Lyrical Genius

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Adithya Sambamurthy says:

I was a college senior when I first saw the book Divided Soul, by Magnum's David Alan Harvey, who gave a presentation on his work at thePoynter Institute in St. Petersburg. Back then the images were incredible, but I must confess I wasn't quite sure I understood it. I didn't know why the book was put together the way it was. The instant recognition of the theme was not there to me in the images. So it was a treat to have the opportunity to hear the author come and speak- and show some amazing images. Harvey considers himself a hybrid between the realms of photojournalism and fine art photography, and a number of his images have appeared on the pages of National Geographic as well as on the walls of Fine Art museums.

Harvey explained how he is able to ‘sell' his images to editors, by researching his subjects thoroughly and giving images, which on the surface seem very graphic, the context they need for the story through well written captions.

“Know more about the subject than everyone else in the room,” he said. In researching his book, Divided Soul, Harvey said he was as influenced as much by the fiction coming from Spain and the Americas as he was by newspaper articles. He attributes what he referred to as the lyrical quality of his images to this influence by fiction.