The Places We Live

Hi Jonas, your project is very interesting to me. I live in Indonesia, one of the country you visited, and slums can be found in almost every big city. For us, living so close to them, we can often forget about them easily. I myself sometimes getting a hard time to take pictures there without being judgemental about everything, from the people, the environment, the neighbourhood, the government, etc. So it is always refreshing to see it from a different point of view. It's mind opening, at least for me.

Are you going to exhibit your project in the country you've visited?

Comment posted by Eric Setiawan on October 23, 2008

I think it will be always hard to write first sentence on this blog and not say “ how extremely good piece of work it is!!!”

Web is the same place for publishing as magazines or exhibitions only younger. And we all learn this medium. We all try break through our shy and doubts. I think it will be one of the most important medium for photography in future, but yes, for me viewing experience of the book, magazine and especially a exhibitions is more private.

One more time, great very important work.

Comment posted by marcin luczkowski on October 23, 2008

I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH! :))))))

When i first saw it this summer, i thought: i have to give this to my son! After seeing it, i was bowled over and wrote Jonas directly. 2 weeks ago, before heading down to NYC, I purchased another copy and gave it to another photographer, a friend who was putting us up for the weekend!....

I dont want to sound like a Love Guru for Magnum ;))), but this book and the entire work that Jonas has done (Satellites is just out-of-this-world brilliant) is an example that Magnum is anything but "moribund" ;))))

...god damned, is that a beautiful book. It goes without saying that i love the photographs (and have seen many of them multiple times) but i so much love love the design with the fold out pages and the text of their voices....but, what i love about the work Jonas is this:

the first impression i had was as if the book were an Adult version of a Doctor Seuss book (with pics instead of brilliant illustrations) or a bed-time story anthology (all the voices and stories of these families are remarkable!)

there is so much honor and respect and grace in these pictures and in the way the work is designed. Since the book deals with the horrible and tragic squalor of their lives and the poverty, it would be so simple to "condescendingly" (even out of compassion) to depict these people and their lives with deep sorrow and nihilism. But, Jonas celebrates them for their courage and humanity and even the "joy" that is still contained in them, the joy that is still possible, even amid these horrendous conditions, the joy of being alive. Don't get me wrong, the pain of this book is tremendous and profound but it is painful and humbling because you do say "look at these poor pitiful creatures." The pictures say: "look at these people, they are the same as you" it is an extraordinary and profound book...and i love everthing about it and hope it drops into has many people's palms as possible...and i hope, for god's sake, someday we can arrest the need for such work...

it broke my heart...

I am sure Jona's son Milo and "his peers" (including my own son) will fee enormous pride and love for him

It is true, the world can fit in-the-palm of one's hand....and how outsized that it too.......

a book for the ages...

cheers
b

Comment posted by Bob Black on October 23, 2008

PS:

Love the website too!..great great for people who cant get a hold of the book!!!

Comment posted by Bob Black on October 23, 2008

Jonas and ALL

last comment: IF YOU GO TO WEBSITE AND CLICK ON THE FAMILY HOMES MAKE SURE YOUR CLICK AROUND THE PICTURE cause the pics are in panoramic, and my dragging the mouse, you'll be able to move about the house....gives you a brilliant sense of what the homes dimensions really all...

ok, enough from motormouth Black

Comment posted by Bob Black on October 23, 2008

Really nice work.
Great work.
Well done.

Comment posted by Vittore Buzzi on October 23, 2008

When i saw "the places we live" on the magnum site i could taste that is a great work but it was clear that is was not complete.The book is realy amazing,on every page my heart is about to explode.im living with it these weeks as i did with "satellites".I can imagine the installation as i can do with "access to life" and it have to be great.The site is good(and it works cause im sending the link to all my friends) but it looks a bit too cool to me,why did you choose to move inside the rooms and not the singles photos?

