the man is a teddy bear....a family man...he would much rather talk about his teenage daughter Nina and French wife Sophie than about photography...honesty is his best policy.... you never never have to worry about what he "really thinks"...i live in Brooklyn.....but, Bruce Gilden is Brooklyn....
many think Bruce "attacks"...i do not know this for sure, but i am imagining Bruce has had a least one of his subjects "attack back"...but, Bruce and i are as much on the "same page" as anyone i know in Magnum ...we surely have opposite personalities and ways of working, yet we have exactly the same "code" for life regarding fairness, transparency, and family....
Bruce is now working on a project on foreclosures in the U.S....a hardball look at one of the primary reasons for the financial collapse in America and the folks who "lost it all"...his new Magnum in Motion digs in deep and gives us a vision of a side of this country that most ignore...when Bruce went to Florida for the opening series on foreclosures, he showed us a certain kind of sympathy that i just do not recall in his previous work...
my first impression of Bruce came with his book on "Coney Island"...then "Haiti", then "Go"....i thought Bruce harsh , but irresistibly fascinating...and funny...i can never take my eyes off of Bruce's pictures even though i might feel a bit guilty for "intruding", even as the viewer....if Bruce appears somewhat cynical with his work , when you know him personally , he is more "realist" than cynic....there is a difference.....the man's work reveals a part of his personality, but not all...there is a straight up kindness in Bruce Gilden..and nobody but nobody has a better sense of humor...
please keep your eye out for Bruce's continued work with foreclosures....anybody can smell a book in the making...
i am only hoping that i do not become one of his subjects.....
nothing happens until it happens , but things are happening...cracking, buzzing, and yes burning bright...we will launch soonest a working model of BURN magazine (or journal or??)....the house will not be finished...we still need to get in the wiring and plumbing and it will be a long time before all the furniture is chosen and the interior is decorated and we all feel "at home"...but, at least you will have a sense of it....and you will have a "place at the table"....
i must right now thank Anton Kusters for his tireless efforts working on design and function...the boy flew all the way from Brussels to spend four days here sleeping on my floor.....in the next sleeping bag was Tom Hyde and tossing and turning on the sofa was Chris Bickford...my place looked like a homeless shelter rather than a home for a wellspring of ideas...reminiscent of my grad school days or some version of a camping out road trip....
all i can say is that i was totally humbled by all of the hard work from Tom Hyde(flew from Seattle), Eric Espinosa (flew from Cincinnati), Erica McDonald, Andrew Sullivan, David McGowan, and Andrew Owen from Look3..and i will never forget Kelly Lynn James who gets total credit for suggesting BURN as a title...many thanks to all of you who wrote, phoned in, and sent constructive emails..but, it ain't over yet....
today and tomorrow i must attend our Magnum board meeting...our winter interim gathering of the tribe...who would have ever thought i would be on any "board", but well life has its twists...i might be able to get an interesting post out of it , but in the meantime all of you will have time to chew on this.....
oh yes, if you are in New York, we have our annual Magnum book signing at Aperture tonight...please join us...
back soonest.....
some of you might be interested in what is going on right now in my loft...the assembled below are gathered at my space to help make some decisions on the future of our forum...we are buzzing buzzing on the potential of an online magazine..so many good ideas (and a few bad ideas) are zipping around the room...
we are interested right now in any input you may have....very soon we will be working on all the titles you so kindly suggested....and i think we have a nice clean design that will set up selected essays in the most special way and will also include a "behind the scenes" or "the making of" element that so many will find invaluable...
you will now have about four or five hours to make comments...to me, or to anyone you see below....we should be able to have at least a pretty decent preliminary site within a week or two..or maybe sooner..
i cannot believe that Anton Kusters flew here from Belgium, Tom Hyde from Seattle, Eric Espinosa from Cincinnati ...i also cannot believe we stayed up 'til 4am for a pre-meeting meeting....and this was air mattress/sleeping bag central around here last night...
please ask us some questions..give us your thoughts....we will respond immediately.....
Erica McDonald, Andrew Sullivan, Chris Bickford, Tom Hyde, Anton Kusters, Eric Espinosa and on screen via webcam, David McGowan
nobody loves books more than Gigi Giannuzzi....he loves them so much that he publishes instinctively and without any thought of "commercial appeal"...he does not do "readership tests"....he goes by his gut and then scrambles like a madman to try to sell enough of his little masterpieces to be able to go on to the next....
Gigi claims he was "conceived in Sicily, born in Rome, and never grew up in Turin"..if you know Italians, Gigi pretty much has it covered..Trolley Books, his mastermind and "baby" has for ten years created quite a stir in the publishing world..."unconventional wisdom" comes to mind when i think of Gigi....and his authors form a prestigious list..
