It might seem to you, albeit by pure coincidence twice in a row here, that I lean heavily in the direction of photographing at the beach. Often very specifically women at the beach. This photograph made just yesterday, and in keeping with my oeuvre of just shooting whatever is around me anyway. So Michelle was just hanging with us on what started as a cloudless hot sunny day, and then the afternoon front rolled in and it was time to take a picture. Of a woman on the beach. One of my great motives for being a photographer in the first place to be quite honest. Not high minded enough? Please. Isn’t “attraction” what we all think about the most? Hasn’t attraction, love, sensuality inspired more art than anything?

Most of the women I photograph are with other men. Much safer that way. Michelle and Bryan live practically next door. So we know each other’s biz. Bad idea? Not really. I like the family thing. That’s even why I like Burn, and Magnum and well all the peer groups that are in fact versions of family. Michelle has her hands full. She must maintain her relationship with Bry AND sort of make sure that I well, stay out of trouble.

My own instincts have provided me with a lot of adventure, but right now my work and peace seem like the right way to go. Besides Michelle is totally dedicated to protecting me from all kinds of things – mostly me!. And because of this I am for sure in the most productive time of my entire career. Weird. Nobody could TRY for a late career boost. As you can imagine that sort of thing is just fate or luck or …?? Michelle makes sure I stay on track. That does not mean I can’t go out on a date. It does mean that I will think about it more than twice as opposed to my oftentimes less than once back in the day.

Does this mean I don’t have fun? Well go back and look at the riobook saga and see what you think. The upcoming book, designed by Bry, is all about me being myself which is of course where I try to take my students. And a move towards the purest of visual literacy. I have honestly managed to stay in the zone now for a long time. Deep in November and December, but even before and after as well. Michelle and I do the best party dirty dancing performance with Bryan often smiling from the side. So we have the most most fun. My family days all around are surely my best days.

Michelle and I blend right at the point blank center. Her “creativity as a way of life” workshops parallel in thinking the way I do my photo workshops. She ran several of mine. I do enjoy watching somebody get fired up. So does she.
Michelle teaches yoga and eats all the right foods. I think she may have given up on me in yoga class, but she did get me off cigarettes no small feat. Getting me off sugar is harder. Anyway, I did not plan to write a story on Michelle today. I shot the picture of her prior to the storm when we were just hanging.  So I thought just now, hey my main thing I can offer aspiring photographers is how I get my own inspirations. So this is one. However you can make things work, works. Fired up is fired up.
Isn’t that right? Don’t we all need a bit of help? Old adage works. Help somebody. You might just be that person who needs it someday.
Thanks Michelle for keeping an eye out. I will stay a good boy for a bit longer. Got work to do.

251 thoughts on “michelle…”

  1. eva

    Hello Michelle :)

    And THIS is what I call a “caption” worth to be read.. not a description of the pic, as so often..

  4. Frostfrog

    Wild, wild, wild cloud! She is your inspiration and you are the inspiration of so many – me included. What a challenge she has though – to keep you from getting yourself into trouble!

    The beach got me started in photography, too – surfing – when I was kid and wanted to take pictures like those in Surfer Magazine.

  5. Carlo

    David,

    You seem to be the most active when near the water…the ocean. Just remembering the multiple instagram updates when you were in Miami….the most i’ve seen anywhere.

    Nice words about Michelle. How does the saying go? “behind a good man there is always a good woman”?

  8. kathleen fonseca

    I REALLY like the photograph. I love the `S`curve of her body, her almost-closed eyes and Madonna smile suggest gentle mystery, the jut of her hip brings our eye to the two surfers, one of which is looking up, countering her downward glance, all in black and the glowering skies making these two faces simply glow..the red surfboard on the right, the building in the left background oh so good. But would we expect less from you, David? Ok….the photo got me.

    Then i read the story. And i blinked. Close relationships are generally complicated. Achieving and maintaining balance can create its own masterpiece. Or else an utter disaster. I get your appreciation for the lovely Michelle. I really get it. But dirty dancing in full view of the grinning Bry` (Bry`?)? Michelle is totally (really? totally?) dedicated to protecting you from all kinds of things, mostly you? And she has such a healing effect on your vices that you think twice (twice? say it ain`t so, David!) about going on a date? I agree that “fired up is fired up” and whatever gets your creative juices flowing is not to be casually diss`d. But just wondering how honest you`re being with yourself. Cuz this sounds a powerful lot like love. Yeah, that kind of love. If i`m completely off-base or outta line please forgive me. I live in a REALLY love-obsessed culture here where if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, hint, it`s not a cow.

    As far as this “Isn’t “attraction” what we all think about the most?” Um, actually? No. Really. Am i the only one?

    Best
    Kathleen

  9. Gordon Lafleur

    Ahh, that’s our Kathleen, calls ’em as she sees ’em.

    Kathleen, speaking strictly for myself, but as a guy David’s age, I fall in love with women other than my wife all the time. Damn, but I adore women. It’s clear David does as well.

    We have to get older, we hopefully get wiser, but we don’t have to grow up.

    My favourite red-head http://www.pbase.com/glafleur/image/133707197

  10. a civilian-mass audience

    All of the above(double KATHLEEN’S):)…

    ohh,MICHELLE…my belle!!!
    http://blissfullthinking.com/

    of,course…I can’t relate with the “stay on track” idea but hey,I can relate with this statement:

    “…However you can make things work, works. Fired up is fired up…”

    VIVAAA, BRAVOOO,spread the news…MICHELLE is here …fired up is fired up!!!
    I will be back…;)

  11. kathleen fonseca

    Gordon

    First, that photo does not do Martha justice. This one however is gorgeous. (and so many really nice photos on your website too, congrats!):

    http://www.pbase.com/glafleur/image/133820706

    Ok, so yeah, you fall in love with women other then your wife all the time..but I’ll bet it has nothing to do with your age. And everything to do with you being a hot-blooded guy. 20 years old, 60 years old, hot-diggetty, bring it on! What i read in David’s post seems a bit more than just a covert surge of knuckle-biting lust. But whatever, maybe this is totally a sisterly or platonic affection..or maybe, maybe, it’s this (wicked grin):

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2T7wKdQsTo

    CIVILIAN here is “Civilian” (courtesy of Wye Oak) for you con todo amor:

  15. david alan harvey

    KATHLEEN

    oh for sure i do love Michelle…she has worked as a producer on my ad shoots, in workshops and in all kinds of family planning and always been one of my fav “models” …i love Michelle like a daughter, like a best friend or like well just love…..she and my son Bryan have been together for 10 years and to see them together is magic (he has the red surfboard in the shot)….this is the love…and it does not get any better ….

    FROSTFROG

    i had no idea you were a surfer boy….one of the big books coming will be SURFERS WORLD to be published by Burn in either 2013 or 14…..a serious surfing book…already lined up Martin Parr to shoot some of it along with pro in water surfing guys, a few poets, and well everybody loves surfing…it is beyond sport…there is some surf in Alaska…you ever since it? check it out…

  16. kathleen fonseca

    Bryan is your SON?! OMG..slaps self upside the head..NOW it all makes sense. Without that bit to the puzzle it just plain didn’t. THAT nails this photo right to the wall. I liked it before and i love it now.

    BTW..do you still have your loft? It’s an important question. No, i don’t want to borrow it. Nada like that. But there’s something i’ve been sitting on way too long and you need to see it.

    Best
    Kath’

  18. david alan harvey

    KATHLEEN

    puzzles and mosaics are my thing….with life…with my work….aren’t things more interesting if you have to put things together, figure it out, do a bit of homework? fully revealed immediately is never as good as the mystery….Bryan and Michelle have been “characters” for so long in so much of my work , i assumed most readers knew them pretty well by now….

    cheers, david

  19. kathleen fonseca

    David

    Yes, you are correct. And it WAS a puzzle. Now that you mention it i do remember the name Bryan popping up but not Michelle. Anyway, haha.. i can laugh at myself now..geez..i couldn’t quite get WTF!?! They are both beautiful young people. You are blessed to have them in your life and living so close.

    Cheers back..
    K

  20. david alan harvey

    KATHLEEN

    oh yes, this is a joy..and my other son Erin and his wife Sophie also live near…both of my sons make films for a living..mostly tv docs but Erin has been the DP on a French feature film…both have a long list of credits, but both put lifestyle before work style and both chose living by the sea before i did…Sophie is a professor of film at Vassar….so we are ALL intertwined…

    i grew up by the sea, not far from where i am now, but my sons figured out how to do the world travel bit and live at the beach and surf and kite board AND make movies ..i followed their example and was the last one to move here…thanks to fedex and the internet for starters..

    anyway my little essay on where we live, OBX, comes out next month in NatGeo…

    cheers, david

  21. kathleen fonseca

    David

    You have no idea how intrigued i am to hear of how they have not compromised their love of water-associated lifestyles and have found a way to work and stay close to the sea. Juliette (my daughter) is determined to do the same but she hasn’t worked out just how yet. A lot of people have tried to discourage her and i haven’t known quite what to say. This is so encouraging to me. Thank you for taking the time to tell me about your children and their partners and their success at marrying their work with their lifestyle. You have no idea how much i appreciate it.

    DO YOU HAVE YOUR LOFT? There’s something you need to see but it isn’t finished. And whether you still have the loft or not makes a difference in the outcome.

