The blindfolded man lets out a Munchian scream that disappears into the abyss. Twisted landscapes of the upside-down. The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Animal portents. The chaotic vengeance of mother nature. Moments of sublimity within the desolate world. Treading water. This is the way the world ends, this is the way the world ends. We kept spinning in 2021 and rode the dizzying pandemic wave through its crests and falls, ducking beneath the swell to shelter in the perfect and crystalline world below the surface before breaching out the other side, gasping for air and kicking fervently to remain afloat. Only to see another, larger swell bearing down from the horizon line. Despite this, the desire to make work and interpret these times through the camera perseveres for Burn My Eye. With the addition of new members, a group show, and some big projects planned for 2022, there is a sense of optimism for what’s to come.

Photo edit by Dimitris Makrygiannakis. Video by Kanrapee Chokpaiboon. Words by Sam Ferris.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2022.

-BME

We struggled with 2020. We started out with the usual hopes and dreams, reaching, searching…but the specter of a mortal blight soon began to shift its weight onto our consciousness. Whispers were heard in January; some battened down the hatches, but despite the warnings the world was largely taken unawares, asleep in the ring. We did what we always do; we photographed what we saw, what we felt…vivid skies indifferent to the disembodied, blood-strewn art our lives had left in the wake of Things Today. Predator and prey, reversing roles. Gazing at the sunrise from a flooded rooftop, delicate as a flower, paddling furiously under the surface. So here we are, having ridden this stained annum to its torn-up terminus. Most of us are still here; many are not. It is what it is. Many of us had to shift our focus inward, grasping at shadows on the wall, documenting our makeshift fortresses, a camera in one hand, our swaddled offspring in the other. For although some may have forgotten it, in the end it is all about all we have left: each other. Photo edit: Dimitris Makrygiannakis Video Edit: Kanrapee Chokpaiboon Text: TC LIn

So, 2018. It’s been an interesting year. We started it off welcoming new members Lukas Vasilikos and Gustavo Minas. In June, founding members Andrew Kochanowski and TC Lin led a workshop in San Francisco as part of the annual StreetFoto festival.

July saw TC Lin and Barry Talis join Rammy Narula in his native Thailand for a workshop as part of the Bangkok Street Photography Festival there.

A large portion of our membership had work in EyeShot’s first print publication, as a few of us were judges in the Miami Street Photography festival. Several BME members were finalists in the Brussels Street Photography Festival, but Barry Talis won the top honor for a series there, and Lukas Vasilikos winning the Public Prize. Barry also placed 2nd in the LensCulture street photography contest, and obtaining Series of the Year in “Local Testimony” which is Israel’s biggest documentary competition and exhibition.

In October Zisis Kardianos won the best photobook award at the DotArt competition, which is part of the annual Trieste Photo Days festival, for his book “In Limbo”.As a result, a second, revised edition of the book was published.

Throughout the year we’ve been engaging with photographers from around the world in a series of interviews published on our site and social media, and we also produced two videos, “Bad Trip” and “Beastiarium” featuring collective edits of our work, with production help of Thai photographer Kanrapee Chokpaiboon.

Publicly or privately, we’ve all been working on our own projects, articles, trips, workshops and exhibitions throughout the year, and we look forward to what comes to light in 2019.

Here are some of our favorite shots from this year. Happy New Year to you all.

-BME