9
street roots
Aug. 5, 2011
"The most important
pictures — the really fun,
interesting ones — are of
the things around us:
our families, the places
we know about, the
things that are
important to us. And in
the case of the vendors,
when yon see how Malky
went to places such as a
doorway where he used
to spend the night,
there's something really
touching about the
ability to go and
confront that kind of
place. Obviously these
are not places full of
comfort for him. You
realize that there is a lot
of pain associated with
that."
Hie eyes of hope
Photographer David Burnett talks about exchanging views with street paper vendors
B Y RICHARD FLYNN
S T R E E T N E W S S E R V IC E
n July, the legendary photographer David
Burnett and his team worked with /
homeless vendors from Street Roots’
s^ te r paper The Big Issue in Scotland to
help them capture their daily lives in
photographs and film. This unique workshop
culminated in a photo exhibition launched
on Thursday at the BBC Scotland
headquarters in Glasgow.
“I was just a kid, wandering my way
through, figuring things out,” remembers
David Burnett of his first job: an internship
at Time magazine. “It was a hell of a lot of
fun. I was not a great photographer, but I
got a little better while I was there. You
don’fhave to be the star the first week
you’re taking pictures. You just have to work
hard and get to the point you’re putting
everything you’ve got into your pictures. It’s
not like a chemistry class where you can
learn it; you just have to feel it. That takes a
little while to get in touch with.”
Burnett has been putting everything into
his pictures for more than 40 years. The
world-renowned snapper has worked in
more than 80 countries; captured
revolutions in Iran and Chile; borne witness
to famine in Ethiopia; covered every U.S.
presidential election since 1976 and every.
Olympic Games since 1984. Starting his own
New York agency in the mid-70s, Burnett
has forged his own way of working on
magazine assignments, keen to experiment
wherever possible and unhampered by the
I
demands of working for a wire service or
daily newspapers.
| B 9 H
The American photographer’s latest
project sees him in Glasgow, working with
Big Issue vendors to help them capture
their daily experiences in photos and film.
At workshop session^ in thecity, Burnett
and his team from the charity collective
Photographers for Hope have been guiding
sixnovices through the medium. Organized
by the'Glasgow-based International Network
of Street Papers (INSP), an exhibition of the
photographs by both street paper vendors
and professional photographers was
launched at BBC Scotland’s headquarters in
July (See page 8).
“We’re working with the vendors so they
can show what their lives are like, using
photography as a tool to do that,” explains
Burnett. “It’s exciting. It’s about giving
people who haven’t had much experience of
photography the chance to see if it’s
something that clicks a button for them.
We’re trying to open people up to
photography. Some folks get it quickly; some
can spend days and days and they don’t.
Some people are just bom with a bit of an
artistic sensibility. But even if you’re not,
that’s OK. The great thing about
photography is you don’t need to be licensed
to do it; you can just pick up the camera and
go”
In 1971, aged just 24, Burnett was sent by
the weekly news magazine to cover
America’s gruesome adventures in Vietnam.
He returned with remarkable pictures. The
phojo of an exhausted young soldier reading
a letter near the Laos border remains one of
the war’s most haunting images.
David took time but of his hectic schedule
to discuss the Photographers for Hope
exhibition and his work with the vendors.
Richard Flynn: Looking back at your time
with the vendors, what surprised you the most?
David B urnett: You never know how this
sort of workshop will turn o u t You can take
people who have grown up having a camera
around the house, and everybody was
always taking snapshots, and yet they may
not necessarily be able to translate that into
taking their own pictures. Then you’ll have
people who didn’t spend a lot of time around
photography when they were kids, and they
have discovered a natural sensitivity, insight,
and desire for using the cam erato
photograph their own life.
If you’re a news photographer, you’re
taking pictures of everybody else’s lives. But
the most important pictures — the really
fun, interesting ones — are of the things
around us: our families, the places we know
about, the things that are important to us.
And in the case of the vendors, when you
see how Malky went to places such as a
doorway where he used to spend the night,
there’s something really touching about the
ability to go and confront that kind of place.
Obviously these are not places full of
comfort for him. You realize that there is a
lot of pain associated with th a t I would have
to say, you see a kind of growth going on
there — the ability to face these things and
just take your camera and focus on i t — that
I thought was really very impressive.
R.F.: In terms of gathering content for the
exhibition, how did the photography sessions
turn out?
D.B.: I could walk out o nthe street with
my camera right now and I don’tknow what
I’d get, so it’s hard to fry and imagine what
another person could be doing. But when
we were going through all the pictures and
deciding what to keep for the exhibition, it
was tough because there were many more
great, symbolic pictures than we would have
expected from any kind of group that was
just starting o u t You can never have too
many good pictures and in this case we were
really happy to see how much we were able
to land.
Those pictures belong solely to the
vendors. It’s their work and, more
importantly, it’s their vision. Everybody did
something very personal in what they
photographed and those will end up being
the best shots. Photography is a physical
skill but it is also a metaphysical one. It can
be incredibly emotional.
R.F.: Do you think your workshop has left a
lasting impression on the vendors? Are any of
See EYES, page 10
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