    Thx
    Kathleen

  24. david alan harvey

    KATHLEEN

    i still have the loft but i do not live there…i stay there occasionally…it is set up for workshops, making prints, doing book layouts etc…Living Proof and now (based on a true story) born on those walls…if we go full steam into more Burn speciality books then i will most likely keep the loft…if not, it is a luxury i surely cannot afford….you have work to show?? if so great

  25. panos skoulidas

    Speaking of Michelle I remember couple years ago that b&w photo from that surfer girl I liked on BICKFORD’s OBX essay… Loved that photo and post it in public excitement…
    Next thing I know I get slapped in the head ( jealousy from my ex ) and I remember David making fun of me for not recognizing Michelle ( there was no derailed face in photo )..
    That was a little an innocent gaffe btw,
    but I need to agree with David and Gordon on their theory about falling “constantly” in love and art inspiration.. Those two goes together… Once u lose the “falling in love” ability then the inspiration channel dries out

  27. david alan harvey

    PANOS

    yes, yes, and yes…for sure if i do not “fall in love” somehow someway then NOTHING is going to “happen”…and this should be no surprise…nothing moves us as human beings more…it is the MAIN THING…and for some weird reason, and throughout the centuries and civilizations, there has oftentimes been a coverup or a shhhhh about the very thing we all know is the number one motivation….artistic subtleties abound..hell we write poems, we bring flowers, we write books, symphonies and build bridges across rivers, and make fortunes, and even go to war for LOVE!! good thing i didn’t live in the time of Cleopatra…ok, i am going to the hardware store…gotta buy some light bulbs….get my mind off of love for awhile…hmmmmmm

  28. wendy

    LOVE this…..
    and what a wonderful surprise to read about LOVE this morning.. (I’m sure some are rolling their eyes :) )
    the feeling…
    the emotion…..
    the inspiration…..
    and I
    LOVE that K is back….
    your words have always been delicious..
    VIVA!!!!!!!!
    x0x

  29. kathleen fonseca

    DAVID (Alan Harvey):

    Yes there is something but since you like riddles i will let you stew for a bit.

    PANOS:

    “Once u lose the “falling in love” ability then the inspiration channel dries out”

    This kind of blanket statement and others like it here are so funny to me. It could just as easily be said that all the time, effort, angst and energy put into romantic love depletes the resources available for artistic work. I am not agreeing, just sayin`. Love is a drug..is “the” drug. We`re all addicted to the chemistry of the thing. But what, if you`re not OD`ìng on all that adrenalince then you shrivel into a head of lettuce? Silly, silly, silly. Being “in love” is one way to achieve a state of exalted bliss (and maintaining that bliss is a constant highwire act) but it is not the only way to achieve such a mind state. There`s also drugs. Heh. But seriously, you guys are love-rush junkies. Trust me, being “in love” is not an essential ingredient to the creative process.

    WENDY..ok, see? You love! But you aren`t waxing on about romantic love. You take it where you find it. It`s ALL over. Above, below, around the next corner. That excitement about being “in life”, not just “in love” is every bit as much of a creative battery charger as what you happens when you meet a pair of baby blues across the bar.

    HugZ grrl..it is as wonderful to see your

    l
    i
    n
    e
    a
    r

    thoughts as it ever was.

    ok, shower, lunch with good friends..am outta heah

    CIVILIAN: Make sure you see the song i left you up above!!

    So here`s to getting a hard-on from life godammit..that`s a high nobody can take away with divorce papers.

    Kath`

  32. panos skoulidas

    BREAKING NEWS
    BREAKING NEWS

    sorry to interrupt but yet Another greek photog fighting for his life…
    (thank you thomas for sending me link )

    http://londonphotographers.org/2012/04/greek-photographer-hospitalised-by-police/

    (Greek photographer Marios Lolos ,
    President of Press-Photographers Union of Greece
    is undergoing brain surgery after reportedly being beaten by riot police in Athens yesterday. We wish to extend our union branch’s solidarity and best wishes.

    Journalists have every right to gather news without being subjected to intimidation and violence. The targeting of journalists is completely unacceptable and the police officers responsible should be brought to justice.

    The National Union of Journalists London Photographers’ Branch stand shoulder to shoulder with the Press-Photographers Union of Greece and all those who gather news.

    We hope that Mario recovers from his ordeal and his colleagues, reporter Panagiotis Bousios and journalist Makis Synodinos who were also injured, make a full and swift recovery.

    Jess Hurd

    London Photographers’ Branch Chair

    On behalf of the London Photographers’ Branch Committee.)

  39. Frostfrog

    Speaking of love…

    Paul – this clip filled me with love, longing, and desire… never to be fully sated, I fear.

    David – Alaska does have its hot surfing spots, some them pretty darn hard to get to. Yakutak is one. I have not surfed in 40 years, but I had wanted to go there and give it a try on my 60th birthday, but I did not have the money, I did not have the time. I would to try to get there this summer. If I do, I will see if I can get some pics worthy of your book.

    I must buy the upcoming National Geographic.

    Kathleen – if you can, for about a week starting Monday (I hope) you should follow my blog.

    Panos – The birthplace of Democracy seems to have gone nuts. It sounds grim for Marios Lolos. I hope he recovers.

  41. Frostfrog

    Kathleen – upon seeing Gordon’s alert, I just took a pleasant, lazy-morning drif through your photos, too. When I saw the cat, I thought it was in India and that the cat had been participating in Holi, but it must have been a Costa Rican cat.

    You’re one-up on me there. I never have photographed a Costa Rican cat.

    Hopefully… some day.

    My highest ambition as a photographer is to photograph a cat in every nation of the world.

    So far, I’ve got cats in at least 7 countries, maybe 8 (and about 26 states and every region of Alaska). I’ve still got a ways to go yet.

    It’s all about love.

  43. panos skoulidas

    The birthplace of Democracy seems to have gone nuts.
    —————–

    Bill. totally agreed! but isnt usually how all “good things” start? through some painful birth?
    Ask any mother you meet if giving birth is easy or painless…
    no no no…the pain is “nuts”

    in other words, since i do believe in transformation of energy and poles DO reverse , and negative will be positive yes i do believe that all those SACRIFICES , the yesterday suicide in front of parliament, the today brain surgery of the President of Photo Union and more much more ….will eventually spark a positive
    JUMP START…
    Remember CHE? he is a symbol of Revolution now but many hated his guts back in the day…Is Greece near any kind of “revolution”.. ? silly me..stupid question..
    Arent we ALL ARE ? in the brink? in the edge?
    Arab Spring, OCCUPY WALL STRRET, the Fall of Europe followed the tragic 2007 economic death of USA of course…The whole world is CHANGING..is it for “better”?
    hmmmm… what does that mean anyways? better! worst!…meaningless personal definitions…
    The world is spinning and moving and changing…
    yes CHANGE IS COMING!!!!!!! Some of us will embrace it and some will fight with nails and teeth…
    Whos gonna win? lol..nobody….as always!

  44. panos skoulidas

    the Great Paradox of ALL Wars is that there is never ever a winner (nor loser) , period.
    (it is a paradox because by definition a War requires victory and loss, a winner and a loser. This misconception is a permanent strong propaganda tool used by ALL governments/religious institutions etc)

  46. kathleen fonseca

    PAUL..am “IN LOVE” with Jackson Pollock! Thank you so much for the video you posted above. He said three things that set my creative heart all a-flutter:

    “…Express my feelings, not just illustrate them”,
    “Technique is just a means at arriving at a statement” and
    “a painting has a life of its own. I try to let it live.”

    I really agree with him and think the best art/photography/writing/music achieves all of the above.

    Thank you thank you for posting this!

    Best
    Kath`

  47. kathleen fonseca

    PANOS

    The “Civilian” song..yeah, i was blown away. I just plugged“Civilian` in the You Tube search box and voila..it must be Civi`s powerful vibes that directed my hand.

    So sorry for the troubles in Greece. I could hear Civi`s bone-weary sadness in her IMF post in Spring Break the other evening. I so hope Mario(s?) recovers and resumes his work with a vengeance. Here in Costa Rica the La Nacion newspaper has been disclosing politicos who have been weasling out of their tax nut. The head of the Taxation ministry (!!!) resigned the other day and so did his wife who was in charge of PR for the Prez. I wonder/worry about the safety of the journalists doing the invesitgative work. Maybe not in the short-run but down the road…..*sigh*…

    GORDON

    Thank YOU for checking out my website. It`s actually brand spankin` new. Still under construction but glad i finally got the damned thing up there.

    i think Caleb`s pick-up line musta worked out fine for him cuz he really hammered his point home for 3 solid minutes (more? less?). How could the chick resist? Now THIS has always been my fave love-at-first-sight song..AND i had the chance to say so right to Lyle`s face one night in Newark airport.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PBWNzctt4Y

    FROSTFROG

    Awwww..now who knew you were a feline fan, you ole softie, you! And you wanna shoot a CR kittie, you always have the use of my guest room to do so dig up the money and you can add another notch to your zoom lens! I see your name links to your blog and later this evening i will take a likewise lazy, plessant drift around your postings..and, ok, you sound all mysterious like so I will check out your blog starting Monday.

    best ALL
    Kathleen

  48. kathleen fonseca

    PANOS:

    You said this so well, painfully well;

    “the Great Paradox of ALL Wars is that there is never ever a winner (nor loser) , period.
    (it is a paradox because by definition a War requires victory and loss, a winner and a loser. This misconception is a permanent strong propaganda tool used by ALL governments/religious institutions etc)”

    Guess this was why CR abolished its army. They somehow got “it”.

    KF

  50. kathleen fonseca

    PAUL

    Just finished watching “The Old Man and the Sea”..sooooooo beautiful. The artist-animators really understood light and water, wow..we all knoiw the story but whoever can should take the time to watch the video. You won`t be disappointed.

    Paul, you post some good stuff!

    Thanks again..

    Kath`

  52. Frostfrog

    Panos – You are right. It is a fact that just about everything worthwhile is born in pain, even if conceived in good spirit, if not outright pleasure. I hope it proves so for Greece – for us all.

    Kathleen – You can find some stuff about the loft in there, too.

  54. a civilian-mass audience

    KATIEEEEEE,KATH…

    the “CIVILIAN” song…wow…I am getting emotional…

    and I am vegetarian now…I just had one chicken leg and one wing…
    and when I don’t eat much…I am getting emotional…
    now with your song…oime…

    but the azaleas are doing fine…thanks to JIM POWERS…who is always next to me…!!!

    VIVA BURNIANS…I am the happiest(emotional) civilian in the world !yeap.

  57. a civilian-mass audience

    EVA,VIVA…!!!
    do you see rain?…let me know,if you have time…and if you are at home…

    OOO
    civi

  58. eva

    Civi..

    Mixed weather, rainy this morning, now sunny, but cold and windy.. typical Spring weather.. everybody complaining it’s too dry.. I’m ready for HOT SUMMER!!

