A Few More 35mm "Families Of The Mae Sot Dump" Photos

Developed another 8 rolls before going to bed today (working tonight), managed to do a few scans also. Near the bottom you can see the countless flies in the air in several of the pictures.

The girl below is Doo-aye who I wrote about in the blog earlier:

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-life-of-doo-aye.html

Doo-aye Garbage Dump, Mae Sot Thailand 2013

Doo-aye Garbage Dump, Mae Sot Thailand 2013

Sebastiao Salgado Releases Genesis

The greatest photographer alive Sebastiao Salgado is releasing what might be his last major project  "Genesis", here are some links and details.

http://www.amazonasimages.com/grands-travaux

http://www.cntraveler.com/daily-traveler/2013/04/photographer-sebastiao-salgado-genesis-book-exhibition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p017j7xv

http://www.amazon.ca/Sebastiao-Salgado-Genesis-Wanick-Salgado/dp/3836538725/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1370293198&sr=8-1&keywords=genesis+salgado

The collectors edition $3000 version of the book:

http://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/photography/all/02613/facts.sebastio_salgado_genesis.htm

More 4x5 Dump Photographs

I did not shoot a lot of 4x5 this trip and with the inevitable double exposures, blanks and fogged images there were even less possible printable negs. I did get some good things thou, I am having trouble scanning them with my 1/2 broken Epson scanner but will get them online as soon as I can. I doubt I could leave my 4x5 camera behind next trip, its just to damn exciting to shoot and the negs can be so damn strong if they are shot right. I will probably take both cameras again next trip, damn the weight!

More Boxer 4x5 Portraits

I like the 90mm better than the 150mm or full figure portraits but I need to work on my composition some with this lens, it seems I often shoot to far or do not place the figure quite right in the frame. I was looking at August Sander's German portraits again yesterday, quite often Sander would place his subjects feet near the bottom of the vertical or partially out of frame. I prefer to have the feet in the shot with a bit more space than the bottom two images here, with that space there seems to be a bit more balance to the photograph. I also need to be more selective in my subjects (try to find really strong people and landscapes to shoot) and try to not overshoot, maybe 2 or at most 3 sheets of film per subject portrait. My 4x5 portraiture continues to improve but its a slow methodical type process.

Quote: W. Eugene Smith

"An artist must be ruthlessly selfish."

Quote: Sebatiao Salgado

"You don't “take” pictures, you make pictures; you make them well and use them to communicate, to help the people and the situation."

Quotes On Humanity

We all view people differently, I recently had a rather heated email discussion with a friend about tax funding for the arts and the importance of photographing people. He wrote me of his lack of faith in humanity, and the fact he did not want to worship them through photography. I kind of see where my friend is coming from, there is so much negativity associated with humanity, its easy to get lost in all that. I feel  we must work harder to show the goodness, the beauty we all possess,  the common lives we all share. We all need to feed the good dog inside ourselves (the last quote).

“You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.” 
― Mother Teresa

“It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err.” 
― Mahatma Gandhi

“A feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men.” 
― Gloria Steinem

“Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive.” 
― Dalai Lama XIV, The Art of Happiness

“Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.” 
― Carl Sagan, Cosmos

“Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.” 
― Anaïs Nin

“In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
― Anne Frank

“How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a weary world.” 
― William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice

“There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.” 
― Victor Hugo, Les Misérables

“A Native American elder once described his own inner struggles in this manner: Inside of me there are two dogs. One of the dogs is mean and evil. The other dog is good. The mean dog fights the good dog all the time. When asked which dog wins, he reflected for a moment and replied, The one I feed the most.” 
― George Bernard Shaw

A Printing We Will Go!

I will be doing lots of printing over the coming months, I have to print two shows, one for New Orleans and one for Bangkok (digi prints?) and I have to print a single photo for the Alberta open. I love the darkroom so this should be quite fun and much easier, except for possibly the photo shop digi printer stuff.

My main concern is finding all of those blasted negs from years past, dating back to 2003. My filing system sucks and I am a about to pay for it with hours and hours of searching  binders and print file neg sheets.

Only 35mm?

