright Spark Award, the Joop Swart Masterclass, a Juried Fellowship at the Houston Center For Photography and being named one of PDN’s 30 in 2010.

Matt and his family now live in Norfolk, Virginia where he works on long-term projects while compulsively documenting everything around him.

 

Related links

Matt Eich

 

Published on June 27, 2010 by burn magazine. 26 Comments

carl de keyzer – profile

PAR374247

PAR374263

Carl De Keyzer is a quiet man…one of the most prolific and intense photographers i know, is usually hard to find in a roomful of Magnum photographers…self effacing….unassuming….yes, classic Belgian….yet every time i see Carl he has a new book and 10 new exhibitions …i mean, who can keep up with this guy?  his books God Inc, Zona, and The Europeans show us a straight up shooter who does not let us miss his wit nor his ironic twists….

“Congo (Belge)”  and “Congo Belge en images”  are his two new books…the first , a color selection of his two year journey through this former Belgian colony and the second, black & white historical photographs from the colonial era…a powerful one, two visual and historical punch…i do not recall ever having seen a duo body of work quite like this one….as if these two books were not enough production , Carl simultaneously is working on a project of great magnitude, the coast of Europe…yes, the whole coast….i get exhausted just thinking about it…but, Carl in his most methodical way has raised his own funding, and is bit by bit literally photographing approximately 400  thousand of miles of European coastline….

rather than write any more about Carl now, i think it best if you chat with Carl yourselves…so, do a bit of homework on Carl, then jump in here and ask any relevant questions…Carl will be available to answer any questions you post here for the next few days.

PAR374249


Related links:

www.carldekeyzer.com

www.momentsbeforetheflood.com

Published on June 26, 2010 by david alan harvey. 25 Comments

margeaux walter – sunday afternoon

Sunday Afternoon

 

Sunday Afternoon by Margeaux Walter

Inspired by Georges-Pierre Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.

 

Related links

Margeaux Walter

Published on June 24, 2010 by burn magazine. 20 Comments

prabuddha dasgupta – longing

[slidepress gallery=’prabuddha_longing’]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT

 

Prabuddha Dasgupta

Longing

play this essay

“Longing” is my ongoing personal journal of memory and experience, based on everyday experiences…family, friendships, places known, spaces occupied, journeys remembered… At the centre of which stands a vital love story that became the pivot of my life six years ago… Elements from this love story appear as recurring motifs… Establishing the lexicon, which seeks to hold the journal together. All this is seen not in the context of specific time and place but through the personal, unfixed gaze of dream and memory.

The intent is to create an oblique, non-linear narrative, which seeks to evoke through the selective memory of my experiences, a journey of the viewer’s own.

The work in its infancy, with a different edit was shown at the Bodhi Art Gallery in New York in 2007-2008, and a selection of images from it were shown in a group show at the Whitechapel Gallery in London as part of “Where Three Dreams Meet” an exhibition of Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi photography. The show opens at the Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland on June 12th.

 

Bio

Prabuddha Dasgupta is a self-taught Indian photographer, whose work has been exhibited internationally in both solo and group shows. He is the author of 3 books, and the last one “Edge of Faith” (Seagull Books), a portrait of the disappearing Catholic community in Goa, India, was published in September 2009. He lives in Goa, India.

 

Related links

Prabuddha Dasgupta

 

Published on June 21, 2010 by burn magazine. 23 Comments

kate elizabeth fowler – my secret south

[slidepress gallery=’katefowler_mysecretsouth’]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

Kate Elizabeth Fowler

My Secret South

play this essay

 

This is a collection of images gathered throughout years of exploration in my home state, Virginia. Several of them feature my two traveling companions, biggest supporters, and best friends, Jackie Picariello and Robert Scott.

As a child I remember adamantly stating that I was not Southern, as it was my belief that the South did not begin until you had reached Georgia. In order to maintain this belief I had to disregard Richmond’s status as the former ‘Capital of the Confederacy’ and ignore my grandmother’s insistence in calling me “Katie Belle.î

To me, the South represented a shameful period of American History that I did not wish to be associated with; it represented the dislocation of families and cultures due to the presumptuousness of Western civilization.

It was not until my teenage years that I began to realize the beauty of my rich and troubled heritage. Many afternoons were spent driving down dirt roads with “no trespassing” signs searching for the remnants of forgotten homes.

The intricate tapestries of these strangers’ lives fascinated me. I found a strange comfort in my familiarity with the old houses and their belongings. The smell of dry wood and old paint, the light through aged and distorted glass, soft green grass of a large yard, and the frame of an empty barn; the landscape of my childhood.

I began to love these old homes and their fragments of lives once lived. Naturally, this love came with the fear of loss, and I began to see the temporary nature of these properties. As years passed I would return to find the homes gone; torn down by man and nature; segmented into lots for strip-malls and housing developments.

