Maki Maki
Welcome 2 My Room
ESSAY CONTAINS EXPLICIT CONTENT
Internet is reachable by millions of people each second. They can communicate with each other, and sometimes very private things are told and shown on internet blogs through photos, videos, writings. Although initially it was not intentioned, this is what I experienced with this series called “Welcome 2 My Room”.
Usually, to take a photograph, you have to be physically in front of the person you want to shoot with your camera. It all changed on the internet with chats, webcams and other ways to meet virtually the image of people on the screen of your computer. In this photo work I experienced a new way to take photographs by taking, with an analog polaroid camera, portraits on my computer screen, chatting live with sex workers through their webcams.
The starting point of this series of photo portraits was the discovery of a website in the Philippines. A peep show with chat and webcam. Girls and boys working at home alone, or several persons together in so called “studios”. Omnipresence of precarity. At that time they were more than 300, now there are twice as much…
Sometimes links are created, other times it’s “just business”. All those gazes, those stories intersecting, including mine…
I started taking pictures of them with my old polaroid camera on my computer screen. I used to shoot people I meet, so why not do it by computer screen interposed. Sometimes the exchanges and discussions are intense. Laying bare the feelings, the lives, the bodies… Sincerity encounters with cunning. But of course there’s the money. They will do anything to make you pay. But sometimes on the spot of our conversations, emotion overwhelms… Tears of blood…
Finally thousands of polaroid snapshots (and also some black and white roll films) were taken in my bedroom in front of my computer screen during the highlights of our conversations or private shows…Trying to give a face to sex… As always image rule as a unique weapon… We play with it, we come with it …
Bio
Born and living in Marseille (France) since 1964.
He studied photography at the beginning of the 80s and is into photography since then. In 2000 he turns towards a more experimental and intimate photography.
He’s participated in solo and group photo exhibitions in Europe and Japan, and been published in exhibition catalogs, record covers, art magazines, books…
Actually he’s working on a series about Japan called “Japan Somewhere”. Some photos of this series will be published in December 2012 inside the photobook “MONO” about contemporary black and white photographers, edited by Gommabooks together with other photographers such as Antoine d’Agata, Daido Moriyama, Anders Petersen, Roger Ballen, Trent Parke…
Since 2007 he is founding member of the Collective of European photographers SMOKE.
In 2010 he created Média Immédiat Publishing, a book collection actually composed of 9 mini photobooks including photographers like Morten Andersen, Ed Templeton, Onaka Koji, Jukka Onnela, Daisuke Ichiba.
Wow. This is so much more than I thought it would be. You’ve managed to capture something real from people who are accustomed to never being real.
What does “Omnipresence of precarity” mean?
The work is great.
This is definitely an interesting project but I can help but feel creeped out by several factors. Obviously one of these is documenting the sexual exploitation of young (and by young I mean at times what appears to be nonlegal young) in these images. Equally troubling is that the descriptive text is practically void of any moral consideration of who these women and young men are. It’s presented in a pretty matter of fact manner by a 48 year old photographer who seemingly has no qualms about publicly announcing that he spends lots of time in questionable video sex chat rooms.
Now if we assume images are just images, free from any moral responsibility. This series does not seem that challenging at all. It is in fact a basic document of people on their webcams. None of the images really rise above that in my opinion.
It’s just that I think it is going to be difficult for people to separate these two viewpoints, which is why I think this definitely succeeds in that it is a tough series to morally comprehend.
Some of those girls seem young enough to make you a pervert in my eyes.
Great! Awesome!
welcome and congratulations for being published in Burn!
and “speaking” of D’Agata (as an influence) let me ask you all San Fran-ians to help me on the last few days left for Antoine’s project.
Reposting, since im sure many Antoine’s fans will like this essay here:
Antoine D’Agata arrived in San Francisco Aug 23rd and will stay till Sep 2nd. He will be finalizing a short MOVIE project that will accompany his latest book release in France 2013. Antoine is seeking contacts that can help locate willing participants to be interviewed and/or filmed for the project. Subject matter should be relevant to his latest project, Ice.
Any help is greatly appreciated! If you have information, please contact Antoine via my cellphone: 310-745-7005 or by email: panos.skoulidas@gmail.com
Much Thanks!!!!! and muchos gracias!
Too creepy for me.