Thank you again,Jonas

Comment posted by Luca on October 23, 2008

Jonas, I've always been fascinated with the way you plan and execute the distribution of your work. I often say that there are ‘book photographers’ and ‘wall photographers.’ Of course we do both, but most of us have an affinity for one or the other. The Strufsky gang might make books, but their primary focus is on exhibition prints. Vice versa for most of Magnum. But I’ve never really known where to place you. While I’ve never seen one of your exhibitions, I’ve seen the maquettes and have been stuck by the amount of control you exert on the whole presentation. Same with your work on the web.

When you are sitting in a hammock there in Oslo and daydreaming about the next project, which do imagine first: book, exhibition or web? Or are you able to get past ‘the medium is the message’ and just work in any medium that advances your message.

Comment posted by Alec Soth on October 23, 2008

Hi Jonas,

Great work you have done.

I have a question. How careful were you about your safety and security while moving around these slums. Were there threatening encounters, and how do you deal with the element of safety whilst in these places?

Cheers!

Thanks

Comment posted by Damien Chng on October 23, 2008

这些作品真的很棒！在网络上做这样一个展览，在成本上远远低于在艺术馆，而且让我这样一个身在万里之外的人也身临其境般感受到了你的心。谢谢你！

Comment posted by chiahsing on October 23, 2008

Hi all,

Murphy's Law: just the day I was supposed to check in regularly on the blog is the day my computer had total meltdown... I am now writing on my wife's laptop, praying to the computer gods, that a clean install and recovery from the backup drive will solve the problem!

Luca; Interesting comment about the web version being too 'cool'. Do you mean that you feel that the "gee-whizz" effect of the 3D overpowers the content? Perhaps that is the difference in how the 3D effect differs from the book to the web—in the book, it makes the images more tangible, but online it gets too close to the realm of 3D game graphics?

The idea for how I did the rooms in The Places We Live didn't come in a hammock, but on the sofa. One night, during the time I was sitting pondering how to photograph the project's interiors, I was sitting reading this amazing pop-up book for my son Milo. It's called 'Dinosaurs', and is this big, thick masterpiece of foldout dinos. At one point, a big T-Rex jumps out from the page and grabs your nose. As we were sitting there reading, I started thinking about how visceral, or tangible images could become when they are liberated from their normal two-dimensional sphere. I at once started thinking about a book that folds out to show four corners of a home, and an exhibition where the viewers can actually walk inside and 'visit' the rooms in full scale.

That's how I started photographing the rooms in three dimensions. I hoped that, by depicting the residents' entire home, one could get a sense for how much these people have built out of so little, how each family have put their own personalities and histories on their walls. In the project, I learned an important thing: We all need shelter, we all need houses. But, equally important, we need Homes. The Places We Live is a project about Homes.

So in the online piece, I wanted to try to recreate the three-dimensionality of the book and exhibition's homes, hence the 'moving around'. I'd be very interested to know if more people feel it's "too much".

Damien - Of course, violence and insecurity is a common part of life in these places. But in the slums I was rarely made to feel threatened—rather the opposite: I was met with so much warmth and openess. I think people really picked up that this was a project about people creating daily life in these places, that I wasn't out to make each place look monstrous. I wanted people to tell about their life in their own words, and so many people had so many stories they wanted to tell. Much of the time, I rented rooms to live inside the slums, so I wasn't moving in and out all the time, and ate all my meals there, drank beer there, had a good time. And thus, with time, people saw my presence as a generally good thing.

I was very nearly robbed of all my equipment only once—and that was in the Caracas airport, on my way home, after I'd passed through passport control and security. I was going to the bathroom right next to the Continental Airlines gate, when two uniformed airport security men started robbing me of everything. Luckily, an undercover cop had decided just then to bust up their act, and came flying in through the toilet door just at the right time to haul the crooks away. The cop had been following these guys for weeks... But in the slums, I had no problems at all.

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 23, 2008

We need to count our blessing every day for this county that we live in, and not forget to pray and tithe to the poor. Seems simple enough, however not many people do it! Thanks for the eye-opener.

Comment posted by debt relief on October 23, 2008

Hi Jonas,

I really think the work looks great. Everything that "concerned Photography", for want of a better word, should be. Well done.

