Comments on: jason andrew – twilight country https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/ burn is an online feature for emerging photographers worldwide. burn is curated by magnum photographer david alan harvey. Wed, 07 Sep 2016 08:29:44 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.2.4 By: benroberts https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48555 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:34:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48555 there’s some work on abkhazia on this chap’s website:

http://www.jamespomerantz.com/

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By: La république anonyme d’Abkhazie par Jason Andrew – RapporteursPhoto https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48527 Fri, 21 Aug 2009 03:14:39 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48527 […] pouvez suivre ce lien vers le site de Jason ou ce lien pour visionner les images sur Burn Magazine. Dans les deux cas, vous serez présenté avec la même […]

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By: riddellucm https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48444 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:53:03 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48444 Jason,
Absolutely beautiful.
Not a perfect essay, but a perfect start.
An inspiration.
-K

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By: Bjarte Edvardsen https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48429 Wed, 19 Aug 2009 15:27:28 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48429 In one way these enviroments look so beautiful through these phtographs that I don’t feel bad about the people who live there at all. But I think you managed to show “the pride and joy through the military”, maybe it would be better to just focus on that..?

I think you should deeply consider dropping #14, you already have train tracks in #4.

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By: JKaranka https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48326 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 00:06:15 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48326 I find this essay half hearted, but it might be because of Bendiksen’s wonderful work in Satellites.

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By: Jason Andrew https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48281 Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:41:06 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48281 First, I must thank David for publishing this work on BURN. Without this wonderful platform for young photographers, I may have never had the opportunity to see this project published. It has been an absolute pleasure to return to the forum and read everyones comments, further emphasizing the wonderful community David has created here.

To Everyone with their kind words I must thank you for your amazing inspiration and thoughtfulness with a project I have struggled with and one that I continue to struggle to fund so i can return and continue the work I began. It is difficult for me to thank everyone individually on here but know that if any of you are in NYC, I would love to get together and grab a beer one evening.

And to a comment Bob made,

” that the photographs are attempt to show the paradoxical relationship between the pagentry of design (military, parade, geometry) and the more human frailty and aspiration (the swimming, the fishing, the park bench stories) and it is that which speaks to me……”

This nails the project on the head and thank you for your wonderfully written words of inspiration.

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By: AndreaC https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48280 Sat, 15 Aug 2009 15:32:19 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48280 Jim I think we mean something different by “interpret”.

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By: mimi mollica https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48271 Sat, 15 Aug 2009 10:33:08 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48271 This is to me one of the best work I have seen in Burn Magazine.

Andrew you have a beautiful eye and strong feelings toward the subject of your research.
Your pictures are stunning and romantic, without this meaning they’re “soft”. Quite the contrary, you reveal strong images and a harsh reality, with depth and understanding of the circumstances.

This is really an amazing work. OUTSTANDING!!!

Thank you very much
Mimi

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By: frank Michael https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48263 Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:43:40 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48263 Fantastic photos. Can’t comment on whether they reflect the reality of those living there but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole essay.

Congratulations,

Frank

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By: bob black https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48261 Sat, 15 Aug 2009 02:34:48 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48261 jason :)))

first of all, i want to congratulate you on being published here. I have been a big fan of Jazzland and think that it is one of the most beautiful, most sad and ultimately most humanely redemptive of all the work to emerge in the aftermath of Katrina….and I am happy that now many who are unfamiliar with your magnificent essay are now more familiar with that work. There are many ways to reconcile and speak about grief and Jazzland, to me, is one of the most poignant, for amid all that space and spoil, amid all the emptyness, we are privy to both the joy and the devastation to the lives that were so profoundly torn by that devastation….

as for this essay, I take a different tact. For many who are unfamiliar with Abkhazia, the essay may look and appear slim or slight. You are also brave, brave in the sense that you are directly photographing territory that has been so beautifully, poetically and profoundly photographed by Jonas. Which photographer, unfamiliar with Abkhazia, has not been moved by the boy leaping off the grounded boat into the sea, or the people sitting next to the stuffed bear, or the old grandmother (I believe her name was tanya) walking toward her war-torn building or the Pinkhassov-delerium of lights of the bathers….it’s tough photographic territory. I think your photographs are strong and reflect less about Abhhazian life or the people there then your reaction to the devastation and the strength and character of the people you met. For me, this alone is important. Abkhazia had a long and complex history prior to its war with Georgia (just as the entire Caucasus is an extraordinarily complex and entwined region), and any photographer who wishes to tell the story of that region, let alone Abkhazia, is treading on slippery ground. Though I read your statement after having looked at the essay 3 times yesterday, I have tried to separate it from the power and heart of your pictures.

