Photo Story: Young Muay Thai Boxer

This photo was made in the Klong Toey Muay Thai gym in Bangkok. I photographed in this gym numerous times over the years, probably over 15 times. The boys in the gym are sometimes orphans and often come from poor parents, some with substance abuse issues. Most of the young boxers that I know at the gym (there is a very high turnover) are great kids until they get into the ring. In the ring, when the competition is on they become TIGERS!

This picture was shot with a Leica M6 rangefinder and I think a 28mm F2 lens. The film was Tri-x pushed to 800 and then given STAND development for 2 hours in Rodinal 1/50. Agitation in STAND is given for the first 30 seconds then very lightly for 1 minute (swirls like in a wine glass) ever 30 minutes.

Young boxer, in ring at the Klong Toey Muay Thai, Bangko

120mm "Forgotten Laughter" And Other Trip Shots #15

Some more photos from the last trip.

Woman working the dump garbage, Mae Sot Thailand April-May 2016

Young Chimiko in his family shack at the dump, Mae Sot Thailand May 2016

Young Klong Toey  slum child, Bangkok Thailand April 2016

Young girl fishing in the dump, Mae Sot Thailand April-May 2016

Budda picture in the dump #1, Mae Sot Thailand April-May 2016

Railway trracks KLong Toey slum, Bangkok Thailand April 2016

Buddhist picture #2 i then dump, Mae Sot Thailand April-May 2016

Little Chimiko, son of the birde and groom, Mae Sot Thailand April - May 2016

Laughing baby in the dump, Mae Sot Thailand May 2016

Doll at Buddhist shrine, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok April 2016

View Camera Workshop Scheduled

Have a  view camera workshop scheduled for the 14th. The student seems like a very dedicated person, they are driving all the way up from Calgary (3+ hours there and 3+ hours back). I will use the money $150 towards the purchase of 120mm film for my next trip. Promoting photography, buying film to make more pics, wins all round.

Links: Bought Me A Tempest Alto Saxophone

I bought a new alto saxaphone! I decided to pay a bit more, intially was thinking to get one for around $500 CAD, ended up paying $1095 and a few bucks for tax and shipping. Dad always told me to pay a bit more to get something better and to not buy garbage. This saxophone is obviously too much instrument for a rank beginner like me but maybe with many years of work I can grow into it. If I do learn to play and love the instrument I can purchase a lower tone more expensive tenor sax later.

This is a lot of money for a non photo type buy thing but heck you only live once. I am 52 years old, if I want to learn to play an instrument before I die I better get off my fat ass and start! I have a aunt who I am close to who was recently diagnosed with skin cancer, she will be undergoing regular chemo and possibly experimental chemo. Life is too short to screw with, while I am healthy and have a chance I want to grab as much of it as I can. I always wanted to play a musical instrument, so today I thought why not! F-ck it, lets spend the money. This might lead no where and could be another case of wasted money but it also might lead to much personal joy, comfort and creativity! I decided not to live putting stuff off and HOPING to do it someday and jumped straight into this newest adventure.
The Saxophone I bought of Amazon'

I can now use YouTube and my security night gig (when no one is around) to practise, practise and practise some more. I will also no doubt have to take some lessons. Maybe in 5 years time I can make some music. Am quite excited by this chance, almost as excited as when I buy a camera :))).

Update* I wonder if someday I could write a song, a sax tune that expresses my feelings towards my father, our life together, losing him or possibly just a tribute song to dad. I could call it "Eddy's Blues". I am good at names but not so good at finishing projects I plan. Still it is a thought and a POSSIBLE future thingy that COULD, MAYBE, MIGHT happen.

For fun check these alto sax tunes:

The first by Charlez360
"Happy"
A beautiful solo - Marty Paoletta
"Georgia On My Mind"
A great tune to learn - Chris Gable
"Hotel California" 
Romantic sax solo - Indio See
"I Will Always Love You"

Professional Tempest Alto Saxaphone

Email: Music Man?

Sent an email to a friend this afternnoo, here is snippet from it:

With a rediscovery of Dupree's music I have been pulled back into the world of Jazz, a place I left in my late 20s. I bought a traditional record player (Vinyl) off Amazon and am listening to those beautiful rich sound in my darkroom. I pulled all my old albums out of storage, and have been buying Monk, Dextor Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane and Miles Davis (the last 2 Sonny's favs). Wondrous sounds filled with so much emotion and feeling, This is real music for me that connects on a personal level. I would compare it with the social documentary photography I try to do, about real lives and basic universal truths. It seems so simple but that hides its immense complexity.

