It is no secret that I am a fan of David Alan Harvey and Burn Magazine, but the photo essay, “States of Identity,” published a few days ago is blowing my mind even more than usual. Guillem Valle documents people without a homeland-Palestinians, Albanians, etcetera etcetera- and made one hell of a beautiful and cohesive photo essay despite covering so many struggles.

His website is worth a look, too.
It is no secret that I am a fan of David Alan Harvey and Burn Magazine, but the photo essay, “States of Identity,” published a few days ago is blowing…

My mom just retired as a high school teacher this month, after I don’t know…maybe four decades of teaching art and then digital photography. Visiting home I borrowed one of the VHS tapes that she shows her students on occasion, like when they have a substitute and the kids can’t be trusted to pay attention. The video was a 60 minute documentary about the first Eddie Adams Workshop, held in 1988, and it’s an interesting watch if you can find a copy.

Well, that was not entirely what I expected. First, it wasn’t Magnum photographers as the surprise guests. It was James Nachtwey and Steve McCurry, a Seven AND Magnum photographer. Also probably two of the most famous (if not THE most famous) living documentary photographers. Nachtwey won a Ted Award to document XDR-TB, a drug-resistant strain of tuberculosis, and had his photos premiere live in New York, Rio, London, Sydney, Hong Kong and ANTARCTICA, among other places. McCurry is most famous for the Afghan Girl, although all his stuff is pretty amazing.
Anyway, I digress. I walked in and had David Alan Harvey greet me within two minutes and–can I get an amen?–offer me a beer. The loft ends up being in the “Photographer Building,” aptly named since at least 40 photographers live and work there and has been that way since before the neighborhood became trendy and totally unaffordable. The rooftop view (my photo above) has an amazing vista of the city and is enough of a reason itself to go back.
After everyone had imbibed to their satisfaction, we settled down to watch slide shows by his students from his weekend workshop as well as some of the work by party attendees. There were some stand out and lovely essays considering they only had three days to shoot, edit and put their work together, making me feel like a slacker for not shooting anything nearly as exciting lately. David also showed After the Storm, probably my favorite photo essay on burn to date. This is about the time he announces that Nawtchey and McCurry are on their way and we will have to watch the essays again. This is also about the time I get so excited I feel like a puppy shaking from her tail wagging so hard.
After the guests of honor arrive, he showed these slides again and asked if anyone else had any slide shows with them ready to go. Are you kidding me? Do you mean to tell me if I had been prepared DAVID ALAN HARVEY, JAMES NACHTWEY AND STEVE MCCURRY would be looking at my work? I thought of racing the 13 blocks home but David gave me his card and told me since I’m a neighbor, I should come by sometime with my work. And this, my friends, is exactly why I go to events. Opportunities, pretty photos and free beer.

sorry for the mess.
Well, that was not entirely what I expected. First, it wasn’t Magnum photographers as the surprise guests. It was James Nachtwey and Steve McCurry, a Seven AND Magnum photographer. Also…

In August, I stopped in NYC for what was supposed to be a month of freelancing before returning home to California. Long story short, I accidentally got a job in a photo studio and decided to stick around.
Between figuring out the difference between express and local stops and scrambling for an apartment that wasn’t a windowless five story walk up, I also found myself learning more about photography than I ever thought possible. No, my understanding of composition hasn’t reached new, otherworldly dimensions and sadly, I can still barely work a lighting kit. But goddamn, do I now know how to hustle in the photo business.
There is no place in the world with more work for photographers but inversely, there is also no place with a higher concentration of photographers. Building on the fact that New York City residents have a natural propensity to go out as often as possible while also getting to network, there are a lot of events for photographers. These gatherings inevitably have free food, new contacts to give my business cards to ( if stickers of my photos with my contact info written on the back count as business cards)or at the very least allow me to look at art for a few hours.
These events aren’t restricted to NYC, however. I read about cool events in LA, San Diego, Chicago, Atlanta, and even places like Tampa and Kansas City have some legit events going down. And where the hell is Turner Falls, anyway?
So, even if New York photographers have an unfair advantage, everyone else has the advantage of not being in “Competitive City” (my friend Nick refuses to call NYC by any other name). I’ll be posting about NYC events anyway, so you can cheat and read about them here as the sparknotes to the actual events.
My next victim? This man right here:
photo by jaz_photo on flickr
For those who don’t know David Alan Harvey, he is a Magnum photographer and driving force behind burn magazine . Harvey also established the Emerging Photographer Fund, which myself and 1,028 other individuals just applied to on April 1. He posted an invite on burn to come by his loft to check out some student work tomorrow. Besides being a mere 10 minute bike ride from my new place (I<3Williamsburg), he mentioned surprise guests in his invite. MORE Magnum photogs? Be still my heart. Check back soon for a low down on my DAH adventure.
In August, I stopped in NYC for what was supposed to be a month of freelancing before returning home to California. Long story short, I accidentally got a job in…