This is disturbing. Considering where these girls are from, you might even have child porn here. That this photographer would take thousands of such photos is equally disturbing. Think you pushed the boundaries a little far on this one, Harvey.
In the U.S., pornography is defined as the obscene depiction of sexual behavior that is intended to arouse sexual excitement. The Supreme Court concluded that to establish obscenity, the material must, aside from appealing to the prurient interest, be “utterly without redeeming social value”.
I don’t think these photos are going to arouse sexual excitement in very many people and It seems more than obvious that getting people off is not the intent of the photographer. No, the only thing the photos are going to arouse in most people is a feeling of sadness or disgust or possibly anger or some kind of enlightenment and that intent provides at least a smidgen of redeeming social value.
As for artistic value, I think the photographer did a good job of capturing the contradictions inherent in the setup. The situation is inherently dehumanizing for all of the participants, and designed to be that way, yet a very basic humanization occurs. The humanization of the women is enhanced, I think, by the use of some strange process that fakes the look of Instagram. Appropriately, it’s more like looking through a grimy fish tank than a computer screen. The humanization of the observer is left a bit more to our imagination, but if he/we looks at this and sees significantly further than skin deep, that has been accomplished.
And #9 is interesting in that it looks so much like a Gauguin.
Last images is my favourite, girls looking the screen with hope that something is going to happen… Looks like a Renacimiento painting.
@ PANOS: Can’t help in a “real” and “live” way, coz I’m far from SanFran, but I can do an e-help thru the net if you need some translation from d’Agata french to English or Spanish texts.
P.
Has Burn “jumped the shark?” Seems to me that outside of a core group of commenters, the community aspect of Burn has dissipated. The same names are here over and over, saying largely the same predictable things. Love it! Hate it! Viva Burnians! I’m not a commenter, just a reader/looker. Anyhow — more dispiritingly, the drumbeat of essays focusing on the downtrodden and depressing maintains a steady beat, along with a statement now and then that nothing else which comes across the Burn editors desktops is worth publishing. I find it hard to believe that this current “essay” was the best of the bunch, all due respect to the artist who had the guts to put it out there.
Yes yes yes, as Mr Harvey might write… ok, i’m over the top… but just a little… the interview with James Estrin was refreshing, enlightening, heartening… and the Living on the Edge, pushing the edge, always-in-motion credo from the FOUNDER is good to hear… surrounded as he his by his bevy of muses and devotees… rock start photographer??? do I sound jealous? Not of the acolytes and muses, possibly of the energy and deep belief in one’s own work.
Whatever. I digress. Hard to believe editors and decision makers everywhere are paying close attention here; more engaging photography is elsewhere on the net these days.
Still, ALL DUE RESPECT and “props” for putting the time in. Burn came from nothing,just a belief, that’s to be acknowledged… And I remain hopeful that Mr. Harvey’s work will resurface here.
That
is
all
Ellie G
Elite G
Thank you for constructive critique on Burn..
Thank you for telling us that there is best work “somewhere” ELSE in the net but you won’t do us the poor naive readers here the favor to tell us where to look..
It’s ok bashing Burn, I personally like sour grapes statements but hey hey,
if you know where the “good photography” hides, please share with us..
After u done bashing us of course:)
So please guide us, we have no clue…
(sigh)
And remember Irena’s essay that got the EPF award? Anything sad, downtrodden , dark there?
Not at all.. Great sense of humor, but did u notice? Did u see it? do you even know what I’m talking about?
Have you been aware of “Road Trips”? The thousands hours of Harvey’s unpaid work to mentor folks like you and me???
And you dissing him calling him a “rockstar”???
That’s a bit mean and a lot offensive..
I don’t know too many rockstars out there doing mentoring for free giving away their work for free..
On your defense though I will explain ONCE again..
We are NOT doing Rock’n’Roll here Elite…
No no no…
THIS IS A GARAGE BAND…
See the difference?
Please tell me you do
( laughing.. I take no arguments on what music I play whatsoever ;)
My looks alone demand/command respect
“anonymous rockstar”
http://instagram.com/p/O5jhYmBrY2/
My intellectual depth is abysmal
“anonymous rockstar”
click link below for more explanations
http://instagram.com/p/O5jcg8BrYz/
ahhhh Elite you reminded me the good ol” Roadtrips days when we
were getting slapped left and right, mocked and everything..