I like the three-dimensional moving thing too. At first it took a little time to get used to - as i haven't seen anything quite like that before. I've seen the images of the rooms in here on the site, laid out in a row and they look great there too. But the moving/still image really brings an extra something to the presentation. I don't think its too much at all.

Thanks,

Jason

Comment posted by Jason Hobbs on October 23, 2008

Jonas

I have nothing but praise for your conceiving of the project, your photographing of it, and the several different forms you have developed for sharing it with the world- the book, the exhibit, and the online presentation. I was already a big fan of your photo work, but here you have immersed yourself in what is one of the great phenomena and great problems of our present world, and presented it in a fully informed and informing way, full of humanity, full of beauty, and full of reality that helps us all to understand better the dimensions of the world we live in.

Besides being a photographer, one of the other hats I wear is as a consultant, translator, and editor for a Japanese urban studies institute that deals directly with problems like housing, infrastructure, land tenure, health, and access to services for the poor in Asian cities, so the statistics you cite and the conditions you have documented are not news to me at all. But showing these photographs to people is more valuable and more effective than hundreds of reports by academics and bureaucrats. Thanks again for this great achievement which upholds the very highest standards and promise of photojournalism.

Comment posted by Sidney Atkins on October 23, 2008

Jonas

I have nothing but praise for your conceiving of the project, your photographing of it, and the several different forms you have developed for sharing it with the world- the book, the exhibit, and the online presentation. I was already a big fan of your photo work, but here you have immersed yourself in what is one of the great phenomena and great problems of our present world, and presented it in a fully informed and informing way, full of humanity, full of beauty, and full of reality that helps us all to understand better the dimensions of the world we live in.

Besides being a photographer, one of the other hats I wear is as a consultant, translator, and editor for a Japanese urban studies institute that deals directly with problems like housing, infrastructure, land tenure, health, and access to services for the poor in Asian cities, so the statistics you cite and the conditions you have documented are not news to me at all. But showing these photographs to people is more valuable and more effective than hundreds of reports by academics and bureaucrats. Thanks again for this great achievement which upholds the very highest standards and promise of photojournalism.

Comment posted by Sidney Atkins on October 23, 2008

Dear Chiahsing,

谢谢你的好话！

Thank you google for the translation!

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 23, 2008

One of the lovely things about the book form, is that once you get the reproduction right, the book is a nice, uncomplicated way to look at photography... some of you have been reporting some bugs with the website, that you cannot navigate properly from the map.

The nice people who know about how that all works is fixing it... please bear with us if you encounter some problems

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 23, 2008

Jonas, I don’t want this blog to turn into one Magnum guy kissing another’s ass, so I’ll say this in Chinese:

你是一个伟大的摄影师。你也有一个美丽的屁股。我想吻它。

Comment posted by Alec Soth on October 23, 2008

JONAS,
Great work. The thing I'm most impressed by is your dedication and commitment.

ALEC SOTH,
This is Jonas thread, but I'll write here as blog discussion tends to move to the most recent post.
I've seen your "small forma" work on Magnum InSight and think it's really interesting. Is it something we'll see more of?

Comment posted by Martin Brink on October 23, 2008

Wow Alec, I am not sure Google gave me the right translation for your message. Is this really what you wanted to say?! ;-)

Comment posted by Martin Fuchs on October 23, 2008

As a town planner i often struggle to explain the role of slums in citys but thanks to your work Jonas there is now a photo record to help give a voice to the people living in these places. Managing big city’s like these is a a hard job for planners having to balance social, economic and environmental issues is not easy but at least this kind of work can help remind these planners that slums are more than piles of trash they are living breathing mini city’s in there own right.

Comment posted by joe on October 23, 2008

Being an Indonesian and familiar with slum dwellers myself, I still found this an eye-opener.

Now that I've seen it here...gotta see the rest in the book.