With the purchase of the new lens I have been thinking of possibly doing something radical (at least for me its radical). What if I go to Thailand and photograph in the dump and other places but only take 35mm equipment. I could travel with 3 or 4 bodies and 4 lens along with 150 rolls of film, that's it! No tripod, no 4x5 camera, no 4x5 lens, no film holders, no changing bag, no reflector and no 4x5 film. I could take everything in carry on luggage and have no check in bags. Gosh I love shooting 4x5 portraiture, it would be hard to leave behind, but maybe its what I should do. I could shoot light and fast for 5 weeks with only the 35s.

Will think about it some more, it  might be the way to go. Maybe on a later trip I could only take 4x5 equipment.

Confirmatiom For 2nd International Solo Show

It looks like my 2nd solo show outside of Canada is set. The show will take place in March/April of 2014 in Bangkok at the new Toot Yung Gallery. I am not sure what I will show yet but right now it looks like color work possibly the Cambodian brothel series from 2003, the Bargirl series from 2003 or the Sex Worker headshot series from 2008-2010 or a combination of all 3.

If I show color work I will probably print it digitally so I can have more control, I am a novice when it comes to making  printer prints so will need to train some with a friend in the coming months. Mimi (artistic curator of the Toot Yung) and I want to keep the show a bit fun, not all serious social documentary stuff so I might include pics like the one below. I did this photo as part of the Bargirl series in 2003. The idea is of this sub-series is the woman's fake sex enjoyment, it was about how the women would pretend to enjoy sex with their customers (who often felt they were great lovers) but it was all for show, in my pics we exaggerated it so much that there was lots of laughter.

 The Toot Yung show will probably be a combination of serious documentary photographs plus some fun and joy works.

Bought A 35mm F1.4 Aspherical Leica Lens

Gosh not sure this was the right move, I was thinking of buying the older 1960-1995 version of this Leica 35mm 1.4 lens  for $2029 USD at KEH.COM but then I saw this new version 35mm 1.4 lens which is bigger and heavier but also sharper at F1.4, F2, F2.8 and F4 than the older lens. I decided to do limited bidding on it as it was in very good condition and there seemed to be not much interest. Their was a bidding war between myself and 2 other people in the last 15 seconds of the auction. In the end I paid more for this lens than any other lens in my life $3250 USD, WOW! This lens beat out my old record of $2800 for the 28mm F2 Leica lens (a lens I love!). I hope I chose the right version, the older model is smaller and lighter, this lens is longer-heavier but sharper and cost $1231 more. I guess sharpness is the most important thing, now I can have confidence shooting at the wider apertures. Another advantage is this lens focuses closer than the older version 25 inches as compared to 39 inches, focusing closer is a big big bonus.

The good news is the beat up versions of this lens sell for around $3200-$3500 and the nicer versions sell for $3900-$4700 USD so I got it at a decent price as mine is in very good condition. I now have one of Leica's top lens, and also one of its fastest, I can use it in Asia in October. Leica lens hold much of their value, if I resell the 35mm someday I should get most of my money back. I always preach (sermonize) to my friends to get the best most reliable equipment and that is what I have done here. I paid a lot for it but I got a world class piece of glass which I will use for the rest of my life, I am starting to feel better about this decision.

I now need to decide to go with 3 or 4 bodies at the dump in Asia in October, I think at this point I will go with 2 M6 bodies, 1 M4P body and 4 lens, the 21mm, 28mm, 35mm and 50mm.

I am really drained of cash right now, I will put the gearing buying behind me now. I wanted to get a Gitzo center column geared tripod to use with the Linhof but that will probably have to wait until 2014. I will have to use my cheap Chinese carbon fiber copy tripod for at least 1 more year, hope it does not break down again, I have the thing super glued together.


Here is the beautiful Leica 35mm F1.4, I hope I can make some strong images with it next trip.

From Ken Rockwell's review of the lens.
The LEICA 35mm f/1.4 SUMMILUX-M is a super-sharp, super-fast general-purpose lens intended for journalists. Shoot it at f/1.4 and it's sharper than most other brand 35mm lenses at any aperture. I can shoot ISO 50 Velvia at night at 1/3 of a second hand-held at f/1.4, and get great results. 
 Note* I got an email from the seller saying he will ship on Tuesday. The lens is coming in from New Zealand so hopefully in 2-3 weeks I will have the lens and be testing it. Now if I can just manage not to drop it (like I did my Leica 28mm F2 and my Leica 50mm F1.4), I'm sitting pretty! Hopefully my tax refund check comes soon.

