I have been told that there are injected drugs here in the Bangkok slum, but have not seen any of that "under the freeway". I photographed some African American friends injecting heroin and speedballs (mix of heroin and cocaine) back when I was 21 in Oakland, California, 1985. I am glad I have seen none of that "under the freeway". That seems another nastier level to me. At least one of the men I knew in West Oakland died of AIDS as a result of shared needles.
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YAUM PHOTO WEBSITE
The 15 Year Ambrotype Project, Telling The Story of Canada
Why I visit Thailand often
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
2017 Story on an Exhibition about the 13 months of my dad life, fighting pancreatic cancer. MY FATHERS LAST DAYS
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?
Families working the garbage at night.
My plan for Platinum print exhibitions.
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!"
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Contact Gerry Yaum
contact@gerryyaum.net
GERRY YAUM'S Photography Website "Tears of a Butterfly"
YAUM PHOTO WEBSITE
AMBROTOS KANATA STORIES BLOG
The 15 Year Ambrotype Project, Telling The Story of Canada
WHY I GO TO THAILAND
Why I visit Thailand often
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
St. Albert Gazette MY FATHERS LAST DAYS Story
2017 Story on an Exhibition about the 13 months of my dad life, fighting pancreatic cancer. MY FATHERS LAST DAYS
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?
UNB Newsletter, THE FAMLIES OF THE DUMP image.
Families working the garbage at night.
THE GRAND PLATINUM PRINT PLAN
My plan for Platinum print exhibitions.
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
Gerry Yaum On Facebook
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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May
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- Two Little Old Ladies
- Tired and Sore!
- Quote: Mahatma Gandhi
- 75 Year Old Lady Chases Me Down
- Fight thru the Injury.
- Gave Away My Water
- Old Trucks!
- Playing GOD
- Today’ Donations
- Having Sex on the Street
- Swollen Knee
- Dao and Prem Fighting, Under the Freeway
- Dao and Prem Super Intense Day
- Donations Today Under the Freeway
- Videos: Intense First Day Back Under the Freeway
- Some more THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, 2025
- Some New Dump Images, 2025, the First Edits
- Video: Gai Chon at the Dump
- Photo Album Adventure!
- Last Day in the Dump for 2025
- VIDEO: Lovely Children at the Dump
- VIDEO/LINKS: IYE IYE Returns!!
- Video: Lady puts on Tiger Balm
- Video: Cookies for the Children of the Dump
- Video: Joh Joh
- Gerry in Photos
- More Platinum Prints to
- Dimsum's Dump Sister
- Videos: Various Day 4 Dump Videos
- Video: Today at the Dump
- Video: Plucking a Chicken in the Dump
- Hotcakes at the Dump
- Headlamp Buy 2025
- Weird Moment of the Day
- Donated Lollipops
- Video: Woo Family Names
- Headlamp buy, Thank You UNB
- Donations for Older People
- Donations for Dump Children
- Video: Slum Video
- Trouble Sleeping
- Super Friendly Day at the Dump
- 15 Year Old Girl
- 3 Years
- Gerry x 15!!
- Video: Looking at Pictures in the Dump
- Lost 12 Pounds
- Khun Gerry!
- 3 Gerry’s
- Damaged Camera, SUCKS BIG TIME!!
- Quote: Van Gogh
- More Donations Today
- Feeling Uncomfortable Today
- Video: Eating Donated Food Today "UNDER THE FREEWA...
- Wears You Out
- 2 New THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE UNDER THE FREEWAY IMAGES
- 2nd Hand YaBa Smoke Dangers?
- Link: Yaba Facts
- Apple Gets Personal
- Another Good Day
- Todays Donations
- FAWNING Women
- Quote: Pope Leo XIV
- A Hug From Apple
- Arrived Late but had a Good Day UNDER THE FREEWAY
- 1500 Baht Donations Today UNDER THE FREEWAY
- I Will Miss Them!
- Videos: From UNDER THE FREEWAY TODAY!
- Saved by Ann
- 2 Week Ago Photos, UNDER THE FREEWAY
- Thankfully No Needle Injection Drugs yet here UNDE...
- Selfies from Under The Freewayy
- Khun Apple GoGo Girl Money
- Drug Expert Gerry
- This Was Sweet
- Joking with Apple UNDER THE FREEWAY
- Back UNDER THE FREEWAY
- Link: Justice for Photographer Nick Ut
- Quote: Sedat Pakay
- Will Buy Food with FRAMES Artist Fee
- Link: 7 Photos and $200 USD
- Quote: Chief Seattle
- The Haves and Have Nots
- Rich Phuket!
- 4th Photography Magazine!?
- Quote: Leo Tolstoy
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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."