Comment posted by billitone on October 23, 2008

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Good Luck!For more view- realtydigest.blogspot.com

Comment posted by riathareja on October 24, 2008

Hi Jonas,

Thank you for your reply.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Damien

Comment posted by Damien Chng on October 24, 2008

Jonas,

your work is one of the most emotional I came across recently. As a photographer I believe that places near us are the best to be captured, since so familiar and well known. Doing this job abroad, with languages and cultural issues (I would better say: barriers) shows your great flexibility and adaptability. I wonder if you can tell one of the "hidden stories" behind one of the shots and could reveal the one you love most and why....

Massimo
www.massimocristaldi.com

Comment posted by Massimo Cristaldi on October 24, 2008

"Cool" is what my friends said.They are not realy interesting in photography but a site like that could be for them too.Being cool the risk could be that people will not stop on the singles photos.its true that it takes a bit to get used to it and now im totaly enjoing it but what about a "click and it move autamaticly"?

某人挽救意大利. 某人杀害berlusconi

Comment posted by Luca on October 24, 2008

jonas

gratulerer med utmerkelsen.. premien..
straalende..

lykke till
hilsen fra norge
d n b n t

Comment posted by david bowen on October 24, 2008

JONAS:

quick follow up, last night i showed Dima the site and he spent a bunch of time looking at all the stuff and listening to all the stories....i said: "why dont you write jonas and tell him." dima said:

"what for. all i can say is that this site is so cool and i dont have words for more."

so, okay: i'll pinch him for him:

my son things the site (he knew the book) is so cool!....pretty could, hooking in the 14 yr olds ;)))

新的和改進萬能博客岩！

Comment posted by Bob Black on October 24, 2008

Jonas:

I've always wondered what your reference points have been in photography, cinema, literature etc.? In PDN's 30 2002 issue you said you admired Pinkhassov. . .

Is the work you are doing with your National Geographic Grant in China simply a continuation of "The Places We Live"?

How do you view black and white photography? Few photographers shoot it exclusively anymore and many do a combination of color and b&w. Why do you, personally, never shoot b&w?

Comment posted by Davinellicson@mac.com on October 24, 2008

Dear Riathereja,

Thank you very much for your thoughtful input. May I please have your personal home phone number?

Bob / Dima - 14 year olds are what its all about. Its the thing that makes me happy. One of my favorite things is to go by the TPWL exhibition during weekdays and watch the school classes on tour there. 9th-graders and 7-year-olds all going through the show, each on their own levels. Its the best reminder of why keep doing this kind of work. So thank you for the message.

Davin - The truth is that I always find it such a hard question to pinpoint. Many photographers that inspire me the most, do so not neccesarily because of their imagery, but because of their dedication to their projects, their philosophy etc. Other times, its the opposite. I read a lot, often non-fiction and get very inspired by a good story told well. In general, I'm just a very, very curious person, and have a big appetite for information for its own sake. If there is one artist thats inspired me more than anything this last year, its Bach (the elder). We always talk about photography as frozen history. But I have never encountered at more poignant, emotional, direct link to previous generations than Bach. All my editing this year has been accompanied by the Well-Tempered Clavier. I recommend it.

The National Geographic grant is a continuation on the theme of Urbanization, but not looking at slums, nor in the same three-dimensional format.

Black and white photography. For me, photography is a language for communication. B/W, color, digital, film are just different dialects. I've always spoken color. I love color, the sensuality of it, the myriad nuances offers. For myself, its a way to increase my vocabulary. Early on, when I did a short photography course in England when I was 18, my teacher told me: You know its a good color picture, when you want to eat it. I guess that stayed with me.

Alec - 我亲爱的主人，请原谅...我的屁股是不值得任何东西。你不能玷污你的宏伟胡子这样！

Otherwise, thanks to the others for the encouraging words. I'd also love to hear from people who hated it!

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 24, 2008

I like the 3D concept and it's clearly important to keep on experimenting in an industry that is constantly evolving. Despite this, I feel that not all aspects of the online presentation are working harmoniously together.

