Looking through all the great photographer books this week (today
Phillip Jones Griffiths, Sebastiao Salgado and a Magnum book), one thing
thing comes out over and over again in the pictures, a great great
compassion for the subject. Guys like Griffiths, McCullin, Smith,
Koudelka and Salgado were (are) not only great technical people that
produced outstanding work, they also had (have) a deep seated
understanding and feeling for their subjects. The only way you risk your
life and invest that much time and effort into something is if you
think its worth dying over. These men all were able to translate that
deep emotion and commitment into compassionate understanding photographs
that shouted out the message they were sending.
I need to understand the people I photograph better, I need to get
deeper into their lives, I need to make a deeper commitment than I am
making now. Will be in Thai soon, time to get started!
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YAUM PHOTO WEBSITE
YAUM Interview on FRAMES YouTube Channel
11 Photos, an Interview and the Cover. THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY. The cover image is of Khun Oye, 72, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2018
The 15 Year Ambrotype Project, Telling The Story of Canada
Article From Issue 160 "Black&White" Magazine, on Concerned Photography
Interview for the 2 University of New Brunswick Art Centre Exhitions
Opening Night Video For THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY and THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP Exhibitions
THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photos, Online Version of the Published Magazine Story
THE FAMILES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photographs
FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Story and Photographs
Photographs and Interview
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY: Photographs and Interview
Penticton Art Gallery explores life on the margins of society - Interview And Story
Visualizing Families of the Dump - Photographs and Interview
LOOK CLOSER: Do we need a photographic code of ethics?
Shows, photo stories, darkroom work, shooting in the field and fun videos.
GERRY YAUM FACEBOOK
My time in a West Oakland with friends, 1985
I have been thinking of why I love photography, it comes down to something I have labeled "The Three Joys"
1) Creativity
The first joy is simply creating the work. Everything about the making of photographs I love. The initial ideas, the writing on the blog, the preparation of equipment, the research into my subjects, figuring out what I want to communicate. The camera tech stuff like composition, lens selection, cameras, figuring exposure, taking the shot etc. The post darkroom work where you swim with your prints bringing them slowly to life, creating something powerful and beautiful. I love it all.
It is so powerful a thing, you have a idea in your mind, there is nothing else, then YOU make it, you create it, it's fricking awesome stuff.
2) The People
The second joy is that photography has allowed me a way into so many peoples lives, so many different worlds. I get to meet people of all types, speak to them, eat with them, cry and laugh with them. For a while I get to live their existence to be them if you will.
I get to be a child in a slum in Bangkok or a drug addict in a ghetto in Oakland. I get to be a ladyboy sex worker in Pattaya or a man dying of cancer in Canada. Of course I am not really those people but I get a true flavor for those worlds, those experiences, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the joy and the sadness.
With photography I get a chance to live outside of the same same everyday meat and potato lives many of my friends and family live. Because I use a camera and make pictures all the doors to a wonderful life experience are open to me, photography is a window into everything!
3) The Photograph
The third joy is about the feeling you get when you accomplish your goals, when you see your final print in the developer, fix or hanging in a gallery. There is a special emotion there, a true satisfied happiness, something so uniquely rewarding. In the darkroom sometimes when I see the finished photo for the first time as it lays in the fixer tray I will let out hoops of joy. I will scream and shout. It is quite a spectacle! It's just the sheer high of that moment bursting out, the YES moment. When the photo is right and you see it for the first time it's the best feeling in the world, better than anything I have ever felt, the high of highs!!
"Ain't Photography Grand!"
Contact Gerry Yaum
contact@gerryyaum.net
GERRY YAUM'S Photography Website "Tears of a Butterfly"
YAUM PHOTO WEBSITE
Search This Blog
Gerry Yaum Interview, FRAMES PHOTOGRAPHY MAGAZINE YouTube Channel
YAUM Interview on FRAMES YouTube Channel
"Black & White" Photography Magazine, Issue #160
11 Photos, an Interview and the Cover. THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY. The cover image is of Khun Oye, 72, Klong Toey Slum, Bangkok, Thailand 2018
AMBROTOS KANATA STORIES BLOG
The 15 Year Ambrotype Project, Telling The Story of Canada
Me, W. Eugene Smith, Sebastiao Salgado, Lewis Hine and Walker Evans! :) NOT!!!
Article From Issue 160 "Black&White" Magazine, on Concerned Photography
LUNCHBOX Radio Interview FOR UNB EXHIBITIONS
Interview for the 2 University of New Brunswick Art Centre Exhitions
MONEY EARNED TO HELP THE PEOPLE IN THE PICTURES
Money that will be used to directly help the people in our two photography projects, THE FAMILIES OF THE DUM and THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY $6334.67 ($6000 earned when 6 prints were added to the UNB permanent collection).
GOFUNDME, FAMILES/FREEWAY
Trying to raise $2000 to help the people under the freeway, and the families of the dump. TOTAL RAISED SO FAR = $325 —->$314.67 (after GOFUNDME fees).
UNIVERSITY OF NEW BRUNSWICK EXHIBITIONS VIDEO
Opening Night Video For THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY and THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP Exhibitions
Analog Forever Magazine
THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photos, Online Version of the Published Magazine Story
Asia Photo Review
THE FAMILES OF THE DUMP: Interview and Photographs
Flash Photographic Festival 2022
FAMILIES OF THE DUMP: Story and Photographs
Slate- THE SEX WORKERS OF THAILAND
Photographs and Interview
The Focal Collective
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY: Photographs and Interview
Vernon Morning Star Newspaper Story
Penticton Art Gallery explores life on the margins of society - Interview And Story
Aquinion Newspaper Interview.