But I’m HAPPY that BURN can NOT please EVERYONE ,
otherwise I’d hate it as much as you do if not even more..
Ok ok ok I give up but one last thing for Elite:
How about introduce yourself here with your Work so we get an idea where your
complains coming from , but if it’s not important for you then believe me it’s not important for the rest of us either..
So anyway show us some work if u gotta any instead of hurting the photographer here and the Burn Mentor ..
Ok gotta work now, please do the same..
Reading on your spare time..
Please first DO THE WALK and I promise you’ll have lotsa time to do your TALK
( please see my links above as a self sarcasm , coz I kinda get the feeling you’d think Instagram links might be a reference to you … and that would be selfish! Ok?no don’t worry .. One more shot of self sarcasm on beer..
You just buy me a beer (or two), ok????
Love you Elite
ELLIE G
oh for sure there is a lot of great work out there on the net…and please always let us know…we have links here all the time for work that appears elsewhere…..you should of course disseminate wherever you can find it..
i think comments always vary…from those who put links in, to those who have something to say…honestly, i think if you take the commentators as a whole, and can do just a bit of selective reading you will find some very interesting comments indeed…
however, i might also suggest you can’t really be paying attention….have you missed the group shows and print magazines featuring often the work of commentators (the dissipated community) here on Burn?? i think work that has come from commentators here in a very real way has been rather amazing…the show in San Antonio, the show in Sydney, Australia in the last few months…and Burn 01 and 02…with 03 on the way..and more shows…not sure how the “dissipated community” could do any more….
of course the most proactive thing YOU can do is to send us your work…my “muses” as you call them, bust it often 14 hrs a day around here to get things done including working with photographers like you to get as much good work as we can here on Burn….
we are now planning a cross America trip that may be of interest to you…i will be finishing up on my Off For A Family Drive project…and my “muses” do often end up in my work as part of a long history of artists using muses for inspiration…
rock star? dont think so…i work all the time…i am almost out of Cheerios, and will kick over to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches soonest…some of my work gets lightly mentioned here on Burn, and the rest of it you will see in my current books, and exhibitions etc….
thanks for your comment..i always appreciate all points of view
cheers, david
JIM POWERS
it is on the edge, it is a bit disturbing , and that is exactly why it is here….
cheers, david
15 reminds me of that Henri Cartier Bresson photo with the Spanish women lying down and one of them with her leg cocked up in the air…
http://www.americansuburbx.com/2011/10/henri-cartier-bresson-arrogant-purpose-1947.html
If you go through the slideshow a couple of times the disturbing element from the essay kind of wears off and I began to see a couple of rather attractive portraits throughout the essay.
the community aspect of Burn has dissipated.
———————————————
Elite cmon now… did you forget that Jim P, donated a LEICA lens to a photog here? Jim also helped me with newspaper creds so i dont get arrested and beaten up by the greek riot police in 2010?
did you forget that Michael K, sent me free fresh batteries for my dead camera right when i needed them?
How can i ever forget LEE G, helping me eat while in athens…
How can i forget Hilary when she got me out of that roach Motel two years ago and found me a room in echo park?
Have u ever been in Look3 to feel the sense of community? just 3 months ago we were up to 8 Burnians sleeping in a small 2 bedroom in inflate mattresses up in C/Ville?
Did u ever count the endless hours DAH sat in front of freaking skype to mentor/guide folks for FREE??
dID U MISS the massive exhibition in Texas where i had more than 80 submissions from all over the universe and did u miss that ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS DONATED THE MONEY to Burn, so we can give it to the epf finalists?
Did u notice there’s no advertisement here at all?
Do u know that most of us (burnians) had already meet in different places of the planet?
How in this earth did you see the burn community dissipate?
I created many friendships all over the world and many couches are waiting for me , but hey my door is always open so is DAH’s…Did u know how many photogs have slept in BURN HOTEL/KIBBUTZ because simply they couldnt afford a hotel in NY? Did u know that Doug and Michael A.S, slept in my couch also?
Antoine D’Agata the same….
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to remind myself of what a great community this Burn thingie generated/created/allowed…. and like any other family, dysfunctional or not , we have love and the occasional bump on the road…why not?