Perhaps its my upbringing in a country that brought us the Archers, but I find the voice recordings a little, well, hammy! What is being said is fascinating but I feel it detracts when, within the voice actor's dialogue, you can hear the studied pauses and tonal shifts designed to create dramatic effect. However, I'm not sure whether this could have been avoided, so the question is whether the combination of translated, enacted dialogue and 3D imagery works within this context?

Does anyone else feel this way or am I being too pernickety here?

Comment posted by Peter Buncombe on October 24, 2008

Jonas, congrats for the great work... i would love to ask one question. The name of the project is "The places we live", using this word "we" makes you a part of these communities. Do you really feel like someone living in these conditions... do you feel a part of it ? Or you are trying to give some voice to these people ? Why your focus is on poverty ? i am asking this because for me it looks like more the places "they" live... in my opinion it could make a lot of difference in the way a photographer approches a project like this one. Again, the pictures are strong and show a lot of respect for the subjects, congrats.
Daniel, from Brazil.

Comment posted by Daniel on October 24, 2008

What this work speaks to me is this: as we learn in the history of photography there were/are many photographers that photographed the poor and underprivileged with "fear this people" approach, it is more to get the rich to do something about it for their own sake not for the sake of the poor. Then there are other photographers who were/are humans more than anything else, who advocate with their work for the conditions of the underprivileged to improve, unconditionally, the "concerned" photographers. These photos put you somewhere in this other group. Great work.
I don't get excited much about web presentations, they are far less reaching then what we believe they are... It is "cool", true, well designed, 3D and stuff, but this could be as dry web presentation as it is my own; it is the content of these photographs that is really striking...

Comment posted by Velibor Bozovic on October 24, 2008

Hi Jonas,

First things first; this is great work. I'm just using this opportunity to air some questions that came to mind when receiving the book. And you asked for criticism though so here goes.

I haven't seen the installation you did for Places We Live so my comments are directed more towards the book. When it finally arrived and I had time to dive in, the book really didn't take me very long to get through - and I'm a slow reader! The book, images and text are beautifully constructed and thought-provoking, no question. But the edit seems very, very tight. Were there constraints from the publisher about how many pages or images you could dedicate to each city?

I was left wanting to see a lot more of each place. Looking at the book next to Satellites (which also left me hungry to see a lot more), it seems overly compact when the subject is of such epic significance. Perhaps you could tell us more about your editing process and any constraints you encountered. Of course, less is more, but I'm itching to see the three and a half hour director's cut of this project.

One of the highlights on the magnuminmotion site is your Maoists in Nepal story; the kind of expansive work that really pushes the possibilities of online documentary photography by combining archive video material with your stunning pictures to give us a much more rounded and informed idea of what's going on. Obviously, video's not going to make it in a book form (though the distorted TV images of rocket launches throughout Satellites were a great touch).

Given the wealth of information out there, how come you or your editors decided to be so sparse with the presentation of information, when there's clearly so much more that could have been included? Finally, I wonder if your fold-out rooms are a mere taster of what's possible and what inspired you in the first place, the ultimate pop-up photography book?! But that's another story ...

Comment posted by Mishka on October 24, 2008

To echo Peter Buncombe's comment, I think the voices don't work. Why couldn't we hear the original voices with english subtitles? Besides, when did dubbing ever work?

Comment posted by Mishka on October 24, 2008

One more thing... There seem to be no reference in your work (or I missed it) to an awful term, ever present in this kind of work (when photographer goes to different parts of the world), of "other cultures". You didn't fall into the trap, and that I really admire.

Comment posted by Velibor Bozovic on October 24, 2008

Jonas, great work.

I would very much like to collaborate with you someday
if you ever find yourself interested.

I think we could produce some powerful and innovative work together.

As far as interactive multimedia goes,
I've got some tricks up my sleeve that I haven't yet put out there,
approaches that may well suit the presentation of your work online.

