Comments on: max sher – dmitry https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Sat, 18 Jun 2016 08:47:30 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: gordon lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30847 Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:43:36 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30847 David Alan

Glad you liked the comment.

I’m loving Burn. Being able to comment means having to pull together my thoughts into coherent form. Thankyou for the opportunity.
I’d love to attend a workshop with you at some point.

Cheers
Gordon L

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By: david alan harvey https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30655 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:10:20 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30655 GORDON…

i missed this the first time around…greqt comment amigo!!!

cheers, david

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By: Max Sher https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30651 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:51:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30651 Many many thanks again to all!
Max

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By: marina black https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30627 Sun, 01 Mar 2009 17:36:32 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30627 i love this picture. strange, awkward body, oversize jacket, body angles/furniture angles, the face blending with the wall paper. beautiful work!

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By: pAtrIcIO m. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30544 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:11:06 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30544 Hi everyone.
Great portrait Max! The atmosphere remember me “Satellites” from Jonas B.
Pat

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By: kathleen fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30433 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 01:06:10 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30433 oh, Gordon, it was my own private shorthand..just putting an exclamation mark on your wonderful post..take care, eh?
kat-

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30429 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:55:28 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30429 Thanks Kathleen. I guess I’m not too up on what all those little abreviations mean.

Gordon

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By: kathleen fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30428 Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:44:05 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30428 i liked what you said is all :)

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30418 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 23:37:38 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30418 Kathleen

-!!!- ?

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By: kathleen fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30408 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:33:32 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30408 Gordon

–!!!–

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By: kathleen fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30406 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:10:57 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30406 oh, Patrica, i know it wasn´t directed at me personally, but your comment was so timely and spoke so clearly to my frustration that i had to thank you. Life is indeed way too short. Period.
kat-

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30405 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:09:52 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30405 Did burn go down for a bit? I just submitted a comment, only to have the site dissapear along with my comment. I’ll try and remmember what I said.

A note to Jim, Cartier Bresson and others who do not “get” this photo or others of its ilk.

Jim, being from your generation, (Im over 60) I can appreciate where you are coming from. I’m a small town portrait photographer. Most of my customers, and most of my colleagues would not get this photo either. I certainly could not sell it in my community, nor I suspect could Max to Dmytris’ mom.

Much of my own personal work consists of portraits of this “ilk” inlcuding favourite portraits of my children. My wife hated them I love them. They tell me much more about who they are than photos with a big smile. (moms won’t buy a portrait unless the kid has a big smile).

I don’t like everything I’ve seen here on Burn. I am trying to set aside my pre-conceptions and biases about what a photograph should look like. I’ve learned a lot here, and find the discussion sometimes educational, inspiring, and sometimes with a fresh look, I can see value where I saw none before.

Outside of what I’ve seen on Burn, there are some photographers who’s work though accepted by some, I just do not get. Some stuff from the “fine art” community especially I simply feel is pretentious, self absorbed, bullshit. Maybe it’s my own limitation.

This photo, along with the work of many of the celebrated photographers of past and present would be thrown out of next weeks print salon at our annual Professional photographers of BC convention. What is “good” photography is very narrowly defined and governed by a narrow set of rules. The panel of judges are “master” photographers who become masters by being able to fit into these rules and hang enough prints over the years to be awarded the designation.

More than 20 years ago, I joined this association and went to my first convention because I learned that Arnold Newman would be speaking. Arnold showed us a slide show with his famous images and told stories about them, and his experiences. Fascinating stuff.
Finally he shocked everyone by waving his hand toward the back of the room where the prints from the print salon were displayed and said:

“all those pictures back there are plastic sausages. You people are just producing plastic sausages. I’ve seen those images in salons all over the world for the past 30 years”

People were taken aback. Who the hell does he think he is? I thought right on.

I’m a musician. I love music. I love to play music. I love a lot of different kinds of music. But I don’t get jazz. Hate it, makes me crazy. Don’t understand it. However I know two people who are famous jazz musicians. They are highly trained gifted passionate people with a huge following and they play gigs all over the world. Millions of people enjoy jazz. Does jazz suck? More likely I’m either not capable or musically evolved enough to appreciate it.

So rather than assume that those of us who love this ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR image are pretending to do so just to appear hip, I invite you all to try and set your photo-egos and pre-conceptions aside, and have a fresh look at this photo with new eyes. You may even discover something wonderful.

Regards

Gordon Lafleur

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By: Jim Powers https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30404 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:09:32 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30404 In the immortal words of Dave Mason:

“So let’s leave it alone, ’cause we can’t see eye to eye.
There ain’t no good guys, there ain’t no bad guys.
There’s only you and me and we just disagree.”

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By: Jim Powers https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30401 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 21:04:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30401 Patricia, I’ve praised several of the photos and essays here. Must I praise them all to be worthy?

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By: Patricia Lay-Dorsey https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30400 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:57:41 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30400 Oh Kathleen, my comment was not pointed at you. Not at all. I just get tired of seeing so much of our precious time and energy used up on Jim’s thoughtless remarks. Life’s too short.

Patricia

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By: Jim Powers https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30399 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:52:08 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30399 “Perhaps if we ignore Jim’s digs and only respond when he brings up topics that deserve our attention, we wouldn’t get caught up in these cycles of negativity.”

Well, Patricia, perhaps it would be helpful if you supplied a list of topics that “deserve” your attention. It would save a lot of time.

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By: kathleen fonseca https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30393 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:35:41 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30393 Jim

a ¨bit of a stretch¨..haha, good one!

Patricia:

I try, but i will try harder..thanks for the slap upside the head..

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By: Max Sher https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30388 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:58:24 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30388 To Erica — thanks! agree regarding scans and edits.

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By: Kirill Surov https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30375 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:24:17 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30375 I am not a great fan of such static portraits. And when I look at somehow similar photographs (which are so many) I am expecting to see ideal compositions no imperfections. This photograph is full of what seems to be imperfections – but all together they do work perfectly here to my taste. It is very clever to leave the pals of the hands out which makes the boy seem longer than he is and the doorway behind him just accentuates the angular and awkward qualities of the figure, something robotic as Bob pointed out. Very good portrait to me. And it fits into Max’s style very well. Could be a part of the series (may be it is? I didn’t find these series on lightstalker site).

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/02/dmitry-by-max-sher/#comment-30374 Thu, 26 Feb 2009 17:19:21 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1529#comment-30374 Jim, It was actually Rudyard Kipling you are quoting. I believe it is in his poem “Betrothed”. It goes:

“A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke”

I read a great response to that line. “a good woman can make you smoke – before and after sex. A cigar can’t do that.”

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