This essay is really more about you and your reaction to the place, a place torn by history and difficulty and hardhsip and within your pictures, I felt your appreciation and your feeling of the place. I think the essay has less to do with Abkhazia then it has to do with your reaction to both the ‘appearance’ of the places your visited and the stalwart appearance and lives. Within the pictures, i see the story that you are attempting to tell and the unstinting strength that you are trying to convey: one of admiration and forward looking dreams. I think, while the pictures and buildings and land are steeped in pain and desolation, your pictures attempt to honor the character of that area. Does it show the entire spectrum of the lives lived, the joy, the madness, the drunken reverlry, the celebration, the laughter? No, it does not, but I also understand that you only spent a few weeks there and any attempt to capture a place cannot be done without becoming a part of a place, being injected by that place. However, what does lay inside the photographs (forgetting the statement) is a simpler strength:

that the photographs are attempt to show the paradoxical relationship between the pagentry of design (military, parade, geometry) and the more human frailty and aspiration (the swimming, the fishing, the park bench stories) and it is that which speaks to me……

we place much much too much importance on the shoulders of photographers (mostly because many photographers have becried their own self-importance), and I think it is all too unfortunate. For these are strong pictures, pictures that tell one story, one of many, that also reflect truthfully one part of a story, not the entire story, not all the connections, but does tell one story, which is this:

a young man visited an old and stalwart land and wished to show what that land and people seeded in him….

is this work so much about the nation and people of Abkhazia? or about the photographers reaction to this place?….For me, it is just as legitimate and just as strong to depict one’s own reaction to a place, if even just a sliver of that place, for it begins a conversation….begins a reckoning….begins a connection….

strong, thoughtful and (in the more loose pictures) open reaction….

I cant wait to see what you do when you’ve spent more time there, because it is clear you are a thoughtful and sensitive photographer….and in that, begins something else…

cheers
bob

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By: Ramon Mas https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48256 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 22:14:19 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48256 I like this material and it does REALLY work for me.

What I always do with every new piece of work posted here, is take a look at it once, leave it rest for a few hours (or even a day), and then look at it another couple of times. It is only then, when I have digested the photos and formed my own opinion about the message I believe it conveys, that I read what the author has written about it. For me, reading it before or right after, biases my view on the essay…

Well done and congratulations Jason

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By: Herve https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48234 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:01:40 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48234 I’m thinking of the introductory material to each group of photos in DAH’s “Divided Soul” for example.
—————–

Which I still have to read…..

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By: Jim Powers https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48233 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:37:15 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48233 “Nor is it your role to interpret your own work in art statements.”

Well, I don’t completely agree with this. I really believe it is the photographers role to interpret his work. Photographers need to spend much more time telling us about their photos. Few photos, especially in documentary work, really have the power to stand alone. If you don’t want to talk about each photo, at least talk about the photos in general, set the context. I’m thinking of the introductory material to each group of photos in DAH’s “Divided Soul” for example.

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By: Michal Daniel https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48232 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:09:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48232 I didn’t read your statement, nor will I. I don’t read anything that comes with photos. Why should I. Photos that work don’t need words.

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By: Jason Andrew https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48230 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:52:30 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48230 Thanks for all of the positive and negative feedback. It will only help me grow as a photographer and I agree a lot with your comments about the writing. It is something I have been struggling with in regards to this edit and something I will look further into this weekend. Keep it coming.

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By: AndreaC https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48228 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 14:17:26 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48228 In statements about your work, I think its a big mistake to tell your audience what they will think and feel. You can’t assume we will see your pictures the same way you do. Don’t forget we weren’t in Abkhazia with you and most of us probably don’t have any memories of this place. Nor is it your role to interpret your own work in art statements. I think your statement undermines your project. I’d make it more simple, more honest. I like #9 and #17.

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By: beepclick https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48227 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:22:58 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48227 I agree with Jason_Houge – the “decaying skeleton” is more of a standard issue run-down industrial area in any major US city. Just because it’s halfway around the world doesn’t make it more compelling.

And ascribing a “poetic sense of light and color” to these images is a stretch, in my view.

Unfortunately, this project falls into the very overworked category of “foreign country suffering terribly” that is wearing thin on many, myself included.

Nonetheless, hard work that results in recognition and delivery of a message has some intrinsic value, and I give Mr. Andrew credit for that.

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By: Paul Russell https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48225 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 13:08:00 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48225 Nice work, Jason.

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By: Anthony R.Z. https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48221 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 09:08:18 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48221 Quite impressive author’s biography, not so much this essay. Average pictures that have a bit of pro-russian flavor.

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By: Michal Daniel https://www.burnmagazine.org/essays/2009/08/jason-andrew-twilight-country/#comment-48220 Fri, 14 Aug 2009 08:58:36 +0000 http://www.burnmagazine.org/?p=3812#comment-48220 This essay speaks deeply to me. I am transported by it to Abkhazia and feel it’s heartbeat in my soul. I tried to do the same type of reportage with my Czechoslovakia in Transition work and therefore know how hard it is to get the essence of a place. You succeeded fully, to me. Thank you!

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