  59. Paul

    Eva…

    I’m pleased you enjoyed those vids and I knew for sure the book vid would be a success with you…
    Let’s see if you like this one, although it has nothing to do with books, it’s closer to the Picasso vid…

  61. Gordon Lafleur

    Hey Kathleen

    Caleb is extremely charming in a “I’m not much for fancy words m’am, but I’d shore like to say yor lookin’ mighty purdy tonight” kinda way.

    “I’m sick, sad, and lonesome tonight, wishin’ I was by your side and holdin’ you tight. I’d call you on the telephone, but we’d only fight. And that’s why I’m sick, sad, and lonesome tonight.”

  62. Akaky

    “…the Great Paradox of ALL Wars is that there is never ever a winner (nor loser) , period.”

    Panos, I am sure that the late Robert E. Lee and any German over the age of 85 would beg to differ.

  66. kathleen fonseca

    Speaking of sick, sad and lonesome tonight..i’m wondering where is Ross, Our Patricia, Erica, Lassal, David Bowen and a host of other folk i haven’t seen hide nor hair of since i stumbled over the Burn threshold a few days back.

    (scrapes a lonesome yowl across the strings of an old guitar, scares the cat, shuffles out)

  67. Ross Nolly

    Katie; I did send you a “welcome back to Burn” message on Skype the other day :-) I have been pretty busy, but usually check into Burn daily. At the moment I’m shoring a couple of new projects to shoot alongside my farm essay. Things are looking promising…

    David; Re: “Don’t we all need a bit of help? Old adage works. Help somebody. You might just be that person who needs it someday”

    I’m running a small workshop on Wednesday for the local district council. It’s a kids holiday programme and they want to do a (documentary) photography workshop so I volunteered to do it gratis. The way I look at it is that I’ve been helped by others for free (yourself, Imants and Bob etc.) so I do try to pay it forward. There are a few others I help here on a “whenever they need it” basis.

    I’m really looking forward to Wednesday; I’ve been taking so many pics of kids over the last few years it’s nice to give back. All I really want to do is to attempt to get them inspired to go out and have fun. Probably a case of the blind leading the blind; but it should be fun! :-)

  69. kathleen fonseca

    Ross!!! He lives! I saw your Skype message and sent you a reply..maybe it failed to arrive? grrr!! I really appreciated your kind gesture.

    You are a nice person. Just had to say that. You’ve got a wonderful attitude and your “pay it back” policy is so positive. Oddly, when we pay it back we are rewarded many times over. Or else we regret it for the next ten years. haha. I’ve had that result as well! Anyway, i hope you have a great time. Let me know where i can see some of the workshop results!

    I also hope you have a nice Easter Sunday tomorrow, and all Burnians out there who observe the day of colored eggs, Easter bunny and religious significance. Not in keeping though with the spirit of the holiday, two of my close neighbors’ homes were robbed yesterday. Weirdly, i walked by one of the homes as it was being robbed. I had seen one car in the driveway on my way to a friend’s home and on the way back i saw two cars. I wasn’t particularly suspicious and kept walking which perhaps helped insure my continued presence here on this earth. But what a bummer for both neighbors who have been robbed before as well.

    Ok, back to work on a project..hugZ, Ross…

    Kath’

  70. a civilian-mass audience

    KATIEEE…I have to tell you…ROSSY is always there for me…
    especially during the dark times…when I was calling your name and I had no sign…
    ROSSY was there…sending waves of good energy…
    best energy back to you ROSSY…

    ALL MY BURNIANS…you are big balls of fire and I love you!!!

    HAPPY EASTER MY PEOPLE…
    here in Grecoland…Easter Sunday is the next one…yes,I will be eating lamp and red eggs…

    VIVAAAAAAAAAAAAAA…and may the Universe be kind to Us…All of Us!!!

  71. a civilian-mass audience

    EVA…THANK YOU for the report…rain is coming

    BUT

    my heart is full of sun and BURNING energy!!!

    THANK YOU ALLLLL…and I am still waiting for more reports…
    I never give up…
    you know me…
    I will haunt you down…
    no kidding…

  72. a civilian-mass audience

    oime…every time I see MICHELLE’S photo…

    I can’t help it but I see wings…the clouds are playing games with my mind…hmmm…

    I better stop drinking ouzo…before JOHNYG or IMANTS kick my arsh…:)))))))))))))))))

  74. kathleen fonseca

    CIVILIAN

    I know. i wasn’t there. I am sorry. To you, Gracie and Ross..the night crew whatever the hour. Thank you Ross for giving back the goodness that Civilian has always extended to us. Please forgive me for having my head up my ass..

    Happy Easter, Civi’ and Muchos Abrazos

    Kathie

  75. david alan harvey

    ROSS NOLLY

    wherever you are….make sure PLEASE that you get your work to Diego Orlando soonest….diego@burnmagazine.org the show is honestly BURN IN PRINT…but we are also having Imants and Glenn Campbell and you in the show as well…maybe only a 2-3 prints….but you will be in very good company with Nachtwey, Pellegrin, Ballen etc etc…so get your best to us NOW…..

    this Burn in Print (01 and 02) will be in the Bondi Pavillion in Sydney…nice space…

    cheers, david

  77. Paul

    David…

    Is your very nearly ready Rio book going to be very limited edition? I was basically wondering because you mentioned it will be handmade so there’s always a limit to how many one can manage to create and mainly just in case we have to be extra alert and on the lookout round here.

  78. tom hyde

    Gordon, saw that too. Big smile from me. Such a great publication that started with the publisher literally hawking his mags on the street decades ago. They only review black and white prints for publication, no digital submissions, lay them out on the comp tables and go through them. They are also the most ethical and timely publication when it comes to working with their contributors. And they do it all with no advertising. A bit BURN-like actually, or vice-versa.

  79. Gracie

    Kathie,

    no say sorry to me either.
    often we dont know when to take a step back when illness or hatefulness-of-present-life settles in.
    foolish for anyone not to accept the fact we are all human. we all feel pain. we all bleed red.
    there truly is a discordance between the creative mind and the physical body.
    the most successful are the ones that cross this divide.

    all throughout BURN stories came along and civi may be the only one who remembers it all.
    but i remember some of the stories too.

    no reason to apologize if there’s been nothing of wrongdoing.
    i sure do miss u and i hope youre here more often to stir the chicken soup.

  80. Paul

    About time something on the airwaves or the bandwidth which has a decent guitar. Although I wonder if this would of been considered good in the late 60s or 70s with so many brilliant albums everywhere.

  81. Paul

    Thanks to Ross Nolly for opening my eyes with a short link. This is the full length version and be you’ve been warned, it may get loud….

  82. kathleen fonseca

    GRACIE

    Well, i recall your particular kindness during a certain prolonged health crisis i experienced. And as you know all too well, there is the doctor’s release that says all is well and there is the mental/emotional side that recovers at a much slower rate. Anyway, thank you profoundly and all’s well that end’s well. One thing though, you bleed red? hmm…i thought you bled couplets, stanzas and iambic pentameter :) So very very happy to be even remotely in your presence again.

    ROSS

    CONGRATULATIONS!!! You will be in mighty fine company in that upcoming show..hop to it, man…get bizzy!

    PAUL

    I didn’t watch the Jack White video yet but will later. It’s so funny you mention the guitar talents of the 60’s-70’s. I am not a musician. Just a lover of music. I grew up in that era but was never stuck in the groove of that time. I buy more music now than i ever did then. i am shocked and awed by the vast resource of new music out there today. OMG! It was NEVER that way back then. You went to the record store and it was a finite space offering a finite selection of what the record companies saw fit to publish. And pretty much everybody had the same albums. zzzzzzz. I often wonder and mourn the music we were never exposed to. And things only got worse in the 80’s and 90’s. But now, NOW, it seems like an infinite resource. Plus, due to the internet and forward thinking musicians there’s more global influence, fusion, hybrids, electronic genius, and of course hot licks, riffs, raps and raucous good r&r. Talent is talent and no generation has a monopoly on it. Music is like water. It runs, overflows, pours, drains, drips, sloshes, inundates and cannot be contained. Viva Jack White, ohhhh baaby!

  83. Frostfrog

    Congratulations, Patricia!

    I am a long-time subscriber to The Sun.

    I haven’t seen the April issue yet – maybe it came in during my recent travels and someone stuck it aside somewhere. I will see if I can find it.

  84. Paul

    Kathleen…

    Although I was never a great fan of the 90’s grunge scene I must admit I miss the freshness they briefly provided the music world. No doubt the rock scene in many ways has taken a backseat to music like pop and disco and hey there’s nothing wrong with that, it’s their turn now. But I heard Van Halen’s latest album a couple of days ago and there just was nothing really outstanding about it. Perhaps I had a bad day when I listened to it but I still remember how Van Halen was the only hard rock band from the 70’s and 80’s who brought out an album in ’95 when Grunge was still pretty strong and managed to not only come away unscathed but also made it into the top 10 in the USA.

  87. kathleen fonseca

    PAUL

    I don’t know why some of these videos are imported automatically. The first link was Van Halen’s “Hot For Teacher”, a really excellent video (IMO). The second was just something i thought you might like, Gary Moore’s “Spanish Guitar”. I didn’t intend to embed this video. Sorry!

    Kath’

  94. a civilian-mass audience

    NO,we are officially THE BURNIANS…!!!

    and we are ALL in…

    OURPATRICIA…Bravo our Lady…wine on you!!! I can wait…you know me…:)
    I am always in…based on a true story…

    94 and counting…AKAKY…I will be singing all the way to 100…boohaha:)))))))))))))))

  95. a civilian-mass audience

    MICHELLE…what do you think about this shot…?

    is that you?…do you connect?…”can you see yourself” in this picture…?

  96. kathleen fonseca

    Hi Civilian

    Another late night here..dirty dinner dishes in the sink..i still have on my yoga clothes, am tired out of my skull. But seeing your name brightens me up like the sun coming up early over the park next door to my house, and the rooster crowing in the little farm through the trees and the traffic starting on its inexorable crawl to the city. You are the sun peeking over the trees, smiling down, waving as it tosses its BURNING hot yellow body through the sky on its way to a far horizon.

