Poem: "Invictus" By William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1902)

Nelson Mandela had this poem taped to a wall in his cell on Robben Island prison.

               Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.  

Morgan Freeman recites the poem on Charlie Rose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7q_vACVwq0

Another nice Condo

$93500 CAD 57sqm, 2 beds 1 bath. This place has a washer in the room, which is important. Bangkok is a city where you wear a shirt once and its covered in sweat and needs to be washed. The Canadian dollar kind of sucks right now so if I bought I would wait till it was stronger. Still it's fun to distract the mind and dream of places like this. It would help the photography a lot, having a permanent residence.

Another Condo

Here is another interesting condo for sale in Bangkok. This one is fairly large and in a decent location (not to far from skytrain). It is 73 sqm, has 2 bedrooms a decent balcony (for tintypes?), nice kitchen, eating and TV areas. The cost of this condo is $84000 CAD plus deed transfer and lawyer costs ($5000?). This is a freehold property which means a Westerner can own 100% of the condo, and sell it later if they want. All furniture is included in the sale.

Links: Not For Sale?

My portraits from Klong Toey slum were taken off the blog and changed up to do this "Not For Sale" campaign. The adapted campaign photos are from someones personal website, their portfolio, their designs for various types of advertising.

I have no problem that she took my photos. The Toronto designer added lipstick and text to my original 4x5 scanned photographs. She gave me a photo credit and a link back to this blog. It would have been nice if she had sent me a note before using the pics, I certainly would have agreed to their use.

Too bad the photos are not part of a real advertising campaign. Who does not want to stop child slavery! I would have liked for my photos to be used for an important cause like that.

http://www.jazminlihou.com/tag/campaign/
http://www.jazminlihou.com/portfolio/

There is an actual real "not for sale" site and group of folks that are trying to stop human trafficking .
http://notforsalecampaign.org/

None Of It Really Matters

Lately the photography stuff has been going well.

1) Was able to show the "Families of the Dump" photos in a beautiful gallery with over 100 guests.
2) Was able to speak on CBC radio about the families.
3) Was able to do a second video interview on the Edmonton Journal website about the Families.
4) An artist talk before 16 NAIT students.
5) I have my next show lined up in Rosebud for September.

All this stuff really does not matter. Every time I think of anything these days, it always comes back to my father and what he is going through. Everywhere and anything I do always comes back to thoughts of dad. Now as I type this I can see his face as he lies in his bed, struggling to breath normally, in pain, not eating.

None of this recent positives means anything, I just want my father to be healthy, nothing else is important.

Video: Exposure Photography Festival "Living on the Margins" Opening Reception Rough Cut #2

Here is rough cut number 2. Music is "Talkin about a Revolution" by Tracy Chapman and "Sinnerman" by Nina Simone (felix da housecat's heavenly house mix). Check out the goofy slow motion handshake after the end credits.

Link: The Province Carries Our "Exposure Photography Festival" Interview Vid

The cool thing (sometimes) about the Internet is that information spreads and spreads. The Edmonton Journal "Exposure Photography Festival" video story that Larry Wong made up for us is on "The Province" newspaper website. I am not sure if "The Province" is a province wide publication or just limited to Vancouver but it's much larger than the Journal on its own. How many people live in Vancouver? 2.5 Million? I thing the Journal and Province papers are connected somehow, so them both carrying the video makes sense. I wonder what other papers might be showing it?

Here is the link:

http://www.theprovince.com/Exposure+Photography+Festival/10797471/story.html

Editing Continues

The opening reception editing continued tonight, things are coming together. I added in a cute little handshake after the final credits, sort of a hidden Easter egg. I should be finished editing everything in the next few days. I still need to shoot some more Larry picture footage, will add that last. I think this thing is going to be a bit ponderous in length but I want to include as many people s I can in it. After all these type evens are about more than the photographer and photographs.

Going to experiment with splitting up the photos in the editing more in the hopes I can keep the viewers interest for the entire 6-10 minute movie length.

