I Have Some Good News And Bad News For You

You know when an email starts out like that your going to be partially disappointed. I got one print accepted into the art archives of Alberta through the foundation for the arts program, the bad news was that the second print was rejected.

I am happy to be part of this collection, it is something I have dreamed of for several years. When I started in photography many years ago I wanted to create a body of work that would be remembered after my death, guess that's a bit of a selfish goal but heck we all are selfish to a degree. Now that this single photograph was accepted I know that it will be in the archive after I pass, and that's a very comforting thought.

I am very happy that the young boy I photographed (the accepted photograph is "Young Monk Chiang Khong Thailand 2010") will be remembered, he will live on in the archive as the person I met and photographed that day. This boy had a real beauty to him, when I was photographing him I thought, what potential he has as an individual, his whole life stood before him. The boy had a amazingly vibrant skin, he looked like a new born babies hands look, perfect, un-scared and un-wrinkled. Now that he is part of the archive a piece of him will always remain perfect. His life will change, maybe he will live a long life or maybe die young, he might have a family or might continue life as a monk. The cool part of photography is that this small piece of who he was on that day is now captured forever, and because of this art archive 200 years from now someone might look at the photograph and remember this young boy, think about him, wonder about his life. How cool is that!! To be a small part of that process is wonderfully exciting.

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.com/2011/03/young-monk.html

I am sad thou that I let the other person down that was under consideration. I did a photograph in Klong Toey slum of a man in the entrance to his home. I so wanted to have this man remembered as well and I failed to do that. I feel I have an obligation to the people I photograph. They gave me the opportunity to make the their portrait, I should have made a portrait that worthy of being collected. I feel like I failed this man, did not live up to my responsibility to him. When I return to Thailand in September I will go give him his photographs and try to photograph him again, maybe I can make a better job of it the second time around. I hope I can remember where he lived, it was such a small sad little place it might be hard to track him down again. I feel lousy about not living up to my obligation to him. He deserves to be remembered and I did not rise to the opportunity he gave me, I failed him.

So it was a good and bad news type day. I am happy to be part of the provinces archive, it will also be good to have a small credit I can place on my CV for the coming group show. Both Larry and Jonathan (the other photographers involved in "Faded Lives") are heavy hitters and adding this to my resume makes the field slightly more balanced.

On a more practical level. I made $400 with the print sale which I will use to buy 300 sheets of Tri-x 4x5 film for the Asia trips this year. I am short of money now, have to find the funds somewhere to continue the work. I might have to take a second job so I can pay off bills and save money for future photo trips. Got to figure out new ways to fund my work, maybe try to get some grants from the provincial or federal governments. Even thinking of putting a donate link on this blog from paypal! Don't think it costs anything to add the link and who knows it might give me the opportunity to make photographs I might not otherwise have the money to make. The worse that could happen is I might have a link that is not used.