Philip Jones Griffiths, Carie Levy, Stanley Greene, Nina Berman, Deirdre O'Callaghan, Tom Stoddart, Alex Majoli, Paolo Pellegrin, and Alixandra Fazzina just to name a few...please go to: trolleybooks.com to see Gigi's entire lineup of artists and titles....
you may not find Trolley Books everywhere....like many fine objects, you have to look to find...and Gigi is the first to recount the trials and frustrations of the book publishing world....if you wanted to go into a business , you would not try to make photo book publishing your business...nope, only love gets you to do what he does...
last night Gigi slept on my sofa...but, not for long....he stayed up late and got up early..my kind of guy!! tonight in my loft will be presented the above listed shows and the new books will be here and some of the authors as well...Gigi always comes to New York right before Christmas to launch his books...and i suppose it is "my turn" to help him do this...like all of us in this business, we do indeed get by with a little help from our friends....
tonight will be just the kind of event i like to have in my space...like minded folks looking at pictures...in addition to the listed slide shows, there will be others...i will show Anton Kuster, "Sugar"; Patricia Lay-Dorsey, "Falling Into Place"; and Bob Black, "Bones"...
this event came up at the last minute , and i just do not have powerful music slide shows for some of you who do indeed have books near completion...but, please please do not feel left out if you are not being shown tonight....there will be other times, other venues....any of you who i am mentoring now for a book to be published, please be assured that i will get you in front of the right publisher at the right time...i think you already know this...
if you love books, buy one from Trolley...do i sell books?? no, of course not...but , i do know that photographers should always buy other photographers books...i remember Eugene Richards telling me years ago, that if photographers all bought each others books, then the circle would be unbroken...i think this is true...
Hannah Watson, Managing Editor of Trolley, just told me that if you send her an e-mail saying that you are part of my forum, she will give you a 40% discount on any Trolley books...hannah@trolleybooks.com ....
ok, that is about as close as i ever get to selling anything...but, you know what? i will stand by Trolley...these are special books from special photographers.....you will not be disappointed...
if you are in New York, come and meet Gigi's and some of his authors tonight...after all my friends, you could be one of them someday...
GIGI GIANNUZZI FOUNDER/PUBLISHER TROLLEY BOOKS
meetings are not really my thing....a career in photography has afforded me a natural escape from meetings...looking at graphs, flow charts, cost projections, etc etc. is generally better than a sleeping pill for me...if i start snoring, just roll me over!!
however, i have called a meeting..what is my world coming to when i am the one who actually organizes a meeting?? this meeting is a meeting of the minds...at my apartment this thursday...things have been brewing behind the scenes for awhile regarding our new site forthcoming ...the amount of input recently by Anton Kusters, Tom Hyde, David McGowan, Kerry Payne, Marie Arago, and Pete Marovich and wife Jenny Jones, humbles me beyond belief...these forum members and friends have gone way way beyond the "call of duty" to help design a new looking, interactive "magazine" of which i believe we are all going to be most proud...
if any of you will be in New York on thursday and want to participate, please let me know...and even without actually being here , i will be expecting thoughts from you...i think it is too early to actually launch a full blown regularly updated online magazine with all of its ramifications, but what we will soon have will at least be the first stage...it will certainly "look like" an online magazine...whether or not we actually go on to a serious active online magazine remains to be seen...there are so many factors to consider, not the least of which is the time and manpower it takes to produce one...not only from the "editing team" which would be required, but from all of you as potential photo essayists...
Kerry Payne (a very astute lurker) must have spent days creating a brilliant potential business plan and our Anton Kusters (above and below design/ graphics) has gone beyond the beyond as our web design guru..David McGowan is on the case designing a print version....Marie Arago is working non-stop creating a special web page for our workshop student essays.... and the advice from Pete Marovich and Jenny, who both previously created an online magazine, American Journal, is so well taken...Tom Hyde, whose career is in publishing, has researched every online magazine out there and if he sends me one more link i will go crazy!!! you guys are just the best!! many many thanks.....by the way, both Tom and Anton will be sleeping on my floor (air mattresses) , both flying thousands of miles just for this meeting...
we have assembled here on our forum quite a team of photographers and writers...and unlike some other online magazines, i would envision some truly creative text essays to be just as important as the photographic essays....in theory, people are not supposed to enjoy reading on line...i would have been an antagonist myself...but,let's see if that is true...in any case, i want to give it a try....
right now, i need everyone's help on just one thing....a title....what do we call our online magazine??