Comment posted by Patrick Yen on October 24, 2008

ditto on the dubbing...my son even said, "wow, they speak English so well"...and then, he asked "how did Jonas get actors to know what the people wanted to say" ;)))...i explained the text....

it's a good question: why the dub?...was this simply a logistic question/nightmare (i can imagine)...or first evolution...

would love to hear their voices with subtitles...:)))

and it's a GREAT question about the size of both books considering the scale...though both books leave me too hungering (an existential truth) to know much more than what is contained or every possible to know...

cant wait to hear...

cheers
bob

Comment posted by bobblack on October 24, 2008

Jonas, I want to thank you for your openness in responding to the comments here. Your honest egoless answers fit with the person who had created this magnificent essay. You have a way of staying out of the way of the story, if you know what I mean.

Watching the MM presentation of "The Places We Live" online, I was totally engaged except for the English dubbing of your subjects' voices. It just didn't fit. As others have suggested, subtitles would be much more organic to the process.

I thought of this project when I read recently about the mushrooming tent cities outside of cities in the US. They are apparently filled with middle class folks who have been burned by the mortgage/foreclosure crisis in this country. Do you know of any Magnum photogs who are tackling this subject? It sure seems like an important one to cover.

Again, thanks for being with us here. Hope your computer is recovering its equilibrium!

Cheers
Patricia

Comment posted by Patricia Lay-Dorsey on October 24, 2008

Musings:

Have you left NYC? Do you live in Norway now?

I think the 'Places We Live' is a great accomplishment, conceptually brilliant. But somehow I like your 'Satellites' even more. . . I love pure street shooting à la Koudelka, Webb. . . How do you feel regarding the two projects? I'd love to see you return to total abandonment.

Comment posted by Davin Ellicson on October 25, 2008

whichever, websites or books, might be also the places where we live. it is the girl's confidence on her way that brightenning the photo regardless where she is living nor where we are. infact , the place where we guys and the girl in a room togather is this website. then, a book is more likly to be a kind of private reading that easy to enjoy but hard to share.

Comment posted by vivien on October 25, 2008

Patricia,

are there actually such tent cities? I thought that was sort of a myth, like Joe the Plumber.

Comment posted by Rafal Pruszynski on October 25, 2008

Thank you for your lecture in Germany at the photokina Cologne! It was a great motivation for me and my first photo-project.

Lots of greetings
Sonja

Comment posted by Sonja on October 25, 2008

Hello all, good questions,

Dubbing — interesting comments you all made. The thought process behind it was very simple: I want people to be able to look at the photographs, not have to sit and read. I have feeling that there aren't too many people who patiently sit down and read 5,500-word New Yorker articles on the web. (I'm one of those... I love reading my snailmailed subscription copy on the sofa or in bed—but online, I rarely have the patience for longform pieces. I like to read those on paper.). Surely some people have better attention spans than me, but I suspect that most people who read online, for better or worse, do it in short bursts—shorter articles, *blogs* etc.

The website TPWL contains 5,500 words. I figured by having dubbing instead of subtitles, people could spend time with the photography more directly, not have to read for two minutes in each room before they could get to the visuals part. Because one has to look around a great deal to see all the details around the 3D rooms, I thought it would be a very stressful experience for our poor eyeballs and brains to have to do so while simultaneously reading fastmoving subtitles.

That's the explanation. That of course doesn't mean that it works—the judge of that is of course you, not me. (If it doesn't, i hope you go for the book, and file this one away in the 'uh, hey, nice try'-category! )

The Title and Pronouns — Let me put one thing on record. The 'We' in the title is not meant to try to make anyone think I am living in poverty, or that I equate my living situation with those shown in the book. For clarity's sake: I, in a global context, am a rich man, have a great job, and live like a king in a comfortable rowhouse, in one of the world's wealthiest countries, Norway.

But think about it. When my father was born, we were two and half billion humans on this planet. When I was born, four and a half. When my son Milo was born, we numbered six billion. If he has a son, that child will squeeze unto the earth among the rest of the eight billion of us. We, the humans, have multiplied three-fold in three short generations. Whatever species undergoing such a radical change is worth thinking about from a phenomenological point of view. Already, one-in-three citydwellers on the planet is a slumdweller, and this will double over the next two decades. Slums are already the fastest growing segment of our human population, and within a few decades, slums will perhaps be the primary form of urban dwelling.