Dads Final Days

My father is entering the final days of his life. His breathing has become laboured at times, his speech is sometimes slurred from all the morphine, his body hurts more. Today before work I spent 30 minutes with dad, when I helped move him up in bed he was in a lot of pain. The pain seems to come and go, but the medication dosages are going up. Mom is doing a great great job with dad. We want to keep him at home as long as we can, keep him out of the palliative care hospital. Once he enters the dying hospital the quality of his life (what little he has left) will plummet.

Today I was still able to show dad a few things and get his opinions. I showed him the Journal video (which he liked) and asked his advice on the new shingles I will put on my home. I can see thou that our time together is quickly running out. I need to finish his funeral video in the next week or so, I need to work on his eulogy which I will give.

I wish there was something, anything I could do to make him feel a bit better. He is entering the suffering phase of things now. There comes a point where wanting to keep your dad alive is just being selfish. I want dad here but I do not want him to live in pain, to suffer. Hopefully tomorrow he will be a bit better. I will go down early before work and spend some more time with him again.

Soon my father will leave his family.

Video: Exposure Photography Festival "Living on the Margins" Opening Reception Rough Cut #1

Here is a rough cut of the opening night video. I need to add lots of Larry show photo video, as I only had MY stuff captured. There is a long sequence devoted to my photos but but much of Larry's will add to it when I shoot additional video next week. The music will also probably be changed out before putting it up on YouTube. Currently it is "Adagio for strings" by Morphiul and "Jezebel" by Sade.

Still lots of work to do on this but here is the first attempt:

Painting: "Jealousy II" By Edvard Munch

Discovered this work "Jealousy" during my Edvard Munch reading yesterday. I was a bit stunned by it, the frank and strong feeling you get off the painting. The desperation, sadness and painful acceptance on the mans face. Munch made many versions of this work, in several different formats, here are some. We have all felt loss and feelings like that, I remember quite clearly when I had similar emotions.

Jealousy II by Edvard Munch

Sold A Mag

Forgot to mention at the show the other night I even sold a magazine. The magazine that sold was one of the general photo mags I made up sold for $20. One is not a lot of sales but heck its better than none. The mags were browsed through all night by multiple folks. Many times I used one to tell my stories. Other people like my friend Jonathan would flip through them to show me the photos he liked best.

The magazines were another good idea that worked well for this exhibition. I should probably try to do a dump only magazine for the coming Rosebud exhibition. Doing something specific to the series being shown is important. Larry did one of those with titles for his Tondo Philippines work.

I need to also try making a large retrospective magazine of over 150 pages in the coming months.

Started Editing

Tonight at work I started editing the "Living on the Margins" exhibition opening reception video. I think the way I will do it is something like this.

1) opening titles
2) walk through video of all photos in the show, changing from dad, Philippines (Larry), dump, Philippines (Larry)
3) behind the scenes preparing, food
4) guests viewing the show
5) montage of speeches, still images
6) corny - goofy ending, Larry and I shaking hands in slow motion

This video should be a tad longer than previous efforts but not too long I hope. It will probably take me about 2 weeks to finish the ending, I will post the video here on the blog and on YouTube.

Dad Down But Still Fighting

Dad and mom hand a very rough night. He is now confined to a hospital bed. The new bed is still in his home with his things, his family and his type of food. We are trying to keep him out of as dad calls it "The Dying Hospital" as long as we can.

Dad was sleeping when I visited him 2 times today before work. I wanted to show him the Edmonton Journal video but he was not up to it, maybe we can do that tomorrow. Dad had not eaten all day but after I dropped some A&W hamburgers he ate 1/2 of one and also had some onion rings. Maybe not the best food but at this point were trying to get dad to eat anything. I am happy he ate what I brought him today, like always if I bring it dad eats it.

I also got mom to tell him his photos will be shown in Rosebud in September-October, I hope that will please him. My father was happy when I showed him the video from the opening night at the Louie Gallery. Hopefully the Akokinskway Gallery exhibition in Rosebud will be a positive for him as well.

ROSEBUD Akokiniskway Gallery, New Exhibition Is A Go!!

Well the Rosebud show is confirmed, its a go. It will run from September 18th to October 24th. I will be showing two bodies of work.