Supplies!

I am trying to cut back on the gear buying and concentrate on buying the raw materials I need for my photography, film, paper and chemistry.

Today I did a bigger buy:

- Kodak D-76 21 packages.
- Kodak Fixer  13 packages.
- Kodak Hypo Clear 4 packages.
- Dektol 18 packages.
- Ilford Rapid fix 5L 1 bottle.
The grand total with tax was $482.58 CAD.

I managed to clean out my  local photo supplier, with Kodak playing fast and loose with their pricing I thought I better buy as much as I could now locally before the prices went up 30% or more.

I also picked up some stuff from my Winnipeg supplier, some Ilford film was returned from a school back to the store and was now selling at a discount, outdated in 2014.

- Ilford HP5 HP5 100 foot roll, 5 boxes $45 dollars a box.

I wanted to play with a smaller quantity of HP5 before changing over from Tri-x to save money. The cheapest place I found to buy fresh HP5 was at B&H at $60.43 USD the Tri-x is listed at $78.20 USD. I would save almost $20 a box if I switch films, its worth thinking about. I bought this slightly dated cheaper HP5 to test to see how it compares to Tri-x. Most of the costs (3.5 rolls) were covered by the darkroom lesson and the Alberta open artist fee, anytime I can get free film its a good deal.

Most film is shot and forgotten, bad exposures, bad composition, a bad decisive moment but then there are some pieces of  film that record a great photograph, then the neg is treasured, cared for and in a sense never dies. I hope some of today's free film falls into that latter category and captures something important. Here is my weird thought of the day, I feel the photographer owes the film, almost like its alive, he owes it a chance to record and remember something great.

Another Set Of 35mm People Of The Dump Pictures

The top photograph is of the woman from the hairpin story I wrote while in Mae Sot. You can see the hairpin in her hair in this photograph.

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.ca/2013/05/hairpins.html

Prints Mounted To Aluminum

When I was in San Francisco I saw Avedon prints mounted on aluminum, it was such a simple and efficient way to do things.  I want to show my PhotoNOLA show in the same way, it will give the prints a nice look and it will save on shipping costs to and from the exhibit.

Here is Avedon's work at Pier 24:

Richard Avedon

Thank You Email

Got a nice thank you email today from the student I had in on Thursday, not only did I get a bit of money I was also able to help inspire someone on the joys of the darkroom, it was a win win. I hope to do more of these in the future.

Gerry!

I just wanted to thank you again for the awesome darkroom session! I learnt so much and I'm so stoked on my prints that I made! Thanks for sharing you knowledge and sharing your creative space and letting my do all of it on my own and guiding me through the process! I will defiantly be continuing learning the darkroom and black and white photography! you've defiantly been a inspiration! 

I look forward to another darkroom session and to seeing you around!

.......

Take'r easy!

2013 Alberta Photo Open Acceptance Letter

Well got a bit of good news in the mail today after 2 days of face slaps.  I got one print into the 2013 Alberta Photo Open at the Kaasa Gallery (where my solo show is now).What I am most surprised at is that they accepted a sex worker portrait, in the past any of the sex worker images was quickly rejected, maybe the judges are selecting a wider range of work, lets hope so.

Here is part of that email:

Congratulations! On behalf of Visual Arts Alberta- CARFAC. I am pleased to advise you have been selected by the jury for the Open Photo/Open Digital exhibition scheduled to run from August 30- Oct 12 2013 in the Kaasa Gallery of the Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Edmonton and most likely moving to the Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium in Calgary in October........

Nearly 200 images were submitted by 49 artists with 31 selected by 27 artists to be shown in the exhibition. I am pleased to advise you that the jury slec ted the following image from your submission:

Nit, 51, Sex Worker

....A people's choice award will be given out at the opening reception in Edmonton. All artists will receive a small artist fee of $75 for participating in this exhibition. 