    Yes, we’re all Burnians, and you are the burningest burnian of all.

    friendZ
    Kathie

  99. a civilian-mass audience

    We have KATHIEEE…we have EVA…we have ALL of YOU…!!!

    the burningest BURNIANS…Oime:)))…what are you drinking???

  100. a civilian-mass audience

    and KATHIE’S rooster goes like this:

    KOUKOURIKOOOO…KOUKOURIKOOOOOOOOU…

    AKAKY…that’s for you…100…100 babiee koukourikous:)!!!

  103. Carlo

    Thanks for that link Michael….it puts things in perspective. To be honest I still don’t know what to think of it. All I know is that deleting all my photos and profile to join another one does not sound like a good option or something I want to do. I was never attracted to facebook but when I found out about instagram and tried it I was hooked instantly. Here’s to hoping this has a happy ending…..

  105. michael kircher

    Carlo,

    I’m with you. Not sure what to think or where I’ll end up. I haven’t quit anything, yet. I’m exploring… unhappy about the current state of things. Wondering what others are thinking.

    Good to hear your thoughts.

  106. michael kircher

    Curious… Can Facebook now use one of my (or yours or DAH’s) Instagram pics to sell a service or a product? Can they license and sell the images themselves?

  107. eva

    Michael..

    Terms of use, copy and paste from FB page:

    1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.

    to be found here:

    http://www.facebook.com/legal/terms?ref=pf

  108. Thomas Bregulla

    as facebook user you can opt-out of having your Intellectual Property (IP) used in ads.

    In the beginning there were hefty discussions about the model facebook used, but they created the current model together with the users.

  109. david alan harvey

    MICHAEL KIRCHER

    this is what many are wondering…i honestly do not think so…the wording in the contract when one to agrees to terms with FB, Instagram, Tumblr , all of them, sounds pretty bad i must admit…but i do not think any court on the planet would lean in favor of one of these giants if they actually started using works without compensation to sell third party products or themselves….certainly not from anyone who objects…why would they even need to do that? funny about these numbers…neither FB nor Instagram actually sells anything…free services….worth billions but sell nothing….

  110. michael kircher

    Thomas and Eva,

    Thanks! Good info.

    David. I tend to agree. I just cannot figure why FB would spend 1 billion dollars to acquire roughly 30 million users. They have like 800 million already. Like a drop in the bucket.

  111. michael kircher

    I tend to agree about them not bothering. Not necessarily about the courts not siding with them. Not too sure about that. But more than that, it’s the fact that so many wouldn’t object or even know about it. I feel the wording is deliberate, there for a reason.

  112. john gladdy

    doesnt sell anything????? are you shitting me??….IT SELLS YOU!! right into the hands of targeted ads and brands. And last year it made about $4.5 Billion doing so. Marketing mans wet dream is what it is.

  113. david alan harvey

    JOHN

    yes, i guess that part is right..marketing dream part….but what i mean is that YOU are not spending any money….they can push your demographic all they want, and maybe tempt you to buy a Ferrari because they figured out that is your wet dream, but you don’t have to buy the damn car!! in the meantime YOU can use THEM to sell YOUR prints….yes??

    MICHAEL K

    of course the wording is there for a reason….we have talked to our Magnum lawyer about it…evidently they MUST have that wording in order to have the pics on the net in the first place.. i DO NOT KNOW…this is just WHAT I HEAR…from an attorney…hey i love a good conspiracy theory, but i do not think this is a rights grab for all photography…that is silly…first you do not have to put your best up anywhere, right? and second, there is NOT ONE SINGLE CASE OF ANY VIOLATION…so people are screaming fire fire when there isn’t one….i have spent my entire pro life defending copyright before and after Magnum….for sure i do not want anyone violating or misappropriating my work….i take great care on this…unless your SIGNATURE IS ON A PIECE OF PAPER WAIVING YOUR COPYRIGHT, YOU OWN IT….

    spending one billion really works for the press, but i wonder how much cash actually changed hands…”cash and stock” is what the press release says…10 bucks of cash and 2,000 shares of stock value at ?? yes one billion…this is funny money…what i could see them doing is getting all of us very very dependent on them and then charging a bit..you are NOW i am sure very dependent on your cell phone…right? do you quibble about the bill? hell no, you pay the damn thing!! right away!! the thought of not having your mobile phone makes you a little short of breath , right? well the social networks might be like that …if FB charged you one dollar a month you probably would not flinch …

    anyway a very good discussion for all of us….it will be very very interesting to see how it all shakes down…you cannot help but be absolutely fascinated no matter what in how photography, still photography, has been now incorporated into our very psyche…deep need…communication…language…yes, what i have said from day one here..photography IS a language….to be explored…

  114. mw

    Good article on the Instagram acquisition here. Good throughout but last graphs are a bit scary.

    As for Facebook being a marketing platform, it works both ways. Sure, it sets people out there as targets but they also get to build their own targeted networks. I don’t see a lot of photographers, much less show people, just chatting on Facebook. No, they are marketing. It’s a nice, big, free, platform. Nevertheless, I don’t trust them an inch and wouldn’t put up any good work. One can always link.

  115. david alan harvey

    MW

    i guess it is wise to not trust FB….on the other hand, as i said, i know of no violations against any photographer anywhere….some photographers who have no sales of their work at all are somehow worried that FB is going to make a lot of money off of their pictures.. hmmmm….whereas in the media as it already exists there are a multitude of ripoffs, lawsuits etc….yet imagine IF Facebook really did misuse the photographs being shared….how many wanna be court lawyers would be falling all over themselves to do pro bono work that would possibly put money in their clients (and their) hands with a lawsuit against FB? ..no one picture from any one photographer will be worth fighting for from a FB perspective…imagine the chat at FB ad meeting: “oh that one by Elliott Erwitt is going to be a problem, well ok , let’s use that one taken my uncle Harry , looks similar, he will be flattered….next”

  116. mw

    Well, beyond it being wise not to trust large corporations I think it’s also wise not to assume they will act rationally. Ultimately “they” are real people and many of those who rise the highest in the business world are sociopaths of one sort or other.

    But beyond matters of willful decision making there are always wildcards in technology. Ponder this from the article I linked to:

    Do reflect on the fact that Facebook has software that can automatically identify the people in any photo and tag them for search. Also remember all of the times that Facebook has compromised users’ privacy by introducing a new feature that quietly overrode an established privacy setting.

    It’s easy to overreact to the Instagram acquisition. It’s also very easy to imagine a day when every Instagram user’s photos will become part of their public Facebook streams, without their explicit consent. Then anyone searching for photos of you will learn about the year you dressed in full Lady Gaga drag for a friend’s Halloween party.

    In that scenario, imagine of the subject of one of your photos gets tagged, searched, and somehow embarrassed. All kinds of potential fallout. All kinds of unknowns.

  117. eva

    Just picture it the other way around:

    instead of having potential rip off terms, why not have terms like the one here on this site: All images © the respective photographers.. and that’s it?

    Thomas writes this:

    “as facebook user you can opt-out of having your Intellectual Property (IP) used in ads.

    So why not have a opt-in option? Because, of course, it is easier for FB this way, these are the basic settings, you allow them to bla bla bla, and have to DO something to opt out, and 99% of the users will not do that.. that is what they count on.. and IF there is some rights grab, it is YOU that have agreed to their terms.

    It’s, to me, a question of principle..

  118. panos skoulidas

    Venture capitalists are eager to get in on the mobile trend. According to the research firm CB Insights, mobile apps and companies attracted 10 percent of the total investment dollars from American venture capital firms in last year’s fourth quarter, and 12 percent of deals were mobile-related, up from 7 or 8 percent in previous quarters.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/11/technology/instagram-deal-is-billion-dollar-move-toward-cellphone-from-pc.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120411

    In other words the real Breaking News is the major shift from computers to
    Mobile phone.. That’s the trend.. That’s what’s behind it..
    Apps apps apps , quick smart profit..
    Don’t worry , they are really smart focused people in Silicon Valley..
    Last thing they care about is stealing my “one million
    Dollar print”….
    Lol.. They are smarter than that.. They chase the billion not the tiny little million..
    Ahhhh I’d love a nice big fat conspiracy theory too, but but but…
    read article above and get an idea what’s up!
    Nothing but steve Jobs after quakes..
    Steve made the computer obsolete, like a an old tv set ..
    I remember 3 years ago I was telling everyone .. Throw your laptop away..
    Laptop era is Dead,,…
    It’s all about the CELLPHONE…
    I mean really who can resist a Visual Diary like Instagram and why???

    Now on the other hand , to play a little devils advocate the only major problem I see with FB etc
    is that someday our own past could be used on a court as a proof of our past life ( it could also serve as an alibi too though)

    And also do not forget:
    FB as of today is one of the cheapest ways to promote your business ..
    Check how many celebrities out there that you’d think they don’t need extra advertisement etc the tweet, Instagram, Facebook etc daily..
    Snoop Dogg tells me his plans and informs me about his shows daily, same as Travis Barker or Kat Von D etc etc… There’s not such thing as ENOUGH PROMOTION..
    In my humble opinion :
    Since they use me anyways I’ll use them too to shamelessly promote myself..
    When I did the exhibition here how the hell would I bring 200 people in the show without a FREE direct FB invitation???
    anyway: use them, that’s why they are here for..
    Don’t worry about the word “use”… Use them , they ask you too..
    and don’t worry , “they” are not stupid to steal my photos.. They looking for billions not pennies..
    Smiling!
    Smile y’all.. Loosen up and don’t forget to pay your iPhone bills:)
    ( and all those philosophies right from the bed.. Laptop sleeping for almost two weeks straight now:)

  119. michael kircher

    Eva… yes yes yes. Also, from MW’s link: “As more social apps get acquired by the same companies, the concept of opting out and keeping yourself off of the social media grid becomes increasingly laughable.”

    David, what does the Magnum lawyer say about PicYou which does not have that kind of language? They MUST have that language? That makes no sense to me. But I’m not a lawyer.