Been thinking lately of learning (finally) a musical instrument. I have studied accordion and drums in my lifetime but those instruments never really connected with my heart. I am now thinking SAXOPHONE..there is a melancholy and beauty in the voice of that instrument I really love. I think it might be a bit easier for a beginner to start out on. I tried playing a trumpet back when I was in Oakland at Sonny's place (he owned one) and could not make a sound!!! Would take years of effort but learning the sax could add so much to a persons personal growth. It might also help the photographic growth. It would also just be simply relaxing, fun and rewarding.

You told me you wanted to learn an instrument before you died, what would that be? What type of music would you want to play? With what instrument would you play?

Note* Not sure how feasable this would be, but it would certainly be fun to try.

Alto Sax, there are also tenor, soprano, baritone bass versions

Check out the LOW sounding baritones here:
Baritone, Bass Saxophone Duet
Soprano, Bass Saxaphone Duet

Help From David Burnett

Yesterday I sent an email out to the world class photojournalist David Burnett. I asked him to help me me with attaching a reflex viewfinder to my Speed Graphic Kodak Aero Ektar camera. On initially researching the camera I had found an online photo of Mr. Burnett's holding his. Today less then a day later he was kind enough to help me. He sent an email with details on the finder he used and the photo shop where I could get the necessary parts made to add it to the back of my camera.

The ironic part of this story is that in the first or one of the first photo mags I ever owned (Photo Life? American Photographer?) there was a story on a young photographer named David Burnett. At the time this article had a big influence on me. I remember thinking "I want to make those kinds of pictueres." Occasionally through the years I would stumble on something other written about Mr. Burnett which I would eagerly read. Now after all those years of knowing about this guy only through magazine stories I reach out to him for help and he responds the very next day. I guess I was right to admire and be influenced by him. Thanks David for your help, your a great guy!

David Burnett and his speedgraphic with Aero Ektar lens.

Link: Blown Away - Dupree Bolton Memory

I had a rather surreal blown away moment today when I got to work. It is a bit of a long story but I wanted to share it, here it goes.

Back in 1985-86 during my time in Oakland with Dupree/Sonny and the gang I went to see the movie "Round Midnight" with Dextor Gordon playing a down and out saxophone player named Dale Turner who was touring in France. In the movie Mr. Gordon who in real life was a world class jazz artist played a variant of his real life person. The movie story is about a young white man who admires and loves the Gordon characters music, he worships the man. He gets to meet his hero and tries to help him straighten out his life, he becomes a saviour of sorts.

When I watched the movie I empathized with the white dude character because in a way I was trying to do some of the same things with my friend Dupree. Loving his music, trying to understand his life, trying in my small way to help a bit. One day shortly after seeing the film I spoke to Dupree in Sonny's club "My Favorite Things". I told him about the movie and that we should go see it together. I had the naive idea that the movie would help change his destructive drug behaviour. Dupree asked what it was about. I told him it was a jazz movie about a saxophone player and that the story was about a young white man trying to help the older jazz musician, trying to help him through his drug addiction problem. I think I told him it stared Dextor Gordon, am pretty sure I did that.

When I told him the part about the white young guy trying to help the older jazz player, Dupree gave me a look, a look of surprise and a look of kindness (probably the closest moment we ever had). I think he made the connection I was hinting at, I the foreign white guy was trying to help him the older African American jazz player with an addiction problem just like the story line of the movie. At that moment Dupree knew I cared about him, knew how I felt about him. Maybe I am reading to much into a simple look but that is what I felt. There was something in his eyes I had never seen before, a softness. We never spoke of it again and never did see the moving together but I will always remember that short special exchange we had, an unforgettable memory.

So now the story takes its rather surprising turn. Today Sept. 22, 2016 I am sitting in my car before coming into work my security night shift. I open up the Dupree Bolton music CD "FIRE BALL" that I had just received. Inside the CD there was a 40 page booklet on Dupree's life. I flip through the pictures and there on page 31 is a 1982 photo of Dupree standing next to DEXTOR GORDON. Dupree knew the man! He knew Dextor Gordon the man who starred in "Round Midnight". He never told me! He no doubt played with Gordon at some point as the picture was made at Bianca's (jazz club?) in Oklahoma City. Heck they could have been best friends!

That just blew me away, the fact that Dupree had spent time with Dextor Gordon just 3 or 4 years before our conversation about going to see the film. Dupree was such a quiet guy, he kept everything so close to the vest, who knew?  Life is strange sometimes, who knows what twists and turns it will take. Who knew 30 years later I would sit dumbfounded in my car on seeing the Dupree-Dexter photo.

I am happy that Dupree knew I cared, knew I worried about him and knew I wanted to help. I am happy to finally know and hear Dupree's real music. I am also happy to know that he played with some of the all time greats like Dextor Gordon.