Most people on this planet live in something resembling the homes that is in TPWL. Those who post on this blog are probably in the tiniest minority of human habitation standards. The "We" in the title is meant to reflect how "we"—the human-being-at-large—live.

But equally important is the other "we". I often think of the photography in The Places We Live as just a container for carrying the oral stories of the families in the project. Nearly all the text in the book is the testimonies of the room's inhabitants, telling about their place. I wanted to make the book as much as possible from their point of view, from their version of "normal". That is the other We. It's them.

Is this a preposterous title of a book created by a well-to-do Norwegian? Gladly so. But if it makes us consider for a minute who outnumbers who on this planet, I'll happily be guilty-as-charged.

Editing — What lovely compliments, even if not meant as such. I am a firm believer of less is more. Kapuscinski was great not because he wrote up every terabyte of information he collected. Rather, it was because he summed up a decade's worth of tumult in three bone-chilling sentences. Having the restraint to leave people hungry for more is a discipline worth striving for.

This, of course, might be sacrilege to write right here in the blogosphere...of all mediums ever invented, surely among the top three most hostile to tight, strict editing...! I feel like I'm swearing in church...but I would very much like my books to be anything but 'too-much-information'.

Concept vs Freestyle— Davin, thank you for this comment too. I definitely do not feel locked into the rigid strictures of the TPWL-type of concept forever. I'm very pragmatic when it comes to photography. I'll photograph in the way that makes sense to me to talk about what I want to talk about. For TPWL, this happened to be a very particular way. Next time, this might be something different.

Το μόνο καλό είναι η γνώση, και το μόνο κακό είναι η άγνοια.
- Σωκράτης

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 25, 2008

Jonas

And that's why we all think your work is very important.
I live in ex-communist country in center of europe it's mean we don't have problems with slums in my country yet. Of course we have very, very worring poverty especially between old people, but our society is still not as much divide as in many countries where high poverty living in whole different world, behind fence as neighbors.
But as a global village we all have to pay more attention to this divides. Now in era of internet, leading english language, and global thinking we should'nt admit this issolation because we will be "strangers" each other in future. And it's mean big problem for us "this lucky ones" and for them.
And I think this problem exist mostly by neglect of goverments not only because poverty. Poverty exist almost in every country even this extreme. But issolation is neglect. Neglect from past to future.
Ryszard Kapuścinski wrote about it also.

I hope there will be more works like your in future.

(sorry for english)

Comment posted by marcin luczkowski on October 25, 2008

JONAS :)))

"A nothing becomes a deeply significant something because we decide that it should be so. Our imagination anoints and exalts it."--Ryszard Kapuscinski

thanks for the thoughtful answers. :))...having just plowed through all kapuscinski over september (wanting to re-read everything before reading Travels with Herodotus), it's lovely to hear you mentioned Kapuscinski....that man could summon up 10-years of war/fear/malaria/death/shadow/light and the eternal indeed in a bone-chilling sentence....

I wanted to (have always wanted to tell you since the book was published, but feared a reaction that others might interpret my thought as superfluous, since most of what i write is just that) tell you that when I first got the book this summer, TPWL, i thought the title was brilliant....not only for the reasons you've mentioned, but again, it reminded me of Seuss (just as those magnificent pop-out 3-d panoramas reminded me of a child's book)....the title TPWL for me rung as a similar song, call it the Onomatopoeia (in greek: ονοματοποιΐα ;))) of the soul, the similarity between the two titles:

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

and lastly, have you read Mike Davis' book "PLANET OF SLUMS"

should be required reading :)))

hello to Laara from us...

running
bob

Comment posted by bobblack on October 25, 2008

Following Bob's comment. Jonas.... I thought the title was a glancing reference to "How the Other Half Lives"

Which reminds me of a question... Was Riis an influence, and if so was he a positive or a negative one!? Riis' methods, opinions, and words are arguably revolting, judged by today's standards, but his work resulted in real, positive change in the slums of New York. Do you think his ends justified his means?

