David Burnett Lecture at the Annenberg
Monday, August 10, 2009 
Annenberg Space For Photography, David Burnett
I attended a lecture at the Annenberg Space for Photography last Thursday night where David Burnett showed images from his 4 decade long career in photography. It was a pleasure to hear him speak and I would recommend anyone close to LA to attend the Thursday evening Iris Night lecture series.
The Annenberg is quite an amazing space for photography. They have prints on the walls as well as digital presentations. What I found on Thursday evening is that the prints have a considerable amount of impact when compared to the digital renditions. I noticed this with a print that happened to show on a screen about the same time I saw the print on the wall. The print had depth, detail, expression... The digital image, not so much. What it reiterated for me is that we need to print our images. While sharing them over the www is great, there is nothing like seeing the print, holding it and really getting a chance to experience it.
Back to the lecture. Burnett told a story about the famous photo by Nick Ut during the Vietnam War. According to Burnett, “It was one of those amazing moments, where probably the one or two most famous photographs of the Vietnam War was taken 30 feet from me.” You can read more about that story over at Digital Journalist, but what I found really compelling in Burnett’s account was the humble nature, and acceptance, of missing that image and the acknowledgment that the image was made by the person it needed on that June day in 1972.
There were a lot of other great stories, and I would again encourage you to attend future events at the Annenberg if you get the chance. And by the way, in attendance that evening was David Hume Kennerly, Nick Ut and Bill Pierce. And David Burnett talked like he was talking to a bunch of friends about something he loved dearly. It was really worth the 2 hour commute through LA traffic.