    Also, I have not stated any conspiracy. I’m no conspiracy theorist. I have no idea what is the end game for FB. It may be all unicorns and rainbows for them as far as I know… but I do have sincere, honest questions. And that’s precisely what I’m doing. Asking.

  120. Thomas Bregulla

    MICHAEL,

    I am not a lawyer, but I looked at some TOS in the past. The PicYou example sounds easy in the first place, but has the many disclaimers and limitation of liabilities – which should protect them against their own users – which makes the whole thing quite complex.
    The facebook TOS is OK, that is the usual terms one should have who runs a platform and wants to show the pictures and other IP content of its users. In fact the users give the provider the right to show the IP content as part of their services.

    Regarding the “they do not earn money with my content” – well, actually they do. Because our IP content drags many users to their site, which shows ads. Those ads will be clicked by – assume 1% – which is massive, depending on the amount of unique visitors. This is how google, facebook et al. earn their money.
    There is a german saying “Kleinvieh macht auch Mist” – which I cannot translate…

    If you want some background – Chris Anderson from Wired Magazine wrote the book “Free”, which explains the business model. (Gilette became rich by giving away the handle, but selling the blades for their razors). In pure technology environments the cost of the service tends against zero, while the revenue generated via ads increases with the page views.

    summarizing:
    facebook etc. do not need to steal your IP content, because they get much richer by showing ads around your content. The ads providers pay for your free service, and you are the honey pot for the people clicking the ads.

  124. panos skoulidas

    (Gilette became rich by giving away the handle, but selling the blades for their razors).
    —————
    true

    also here in america if u buy a bed then “your Mattress is Freeeeeeee”,

    some car dealerships they give you a year supply of gasoline for freeeeeeeeeeeee if u purchase their clunkers..

    marketing marketing marketing…but it could go both ways…u can also make your own pages and advertise yourself , something impossible on classiv TV/radio era …back then you could ONLY watch/listen for their adds but also u had to pay cable service too…at least FB lets you strike back (laughing) and advertise back…
    On the photo part…i hate to say it but most of stuff i see on Instagram , like 99,9999% of photos i saw so far, even the so called popular ones are pretty much utter garbage…as art value, but but but, also lots of fun stuff that make people smile..and smiling is good…
    I find the possibility of someone “stealing and using for profit” a Great DAH photo but i dont think it really works this way with collectors that know and follow the Artists of that class at least…Plus DAH and/or any of the Greats , they dont really put their PORTFOLIO on Instagram or FB or something…i think they are having fun, playing, experimenting just like the rest of us..
    Again i think its a little paranoid to worry that some hacker cyber criminal will steal a DAH photo from FB and do anything about it..

    I still think we skipping the major part of FB future “danger”…the information that any, government, dictator, court of law that will be like a open diary for anyone to read, interpret or misinterpret etc..PRIVACY is in some sort of danger…Losing a job because the potential boss fecebooked you that you are not a republican for an example or maybe they didnt like that photo from spring break kissing your best same sex friend etc…but but but…laughing…you can always do the opposite and create an image you want, the way u want it, be your own PR and image maker etc..
    hey nothing personal..its all business….

    if FB stays as a business tool i’ll keep it….if not we can opt out any moment…
    The main thing that creeps me out is that a lawyer or the FBI or any STALKER of this grandeur Can always keep an eye on you…we are visible …24/7, everywhere..
    1984 Orwell anyone?

  125. eva

    So basically, one David Alan Harvey (just to name someone that drags/attracts users), by putting his content on FB and Instagram and Twitter, helps THEM to earn the bucks, instead of getting them himself here on Burn?

    Clever.. uhmmm..

  126. panos skoulidas

    Again i think its a little paranoid to worry that some hacker cyber criminal will steal a DAH photo from FB and do anything about it..
    —————-
    (and be able to do/sell something with it) i meant to say

  127. john gladdy

    PANOS. In English, thats proper english not your American English, the saying is
    ‘Many a mickle makes a muckle’…my mum used to say it all the time….I have no clue what it means…Much like..’you’ll be laughing on the other side of your face in a minute’….which she used to say when we were naughty as kids (very very rarely ;;) )

  128. mw

    Yea, but if you wanna be paranoid, imagine the above scenario where most everyone in every photo that’s ever been posted to the web can be identified. Then, for reasons of state, some government agency or other decides they want to see every photo of some individual, we’ll call him Skanos Poulidos. Turns out this Skanos character is seen in a photo illegally smoking in a no smoking zone. The cops are sent to arrest him. That future is close, if not here already.

  129. Ross Nolly

    Panos; you’re right; Suzanne Vega practically re-started her career through FB after being dropped from her record label. There definitely is some power there.

  130. Thomas Bregulla

    EVA,

    I would not see it such one-sided. FB actually helps to stay in touch with many people one would lose sight of without. Speaking for myself, FB helps me to stay in contact and even re-vitalise contact with many people, I would lose contact otherwise. Including family, friends, former colleagues.
    I win a little, FB wins much more, but gives many people work, too. – A former colleague now lives in Ireland, working in the european FB offices.

    There is much grey instead only black and white. :)

    But I do also understand, if people hesitate. You know: “Resistance is futile” – laughing.

  131. Thomas Bregulla

    MW – at the same time, social media creates also a lot of transparency against governmental organizations. Social Media is also people power. The european law ACTA was not setup, because of the online demonstrations against it. Everybody is naked here…

  133. michael kircher

    “Resistance is futile.” That is funny, but it is becoming clear that it is also quite true. This online social networking stuff has a powerful hold, clearly. There is a sort of *throw up your hands and say oh well, not much we can do* attitude on display here. Even David Alan Harvey uses the term “conspiracy theory” to poke fun at legitimate questions. Panos, the great fighter for “the people” in these very pages, defending Facebook describing some as paranoid. It’s an odd phenomenon.

  134. eva

    Thomas..

    no, there’s hardly anything either just black or white.. but when, no, IF more people would think that those terms are not ok.. well.. of course they would have to be informed, inform themselves.. but oh well..

    The net IS a powerful tool, just look at what happens here on this site (or the example you made).. and all this happens without abuse of anyone’s rights..

  135. panos skoulidas

    The cops are sent to arrest him. That future is close, if not here already.
    —————————————–

    MW true….very true..it happened up in London Riots..even “Occupy” is closely monitored…

    Michael K:), dont get me wrong…i m paranoid too, all im saying , im not paranoid about my photo work/copyright ..no no…i just share MW’s fear above too..i worry being getting arrested for smoking a joint and a street camera “got it” or a facebook photo “proves” it etc..that fear, i understand..
    but i was talking about the copyright / stolen photo paranoia..that i dont have..
    big hug

  136. panos skoulidas

    Then, for reasons of state, some government agency or other decides they want to see every photo of some individual, we’ll call him Skanos Poulidos
    ============================================

    remember Terry Gilliam’s movie ” BRAZIL”?
    thats the scariest movie of all times ever!

  137. Thomas Bregulla

    EVA,

    I guess, if somebody could prove abuse in the TOS of FB or any other site, that site would not long exist.
    A shit storm would go down on the site and a massive law suit would go hand in hand.
    Certainly they earn lots of money with ads. May be they could even pay the users for the content – and maybe this will happen at some point, if there is competition.
    again – the TOS of FB is “normal” – another photo sharing site in Germany is nearly using the same words in German in their TOS, since 10 years. I guess that anyone who started a social sharing site became rich at some point. However, I think abuse is too strong a word for what FB does.

    Social Media and the not-forgetting internet, be it twitter, instagram, facebook or what ever will follow – they all have in common a new way to look at morality and tolerance. Is it the provider’s fault, or is it mine? – I guess in ten years, a person will be suspect, if there are no pictures showing this person drunk lying on the street. It will be something which belongs to a transparent, social profile of somebody in a certain age from a certain region.

    People blaming facebook all the time, forgetting that google since ages indexes their whole life, uses their search requests to post context-aware ads to them and never forgets a thing.

    I think, we need better education in schools to inform and support informed decisions, but this will not stop facebook or any other sites and providers.

    Actually, I can blame only one person – me.

    There is one rule to follow: Think about the consequences before you post.

  141. panos skoulidas

    but…when it comes to communicate privately with friends i agree with Thomas…..its easier than email plus it keeps a little history of conversation so i can always beat my A.D.D easier..and catch up where we stopped last time..i always liked that on skype too..so i can remember …

    but speaking of privacy…governments are tapping cellphones and landlines since the Great Alexander’s days..nothing new on spying on us…and thats not really a consp theory..its a fact…they tap cellphones since day1… now if facebook/tumblr etc make things worst , i’ll have no problem to quit …
    i dont know..it seems to early to demonize it though..i honestly hate any form of control (i have a greek mother u know ;) but i dont want to panic, not yet..i will if i have to though…;)
    one love

  142. panos skoulidas

    Still trying to figure it out.
    ——————————
    same here my friend, same here..i do know im making some folks Richer every time i click on their site,but i hope i can use it although im on a verve of getting bored of it…few real “friendships” and mainly shamelessly promotions , maybe we give FB more power it deserves…anyone remember “MySpace”?

  145. Frostfrog

    Panos, I want to find that car dealer who will sell me a clunker and give me a year’s worth of gas for free. Given the price of gas right now, I am pretty certain I will get back the cost of the clunker in savings, and then some.

    As to Facebook/Instagram, I have yet to get into Instagram, so I have no firsthand experience.

    Facebook: a blessing and a curse. It has brought me back into contact with so many people I might never have heard from again and has brought into contact with many I never would have been in contact. Yet, where I once had a few people with whom I kept up good, close, indepth email conversations – including regular picture exchanges – those have mostly slipped away to be replaced by conversations that have been reduced to “like” and mostly innocuous one or two sentence clips, thrown into the mass environment.

    Ironically, where Facebook numbers were relatively small, a link to my blog brought just about everybody over, because everybody saw the link. Now, the numbers have grown for me and everybody else and when I post a link it drops into a river-like flow of notifications that whizzes quickly downstream in the midst of a couple of thousand other notices and so is seen by fewer people and brings in fewer readers.

    And then there is all the time Facebook takes… time that could go elsewhere, but I now feel committed to.

