Richard Mark Dobson – The Crest Hotel

Richard Mark Dobson – The Crest Hotel

burn is an evolving journal for emerging photographers. Curated by magnum photographer
david alan harvey. You could enjoy many hours reading photo-media projects on this site and glad I found it, I found it being drawn by a really nicely written blog called Images of my Thoughts.

Crafting a good narrative is extremely hard, it is what many photojournalists struggle. I have many friends that take such wonderful photographs but can't sell the story, while other photographers have stories continuously published but their images are lacking in that special wow factor. This piece by Mark Dobson, fascinated me, not sure why exactly.

I remember visiting a photography exhibition at The Photographers Gallery many years ago, there was a piece called Outland by Roger Ballen. A mixture of documentary and art, Ballen created the images with the poor white farmers in south Africa.
I remember the abolishment of apartheid on TV, it left lasting images. I remember watching the news and the reports of the White farmers loosing their farms, looting and murder. It left me a polarised view that white people in SA are rich and black are poor. And did not really think much about South Africa once it left the news, until I viewed Outlanders.
I will never forget what I saw, I could not understand the images I was seeing, and still struggle. And I do not know why and that bothers me, South Africa is a place that holds fascination, but I really don’t want to go there, I feel uncomfortable writing that and uncomfortable admitting it. I was raised up in a working class, fairy multicultural family, I have experienced "relatively speaking" rich times and poor times. So what was the impact Outland had on me? Why was I so shocked to see poor white people in South Africa?
Maybe it was because of the media and the images I am confronted with, and I am used to seeing poor people from other countries so much more, I was shocked at my self for realising this stereotype is deep in my perceptions about the word, of course I know that poverty is not discriminatory. Much has changed since apartheid, and as the world is becoming more multicultural, I feel there is a still along way to go, because how do you change perceptions that you have no control that you have learned, if you grow up with one way of thinking, what needs to be in place for a person to challenge their perception of the world?

Award winning planted aquariums

"Old Chinese Garden" by PJ. Magnin, Velp, Netherlands

Had a massive crisis this weekend, after being on holiday for two weeks, I left my prized fish tank in the hands of my Friend. It was not her fault but when I returned I found two fish missing, my friend did not notice. They died from over feeding, the bodies poised my tank, and I was left with high Nitrate, after being poorly advised I added a chemical to my tank and a fish that was sick from a bacterial infection due to water poisoning went belly, up. they the rest of my fish started turning a funny colour and dying. I managed to get a bucket and save the fish, but it was touch and go, and surprisingly upsetting. I care a lot about my fish and the result of careless action has caused their death. Looking after fish is harder work than I thought, but has been very rewarding. My tank looks nothing like the award winning tanks in the article from the Los Angeles Times, but goes to show what people can achieve with some passion, and thought. These tanks are stunning, Aquascaping is my new word.

Thanks Justin

VISA POUR L’IMAGE 2009

This was my second year visiting Perpignan for VISA, and once again it was an inspirational thought-provoking week. The highlight for me is the night projections and the opportunity to attend talks by the photographers about their work. On the third of September we received the news that Christian Poveda was killed,  in El Salvador, shot by the gangs he filmed.

Poveda a documentary photographer and filmmaker he devoted his time to photographing the street gangs of El Salvador. Last year I attended his talk and had the opportunity to watch his documentary “LA Vida Loca” which follows the members of La 18 a branch of the Mara gangs.

The documentary is due to be released on the 31st of September and I would recommend seeing it. Click here to watch a clip.

Evan Grant: Making sound visible through cymatics

Fractals, caos, small world mapping and now sound, has hidden patterns, who would have guessed it???!!