Comment posted by mike on October 25, 2008

Jonas,

I want to echo Bob Black's recommnedation of Mike Davis' book "Planet of Slums" which is probably the best one-volume view of the situation world-wide in English. abut you probably already know that!

And, in response to Rafal P. above, oh yes, there are tent cities of homeless in America, it's no myth, and I have visited one of the larger ones in Seattle. See this recent news story:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/09/19/tent.cities.ap/

Comment posted by Sidney Atkins on October 25, 2008

What a fantastic project! I myself have visited Dharavi twice, and it amazes me.. the people here seem so happy, despite their living conditions. Although these people may be suffering, the small proportion that I came across appeared content.

This is my latest blog on it:
http://www.tanya-n.com/?p=136

It saddens me knowing this place will soon cease to exist. I just hope the people there don't end up homeless and in even worse conditions.

Comment posted by Tanya on October 26, 2008

Hi Jonas!

For me,the good thing about the book,
It´s the way you open the pages,as opening the door from their houses.
On the book I feel more like a visitor,and on the website I feel more like an intruder,(but not in the bad-way).
Maybe,if there will be another edition,you could add a Dvd with the interviews and some extra content.
This was my first book from you,hope to get the Satellites soon.
Great work.
Cheers,
Guilherme.

Comment posted by guilherme on October 26, 2008

Hi Jonas

Your work just sent me travelling, which is perhaps the highest compliment I can pay it. Parts were sad, parts were uplifting, just like meeting people and hearing their stories in real life.

You made the right choice on the voice overs despite the naysayers. They're a drag while watching a movie, but this isn't a movie. When you go somewhere you've either got a local who can speak English talking to you or they translate while someone else speaks in their own language.

Never does anyone speak the local language and someone else hands you a transcript of what was just said in English that you then read. What you did was perfect. Just like being in the room.

As you said, it frees your eyes to look at the pictures.

I would've liked a control panel for rewinding because I missed a few things that were said and had to start over.

Looks like it was a huge undertaking, and you can't do everything in one go, but some people touched on some social aspects and it might have been good to have additional audio expanding on how they deal with some of the problems mentioned. But like I say the project looks huge as it is. Fine, fine job.

Could you answer a couple of questions?
When you rented rooms in the shanty towns how did that work? Where/how did you eat? How did you secure your equipment?

I assume you used a fixer. Is this something you always do or do you ever not use one and still get the results you hope for?

Were you alone doing photos and sound or did you have someone to help you?

And I'm curious about how the assignments work at Magnum, whether personal or otherwise, and how you guys make your living. I did a quick backward scan through the archives of your most recent images. There were some of the photos for this project, then Fort McMurray and before that Haiti, Nepal... etc.

Are these getting sold all over and are they enough to earn your living by? Or do only your best images make it into the Magnum archive and there are others that you are doing for "bread and butter" assignments that we never see?

I could probably go on but I'll give you a breather. You're one of my favourites and I'd like to know how you work.

All the best.

Rich Riordan

Comment posted by Rich Riordan on October 27, 2008

Hello, great to see all the questions, and I would love to answer. I have to beg your apologies though, I left for a job for some days, so have to concentrate on taking pictures - I'll stop by soon again though!

Comment posted by Jonas Bendiksen on October 27, 2008

Hai, wah, what a very nice and interesting pictures u have here.. interesting blog.. I'll link to you on my blog ya?... TQ

Comment posted by Nadia on October 28, 2008

Hi Jonas
I hadn't seen such pretty photo for a long time.thank you

Comment posted by mohammad seify karabuglu on October 29, 2008

jonas, I would like to kiss it too. everything said is true.

Comment posted by noordung on October 30, 2008

Great work you have done.

Comment posted by Nike Kobe IV on June 10, 2009