    I now try to avoid all the little games and gimmicks that have attached themselves to Facebook and that come to you in requests from readers everyday, because they all want your information and your permission for them to do with that information – including your photographs – what they please. There are just too many. Maybe you can sort of trust Facebook to not step beyond the bounds with your work, even if you have technically agreed to allow them to.

    But all of Facebook’s info-gobbling friends?

  146. Thomas Bregulla

    facebook apps and games is a completely different story. in the beginning I used them a little, but now I block them wherever I can. usually behind the apps and games stand a league of spammers, who only want your data and your network. this is definitely to avoid.

  148. kathleen fonseca

    THOMAS:

    “I guess in ten years, a person will be suspect, if there are no pictures showing this person drunk lying on the street. It will be something which belongs to a transparent, social profile of somebody in a certain age from a certain region.”

    It’s interesting that you say that. I was thinking earlier in the day that the individual who has no, nada, zip, zero web presence is far more suspect to me then someone with cute kitty photos, their Lady Gaga in drag costume on Halloween (as someone mentioned) and all the other personal and even provocative bla-bla that people post on the web. Only by sheer determination would a person avoid some sort of web presence today. Be it a blog, a professional association, flickr, some sort of something on the web practically proves that we existtoday. It’s very creepy to me when i google someone and draw a complete blank.

    Best
    Kathleen

  149. SFJason

    After returning from 40 days in the desert of Lent… I deleted all my photos on Instagram. No big loss since they were kinda crappy. (Strangely I didn’t miss the Instagram phone apps or Internet or TV.) Liberating?
    On second thought, Maybe I should start up my Instagram library again with pics of bird crap, dog crap, etc. That way I won’t be offended when people tell me my pics look like crap, nor will anyone want to steal them. However I would be tagged as a ficofeliac.

  150. eva

    Bill..

    “Yet, where I once had a few people with whom I kept up good, close, indepth email conversations – including regular picture exchanges – those have mostly slipped away to be replaced by conversations that have been reduced to “like” and mostly innocuous one or two sentence clips, thrown into the mass environment.”

    Exactly this is one more reason to me for staying off, besides the other issues I have (of course it is my responsibility, Thomas, to first think and then post, that does not, however, excuse those terms and the privacy issues related to them.. nothing to do with paranoia, but much to do with principles.. that other sites have the same terms is not something that makes it any better, just because everybody does the same does not mean it is good or acceptable, imo..).. superficiality rules, quickly consuming notions every day, skimming over thousands of things with no time to really appreciate much of it. And the frustration that in the long run comes out of it.

    I do understand a certain use of FB or any other site like that, it is not THE EVIL.. it is the use one makes of it.. all these are tools, nothing more. To me, and that is very personal, life is (about) something else.

  154. Thomas Bregulla

    EVA, fair enough.

    regarding the TOS, I would like to ask a question – as a provider, you want to protect yourself and your users against certain problems, like copyright infringements or unlicensed use. Your requirement therefore is, that your users have to agree to only show stuff they own or produced, and to allow them to show their user-generated content and share it on the site, i.e. one can use e.g. a picture and show it to others within the site. How would one write down this statement, so that it can stand a law suit?

  155. Carlo

    I posted this sometime back but it seems appropriate with this conversation:

    Noam Galai’s photography was stolen hundreds of times for years without his knowledge. This is his story.

    I’m not really concerned but I’m still looking, reading and following closely all of this apparent mess (FB buying instagram) that this is creating. 2 contacts I was following have left instagram already.

  158. michael kircher

    Thomas… Once again, stating the obvious, I am not a lawyer. But of the two statements below, which would you rather sign on to?

    From Instagram:
    “Instagram does NOT claim ANY ownership rights in the text, files, images, photos, video, sounds, musical works, works of authorship, applications, or any other materials (collectively, “Content”) that you post on or through the Instagram Services. By displaying or publishing (“posting”) any Content on or through the Instagram Services, you hereby grant to Instagram a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content not shared publicly (“private”) will not be distributed outside the Instagram Services.”

    From PicYou:
    “PicYou does not claim any ownership in any of the content, including any text, data, information, images, photographs, music, sound, video, or other material, that you upload, transmit or store in your PicYou account. We will not use any of your content for any purpose except to provide you with the Service or to promote this Service.”

  160. Imants

    Carlo it has been re appropriated like Munch’s Scream, Rembrandt’s Nightwatch, Warhol Marylyn, etc etc etc …as more and more of the third world gets on line copyright laws will lose their bite. The biggest losers the lawyers.

  161. Thomas Bregulla

    MICHAEL,

    one is an explicit, the other is implicit.
    With PicYou, you don’t know what they mean “promote the service”*) , so you’re signing to something you do not know, while with the Instagram, you at least know what you are signing. At the end, maybe both using the pictures for the same things.

    *) what, if they start printing housewalls with the pictures, use them in TV-ads or in Magazines to promote the service. (Yes, I know I am constructing something, but you get the point…)

  164. Thomas Bregulla

    Michael,

    maybe :)

    I’m not a lawyer, either.

    What could be removed from Instagram’s list without harming “provide the service and promoting the service” for Instagram?

  166. michael kircher

    “Instagram would like to provide a forum for you to share your photos with friends, family and the world. They are your photos. Owned by you. We have no interest in “using” them for any purpose other than their display here on Instagram. Have fun.”

    Or something like that. (Not being a lawyer, I realize it’s not nearly as obtuse and confusing as it probably should be, but what the fuck. Works for me.)

  167. eva

    Thomas..

    not a lawyer either.. but Michael’s non obtuse terms would work for me ;)

    And I’d even add: we charge $1 a month so that you can have fun, and we can have our pennies..

    Look, here on Burn all the images © is by the respective photographers.. and that is it.

    In addition, us burn viewers/readers can link to our stuff here in the comments, and if I decide to delete it tomorrow, it is gone, my pic, my decision. Easy, no?

    And I am free to decide if and how much all the content and service is worth to me by clicking on the “support us” button.. :)

  170. eva

    Picked this up on Twitter.. Duane Michals, discovered his work in Arles, fascinated by his picture stories and his writing.. great stuff, with sense of humor:

  171. Thomas Bregulla

    Michael, Eva,

    ok – I have to admit, I am a lawyer. – smiling.
    At least lawyer enough to understand that the TOS of Instagram or Facebook do not harm my rights. They make explicit, what my right are and what their rights are. That means, there cannot be a different understanding of the respective rights.

    Burn does not over-complicate things, which I appreciate, too. (I did not find a TOS at all, so it is built on mutual trust and everybody understands the implications)
    Burn has two different types of content – curated content – which means I can offer my pictures, text, videos but it is the decision of burn to show it. And there are comments. A picture, or video I link to burn is not content on burn. (The link is content, the linked picture not) That is important to understand.

    In this context, I also looked at the Google TOS. They make it very different. Instead of telling me, what they will do with my IP content, they tell me, that I am not allowed to use content I find on Google without permission from the creator of the content. …and they avoid lawyer-speech, by staying explicit. :)

    http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/terms/
    “Using our Services” and “Your Content in our Services”

  173. michael kircher

    Thomas… I genuinely appreciate your professional legal take on all of this. The back and forth has been helpful. Many thanks.

    Now if you’ll excuse me…. I’m way behind on my Hobo Chronicles! ;^}

    -M

  189. Frostfrog

    That was a fun link, Eva – epecially the series that started out with the standing by his old grandpa as he died. At first, I thought it a very serious statement about the brevity of human life… but when it turned into a seriously funny statement statement about death… I just had to laugh.

  190. a civilian-mass audience

    I love you ALL…

    I am getting ready for Easter…I am Universal and I celebrate all kind of holidays…
    therefore
    may the party begins !!!

    Easter lamp…and wine…THOMAS drive west…Viva!!!

  192. Paul

    RE. Instagram app.
    I love this app, it took me quite awhile to get into it, I had big doubts I’d like it. But seeing Thomas’s Eva’s, Panos’s and of course David’s work finally won me over. I use it with my iPad, I don’t own an iPhone. I purchased the new Panasonic GX1 about a month ago which is utterly marvelous, but it’s strange how I’m hardly using the machine since I signed up to instagram. I don’t really know why, but for some reason I see differently, I just don’t make the same kind of photos I get with the instagram app. I feel relaxed and very free and above all it’s so much fun. The fact that I can an get image with colours that are personally very satisfying means a lot to me, as with all my other cameras I always have to get into Lightroom and probably photoshop to feel equally satisfied. I’m not very happy about the Facebook news but there isn’t much I can do about it. I would happily change of app if all those I follow and those who follow me also as a gigantic part of all the instagram fun is seeing others and showing your work.

  193. eva

    Paul.. Michael..

    have had a look into PicYou, looks basically the same.. BUT no private setting.. so for now at least no point to me to migrate..

    As for photography and cameras, same counts as for all photography.. the camera is a tool, each with its limits.. the biggest limit though is not this or that camera, but the one using it..

    Civi.. rain rain rain nothing but rain..

  198. tom hyde

    Hmm, it seems I often regret the questions I ask of your guests David. With DQ’s followup I suppose it could offend. Not my intent.

  199. a civilian-mass audience

    200…200…AKAKY…for you;)

    Good morning MY BURNIANS…!!! it’s raining…raining…raining…thank you EVA
    you saved my chickens again…

    KATH…yes,”brilliant” as PAUL said…and PAUL …you do “post good stuff” as KATHY said…

    it’s Sunday…Easter Sunday…time for lamb…thanks the spirits I am vegetarian..;)

    and THANK YOU BURN…cause when I am here…it feels good…
    Spread the love
    Spread your smiles
    Spread your souls
    life is life=
    Love
    Invades
    Fast
    Everyone…What not to Love!!!

  200. a civilian-mass audience

    200…MICHELLE…you are beautiful!!!

    THANK YOU ALL…I will be back with wine,feta,olives and meat…!!!

