Chris - unlike the actual shooting, i think i understand editing as a dynamic action. i feel as if inside a zoom lens (one which i hardly ever use…), and as i flip the photo’s - the story zooms in and out (you call it a distant view and a specific one). one would want a the narrative to move from the one end to the other. from what i see in Wilste’s case one could go both ways - which makes your job more interesting(?). i’m still tending to start with the wide (pic 3) though i can only judge from the end result.
so, i truly appreciate your choice to start from the “blurred” point-of-view, a less obvious choice in reportage, and maybe it could work better in a different setting - say a gallery or a book - but i can’t follow its rational to the end (unlike Shimoda’s clear editing) on this small slide show.
and as to the “beauty of editing” you mentioned - i can’t think of a photographer who really likes editing, a process which has nothing to do with photographing or documenting - if not utterly be repelled by it. so maybe the best ones can never actually be photographers…

Dan- I agree with you in that it was a complicated editing process. We started with a pretty large body of work that we tried to make into a larger story than what is presented.

The challenge was to bring the edit down to an essay that showed both that distant view (the cityscapes, the people within these surroundings) and the specific (portraits of the people within these environments) . We chose the specifc as an opener in part because 3/4 may have been natural openers, they were perhaps ‘generic’ ones as well. To me, the blurred images serve as good introductions to an unsure situation - lots of confusion, people doing normal things like preparing for festivals amid turmoil, etc.

That’s the beauty of editing and of making pictures in general, no? It’s a highly subjective process…

maybe the only problem here is the one of editing. this work is both very personal in its style and public in its subject (while the style is highly sensitive to context which makes it very “public” in return). i think this is exactly why this work is so strong, and why i don’t agree with the edit choices. pic’ 3 and 8 are natural openers, while 1,2 fit better, to me, near pic’ 7 (etc.). but this is, on the whole, a very good problem to have.
chapeau!

p.s.
sometimes a bad review from an idiot is just what we need to know we got it good.

Amazingly beautiful images with a true connection between photographer and subject. The passion and commitment to your work shines through! Compelling and very inspiring. Love the blur!!!!

I feel that this essay provokes a sense of humanity and wonder through Lisa’s beautiful images.  In addition I now know of a place and people and their condition that I did not know of before.  Wonderful work Lisa, thank you.