Comments on: anna boyiazis – aids orphans in sub-saharan africa https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:29:42 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: Ari Baiense https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-45149 Mon, 06 Jul 2009 09:10:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-45149 Anna,

Congratulations for your project!
I see beauty on your images and got the message of your work.
I also believe you can learn a lot from all the previous posts. We can always improve our methods and also ideas, but never let any word put you down. Continue to express your point of view. Stick to your concept and, if you are happy with the results, that’s it.! It’s your work, your achievement.
I hope to see the development of this project soon!

All the best!

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By: Carrie Roseman https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44764 Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:32:13 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44764 Great photographs, Anna. I feel that these images gives names to the children afflicted, and it feels like you are trying to effect change from a very personal perspective. Your closeness with these children, I feel, is obvious, and this adds to the gravity of the story. I like your approach, and I hope that you continue this project as these children grow. I love that you are trying to use photography as a tool to effect change. Jim Nachtwey was the one who hammered the importance of this point to me, and I think you understand that clearly.

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By: panos skoulidas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44551 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:07:27 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44551 “pernicious”……
laughing!!!!!!!
things never change……..
the “weak”, the “uneducated”…… still sleep with the M.Webster dictionary under their pillows…..
getting impressed by their own selves….easily amused self lovers……
laughing…..
( where is that fly on the wall when u need her??????? )

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By: Gordon Lafleur https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44535 Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:57:09 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44535 Anna

I have to add my vote to Nathans suggestion. Getting to know one child would be amazing.

I applaud your effort and your concern, but your photos I’m afraid are not doing the job. I feel no connection. I am not moved.

I know I would personally be overwhelmed and unable to come up with anything in such a situation, but, since you have chosen to go there, my humble advice would be to sit back and think about what it is you want to say. These photos I’m afraid say very little to me. Attatched to the text, they go a bit farther, but it’s really not enough. I think to achieve what you hoped, you need to do some soul searching before you make any more photos here.

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By: Jorge Campos https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44518 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:22:46 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44518 Anna,

I’m far from an expert but I enjoyed the technical quality but more importantly, I walk away with LIFE continuing to persevere through great loss. Life goes on, no matter what happens, hope and dreams continue as well as hardship and despair. These children have lost everything yet you can see hope and friendship still flourish.

Beautiful work!

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By: Carlton Ward Jr. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44478 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 13:25:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44478 The strength and dignity of this essay would be improved by including the names and stories of the people in the photographs.

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By: Nathan Clendenin https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44474 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:48:34 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44474 I like the images, but agree with those who are saying that there doesn’t seem to be anything tying this kids to AIDS – and that’s the hard part of the story, I guess. They’re stuck in their situation b/c of AIDS, but the kid next door to them, living in the same poverty, may be there for a totally different reason. Visually, there’s no difference.

It might have been more effective to focus on just one child, and let us really get into his/her world.

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By: Brian Frank https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44428 Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:42:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44428 Anna,

Congratulations on a beautiful essay. I am going to repeat the sentiments of many responders, and say that #12 is magnificent. That one image gives the entire sense of place and time.

Although I find it very refreshing that the essay is not another set of images of Africans suffering, I can’t help but ask why I should be concerned? They seem to be happy and well cared-for. There’s no expression in the images that express the scope or the depth of the problem. Are the children isolated and unaware of the problems they have/will face? I’m certainly not saying these image should be bogged down with oppressive imagery, just that we know these kids are coping with some difficult situations. I’d like the pictures to tell me what that is, not your intro.

Looks like you have laid some impressive groundwork here. I hope you continue. Best wishes.

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By: erica mcdonald https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44400 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:04:15 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44400 For me, these diving images are a very critical foundation for a long term piece that follows these children as they grow and hopefully live to have long beautiful lives..Anna, the work is just as it should be for now. Follow your heart and follow this family. You will have a powerful continuing testament to why life needs to be protected and helped, why people need to be informed. Am very proud of you and am deeply moved by many of the images in this series.

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By: Preston Merchant https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44389 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:48:35 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44389 A number of these photos are striking, but missing from the whole sequence is the sense of intimacy that you describe in your statement. There, you give the kids’ names and talk about family, your need to bear witness. But the photos don’t give the viewer much insight into the reality of the kids’ lives. Yes, you have shot some poignant moments, but there is not much of a story beyond the fact that these are children living in rural Africa. I’m sure that you have brought much more of yourself and your connection to these kids into the project — but this sequence fall short.