  215. panos skoulidas

    a full-body holograph of Tupac Shakur, digitally pacing the stage and appearing to ask Coachella what was up.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/arts/music/part-1-of-coachella-festival-wraps-up-with-few-surprises.html?_r=2&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20120417

    yes…it looks dope/neat/awesome…. raised some controversy over here though..
    whats next? a 3 hour Elvis marathon extravaganza rock’n’roll World Tour 2016?
    Imagine if we SOON be able pay see Frank Sinatra perform”LIVE ON STAGE”? or even Nirvana?
    The Doors? i admit i’d love to see an original Jim Morrison “LIVE”…
    How about a John Lennon 2019 World Tour?

    Hmmmm..if we take technology one step further i might be ABLE to INVITE my DEAD grand parents for xmas dinner on 2016!!!!!

  216. john gladdy

    But you wouldnt be…any more than you would are seeing a Tyranosaurus in jurrasic park. The use of peppers ghost is a neat add on….but it a’int nothing but another hollywood blowjob

  220. john gladdy

    Charles.
    How does that stuff stack up to heroic doses of good acid or psilocybin?
    …or even shooting a hot speedball?
    …or a big favourite with trance heads over here Ketamine and MDMA Cocktails?

    History lesson.
    back in the day we used to eat deadly Nightshade…you got it in asthma cigarettes…and you wrapped them in a piece of bread and butter and sort of choked it down…2 to 3 days of complete out of body 100% real hallucinations.(very very scary)
    Or sometimes we’d drink barley wine and then eat a bunch of opium….My parents got a call once from the police who had found me in an alleyway cos someone had reported a dead body, and they had picked me up, found out i was a juvenile(15) (and alive) and thrown me in a cell.
    Or get drunk and take lots of benzodiazepams, black out, and go driving.
    Or do acid and sleep deprivation, constantly doubling the dose until weird mental breakdown shit happened (A friend had a long talk with the devil after about seven days constant tripping, and was never the same again…went mad)

    I guess we didnt have designer shamanic ritual retreats where we were and were just looking to break on through to the other side in our own way.
    Some of us even made it out.

    God I MISS being young!!!

  223. john gladdy

    DAVID. You gotta remember that all that was before I was twenty.
    And maybe your right, maybe I didnt make it out after all….but I went there. And I said ‘fuck you’ to what I found there.

  224. Akaky

    I am not sure when toilet paper rolls became an environmental threat to the national security of this out Great Republic, but the threat must have arisen recently because, frankly, I hadn’t heard that there was a problem with toilet paper rolls before. These superannuated rolls always struck as being the embodiment of John Milton’s ‘they also serve who only stand and wait.’ Toilet paper rolls supported the main event, like bass players in any jazz band not led by Charles Mingus, and once the gig was over they left the scene almost as anonymously as they arrived. There was no need to give them any more than a passing thought; the toilet roll was necessary, but in the larger scheme of things, secondary. Nothing to worry about here.

    This was an altogether cavalier attitude on the part of the excreting public, one borne of profound ignorance of the facts. In the past few months, I’ve learned that Americans throw away some 17 billion toilet rolls ever year, and that this enormous number is enough to build not one, but two, Empire State Buildings entirely of toilet rolls. Why anyone to choose to build two skyscrapers out of toilet rolls is not something I spend a lot of time thinking about, but if these people have nothing better to do with their time, then let the dolts have at it.

    I say this because we here in our happy little burg remember Herb Reynolds and we remember him well. Herb was the printing plant manager for the local weekly newspaper and not at all the sort of man who would indulge strange or outlandish ideas; he was a Republican, after all, and a long-time member of the Knights of Columbus, and he drove an old Ford; and so his neighbors on Mill Street were more than a little surprised when Herb announced that he was going to build an F-14 Tomcat on his front lawn. It was simply so unlike him.

    I suppose it was in the Zeitgeist then: Ronald Reagan was President of the United States, it was morning in America, and Tom Cruise was punching holes in the sky and in the box office with Top Gun. Still, why Herb thought building his own fighter plane was a good idea was anyone’s guess—our happy little burg faced no airborne threats to its municipal security that couldn’t be handled with a light propeller-driven aircraft and a large slingshot, and our crack corps of constables could handle any of the traditional terrestrial threats with its usual competence. But no one could deter Herb—he wanted a F-14 and he was going to build a F-14, come hell or high water.

    Almost as soon as he started, Herb ran into a number of problems, the first being that he did not know how to build an airplane, any kind of airplane, much less a F-14, and second, that the Grumman Corporation had built the F-14 Tomcat exclusively for the United States Navy and consequently had little or no interest in either selling one to Herb or in telling him how to build one himself. The other problem was that your standard F-14 was sixty-two feet long, or 18.8976 meters for those of you on the metric system, which takes up a lot of room when your front lawn was only about a half acre in size. But Herb, God love him, would not take no for an answer and over the next few weeks his front lawn became the site of intense activity for him and equally intense curiosity for the neighbors and passersby.

    At first, no one knew what to make of all the lumber on the front lawn and I think more than one person convinced themselves that Herb wasn’t building a F-14 at all, but rather a more wood-specific aircraft like a Sopwith Camel or a de Havilland Mosquito light bomber, but as time went on it became pretty clear that if Herb said he was building a F-14, he was building a F-14 and not something else. I imagine that the uproar that followed was similar to the abuse that Noah took when his neighbors realized he was building a big boat on dry land. People came from all over the county to see the man building his own fighter plane and to ask the neighbors whether or not Herb was crazy. The neighbors, being good neighbors, refused to badmouth Herb or his project, no matter what their personal opinion might have been, although they did tell people that the small group holding a constant prayer vigil near Herb’s mailbox was more than a few cards short of a full deck. They insisted that Herb had received a message from God telling him to build the plane and that they were leaving with Herb before the Apocalypse swept over the earth. Herb denied that he had received a command from anyone to build the plane and he denied this idea vigorously and categorically, often both at the same time, but neither his denials nor the fact that there wasn’t going to be enough room in the plane for all of them would get them to call off the vigil.

    Through all the silliness, Herb kept working on the plane. Two months into the project, the wood pile in the middle of his front lawn had become a clearly identifiable aircraft, even if it was half-scale, very close to the ground, and had no visible means of propulsion. By that time, the novelty had worn off and people simply accepted the plywood jet as if it had always been there. There was even a strange sort of neighborhood pride in Herb’s airplane, the same sort of proprietary pride you have when you know that the world’s ugliest dog lives next door to you; it has nothing to do with you, really, but people know that you live nearby and so you share vicariously in the ambient light of the phenomenon everyone knows about.

    By the fall of that year, Herb started hammering the metal onto the airframe. Herb took beer and soda cans, cut off the tops and bottoms, and then cut the can vertically down the middle. Then he’d pound the metal into whatever shape he needed with a hammer and nail the sheet to the plane. I don’t remember how many cans he used to cover that F-14 with metal, but I reckon that Herb must have covered that plane with a fortune in nickel returns. By the beginning of November, Herb had, as far as I could tell, finished the first part of his fighter. Everyone waited for him to put some kind of engine into it, but Herb smiled and begged off. He’d finish the plane in the spring, he said, and afterwards he covered it with canvas and plastic tarps and lashed everything down with ropes tied to heavy wooden stakes that he pounded deep into the ground.

    And he did all this not a moment too soon; in the middle of that November the temperature dropped nearly thirty degrees in less than a week and by Thanksgiving we were already expecting the first heavy snowfall of the year. That was a bad winter; every other week, it seemed there was yet another snowstorm dropping unprecedented amounts of snow and ice on us, until by mid-February there wasn’t anyplace for us to put all the new snow. And through it all, everyone wondered if Herb could actually get his F-14 to fly. Arguments raged back and forth in every part of our happy little burg, with some people arguing that there was no way for the plane to take off; Herb’s front lawn was just too short to serve as a runway, even if the plane was made of plywood, and others arguing that if Herb ran the plane down Mill Street and got the green light at the corner of Mill and Rector Street, which is always a tricky proposition even in the best of times—that light has a long red and a very short green, the better to generate traffic tickets with, you see—then Herb shouldn’t have a problem getting airborne. Then the naysayers would ask the believers, are you out of your mind, for crying out loud, and the argument would begin anew, and sometimes get violent, especially if there was alcohol involved, and in a good many of these arguments, alcohol was involved. After a couple of real knockdown, drag-out fights in some of the local taverns, the police were seriously considering telling Herb to get rid of his plane altogether, but they couldn’t find a legal way of doing it. You can’t really tell a man who isn’t being a public nuisance that he’s being a public nuisance. That’s how it was that winter, during which Herb said nothing about his plane or his plans for it. We would have to wait for spring for the answers to our questions.

    Spring came, as it is wont to do, and yet there were still no answers. The tarps stayed in place and the curious had to stand on the sidewalk and watch Herb duck under the tarps everyday with tools in his hands and give no explanation of what was going on. The lack of information drove a lot of people over the deep edge. People you wouldn’t think cared one way or the other about Herb Reynolds and his F-14 turned out to have intense opinions on the matter. My mother, for example, almost punched out an assistant curate at our church when he told her that it was unkind and uncharitable to call Herb a gobsmacked idiot. Mom didn’t think that she was being unkind or uncharitable; she was just telling the truth as she saw it and she didn’t need some fresh-faced boy just out of the seminary to tell her any different, thank you very much.

    And then, one morning in late spring, the tarps were gone, and there it was, Herb’s creation in all its glory. Crowds came by to gawk at the plane and the vigil keepers prayed harder than ever because the end of days had arrived and there were so many cars on Mill Street that the cops had to come in to control the traffic. People had their cameras out and took pictures like they’d never seen an airplane before, and, in truth, they hadn’t, at least not one that looked like Herb’s airplane. Herb’s F-14 was dull gray, just like the ones the Navy flew, but there were no markings on this warplane except for Herb’s call sign, which he’d painted in big bright red paint on both sides of the fuselage; his call sign, unimaginatively enough, was Herb. The other thing that struck most people was the lack of a cockpit canopy, surely, almost everyone agreed, a necessary component in any supersonic aircraft.