With the $75 I can buy a bit more film! The submission was fast and easy, just sent out an email and got in, thats always nice. Now if I can someday get the Alberta Foundation For The Arts grant folks to jump on the boat I'm smiling!

Here is the selected photo, I will print it 16x20:

More 35mm Dump Family Scans

Tax Money To Support The Arts?

Been having a debate with a photo/art friend who does not believe any tax money should ever be spent in support of the arts, I disagree with him. The point I made when he said that only essential things should be covered with tax dollars, nothing else, was this:

"art is essential...there should be more to life than living day to day, just surviving......art is the expression of our deepest humanity...it enlivens our hearts, expands our minds and enriches our souls"

Charity Calendar ??

I have been getting lots of advice from various friends on the calendar I am thinking of doing for charity. I am not sure if this is going to happen, my finances are iffy at best so I need to research this carefully before committing $2000 dollars to it. My thinking at present is if I do a calendar I would do it with 35mm shots of the children I shot this month and call it something like "Children Of The Mae Sot Garbage Dump", on the back I would indicate that 100% of the proceeds (plus my donation) will go to the Sky Blue School next to the dump. I think a selection of 12 photographs with children as the main subject would help with the fundraising effort, the fact the money is going to their school would also connect with that theme. I am not sure I want to put the Gerry Yaum name on it, if I do put my fake name on it I will just put it on the back somewhere in small letters. Who cares who took the pictures, its the people in the pictures that matter, selling the calendars and donating the money to the school is the important thing.

Think if it happens I might include these images, I still have lots of film to scan through and develop yet, but I like these as early selections. I might need to include some tighter shots as well as these are pretty wide compositions.

Over Shooting Improving Slowly

The more I shoot my Leica's the less overshooting I do. This last trip I was able to be a bit more selective than previous years, there are not as many wasted shots. Even thou things have improved I still shoot way to much film and need to cut down on my bad shots by at least 1/2 of what I do now. I need to concentrate better and properly anticipate the decisive moment. Like anything the more you do it the better you become, thats also the way it works in photography, in October I will continue down this long learning curve.

Student

I had a 3 hour darkroom teaching session last night with a student that was extended to 4 hours. Teaching was quite fun, I went over the basics of RC printing and had the student (Ryan) doing as much hands on work as I could give him. The money I made from the session I will re-invest in 100 foot rolls of Ilford HP5 35mm, checking pricing on that now. Hopefully this teaching money  re-investment will lead to an important negative and print. Any and all money I make through my photography gets reinvested back into the photography.

The Next Group Of 35mm Leica Mae Sot Dump Photographs

Art By Acquisition Rejection Letter

I got my Art By Acquisition rejection letter today, they rejected the 5-35mm images I submitted. There were 846 works from 203 artists submitted, my photographs did not make it to the second level as decided by the expert panel.

I guess the expert panel is made up members from the Alberta art community ( I wonder how you are judged an art expert?). That's 2 rejection letters in 2 days, will try again next year with some 4x5 work, maybe submit some folios (multiple images with a common theme).

Here are the 5 photographs that were rejected:

http://gerryyaum.blogspot.ca/2013/03/submitting-5-photos-to-alberta-arts.html 

Nikon 90mm And Tri-x

Put the Nikon 90 on the Linhof, boy is this baby fun to focus, tons of light. ou definately get what you pay for, the F4.5 is worth the extra money. I think/hope this 90mm will be my main portrait lens, I will use the 150 to do head shots or head and shoulder portraits and the 90mm will cover all my horizontal and vertical full body portraits.

I am feeling more and more comfortable with the 4x5 in the field, I want to experiment with the 5x7 now and the 8x10. I have lots more than 500 sheets of 5x7 and 600 sheets of 8x10 in Tri-x film, I want to put those sheets to important use, now with the cost skyrocketing I might not be buying any more. It is important to use my supply of Tri-x film wisely, making important portraits.

I think I might also buy some HP5 and mix it in with my Tri-x on my trips, this way I can use the HP5 when I am unsure of a subject and the Tri-x for the most important photographs. This will allow me to continue to improve as a shooter and will allow me to use the Tri-x I have frozen for a longer time (when I am a better shooter than today).

More 4x5 Dump Photos