I hate writing about myself. The me me me stuff that many art folk do is so tiring and filled with bullshit, I do not want to go there! Writing about photography, or about my subjects is great, but who gives a flying f-ck about Gerry, not me.
I was asked to do a "Bio and a Project Statement" for THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, which will be in the next issue of the online magazine "Shades of Grey". This is what I wrote for them:
I was asked to do a "Bio and a Project Statement" for THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY, which will be in the next issue of the online magazine "Shades of Grey". This is what I wrote for them:
Bio
My
pseudonym is Gerry Yaum, I am a Canadian security guard and social documentary
photographer. My only goal as a photographer is to tell the stories of the
people I photograph in an honest, true and empathetic way. Through my
photographs I hope to allow my subjects lives to be seen, thought of, honoured
and remembered.
My main
influences are the photographers W. Eugene Smith and Sebastiao Salgado. Both
men I admire greatly for their compassion and their shared love for humanity.
Project Statement
THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE
UNDER THE FREEWAY
The men and women photographed in THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER
THE FREEWAY are a group of Thais who live in slum rooms and shacks under or
near an active freeway in Bangkok, Thailand's notorious Klong Toey Slum. They exist on
the edge of society, often forgotten by their peers and abandoned by their
families and loved ones. THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY fight a daily
battle to survive in an over populated city swarming with well over 10 million
people.