    Some friends and I were debating what all this might mean when Herb himself came out and waved to the crowd assembled on the sidewalk. He was wearing a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants and he wore a New York Jets helmet on his head. I always liked that touch; it seemed appropriate, somehow. We watched him climb into the cockpit, which was a matter of swinging one leg after another into the plane; the F-14 was no higher in the spring than it was in the autumn. A moment later, we heard the plane’s engine roar to life, and we knew the truth, and the truth did not set us free. The disappointment was more than some people could bear; many a strong man went to Murphy’s Bar & Grill that day to drown his sorrow in a generous glass of Tullamore Dew and to eat a hearty portion of crow, and the vigil keepers went off to a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts, where one of our local gendarmes had found the face of a suffering Jesus etched miraculously into a jelly doughnut with raspberry filling. I can tell you that yes, there was no joy in our happy little burg on that evil day, even if mighty Casey hadn’t struck out.

    There may be dumber things to do with your time than turning a John Deere riding mower into an unflyable airplane, and I know that watching Herb driving that fighter/mower up and down his front lawn with a beer in one hand was one of the great disappointments of my life, and I suppose that building skyscrapers out of toilet paper rolls counts as one of those dumber things to do. Why anyone would want to do this sort of thing eludes me, but then, lots of things elude me these days. It seems to me that if you really wanted to save paper you would skip the toilet roll entirely—it is a rather insignificant part of the whole toilet-industrial complex, after all—and encourage people to stop using the paper itself. In many parts of the world, people use a rock or a piece of a brick to accomplish the same purpose, and rocks and bricks not only do not pollute the environment but have the added advantage of being washable. Just something to think about the next time you hear about those skyscrapers full of toilet paper rolls.

  225. david alan harvey

    JOHN GLADDY

    totally teasing and yes of course you made it out….all of us went “in” to one degree or another and most of us lucky to have gotten from 14-19 in one piece….and of course some of us could have a relapse at any time…

    AKAKY

    as usual , good point….as usual, i wonder who you really are…..talented observational scribe to be sure….

  227. panos skoulidas

    Charles…
    On serious note it’s been a while I’m thinking of that mystical experience..
    So far I’m a chicken , I admit it.. I’m afraid of what I’m gonna be able to “see”,
    break on through on the other side is brave indeed…

  228. a civilian-mass audience

    Do I have to read now? I skipped school and I came here for the pictures…pfff
    oime…:))))))))))))

    your civi
    be back after …my reading session…oime

  230. Charles Peterson

    John,

    Very very different from what you are talking about… and I doubt the tribes in the Amazon who’ve been practicing this medicine for hundreds (thousands?) of years would consider it designer…. it can be a lot stronger than those experiences you recount… or a lot less. All up to you and your relationship with the medicine.

    Anyway, pretty much “lost it” on my last journey. Thought I was going into shock and possibly going to have a heart attack and die. The visions were super fast and overwhelming and the pain in my body intense. I kept purging demons. Fortunately Francois, the shaman, got me through it (though at one point he told me to stop whining – he can be a tough teacher). Of course in the end one realizes it was all in the mind, and/or the mind’s relationship to the body and pain. I wasn’t truly in danger but I convinced myself I was. Ayahuasca is a diagnostic tool – it uncovers and pulls to the surface in order to release the bodies darkness. One can of course also be blissed out on it (usually the second half of the evening for me though not this last one). And always, no matter how tough a journey, one feels revitalized and fresh the next day.

    Anyway, let the man himself explain it best (portrait by moi): http://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-amazonian-healing-francois-demange

    He is considered one of the foremost Western practicioners working in the Shipibo tradition and I’m pretty damn proud he’s become a good friend and a part of my life. First thing you have to do to become an apprentice: sit on your own in the jungle for a year, taking plant medicines and eating nothing but fish, plaintains and porridge. A bit different than tripping your balls out at Glastonbury!

    Funny thing is I’ve been really sick this past week. Saw my ND yesterday and she thinks it’s still this demonic sickness I caught 12 years ago in Morocco (the last time I thought I was going to die) coming back to rear it’s ugly head. It could have quite possibly been the aya that brought it to the surface but not all the way gone. The body is subtle. The one thing Francois is trying to dissuade me of is finding reasons and causes for my problems. Just let the medicine do the work. What will come will come and it’s not necessarily because of or tied to a specific event in my life (don’t we all want the magic bullet for our ills). I’m working on having been in daily pain (headaches) my whole life as well as anxiety/fear issues. So going into drinking the medicine puts both of those into action even stronger (even a week before drinking). This is warrior medicine to be sure and I highly recommend it. It could be life changing.

    Best,

    Charles

  231. Charles Peterson

    And oh yes unfortunately it is only available to those that can afford or find it… wish that was different but either one has to get their ass down to the Amazon and a retreat center or find one of the rare ceremonies in the West (I feel very fortunate to have so much local access). It’s expensive ($200 plus a night) but so are a lot of things. I did my fare share of LSD, MDA, etc but they always left me feeling worse off than before. Aya is the complete opposite. Many serious people are researching it (as well as other visionary medicines) as the next frontier in healing. Unfortunately the government doesn’t see it that way……

  234. john gladdy

    Charles. Of course its designer in the sense thats its chic (and expensive. $200 a night?). And neither you nor I are Amazonian Indians that these traditions belong to. So to that extent you are ‘buying’ a lifestyle. My culture has used belladonna,psilocybin and the like for thousands of years. The mexicans and aboriginal Americans had/have peyote/mescaline.People from the west used to flock to asia seeking a cure for the ‘spiritual hole’ they felt they had.(kharma cola sums it up nicely)…Now the rain forests are in vogue and are being brought to market, both by the scrupulous and the unscrupulous.

    True story.
    Theres a guy from brixton..a poet.big hit on the new hippy circuit. shamanic spirit apparently….renounces all western trappings to go to the rainforest and be apprenticed to a shaman….committed guy. claims that the west has lost its way, and all the spiritual and medicinal secrets of the rain forest can be learned for the benefit of all..so anyways, about five months in your man gets a scratch on his foot…takes some shamanic medicine..meditates or whatever for a couple of weeks…his shaman gives him some bugs to eat or somesuch (forgetting of course that he and his have a natural immunity to many of the forest toxins which our boy dont)…so now your mans leg is pretty in infected and painful…but he is in the bosom of healing and spiritual knowledge..whats a guy to do?….he hotfoot(sic) it to a phone box as quick as he can…rings up everyone he knows back home…money money need money..medical emergency..stop. Gets to a hospital (western medicine) where after a (quite expensive) prolonged fight with the infection…he loses about half of his foot. (Am I a bad person that I laughed my ass of when I heard this? ) anyways,, he’s back in england now…back on the circuit…probaly dining and getting laid of this story as we speak..and seemed very happy last time I saw him…limps a bit though…but that adds to the authenticity right?

    Peace

    and…did you really say “purging demons”?

  235. Charles Peterson

    Hi John,

    Well there is hubris in anything isn’t there? True story: a person I was told about recently went down to the Amazon, found some remote village and the local shaman and asked to do a dieta. Well, he’s apparantly a person who lets his ego get in front of him and the locals fucked with him. So they dieted him on the potato plant and he of course fucked up his diet and they didn’t help him. My friend who knows him said he came back looking like a potato! Plus his esophagus had shrunk to the size of a dime. He’s getting help now but his ego still won’t allow him to realize that he was the one who fucked it up.

    Anyway, I don’t think I or anyone I know working with this medicine even remotely feel we are “buying a lifestyle.” We are seeking healing and fortunate to do so from some of the best in the world in this tradition. Of course there are those who are just after an “experience.” Quite often they are the ones screaming their heads off and being disruptive (I had one woman who masturbated the whole time, moaning, next to me, needless to say she was never asked back).

    I have heard from others that aya has had a bit of an Ab Fab reputation in the UK so it might just be a matter of perception and actually working with the real deal.

    And yes demons – which are just a visual manifestation of our shadow selves.

  238. Akaky

    I wonder who I am sometimes, too, but it’s never struck me as a particularly interesting topic so I just push it out of my mind whenever the subject comes up.

  242. Charles Peterson

    John,

    Of course I knew you weren’t. But I also say whatever helps people get out of pain and suffering is fine by me, at any cost (and aya or iboga is a fraction, even at spa prices, of what a Western doc might cost ya). I do have to say that I find the Brit predilection to snarkiness regarding anything outside their ken or comfort zone to be a bit wearisome at times (such as the tone of the Guardian piece). That said I saw the Extreme Celebrity detox episode several years ago and laughed my head off. Esp Tony Wilson with his playlist for the evening. What a tosser!

    Do try and listen to that interview with Francois though.

    Best,

    CP

  243. a civilian-mass audience

    Aaaahhhh…the girl from Ipanema…aaahhhh…vahhhhh…oime…

    Can I sing now?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  246. Paul

    Thodoris…

    Very Nice images.
    I’ve got a couple kind of like these at home which I’m struggling with. My problem is I’m trying to go once again for less information – mine are too descriptive. I’m sure all this is Sally Mann’s Deep South influence on me. It’s driving me a little crazy, I never come back from this creek with anything I personally feel satisfied with.

  247. Thodoris Tzalavras

    Paul, maybe you *should* try shooting pinhole… and not even 8×10″… the smaller the format, the more, let’s say, inherently elusive the results… and don’t even bother drilling the “proper” pinhole either, or use a high resolving light sensitive material… get some old/fogged paper, and shoot away with a matchbox “camera”… you could give this a try with almost no cost, and who knows… it might get you closer to what you’re looking for… cheers

  249. Thodoris Tzalavras

    Gordon, thanks for the compliment, but I’m hardly alone… there are plenty of people around the world producing amazing work using pinhole cameras… besides the many flickr groups may I suggest these two facebook ones:

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/pinhole
    http://www.facebook.com/groups/info.pinhole

    and of course there is always http://www.pinholeday.org (next one coming up soon) were among the thousands of average pictures there are plenty of gems to be found… what’s been termed “alternative processes” is on the rise…

    by the way, the forests around were you live would be perfect for wide field pinhole landscapes… something to think about… cheers

  250. Carlo

    Imants,

    I like what I saw! I noticed re-ocurring themes and variations….symbolism of the eastern kind. This is right up my alley. I wonder what the reaction will be. I say this because your work is “outside the box”

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