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By: bob black https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44379 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:46:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44379 Anna!…

i am sorry i didnt see this was posted…im, generally speaking, not coming to Burn more than 2x’s a week, so I relieved to see that your pics have been published. For me, the transcendent photograph is #12….this photograph, for me, is not only the most sublime of the pictures but also has the greatest pull for me. I do love that the pictures are not ‘cliched’ pictures of Africa-families-living/dying-with-Aids and are an attemp to fight against that tendency, but I would agree with Oli that it is so important that, as photograhers and humans, we NOT subject people to our notions of the way we imagine an entire world, especially with the idea that our work necessarily ‘helps’ their plight, we must fight for something more rudimentary that our work. But I do know that Anna does this in her personal life, and so, in this sense, I have the priviledged position of knowing that Anna’s activism is not of the usual ilk of flying to some 3rd world country and photographing misery. I know how much these children have touched you (and all your work, for those not familiar, has dealt with societal ills and their impact on children) and that you wish, or hope, that through invocation and evocation, somehow others will be drawn and connect. The problem lay in our satiation of imagery and confinement….but is this your fault?…no…

as a photographer, i’d ask: why is it that p icture number 12 is so sublime, speaks to richly to what you wish to attest?…in that picture, for me, lay the key to this work and what you hope to continue to accomplish….

you must be relieved? ;)))….

congratulations anna…

all the best
bob

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By: Tommy https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44377 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:37:35 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44377 I, like others it would appear, read the headline and became overcome with the powerful and sometimes negative emotion that was invoked for me from a title containing the words ‘AIDS’ and ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’. Your essay has proved my initial preconceived notion of what I should expect to see in an essay with a title of “AIDS Orphans in Sub Saharan Africa” as very wrong. Shame on me. Wrong such that when I viewed the essay yesterday it left me confused. It didn’t appear to do what I expected it to (and perhaps needed it to do). I still need to consider more deeply the many sides of what words portray.

All of this is good and clever though. I came back to it today and found that it portrayed children being children. It says something about life and the resilience of the human condition. It demonstrates survival. Unfortunately i feel that due to this it does need some words to define the series.

Like many, I have visited Africa and as many will have commented and genuinely felt amazement at the “happiness in having nothing” – not that by western standards their lives are anything other than quite degenerate but we can be wrong to benchmark other cultures by a western standard. The people which i’ve met and which you portray have something that many parts of western society don’t have – a happiness in nothing.

Technically I find your photography quite alluring. I’m not certain that the essay is powerful but is most definitely something to behold. I think we have much greater things to see from you. Your emerging talent is great and your publication here is well deserved.

Nice work and well done.

Best wishes.

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By: Morten https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44393 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:11:44 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44393 Well, I´ve been following Burn for quite a while now and I think it´s time to speak up.

This essay does have some quite aestically well made photosgraphsy, but they seem silent as many comments imply. I think it´s the angle that´s missing, there seems to be no clear focus in the images or in the text: “I want to tell about the 20 million orphaned children” – but what would you like to tell us?

I think it raises some interesting questions about how to tell a story visually: how to make it come alive, to engage the viewer. Personally I think the story would be better told if narrowed down to one or to kids or to a certain institution – in other words, a more tight angle.

But as said before. The eye is there, it´s visually pleasing and promising. Absolutely.

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By: Africa: Always a story to be told | Verbal Hmmm. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44356 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 06:40:49 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44356 […] was browsing the latest story to be uploaded to Burn Magazine, which incidentally is one of the best documentary sites out there […]

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By: Rafal Pruszynski https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44335 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:47:17 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44335 Ben,

I was glad to see that this didnt go down the path of showing just suffering. But as far as I know, I havent really seen such work like you are aksing about. It would be interesting tos ee, but yeah, most AIDS stuff, or TB stuff too looks and feels old and done, rehashed

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By: mustafah abdulaziz https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44333 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 02:06:36 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44333 #12 transcends all the rest.

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By: ben roberts https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44272 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:31:52 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44272 all good intentions aside, this just feels like tired old photojournalism cliches being run through the grinder yet again. and it feels like it’s been shot in 1 day.

has anyone seen a photographer who has actually given an interesting opinion or shown a different angle on the AIDS crisis in Africa (or any other 3rd world continent/country for that matter)? I haven’t looked, but would be interested to see…

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By: Daniel https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44232 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 11:30:58 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44232 Anna,

Lovely images, granted I don’t see the AIDS connection, as many here have mentioned.
My one bug is that whenever people come to this continent, they always seem to pick the same genre of story: The miserable situation that is the life of any Africa (be it war, famine, drugs, HIV/AIDS or genocide).

There are other stories to be told here, but no-one really fancies telling them.

Then again, as Stephen Mayes put it, suffering Black folk are the main bread and butter for any photojournalist when entering Africa

http://www.jenshaas.com/blog/2009/05/26/world-press-photo-470214-pictures-later/

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By: Ashe Kazanjian https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44228 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 10:00:55 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44228 Congratulations, Anna- and thank you for sharing your lively and beautifully moving images. You’re truly in your element with these children. I agree with Patricia- with these images, you’ve shown us that life is stronger than tragedy; the human spirit is persistent and perpetually hopeful. The art of these photos–the lines, the light, the shapes–is subtle yet powerful. I’m looking forward to seeing what subjects you explore, dissect and reveal with your talented eye next! xx

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By: marcin luczkowski https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/06/anna-boyiazis-aids-orphans-in-sub-saharan-africa/#comment-44225 Sun, 28 Jun 2009 07:48:08 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=1269#comment-44225 Dear Anna,

Great, great, beautiful, strong, touchable series of photos. I am your fan… hat off.

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