It was almost out of necessity that I began to photograph my explorations, collecting memories of a time passed and almost gone. For me, these images provide a memory of the beautiful mystery contained in Virginia’s soft hills; a memory of the people who tended the land and loved their homes.

At this point in time I find myself living in Finland, one of the Northern-most countries in the world; a country uniform in its cold white landscapes and modern architecture, founded on the principles of equality. In this safe and fair land I find myself longing for the diversity of my home and its healing wounds. I am able to see just how far we’ve come and to appreciate the beauty of our struggle.

 

Bio

Kate Elizabeth Fowler was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1988. She is attending Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts for Photography and Film Studies.

 

Related links

KAte Elizabeth Fowler

 

Published on June 19, 2010 by burn magazine. 28 Comments

EPF 2010 Winner

Emerging Photographer Grant 2010 Recipient

 

[slidepress gallery=”davidemonteleone_northerncaucasus”]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

Davide Monteleone

Northern Caucasus

play this essay

 

Northern Caucasus is a mix of stereotypes as well as surprises. For centuries it has been a country of political, religious, military and expansionist rivalry, a struggle between opposing states, and also between allied states. Ever since the beginning of the 19th century, this region has been part of the tsarist Russian Empire, later absorbed by the Soviet Block.

With the 1991 radical transformations involving the entire Warsaw Pact coalition, and the storm caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union,  new and ancient disputes resurfaced, and in some cases worsened, and revived political and economic aims of supremacy in the area.

This project takes into account the regions in which these disputes are not over yet, or may be apparently concluded, as intermittent fires under the political rhetoric of normalization and pacification. I intend to investigate with without prejudices such reality, beginning with the daily life of people living in the Northern Caucasus, who never reached their coveted independence and are still suffering the ramifications of the Russian Empire during the colonial age. They are divided between the claim for independence and the pride for their diversity, economic subordination, the historical-political and mental affiliation, the condemnation to an eternal geographic position in a limbo limes, and the elaboration of a new post-soviet identity. My goal is to go further away from the bird’s eye view of the geopolitical analysis, gliding down to a low altitude to find the details of such a complex world, with the aim to give a new key to the present day Russian Caucasus.

I’ve been working from Chechnya to Dagestan, from Northern to Southern Ossetia, just after the war in August 2008, all the way to Abkhazia, from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea coasts, crossing geographical and political borders. My interest isn’t to cover the news that brought the region back under the international floodlights, but to carry on a considered path by making notes of the tracks left behind.

 

Bio

Born in 1974, Davide Monteleone spent the first 18 years of his life moving to various cities of Italy because of the work of his parents. After graduating, he studied engineering and then stopped to move to the U.S. and after that to England. Is here that he discovered his interest in photography and journalism. Back in Italy in 2000, he completed his studies in photography and journalism and began working with the major Italian magazines. At the end of 2001 he moved again, this time to Moscow, where he lived until 2003 working as correspondent for the photo agency Contrasto. This choice proved to be determining for his career. He started working regularly with major national and international newspapers such as D, Io Donna L’espresso, New York Times, Time, Stern, and the New Yorker. Since 2003 he lives both in Italy and Russia, where he is pursuing long-term personal projects and continues his editorial work. He published his first book Dusha, Russian Soul in 2007.

 

Editor’s Note:

Davide will receive $15,000. from Burn Magazine through the Magnum Cultural Foundation to continue his work in the Northern Caucasus.

-dah-

 

Related links

Davide Monteleone

 

Published on June 12, 2010 by burn magazine. 64 Comments

EPF 2010 Finalists

[slidepress gallery=”epf_2010_finalists”]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

SOME ESSAYS CONTAIN EXPLICIT CONTENT

Emerging Photographer Grant 2010 Finalists

play this essay

 

This is a short preview of the essays of our 13 EPF finalists……their complete essays will be published on Burn in the coming weeks……the jury: Bruce Gilden, Michael Nichols, and Alessandra Sanguinetti

Published on June 12, 2010 by burn magazine. 40 Comments

pete pin – the ave

[slidepress gallery=’petepin_theave’]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

Pete Pin

The Ave

play this essay

 

“My whole take on the Telegraph life is, basically, my life is very simple: I sit around all day and I spare change for hours for alcohol which I use to compensate for the fact that I live on the streets everyday.” Coconut, then a 16 year-old street kid (transcribed from an audio interview).

Since the late 1960’s, Telegraph Ave – a four block commercial strip on the south side of the University of California in Berkeley, CA – has been a magnet for street kids, travelers, and runaways like Coconut. Arriving for several days, weeks, or sometimes years, the young transients sleep on the street, in various shelters scattered across the city, or secretly in the numerous squat houses scattered on the south side of Berkeley. They come for a multitude of reasons: broken homes, a defunct foster care system, or simply a desire to travel and be disengaged from society.

