burn magazine

burn is an evolving journal for emerging photographers. burn was launched as an online magazine/journal on December 21, 2008, and is curated by Magnum photographer David Alan Harvey. We publish new stories or singles at least three times per week.

burn was launched as an online magazine/journal on December 21, 2008 and is a spinoff of my blog “Road Trips” which I started in December of 2006. The intent then and now is to provide a platform for emerging photographers both online and in print. This comes from a lifetime of mentoring photographers. I started teaching photographic workshops a year after I took one myself at the Universtiy of Missouri Workshop. I was a student at 21 and was teaching at 22.

My whole philosophy of teaching and mentoring is based on the theory that I will be of most value to emerging photographers because I am very much a working photographer. I am constantly creating books for myself, planning exhibitions, printing for collectors,proposing and shooting magazine assignments, and do the occasional advertising shoot. Because of this NOW experience , it is quite easy for me to relate to the world of younger photographers who may benefit from my editing and expertise, yet know full well that I struggle with the environs of a fickle publishing world as do they.

burn is not a finished product. burn will not be the same tomorrow as it is today. Evolution and revolution are my keywords for living the photographic life. In an ever fast changing world for photographers and writers, my goal here is to be at the forefront of change and to provide an outlet for emerging photographers, and perhaps established photographers as well. So many speak of tough times ahead. I see opportunity. In my career lifetime, I have never seen so much opportunity.

burn is born from an educational imperative and to bring strong photographic essays and powerful text to not only photographers, but to anyone fascinated by a visual and literary interpretation of our complex planet. Your interpretations may be either journalistic in nature or esoteric subjective pieces. I hold all artists in high regard. With me as editor/curator you need never think “what does he want or like?” I will push you to do your thing, not mine…

 http://www.burnmagazine.org/

Richard Avedon

FashionTV | FTV.com - Richard Avedon Exhibition

Visual Culture Blog

Visual Culture Blog

Hellen van Meene, untitled

A consistent theme running through Hellen van Meene’s photographs is gravity, or, as it appears, its lack thereof. In one particular image by the Dutch art photographer, a young girl appears to levitate as it leans against a wall. The harsh sunlight coming through the windows falls on the girl’s white gown, resulting in the photograph being overexposed at her feet touching the ground. The visual effect of levitation is caused by the lack of visual information in the overexposure, but also, because the girl appears taller than her childish facial features might first suggest. Yet van Meene quickly debunks the perception that this is a girl in a woman’s body by also depicting the edge of a door frame to the side of the image as a reference point. It is within this framework that the viewer gets an understanding of the child in relation to the rather decrepit surroundings of an attic. In the photograph van Meene appears to tap into the visual iconography of the classic horror film ‘The Exorcist’ (1973), where, in a key scene, a girl possessed by the devil is floating above her bed. The levitating body in the attic, despite the bright warm light shining through the window, ads a haunted aura to van Meene’s photograph.

Perception and imaging By Richard D. Zakia

Taking photographs has become easier over the years, but taking photographs that have impact and lasting power has not. Such images require heart, and some understanding of the factors that make an image noteworthy. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition will lead you into areas and concepts that will spark your intellectual curiosity and assist you in your image making. What is known about vision and the visual process is overwhelming; what is directly applicable to pictures is not. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition is the visual artist's gateway to the principles that drive visual perception.

Perception and Imaging, Second Edition invites you to explore the domain of the subconscious and collective unconscious, and the role subliminals, secondary images, and archetypes play; the role of memory and association, and why ambiguity and illusion are an important components;why soft and hard contours (edges) are critical to sharpness, contrast, color, and depth perception; and how visual rhetoric has been used to give impact to photographs, advertisements, posters, promotional material, and motion pictures. Perception and Imaging, Second Edition is for anyone and everyone involved with visual images and has a desire to better understand them.

Many examples of metaphor, metonymy, paradox, pun, homology, hyperbole, ellipses, inversion chiasmus, allusion, and other rhetorical devices.

A new enlarged section on color, with 15 new color images presenting color measurement and notation, color connotations, color illusions, color constancy, color synesthesia, metamerism, and defective color vision.
The chapter on Critique has been expanded to include the use of Group Dynamics. Photographs are polysemantic, possessing layered meanings.

http://books.google.com/books?id=0lKYLVE0yrYC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Elements of Photography: Understanding and Creating Sophisticated Images By Angela Faris Belt

Photography is a complex craft. Some excel at the technical side of image-making, focusing perfectly on the subject, releasing the shutter at just the right moment and making exposures with the precise amount of light. Others are artists and storytellers, capturing a fleeting moment in time which inspires a viewer to gaze upon an image and ponder its meaning. The best photographers are masters of both. In this highly visual, informative book, Angela Faris Belt discusses the four crucial elements of photography that are essential for successful technical and conceptual image-making: .the photographic frame and its borders .quality of focus as determined by the aperture or lens .shutter speeds and their effects in relation to time and motion .the physical media used to create the aggregate image Step-by-step guidance including informative screen shots, traditional darkroom and Photoshop techniques, suggested exercises, and before and after images help both film and digital photographers improve their skills, learn new techniques, and better understand their craft. More than 300 stunning, full color images and portfolios featuring the work of over 40 prestigious artists provide visual inspiration as well as a gorgeous collection of artwork for photography enthusiasts. *Learn from an expert author how to combine your creative vision with technical accuracy to produce images that are visually provoking as well as technically inspiring *Includes over 300 stunning full color images and highlights the portfolios of 40+ prestigious artists *Contains screenshots, before-and-after images, and how-to information to help both students and photographers practice skills and learn new techniques *Follow the suggested exercises at the end of each chapter to develop your own portfolio of images

http://books.google.com/books?id=n5mvSA6FDRQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Art and Visual Perception

Since its publication fifty years ago, this work has established itself as a classic. It casts the visual process in psychological terms and describes the creative way one's eye organizes visual material according to specific psychological premises. In 1974 this book was revised and expanded, and since then it has continued to burnish Rudolf Arnheim's reputation as a groundbreaking theoretician in the fields of art and psychology.

Tokyo Up, Down

Tokyo Up, Down
photographs and text by Xavier Comas

As urban environments are increasingly dependent on the efficient use of space, high-rise structures have become the solution to overpopulation issues.

Elevators enabled the development of many-storied buildings and fundamentally altered urban landscapes and social space. Tokyo epitomizes the densely populated megalopolis, where elevators are a showcase for the basic paradox of personal alienation in urban living: the inescapable physical proximity countered by emotional distance.

The Tokyo Up, Down project comprises a series of black & white photographs taken inside and outside of elevators in Tokyo. The project explores vertical transportation in the intimacy of the elevator cabin, a moment of silence suspended in space and time, which nonetheless yields a rich array of subtle interactions between strangers on the shortest ever journey.

Elevators are part of the post-industrial emergence of transitional spaces within the complex urban fabric. Tokyo Up, Down is a visual essay that tries to show the elevator space as a transit hub that connects the surface of the megalopolis with the layers underneath. From random high-speed day-trips in skyscrapers of Nishi-Shinjuku business district to the seedy rides in the late-night buildings of Kabukicho’s red light district, both sides coexist in a relationship of interdependence.

– Xavier Comas

http://www.lensculture.com/comas.html