Now check this out…Books started coming out, exhibitions, new ideas and motivation…food for thought…
Also big thanks to Jukka O, for a great letter of support he sent me a day after my uncle committed suicide last June, thank you also to Kerry P and Patricia LayD, for all the support that showed me for same reason last year while i was suffering over this …And without Burn how could i connect to great guys like Ross, Thomas B, Thodoris T, Johnny G and more more more… Real friendships with Haik ,Paul,Audrey B, Michael C and Charles P , Young Tom, Diegito, also started because of Burn…
i know i forget tons of names that actually HELPED THE COMMUNITY TO GROW…
oh , think EVA and you will get it immediately…. or think Roberta and Brazil crew…
i BELIEVE we created some REAL BONDS, relationships/friendships here faster than any other “photo place” i know….
Most if not all publications is :”Look at me, buy me”, but Burn only place that its all about :”look at the Emerging” (without dissing the iconics)..its a great “marriage” between the iconics and the emerging..
want a proof?
easy: ORDER BURN.02 BOOK , some copies left, and you will see the “marriage” i talked about above.
(try also to find the already sold out BURN.01 book or ask a friend to let u borrow it, then you will see exactly what Burn is about: its about YOU and ME)
ok, love you too
thanks again for the opportunity to thank some of my brothers/sisters here for immense support, keeping the community strong and together.
damn i knew im forgetting names…sorry to Imants,Anton, David B, Jordan W, Richard B, Michael L Young, Akaky, Bob Black, Civi, Audrey, Sam H, Justin P….ok i stop here…sorry to all i forget the names here that helped and keep helping behind and or, on the “stage” etc…you all know who you are!
And big thanks to Michelle for the Detox Juicer recipes…we gotta try to stay healthy so we can keep shooting…
ok gotta go now, again , thanks to you ALL for giving me the opportunity to thank YOU…
Elle , come in too, door is open , beer on table, cheerios for lunch , just bring your work and the party begins:)
welcome
big thanks also to MW and Andrew S, for helping me around JFK airport when i was completely “lost”…geez the list of thank yous is unlimited…i better stop here…its getting tedious…sorry ;)
MAKI-MAKI-SAN! :))
So great (quite a surprise) to see you turn up here!…3 years in the waiting…as you know, i’ve always
‘liked’ this work very much and the book especially…though, for me, i prefer your Japanese stories and the stories about your relationship with your partner (especially love the recent instagrams)…It’s so nice to see another SMOKE(r) her…and sometime, i hope that my beloved Idalina pops up (for for me, and I say this lovingly, is the most mature photographer of the whole collective)soon at BURN…or a film from Monia Montali :)))…woujld be great…
congrats my friend on both the original book of ‘Welcome 2 My room’ as well as inclusion in the ‘MONO’ book…if i hadn’t had my private life come apart this year, i would have liked to been apart of that…and who knows what’ll happen by year’s end, when i return to my ‘old’ life…but i’m very happy and proud of you and so happy for the progess and work that you and jukka-san and the rest of the troup have done these last 5 years….
as for the story here, I’ll simply leave you the same love and criticism that I wrote to you a few years ago. I do, of course, love the use of the polaroid and of course that you photographed the girls via the computer screen, as as I pointed out before, i love their painterly aspect (yes, gaugain and all the good and ill that that implies). What I struggle with about this project/book, what I do not like about this, is what i once told you: i find it very very young and also Solipsistic. You are more wise and more mature, as both a person and a photographer, than what this project suggests. To begin with, I’ve always been bothered that you didn’t photograph yourself en flagrante, as part of this project. Yes, it is implied by this succession of woman, the exploitation of them and of the self, and i understand that this is also an indictment of the self (and each of us) who hides behind our computer selves (they’re open and exposed, you are absent and watching/shooting/masterbating), but i think it is important for the photographer to take that extra leap (say the way Jukka continually exposes himself, which is a far more brutal and honest approach, even if it often appears narcissistic) to join themselves in the atrocity circus, and not just through metaphor.