Visualizing Families of the Dump - Photographs and Interview
FRAMES MAGAZINE STORY
LOOK CLOSER: Do we need a photographic code of ethics?
2022 "Families of the Dump"/The People Who Live Under The Freeway Donation Buys
Total donation money spent for the 2022 trip to the Mae Sot dump (THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP), Bangkok's Klong Toey Slum (THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY). Money spent on "The Families of the Dump" = $571.17 CAD (14982 Thai Baht) Money spent on "The People Who Live Under The Freeway = $144 CAD (3849 Thai Baht) General cases where money was spent to help others in need $15 CAD (401baht)
(Thai Currency) or
CAD
"Families of the Dump" Donation Total
$4420.02 CAD
GERRY YAUM'S Documentary Film Making Blog
GERRY YAUM: YouTube Video PHOTOGRAPHY CHANNEL
Shows, photo stories, darkroom work, shooting in the field and fun videos.
GERRY YAUM'S VIMEO Video Page
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GERRY YAUM FACEBOOK
THE GOAL
To create photographs that speak to the universality, the commonality and the shared humanity of all peoples, regardless of country, race, culture or language.
TRANSLATE YAUM'S PHOTO DIARY INTO YOUR LANGUAGE
Quote: Robert F. Kennedy
“The purpose of life is to contribute in some way to making things better.”
Quote: Nelson Mandela
"As long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest."
Quote: Weegee (Authur Fellig)
"Be original and develop your own style, but don't forget above anything and everything else...be human...think...feel. When you find yourself beginning to feel a bond between yourself and the people you photograph, when you laugh and cry with their laughter and tears, you will know your on the right track....Good luck."
Blog Archive
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April
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- Dizzy
- In Bangkok
- Sucessful Final Test
- Webpage Makeover
- Last Look
- I Got My 28mm Lens Back!!
- Another Mae Sot Dump Video : Nya Htoo's Storry
- EAC Anual Report
- A Documentary About The Dumpsite Workers In Mae Sot
- Couple Of Lost 4x5 Negs
- Rob's 90mm
- Scared And Excited
- 8 Lost 35mm Films And Some Lost 4x5
- Third Day Of Tests
- Preparing For Thailand
- More Photos From The Opening
- The Count Stands At 74 For Tomorrow's Opening Rece...
- Great Compassion
- To Much Film?
- Firstpost.com "The Train Is Coming" Show Link
- Another Dump Video From Youtube
- The Beauty Of 35mm Tri-x
- Photo Subjects In Mae Sot
- Artists In Canada Link
- Final Kit Selection?
- Shot In The Dark Email Invitation And A Classy Reply
- Stand Development Test #2
- Bangkok Thailand Toot Yung Gallery Show, A Go Again!
- Confidence
- Stand Development
- More 21mm Shots To Come!
- Pushed Boxing Pics
- Latest Refined Kit
- Show Attendance Headcount at 53 People
- A Love For Life, Goodbye Roger Ebert
- More More More Forgotten Klong Toey Negs
- Poipet Cambodia Found Negs
- More More Forgotten Klong Toey Negs
- Getting That Nervous Feeling!
- More Forgotten Klong Toey Slum Negs
- Bus Series
- Developing 8x10 Film Again
- Forgotten Negs Klong Toey Slum
- Dreaming Of Using Nikon F5
- San Francisco Tri-Elmar Leica Lens
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April
(45)
Total Pageviews
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
My time in a West Oakland with friends, 1985
The Three Joys Of Photography
The Three Joys
1) Creativity
The first joy is simply creating the work. Everything about the making of photographs I love. The initial ideas, the writing on the blog, the preparation of equipment, the research into my subjects, figuring out what I want to communicate. The camera tech stuff like composition, lens selection, cameras, figuring exposure, taking the shot etc. The post darkroom work where you swim with your prints bringing them slowly to life, creating something powerful and beautiful. I love it all.
It is so powerful a thing, you have a idea in your mind, there is nothing else, then YOU make it, you create it, it's fricking awesome stuff.
2) The People
The second joy is that photography has allowed me a way into so many peoples lives, so many different worlds. I get to meet people of all types, speak to them, eat with them, cry and laugh with them. For a while I get to live their existence to be them if you will.
I get to be a child in a slum in Bangkok or a drug addict in a ghetto in Oakland. I get to be a ladyboy sex worker in Pattaya or a man dying of cancer in Canada. Of course I am not really those people but I get a true flavor for those worlds, those experiences, the good and the bad, the ugly and the beautiful, the joy and the sadness.
With photography I get a chance to live outside of the same same everyday meat and potato lives many of my friends and family live. Because I use a camera and make pictures all the doors to a wonderful life experience are open to me, photography is a window into everything!
3) The Photograph
The third joy is about the feeling you get when you accomplish your goals, when you see your final print in the developer, fix or hanging in a gallery. There is a special emotion there, a true satisfied happiness, something so uniquely rewarding. In the darkroom sometimes when I see the finished photo for the first time as it lays in the fixer tray I will let out hoops of joy. I will scream and shout. It is quite a spectacle! It's just the sheer high of that moment bursting out, the YES moment. When the photo is right and you see it for the first time it's the best feeling in the world, better than anything I have ever felt, the high of highs!!
"Ain't Photography Grand!"
Contact Gerry
- Gerry Yaum
- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Email Gerry: gerryyaum@gmail.com
"Can a photograph stop a war? Can it save a life? Can it lead to understanding, inspire someone to help, provide comfort and open the door to compassion?
Hope that it can.
Pray that it can."
Hope that it can.
Pray that it can."