Oops, turns out I was not refused a grant for the 4th time in my haste and sleepiness I went off fully cocked to early. I will re post that rant later when I am actually rejected (in a month?).
What the Alberta Foundation for the ARTS rejected was my 5 photos I submitted below for their art acquisition buy. This still sucks I could have used the money to make more photos and a purchase of images would have allowed the voices of those photographed to be heard and be seen by the people of Alberta. With no one willing to show or buy the work they will sit abandoned in my neg binders, the lives in the stories forgotten. It's frustrating when you throw everything you have into your work and people keep saying no. You struggle on, do your best, fight to create, you work and work and work some more, then another no and another no. I feel like I let all the folks in the pictures down, I was not able to tell their stories and show the world their lives.
I thought the photographs were as good as anything I have ever done. I do not know if I can do work stronger than this. What do you do if you gave it everything you got, if you do as good as you can do and they still say no? The expert panel did not think the work worthy, I wonder what qualifies you as an art "Expert".
I need to move on and keep trying, maybe someday the stories I try to tell, and the lives of the people that I photograph will be heard. I need to keep pushing myself, I owe it to the people that let me into their lives. I need to keep working to tell the story of the little girl in the hammock living in the dump, the old man suffering from leprosy, the drugged out and forgotten Nepalese street kids, the young mother bathing her refugee baby, and the forgotten migrant farm family living in a tin hut. Maybe the expert panel people do not think their stories are worthy of being seen, but I need to keep fighting to get those voices heard.
Maybe that's all a bit of a dream, all a delusion on my part, all a bunch of self righteous nonsense but f-ck it it's my blog and I can rant all I want! : ) Sometimes it's good to vent!
I will keep shooting, I will keep working, I will keep telling my stories, I will never give up, f-ck all the art "EXPERTS" who think otherwise! Nothing will stop me!
Here are the rejected images:
http://gerryyaum.blogspot.ca/2014/03/art-by-aquisition-2014.html
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| Young girl playing in garbage"Families of the Dump" series, Mae Sot Thailand, 2013 |
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| Man in leprosy colony"Leprosy" series, Nepal 2013 |
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| Young boys sleeping on street, Nepal 2013 |
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| Mother bathing her baby girl, Mae Sot Thailand 2013 |
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| Mother cooking for family, Nepal 2013 |