It is important that we realize that the exploitation of the other, and the hiding and lying of the self, is not just a characteristic of these porn sites/chat rooms, but is at the heart of the entirety of social networking: facebook, twitter, tumbler and yes, even BURN. Many of us, nearly all of us, reduce ourselves and our lives/relationships to that simple, ridiculous duality of thinking 1’s/0’s. There are serious questions that this series suggests, but it also raises series questions for the photographer: do the girls know they’re being shown here (and they’re not getting paid now, are they for this) and yet they offered up their ‘selves’ only when you (client) pays, but here they are now being looked at and thought about and discussed again, for free. this may too be a violation of their agreement…and their sense of self…and yet, we do this continually when negotiating with our camera and with our web life….
we’re hiding behind shields of disconnect…avatars that seem stronger, smarter, sexier than we think we/others are…and yet, who rids themselves of that game….that the line between exploited and exploiting has been so numbed and penumbra’d that most fail to see it, to begin with….
as i’ve told jukka, much of antoine’s work of late as left me sad…not so much death-strewn (what all work is essentially, for each of us) as just continued syrup without the risk…the same seems true here…the braver act, the more compelling behavior lay in the girls willingness to both allow you to photograph them and to not even be aware that now they’re simply color strokes and your name is lit up…
that is a dilemma and a moral stance, i think, that doesn’t get addressed here with this work…nor as an conceptual notion either….
torn between my deep admiration for your work and your beautiful spirit and for my disappointment that the ease with which the web and self-promotion allows to touch/meet others without risking anything (web) ends up with work that looks very beautiful and very suggetive and yet is at the center emptied of more challenging bravery….
that you are honest enough to show a story about time you spent chatting with these women and girls, i applaud, that it became another art project that deals nothing at all with the specter of them as all but another photomeasure makes me sad….then again, as one gets older, one understands things differently…
the cruelest aspect of photography for me as always been its cold, hard anonymity (not one truth in picture taking) and even here we don’t even have a name, it can iviscerate…and much of our shadow’d life among the cyberpunk highway is just that…
often Maki-san, when one goes private with the ‘me’ they see a whole lot less, though it seems like a whole lot more…
nejimaki-dori kuronikuru…..
but this work, i feel, allowed you to get beyond being stuck, and move to deeper, more richer, more mature and more important work…that which you are now working on….
you know i say this with love and respect Maki…
one must lose all first inorder to understand the necessity of what is truly lost….
the last aspect i’ve always come away with of this project:
those girls speak to me and mean more to me than the ‘photographer’ or the project….
maybe that is a lesson itself…
hope this all makes sense
b
This essay is one of the reasons, why I like to be on burn. It shows me pictures, I do not see elsewhere so easily. It points me to areas, which are hidden otherwise. There is so much good and rare photography – burn shows it.
This essay gives me a tension, an uncomfortable feeling. It makes me think about the girls in the pictures – how is their life, really? I think, we have no imagination. Thank you for showing it.
Burn is so much more than a website – looking at the interviews DAH did in the past, it shows that the reach of this community goes way beyond the web. As Panos pointed out, it is a place which starts contacts, and in real life – meetings, gatherings, people come together.
Many people read mostly, write not so much, but they are here. Just ready when needed.
Here I come to do my part to make my same, predictable statement:
I love it. I hate it.
Truly, I do. And I agree with just about everything that has been stated here, even though the statements do conflict with each other. Obviously, this is at once a sincere and true artistic statement and it is powerful social commentary. It is a haunting, troubling essay that makes one think. Yet, the points made first by csuspect and Harry do ring true. The photographer himself acknowledges that he might well have some troubling things going on inside him that compels him to keep returning to these places.
Then I read MW and I believe he nailed it. His explanation of what separates this from child porn strikes me as right on – although I am not so certain all zealous law enforcement officials would see it this way. I seem to recall far more innocent cases having been picked up and pursued by law enforcement as child porn.
Often, a Burn essay will inspire me to explore the subject further online, but this one does just the opposite. It makes me want to stay as far away from these “room” sites as I possibly can. Once one goes there, there is no telling who might follow him back home.
Now… concerning ellie’s comment about us core, predictable commenters. I do often wonder why I feel I must leave a comment on just about every essay, as most of the time I really do not have anything of great value or insight to add. I ALWAYS like the pictures, because that’s just how I am. I like pictures, period, and in one way or another, Burn essays always take me somewhere I have not been before.
So I recognize it can get pretty boring for me to say, “I sure do like these pictures!” over and over again. For me, I guess its really just a community thing. I just feel a connection to this Burn community, even the most irrational and troublesome member or two.