Below is the trailer to the movie "Round Midnight" You can hear a bit of Dextor Gordon's tenor sax.
"Round Midnight" Starring Dextor Gordon

Another Show Rejection For "Forgotten Laughter"

Today got another gallery rejection for the "Forgotten Laughter: Families of the Dump" photographs. Their story it seems will never be told after yet another failure on my part to get that job done.

The little boy child below is "Chimiko" he is the young son of the bride and groom. This poor child lives in abject poverty, he has loving parents but not much else. He runs around half naked in the garbage and shits on the ground in front of his lean-too home. I watched one time as his mom used an old CD to pick up his waste and throw it into another part of the dump maybe 20 feet away from where the family slept.

I fucked up once again and yet again failed to tell this child's and the other children's story, the pictures were not good enough to be seen, their stories remains untold. No one gives a fuck and I did not make them care enough to show the work which is the job of all social documentary photographers. Some finacial-food-clothing-work equipment-education etc. help was given to the families through donations. but the project from a photographic level is a failure. As the person who made the pictures that failure falls on me. I let the children, the families and the people of the dump down.

Little Chimiko after his cry in the dump, Mae Sot Thailand April-May 2016

Here is the newest generic rejection email:

Dear Gerry,
Thank you for sending your submission to the Art Gallery of Regina.  The selection committee reviewed all submissions from the last deadline. We appreciated the opportunity to view your work. I regret that I can’t book your show at this time. This decision was in no way is a reflection on the quality of your work. We book our exhibition schedule two to three years in advance and have many factors to consider for our programming schedule.


We wish you the best of luck with your project.

----- ---
Director/Curator
Art Gallery of Regina

Jazz Maxx, Gerry Yaum Super Article Link???

Gosh found this today. Not sure it is a SUPER article but it sure is a SUPER memory for me. The photo and link was on the jazz blog site, www.jazzmaxx.com. Funny how quickly things spread online. A few days back I posted the story on Dupree and now "Gerry Yaum's Photo Blog" site is linked to "Jazz Maxx and other jazz sites. Go figure!
http://www.jazzwax.com/page/2/

I keep wondering what Dupree would think of all the attention he is getting now. My and Dupree's friend Sonny Land would probably get a big kick out of it. He loved Dupree's music before many others did. Sonny was a man who knew Jazz, thats for sure.

Dupree and the SUPER article link

My Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm F2.5 Lens With Speed Graphic Camera Has Arrived

Got My Kodak Aero Ektar 178mm F2.5 Lens With Speed Graphic Camera today.

The bad:
- There is no f-stop diaphragm on the Aero Ektar lens so I will need to shoot everything wide open  at F2.5. Not being able to change change the f-stops makes this lens a one trick pony.
- 90 mm Linhof lens is sort of lame and useless.
- 360mm Schneider lens has no shutter so will probably only be able to use it for wet plate if at all.

The good:
- The one trick the Aero Ektar creates a super cool bokeh picture. Tonight as I looked through the ground glass the lens seems to be creating images and a feel/emotion I have never seen/felt before. This lens is a truly unique piece. The glass is in very good condition, a lot better than the many versions of this lens I see on eBay. Many of the ebay Kodak Aero Ektar's havesuffered heavy mold, scratch, body damage etc.
- The lens also seems to have a 82mm filter ring fitted to it. I believe this is a later adaption to the lens. I should be able to use it with filters if I want to.I could at least might put on a UV filter to protect the lens. I wonder if that will affect the bokeh in any way.
- The 2 pinhole devices included should be fun to play with.
- The 100 sheet box of outdated (2010) Efke 25 4x5 is unopened. I might be able to sell it on eBay for a few bucks or use it myself for fun. Not sure if they make this film anymore.
- The 5-4x5 holders loaded with Velvia are fine, can always use more holders.
- The Speed Graphic camera body is in great shape outside of a crack on the ground glass. I should be able to use it for years in combo with the Aero Ektar. I bid on the auction for this camera/lens combo and I got a working unit.

The overall rank of this auction seems about a 7 or possibly 8 out of 10. I did not pay too much money and got a working Kodak Aero Ektar lens and camera, you got to love that. When I make the first good picture I will forget about all costs associated with this purchase. Pictures talk to me so when those pieces come along everything else fades. I will probably have to use this camera lens on a tripod as it is rather heavy and the depth of focus very very VERY shallow. Some people hand hold this type of unit, not sure I can, maybe at fast shutter of 1/500 or 1/125 and much practise with the focusing. This could be a very important future portrait lens, that I might try to use exclusively on a project/exhibition.

I might try placing a Linhof focusing hood on the camera body like photographer David Burnett has on his camera. I might also replace the glass ground glass with a my preferred plastic version.

David Burnett With His Speed Graphic And Kodak Aero Ektar