Comments on: Stay With Me – Maximiliano Braun Audio Slideshow – Breathtaking

By: Kim

Kim — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:18:19 +0000

Here’s an amazing blog written by a guy in America who has a muscle disease which means he can’t move his limbs. The only part of his body he can move is his thumb – and thats how he writes this.

http://www.lithiumcreations.com/

There’s no doubt that its an incredible struggle living a life like that. But I think its important to remember that that is exactly what they are doing – living a life. Its not for us to say whether they should be able to live it or not – or even to assume that they might not want to.

By: Stan B.

Stan B. — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:09:17 +0000

Honestly, it’s the kind of story that is so emotionally charged, it’s hard to judge objectively (at least for me) and go beyond the subject matter and into the actual presentation- particularly since I have so many conflicting thoughts and issues concerning this. These caregivers are saints, pure and simple, of that there is no doubt. But I put myself in the place of those afflicted- would I want to live such an existence. Absolutely not, never. Would we subject animals to such an existence? I know there are those (perhaps the overwhelming majority) who’d think that a cold, callous and indifferent thing to say, or even think. I just think, feel, and believe otherwise- or at least acknowledge it. I’m not judging anyone here. Ten minutes of watching this is not overly long- but ten minutes of living it? I’m also reminded of severe burn victims who are, in fact, conscious and repeatedly beg their caregivers to let them die peacefully. Again, no judgements – these are decisions placed on the human condition that go well beyond the human realm.

By: davidwhite

davidwhite — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:47:42 +0000

Mike has made some good points, and I agree that maybe the piece is too long, but that could just be because of our preconceptions and experience of how long these multimedia pieces are ‘supposed’ to be. Our soundbite society does us a disservice on so many levels. One of the things I find so strong and powerful about the piece is the fact that it is about a subject that is so near to so many people, yet so hidden. I may be biased in that opinion, because I have been so close to such experiences in my life. I do however admire journalists/photographers etc who can see something that is right in front of our faces yet is missed by so many – that takes a real skill. I also admire the fact that the story here is absolutely about the subjects, not the author. I am personally fed up with work that shouts ‘look at me’ rather than ‘look at this’. That is an unfortunate result of the competitive nature of photography and photojournalism….so many ‘togs want and expect to get noticed before the story they are telling. As Ben says, and I agree, “Maximiliano is so committed to capturing the stories featured here in an honest and open hearted way. His humility has allowed him to become invisible. The viewer is drawn deeper and deeper into these people’s lives.”
Afaik, there is no quick route to success as a photojournalist, there is just graft.

By: Mike Holley

Mike Holley — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 21:01:55 +0000

I have mixed views about this work. While I agree that Maximiliano has used a compassionate approach that brings a difficult and very different subject to life, I wouldn’t go so far as using the words “inspirational” or “breathtaking”.

It was refreshing to see a change from the underprivileged, third world country subject matter that has become vogue with multimedia works. But the very nature of any human tragedy grabs your attention and can take you past the quality of the work itself. “Inspirational” for me would be a piece of work that draws you in the same way but on a subject that isn’t about human tragedy.

There are also two technical points that, for me, means it doesn’t rate with the best duckrabbit has shown. Firstly, the audio was too loud in places and made the voices difficult to hear. Also at 10 minutes for me it was too long. Despite being compelling stories, I found my attention going after 7-8 minutes.