I don’t have any caption for this picture. I had no idea who these young women were nor why they are dressed in purple. Graduation function? No idea. It was raining and I was just walking into Alec Soth’s 2nd Street Gallery show at LOOK3. These young women came running by because they had no umbrella. I made this fast iPhone shot as a street grab shot. Come see us at LOOK3. Alec is one of the 8 featured artists and many talents will show up on screen. The BurnMagazine team will be floating around. New books to show and we’re always looking for new talent. #look3 #rainyday
You did good!
BURN TEAM.
1.SUBMISSIONS FOR THE GREAT UNWASHED.
Bravo for bringing back essay/singles submissions, but why oh why oh why are you again insisiting on captions and titles for all single images????? especially seeing as you state that without those required fields filled in the work will not even be looked at. Seems like it forces narrative choices on a photographers work that they may not want but have to conform to if they want publication. Bit didactic dont ya think?
2. BURN BOOKS
Looking at the list of burn books I see
7 books by DAH
3 books by Anton
3 books by Michael lloyd young
…and burn 2
…and then some other stuff way down the list.
Is panos’s ‘death in Venice’ not a burn book (it was certainly designed by the team)?
is it that it will show up shortly?
or that maybe panos decided to go solo with production and distribution side?
Which brings me to
3. as a (small) but committed financial supporter of burn since day one I would like to ask what the f link is between burn labelled books and burn itself.
I am under the impression that ‘burn books’ is just a shopfront for books produced by photographers using self finance. Is that the case? or is burn money used to help produce/distribute any of them?
Also, all of the books in the store (ok except a couple) are from DAH and his close inner circle.
Are they the only people producing work that is deemed strong enough?
Or are they the only people who have been willing and able to produce the finance needed to see a project through?
Looking forward to your reply.
je suis Charlie.
Yea it is a bit anal asking for captions and titles ……. the compulsory need a quasi bio/statement is plain dumb. All this inane justification stuff
It seems to me there is an easy solution to #1: type “no title” into title space, “no caption” into captions space and even “no bio” into bio space. Then you can submit and Burn team will know that if they want to use your essay/image not to include titles or captions and to leave your bio blank.
As for number 2, interesting observations, John. I do know for a fact though that if David thinks the work of an acolyte should be a book and can’t take it on as a burn book, perhaps in part for the reasons you wonder about, he will do all he can rationally do to help find the right printer.
I did receive “Tell it Like it Is” in the mail today. Beautiful! Immaculate print job!
…the right “publisher.” Not printer.
Does not work that way Frostfrog they ask for those details
Bill. Davids commitment to photography and photographers (and women -ed) goes without saying.
My question had to do with funding and selection, both of which are magazine related, not individual.
of course if you want to know who can flaunt the rules….:))
“I don’t have any caption for this picture” DAH. The picture at the beginning of this thread.
Perks of being the guvnor.
Je Suis Charlie
JOHN GLADDY
i did not secure a caption for that picture…and therefore no perks in the world would allow me to publish it in the media..not NatGeo , not New York Times..nowhere but Instagram….
JOHN GLADDY
I have done only two books through Burn in 8 years……..(based on a true story) and Tell It Like It Is now…all my other books have traditional established publishers…..Anton has done zero Burn books….Mike Young has done one Burn book….Panos book will be launched as a BurnBook AS PER PLANNED AT LOOK3 in about two days….
Panos is indeed the first commentator to get all of us interested in doing his book….
I think you are confusing what is in the book store and what we may do a story about and what has been published as a BurnBook…we have promoted books from many different publishers….and the financing can come several different ways with of course different splits, as it is with all publishers…
our store is brand new ….we will add many titles perhaps from many publishers, as we are doing now with Anton….and Allison and Valabrega…we endorsed those books, we did not produce those books…
we have no plan to do very many books as BurnBooks…once in awhile we may do a book….since none of us have ever read on any business page a story about some tycoon who struck it rich publishing photo books, i do not think you will see any of us view it as anything other than a hobby….something for fun…or for the pure art of it….
cheers david
David,
So for those like myself, completely self-taught, producing my own projects, what information should I be writing down while shooting, and of that what should I be applying to my captions?
I’m a little confused, because if I take this photo of yours over on Magnum photos: http://www.magnumphotos.com/Asset/-2K7O3RKC89FH.html the caption is
‘BRAZIL. Rio de Janeiro. 2011’
Where as others like this: http://www.magnumphotos.com/Asset/-2K1HRG6N3WIY.html seem to have longer captions:
‘USA. Richmond, VA. 2015. Iraq war vet Tom Waterworth, 33, on his back porch with his 7 week old son Reid. Tom was awarded the Bronze Star by the U.S. Army for his service in Iraq. Tom is now in the real estate biz in Richmond yet thinks often about Iraq. “I think the government needs to take better care of war vets. Help them to get on with their lives after they return from combat. It’s not easy to re adjust for most vets”. Mostly now Tom simply wants a peaceful life ahead for little Reid.’
Is this simply down to intent of use, with the second being focused on editorial?
How are you capturing this stuff down? Pen and paper after shooting? During?
Sorry for all the questions, I’m just wondering what I should be doing now, as I’m starting projects up.
Peter
P.S. My copy of Tell It Like It Is arrived in the UK today – thanks. Can’t wait to get home and have a good look.
BURNIANS…
Are you ready…? YOU are going to LOOK3…yes,you WILL…ARE U READY ?
PETER DAVID GRANT
if you plan on publishing in the established media, you need LOTS of information about the picture….when i said here i had no caption, it was because these women were running, it was pouring rain, and i could not run after them to find out who they were or anything about them…..and an unusable picture in the media because of it….
the Magnum captions you saw i think were simply identifier slug lines which are ok for the archive but again not good enough for publication …not captions…if used in the media a more complete caption would be required…as in the example you gave of the Iraq war vet…
i get information a couple of different ways…the obvious way is after i make the picture, or sometimes before, i do a classic journalistic mini interview…..who, what, where, why and how….OR i have an assistant do this if i am too busy shooting to do it…usually i have enough time to do it myself….and if i am shooting for a magazine i already know a lot about the story at hand….but i always get names and contact info….pretty easy if you have your smart phone with you…..and with the smart phone i will also often take a “memory picture” for them…a snapshot and send it to them while i am talking to them…the public relations part of shooting is very very important IF you are shooting for a magazine or newspaper….
cheers, david
Regarding captions and publish-ablilty, I think that standard has slid a lot in recent years, though I trust publications such as Nat Geo still maintain it. It certainly raises the level of difficulty, especially when you don’t have an assistant, as in many fast moving scenes, if you stop to get info, you miss a lot of shots, if not the story entirely.
Still, I think more often we tend to blow it off because it’s uncomfortable than because we don’t have the time, which is unfortunate, because that brief conversation so often provides a much deeper understanding of the story, if not an entirely different understanding of what the story actually is. I know a lot of you have seen my Curious People essay without captions, but I think this recent publication with them is infinitely better.
And being forced to gather info for captions is another great advantage of being trained in classic photojournalism and spending time as a working photographer at a daily newspaper. Oft times, being forced to do the most unpleasant parts of the job ends up being a good thing.