I don’t want to lose this connection, so I keep making comments, most of them predictable – just to keep the bond alive for as long as it can last.
DAH – I am waiting for you to accept my Skype invitation so we can set up a time to Skype. I hope I sent it to the right Skype ID: your name. Before we do though, I am going to send you a pdf to look at, sometime within the next few hours.
Morality aside, it is interesting to think that technology has (in some ways) providing a safer environment for sex workers by removing physical interaction. Whatever their motivations for entering the sex industry, this “chat room” format allows those broadcasting to earn compensation without subjecting themselves to possibility of violence or disease from those soliciting their services.
Bob, as it is the case so often, thanks for your way with words, and the depth of your responses to what we see here. It is so much more thoughtful and insightful than my “too creepy for me” response.
It’s still too creepy for me, but you’ve helped me understand why.
My own reaction to this work is much the same as my reaction to Dagata. Creepy. It’s not any less creepy when you package it as self exploration, spiritual questing, or art. (if ya make it fuzzy, it’s art)
There are a lot of portraits and number 9 is really special but… apologies to the artist if that is necessary…but this work does not worry me in terms of any kind of sexualising connotation as there are just quite a lot of portraits…The photos are interesting as the place you make them I guess.
Question though…did the subjects realise they would be photographed? Were they paid as intimated in the text? If so then this becomes a legitimate transaction and I always wonder at the squeamishness of white middle class culture that sees selling sex can only be done in certain ways to satisfy the morally righteous…
I think the act of photographing young children or pre-pubescent adolescents has been given enormous publicity in the past by the rather knee jerk reaction to Bill Henson’s work, which is beautiful but I believe redolent with intent…Its a very interesting journey into the male psyche that one…
Anyway its nice to see an essay that might get some debate going about why we photograph sex workers in preference to looking at normal suburban proclivities…wouldn’t it be more shocking to see this if it was some boring housewife or coworker in these images? I would love to hear some more on this from the photographer…
David…I don’t know…hehehe…’rockstar’ kinda suits you…Though a bit more Jim Morrison than Paul McCartney if you get my drift…
IMANTS!!!!!!
Mwuahaha….that is hilarious utterly brill! (as those bloody Bondi Hipsters have got me saying!)
lisa, it is the image of the photographer that is most disturbing to me, as much as the exploitation involved here.
“Finally thousands of polaroid snapshots (and also some black and white roll films) were taken in my bedroom in front of my computer screen during the highlights of our conversations or private shows”
That a person, the photographer in this instance, spent hundreds of hours in his bedroom in front of a computer snapping photos of sex workers on the monitor is disturbing. A voyeur is a voyeur, whether you hide behind the title of “photographer” or not. As you know, photos are mirrors as much as artifacts.
Jim Powers…
I think Maki-Maki just needs a physical relationship offline, I don’t honestly see anything too disturbing about him. At least he’s got the guts to show and admit he’s up to something generally not well accepted that’s half the journey to recovery.
Imants…
That video is an absolute classic!! :))))))
I can’t view this work without putting it in context with all the other essays we’ve seen with prostitution recently.. Disturbing? no, not for me.. reality? yes, i think for many… It makes me think of all the chat rooms and dating sites that the internet has created… I like the different moods of the portraits.. and yes, photographed by a man.. where as the others were shot by women… does it matter? intent? connection?
Thank you BuRN Univ… :)
it leaves me with more questions than answers….
***
Paul I totally agree!!?
IMANTS (once again) has the BEST BY FAR comment under this essay with only a video not a single word..
No blah blah blah bullshit!
Classic!!!
Thank u Imants!
( you nailed it- best answer to a sour grapes breakfast ;)
Wendy,
sorry I forgot to thank you in here for the VALUABLE HELP,
you hooked us up in San Fran, regarding the D’AGATA project!
Your HELP/ amazing.. You also a great field producer yourself..
Let me know in private please how the FERRATO project is going…
Again BIG THANK YOU , for making my job so much easier ,
Antoine agrees too ;)
“…technology has (in some ways) providing a safer environment for sex workers by removing physical interaction…”
Are sex workers sex workers if there’s no sex involved?
AKAKY technically you are absolutely correct!
2nd best comment after Imant’s..are u ok with Silver medal?
Good point, Akaky.
