The young bride Mai (her name is longer than that in Burmese but its what I can remember) looked very beautiful today in her gold dress, and pink shall. She was made up with white thanaka paste on her face and sat shyly under the dump shack home she shared with her family (5 or more in this hut). Later on in the day I took a photo of her in the small hut next to the family Buddha shrine as she demurely kissed her grand father on the cheek. Such a shy beautiful girl, what will her future hold? She is married at 15, she will be starting a family in the next few years, will she continue to live illegally in Thailand? Will Burma find peace? Will she only have scavenging in the dump for an income? What about her children, what futures will they have? I guess all of those thoughts are for another day, today she was a special person, a beautiful young bride and on top of the world! I will remember the shy happy look in her eyes for a long time, a truly beautiful bride, good luck to you Mai.
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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
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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
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Shows, photo stories, darkroom work, shooting in the field and fun videos.
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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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2013
(720)
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May
(92)
- 2013 Alberta Photo Open Acceptance Letter
- More 35mm Dump Family Scans
- Tax Money To Support The Arts?
- Charity Calendar ??
- Over Shooting Improving Slowly
- Student
- The Next Group Of 35mm Leica Mae Sot Dump Photographs
- Art By Acquisition Rejection Letter
- Nikon 90mm And Tri-x
- More 4x5 Dump Photos
- 1st Day Klong Toey Boxing Portraits Turned Out!
- Down
- Strike 3, Grant Rejected Again By the Alberta Foun...
- Cambodia Pictures? What Cambodia Pictures?
- VIdeo: FIrst Day At The Dump
- Kodak Tri-x Prices Go Fricking Insane!!!!!!!
- All In?
- First 35mm "Families Of the Dump" Photos
- 50 More Boxes
- The Art Of Photography By Ted Forbes
- Inspired
- African Sex Worker Photo Idea
- First 4x5 Scans From Trip
- First Negs And New 90mm
- People Of The Dump Thoughts
- Zeitgeist Multi-Disciplinary Art Center Owner Story
- PhotoNOLA New Orleans Show Confirmation
- More Expenses
- Montreal Gazette Show Promo Link
- What I Want To Say, The Story Of The Sex Worker
- Gerry Yaum The Last 30 Years
- Down To 228lbs
- Mumbai Where Its Cooler!
- Toot Yung Gallery Digi Pics
- First Digi Scans From The Dumpsite Photos
- New Tools, Backups And Repairs
- Back In Canada
- Last 30 Sheets
- The Value Of Speaking Thai
- 10 Sex Worker On White Submissions
- Toot Yung Gallery Looking Good!
- Prostitution Revisted?
- Almost Back To Normal
- Mr Vomit Returns
- The Life Of Doo-aye
- Money Makes The Difference
- Givers And Takers
- Burnt Out
- Once Again The Quiet Meal
- Overheard On The Computer Next To Me
- In Pattaya
- Off To Bangkok
- Singing Along
- Day 8 Saying Goodbye At The Dump
- New Orleans PhotoNOLA Show A Go!
- Western Arrogance?
- Why No Hat?
- Wonderful Tools
- Coughing More
- More Burmese Language Needed!
- 4x5 Working In The Dump Portraits
- Nationalism Versus Humanism
- Flies? What Flies? Day 7 At The Dump
- Subjects Everywhere
- Boredom In The Dump
- Raining At The Dump Day 6
- 1 Or 2 More Days
- Hairpins
- Singing A Song
- Flies And Sweat Day 5 In The Dump Site
- No Days Off
- Extra Effort Made
- Beautiful Bride
- Child Crying In The Dump
- Quote : Mexican Migrant Worker
- Amazing Day
- Changing Film In Dump Site Shack
- Lens Problem
- Day 3 In The Dump
- Video Play
- You Need A Hat!
- A Cool 37C
- Sky Blue School At Mae Sot Dump Site
- Thai TV Strange Viewing
- Burmese Language Lessons Continue
- I Think I Just Ate A Fly
- Homemade Icecream
- 2nd Day At The Dump
- First Day At The Dump Site
- Bus To Mae Sod
- Back To The Muay Thai Gym
- Met Mimi From Toot Yung Gallery
-
▼
May
(92)
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."