“Telegraph is a family, it is home” Coconut confided, “I love this place.” The portraits presented here are part of a larger and evolving project on the young transient population in Berkeley mixing studio with street shots. As a student at Berkeley, I was always dismayed at how the transients were ignored and dehumanized by others.

My rationale for the studio shots were to strip the subjects from their environment with the aim of enabling the viewer to empathize with the subjects first and foremost as human beings. All of the subjects came into my makeshift studio exactly as they were on Telegraph. The street shots – currently a work in progress – in turn provides the context. In the course of working on this project, I at times fully immersed myself on Telegraph; I have slept on the street, under bridge overpasses, spent time in squat houses, and even hitchhiked with a group of young travelers with nothing but the clothes on my back. I have been exceptionally fortunate to have been given a glimpse of their reality. In many ways, these photographs – the subject matter, the aesthetic, the minimal lighting, etc., are also testament to my state of mind at that period in time; I was overcome with a lack of direction, was deeply depressed, and felt “unchained from the sun” after leaving graduate school to pursue photography. As such, in an admittedly exceptionally limited way, I related with my subjects. The decision to leave a PhD program to pursue photography was improbable and professionally suicidal as I had just purchased my first camera only a year prior. These photos were taken within a month of leaving academia and, concomitantly, less than a year of taking my first photograph.

 

Bio

Pete Pin was born in a Red Cross refugee camp in 1982 following the Cambodian genocide and immigrated, along with his family, as a refugee to Northern California in the mid 1980’s. He attended inner-city high school in Long Beach, CA and dropped out as a junior to work full-time. With the generous emotional and financial support from patrons at his place of employment, he was encouraged to return to academics and received his BA in Political Science at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating magna cum laude with high departmental honors and was the recipient of the Outstanding Honors Thesis Award by his department. In the summer of 2008, months before embarking on an eight year PhD program in the social sciences at Berkeley, Pete purchased his first camera with the initial intent of pursuing photography as a hobby. Within a year of graduate school, he abandoned his PhD program to focus on photography full-time. The Ave is his first sustained project. He has received no formal artistic or photography training and is entirely self-taught. Pete currently resides in San Francisco, CA.

 

Related links

Pete Pin

 

Published on June 9, 2010 by burn magazine. 33 Comments

zisis kardianos – feastday

[slidepress gallery=’zisiskardianos_feastday’]

Hover over the image for navigation and full screen controls

Zisis Kardianos

Feast day

play this essay

 

“Memory demands an image”

Bertrand Russell

Rituals and traditions represent a very strong manifestation of the Greek way of life. It can be sensuous, surreal, mysterious and always loaded with the indelible sparkles of memory. I look at these traditions not as isolated events but as part of the life and spirit of my place. As photographer, I am allured by the idea of traveling. Going to different places, often without fixed ideas, just hoping for a prolific encounter with anything I may happen to stumble across. But since this is not always possible, I have to take advantage of what is around me, even outside my doorstep. I have to try to understand it and articulate it in a meaningful way. I am not very good in elaborating on an intellectual idea with the camera. I feel the camera as part of my heart, an extension of my intuition. I’m not sure about the documentary nature of these photographs, but for sure it is undermined by my responsive approach. It’s a rather subjective experience, constructing metaphors of my own narrative, through which I try to awake memories and to identify my cultural origins.

 

Bio

I was born in Greece in 1962. I studied sociology and in 1985 I enrolled in a two year photography course in Athens. I have recently attended a workshop with Nikos Economopoulos, one of the photographers I greatly admire. I am an amateur with some occasional publications of my work that subsidize my income together with my freelance travel writing.

I consider myself a street photographer more than anything else. I relate to the world by taking pictures and I give back slightly altered something of what I have been given.

It’s an emotional exchange and the highest reward I can expect from photography.

“Feast day” was not conceived as a series until much later when I felt I had a lot of singles with a common thread. The images were shot in my home island Zakynthos and other towns of south-west Greece, between 2006 and 2010.

A different edit has been first published in Geotropio magazine. The series has not been completed.

 

Related links

Zisis Kardianos

 

Published on June 5, 2010 by burn magazine. 42 Comments

write a caption..

obx van

i simply love the New Yorker cartoons…i suppose we all do…and many of you know of their cartoon caption writing contest…in that spirit i thought we should have a Burn caption writing contest…for the picture above ….photographed by my friend Medford Taylor probably 25 years ago, but which i am seeing for the first time today….

yes, that is me in the red shirt …and shot just a few miles from where i coincidentally now live…

so you have 24 hours to write your caption for this picture…normal programming resumes tomorrow…stories will be back up…

prize??  of course…yup, one of my many camera bags as usual…well, i gotta get rid of ’em somehow….judge: Chris Bickford our surfing expert and the only person around here to judge….

put your caption right here in comments…..and by tomorrow at this time i will give you the real caption..

…dah…

Published on June 5, 2010 by david alan harvey. 162 Comments