Not as far as Bill Clinton is concerned :-)
“Masturbation is like procrastination. In the end you’re just screwing yourself.”
Yes, I am, Panos.
Justin, that depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is
JIM POWERS
any reason why photography cannot be a mirror? i am sure you remember Mirrors and Windows at MOMA curated by John Szarkowski…wasn’t the whole point that photography could be at times a window looking out and other times a mirror direct? and that the best is a combo of both…i think this is what we have here and i think this is what we have with D’Agata,Goldin etc etc…
by the way, i am coming to see you in Texas….looking forward….
cheers, david
I like ‘We play with it, we come with it …’
And surely anyone who has indulged in an affair with their own photography or sunject obscession must.
Yes, yes, YES.
Click
Love
One of the disappeared
X
Subject, of course.
Chips
D
David B let me give u squeeze hug! missed u bro! see u next time in kibbutz? remember it was just “ours” for a while ?
Ellei G
You are probably not that far off the mark. Yes to the person looking from the outside it all seems to be dissipating in a way, the community aspect lost. Yep the community part on line has altered and almost lost unless David is posting on line……… what I can see/know is that burn behind the scenes is very different and positive in growth. This doesn’t mean that is is to everyone’s liking but there is a definite direction and sense of purpose.
I guess your perception of burn is a bit like the essay here we don’t know the full story nor is the photographer willing to divulge too much about himself and purpose of his activities.
I guess there may be need to alter burn and let in more of the public and reading watching photographers into the so called fold. This is a lot easier said than done as the reason why people come here is varied. One of the aspects that could be altered and would lead to a greater response and discussion is that part of the criteria of having an essay on burn the photographer will be required to respond on line. Unfortunately that is not going to happen here as part of burn’s ethos is being “free”…… freedom in some instances has a knack of getting in the way of progress and change.
One of the aspects that David touched on was a need to make sense of how the essays are presented selected and collated and this should go a long way to alter how people view this site. That need for a decent archive system is paramount, though some of the essays will not be able to be viewed on some newer hardware devices due to changes in platform etc.
Many of the core group have gone on to new paths some because of the positive vibes of burn spurred them into their own personal journey, others were just disappointed etc. Some stay because they are just used to it, some just like it, to some it is very important etc ……….. Me I remain in the hope that it will evolve into a avenue of presenting books http://www.etrouko.com/etrouko3.html to the public. No I am not counting on burn it could be just a part of my network.
No I am not counting on burn it could be just a part of my network.
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wisely said!
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=3107647790235&set=a.1672776439348.67854.1835521927&type=1&theater
http://instagram.com/p/O_rXg5BrTn/?fb_action_ids=3107641150069&fb_action_types=instapp%3Atake&fb_ref=ogexp&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=282366635119873
Imants, thats how things “should be”
http://www.iamparanoid.org/
a little ho-hum, Filipino sex workers, where else.
I wonder if i posed as a 12 year old and took photos of the men photographing me.
Would I be published here on Burn?
Would I have the same congratulatory remarks?
Or would my audience include the police?
What we do not see, does not exist.
But there is a reality next to what we see.
Burn makes it visible, a reality for us.
@Gracie – I hope burn would show those pictures too. Would be a contrast program, definitely.
No problem with the “voyeuristic’ stance some may find in the essay (Hopefully, he asked these people if he could use them for a project). It’s quite OK for a photographer to be a voyeur, though a point could be made that voyeurism does objectify a subject more that it individualizes it. A case in point being Martin Parr’s photography, who succeeds in doing just that, while his subjects never appear less than human-ized.
I am rather seriously non-plussed that the photographer did not do it in “his backyard”, say in France, if not Marseille proper. What is truly his rationale for doing the story out of South-east-asia (my contention being that in final analysis, it is to be perceived out of a specific locale, rather than out of a screen, or the internet)?
Here again the same old western constructs about asian women (either as victims, “just-a-job” sex-workers or readily available cute objects, boys too by the way) are given the chance to over-run his purpose, which i think is to humanize deshumamized individuals by listening to them rather than hearing them (plus photos).
PS: Hello BURN! still excrutiatingly slow to view the essays (main reason why i am not visiting more often), and I must admit I could not view this one entirely, even pix by pix.
Wonder if the photographer has a website. I’m a photo editor of a magazine and is considering contact him for a photo essay…
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