David McGowan came up with Emerge...this is the best title we have so far..can anyone better that one?
All of you who produce fine photographic essays are going to have one really nice place to show your work, IF that work is of the highest standards...this will NOT be a site where anyone can randomly post any picture or essay...there are already a plethora of such sites and they are terrific for what they are........but right here, we will have a carefully curated/edited photographic and literary forum...quality content will reign supreme...
kindly give us your best title thoughts....and please stay tuned....
i feel the bar band drumbeat beat shaking the floor and it flows through my body up from my toes... so i slide in close...physically close, in their space... total strangers ...and somehow quickly, inexplicably , become "one" with them....for a few moments i am "transported"...they do not know me..i have not spoken to them...and yet, an instant "relationship" has been established and exists in real time and space , but only for a precious minute or less...but, i know something is "happening"...
we have written a lot here about being the "fly on the wall" and not being "noticed" when photographing people.... and then we have also spoken much about the other extreme... the making of long term friendships/relationships associated with any truly extended photo essay involving interaction with people over the long haul...
but what about the intermediate interconnection??? the "fast hookup" , photographically speaking....where circumstances allow us to move quickly into situations that might have otherwise seemed impossible...this sort of "speed shooting" is most likely to happen at events, fiestas, weddings and parties...places not likely to cause alarm at someone with a camera...generally friendly atmospheres from the get go...
yet there is still a "ballet" for doing this type of shooting....and how to move confidently but politely is the key to moving in fast..
i was in a live music bar with some of my weekend seminar students the other night in Venice Beach...i had spoken with the owner, so my students had clear permission to shoot freely...it was an alcohol enhanced assemblage of the "best and brightest" from the Venice Beach boardwalk scene where total strangers who can barely talk from over imbibing want to rattle off their life bio..my oh my, everyone wants to be "famous" here one way or the other...very annoying...nevertheless these folks do not mind being photographed....that is, if you do it the right way...
i held back from shooting right away, just to watch my students work...what struck me was how tentative they tended to be and how quickly they would turn away from what i saw as picture opportunities...they would "lose interest" quickly or just not anticipate that what was going on in front of them, albeit "temporarily boring", was about to turn into a true "photo op"...still they were having fun and doing well and it was great fun to be shooting "side by side" with them....this was all happening after our final slide show and we were not "officially gathered"..
so, rather than go in and coach each student, which i had already been doing for two days , i decided to move in a make a few photographs for myself...just for fun..no project intended...right after i made the photograph above, one of my students, Dallas, told me she learned more from watching me shoot than in the entirety of presentations in the classroom...i could not have been "on" for more than a minute or two ...fast in, fast out.....
i was not aware of doing anything unusual,but she told me she could not believe how i moved in so close so quickly to the dancing, beer drinking young women... they seemed to be totally aware of me, yet unusually tolerant as well...later, when talking to my students during our after the shoot let's get a beer and talk it all over meeting , i allowed a few observations....
how did i move so fast??? first, as i mentioned before , i was known by the owner from the day before...i had also earlier befriended the lead singer in the band, so standing almost on stage was not a problem ...i made sure that i spoke to and shook hands with the two or three customers who were front row to the band and in whose way i was standing ..i got their implied " permission"....most importantly, i think the young women, who i am sure were not averse to being photographed anyway, were particularly accepting of my extreme aggressiveness because i think they could sense i was serious...i was obviously "in the zone" intent on doing something even though they surely could not imagine what that something was!! this manifested itself in a nice hug (always welcome) by both young women after their dance who i think realized that we had all three been in some kind of unidentified collaboration....but no questions asked...
obviously, i am the type of person/photographer who enjoys close contact, either attained quickly or after weeks of growing relationships...i do not think that is a mantra for photographers at all...it just happens to be my way....so, i have a question for you...how large a role does "public relations" play in your work??? do you spend lots of time building rapport with your subjects, or do you prefer to be the more dispassionate objective observer???
a quick reading of comments under our previous post and you will note that our boys Marcin (with his wife Alex) and Herve are now in Pattaya, Thailand...a quick review of Herve's picture diary tells us they are having a good time ....i have re-posted Herve's photo links here for easier review....
several years ago i photographed a short essay on child abuse in Thailand, and most specifically shot in Pattaya...one of Herve's pictures appears to have been shot in EXACTLY the same location as one of mine above...small clues will reveal....
match the shot of Herve's with the shot of mine.....yes, of course, one of my old camera bags is the prize for the CORRECT ANSWER ....
nope, that is not the end of my little contest....a signed copy of "Living Proof" goes to the reader who now asks the CORRECT QUESTION...