1) "Families of the Dump"
2) "My Fathers Last Days"

I have all the work printed and ready to go. I think thou I will print out a few different dad shots to add. The "Families of the Dump" work is ready to be shown, printed and wating in the Larry Louie gallery. This will be my second out of Edmonton exhibition, the first was in New Orleans in December of 2013. Next will be Paris, Rome, London and New York! : ))

The one downer is that it is not completely a solo show, the front area (on stage area) is being given to a Vancouver artist. So I guess technically it is no longer a one man solo show, its a 2 person joint show.

I am getting more space than the Vancouver person. I will have a 60 foot wall to myself and 4 other areas to hang 1 20x24 inch frame each. I think I can get 18-21  prints onto that 60 foot wall. That means the show should be around 22-25 photographs, not bad! I can give 11-12 to the family pics and 11-12 to dad.

The current show is up and running and the next is on its way, it is being planned. That's a nice feeling. Almost feel like a real artist : )

I think this will turn into a positive experience. I am looking foward to it. I will probably plan my next Asian photography trip to start when this exhibition ends. The best part of all of this is, even thou by September dad will most likely not be with us, he will continue to live on through the photographs. His pictures will be on the walls in Rosebud Alberta, people will be looking and thinking of him and I will be telling the story of my beautiful father.

The dinner theatre tickets mentioned below are to this theatre.

http://rosebudtheatre.com/

Here is the informative friendly email I got today from the gallery curator:

Hi Gerry,

I was looking over the gallery measurements and when the stage area is left out, you have at least 60 feet of wall space to fill.  Plus 4 walls that can hang one frame each.

Have a think about the shows and let me know what would work best for you.  My sense is to exhibit to the 2 shows rather than 3 since the other artist is committed already.  I will need some images and titles to use in our promotions and on our website.  Please forward that info when you are able.  Also, I have attached a gallery contract for you to view, print, sign and mail. 

During the run of the show we like to have the artist spend a day hosting the exhibit during which we provide refreshments to share with the patrons, and your meals for the day.  You will also receive 2 complimentary dinner and theatre tickets to attend Rosebud Theatre during the fall run.  Please think about what Saturday during the fall show would work for you.  WE will advertise this on our posters, website etc.

If you have further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact me.
I look forward to hosting your show!

Kind regards,
--------

Rosebud Country Inn

The hamlet of Rosebud Alberta, Canada

Were Super Stars!!

Larry and I are Super Stars!!, well not exactly Super Stars, were TV Stars!!, well not exactly TV Stars, were Reality Stars!!, well not exactly Reality Stars, but we are on the Edmonton Journal website for 2 minutes 4 seconds. Larry Wong from the Edmonton Journal made this up, he did a great job. Larry did not have that much to work with as we get fumbling and mumbling our lines, yet he edited together a piece that works quite nicely. Not sure what my Mr. Spock Vulcan hands thingy is at the end there, but heck, "live long and prosper", you all!

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Video+Exposure+Photography+Festival+kicks/10797483/story.html

Video made by Larry Wong, of the Edmonton Journal newspaper.

Dad Liked The Video

Went over to dad and moms this afternoon and showed dad the video. He was sleeping but perked up when he saw I had the video and became quite interested in it. Dad was happy to hear how many people like his photos, and enjoyed the video sections of people reading his artist statement and looking through his magazines and mounted photos. Dad ended up watching all the raw film, up and until I ran out of battery power.

Context Video A HUGE Hit

The context exhibition video was a huge hit, at times there were 8 or 9 people standing around the monitor watching. I often told stories as they watched, it was a great teaching tool. I think a lot of people got a lot out it. The video added so much strength to the show, it did everything I expected plus a bit more. People were often fascinated and at times a bit stunned by the footage.

I really need to get that $650 HD video point and shoot. I will continue to shoot and edit video that adds context and depth to my exhibitions. I want to also get a cordless microphone set up, to record audio. The combination of b/w film stills, and a colour context video is a real winner.

This turned out to be a really good idea.

Interview Video In The Edmonton Journal?

A professional photographer from the Edmonton Journal (Larry W) attended the event. He is a friend of Larry's and I have known him for several years. We are old acquaintances dating back to the days we studied Karate together, he a mighty black belt, I a lowly green belt. He is a great guy and a very hard working and skilled photojournalist.

Larry W did a bunch of video interviews of both myself and Larry that he hopes to edit into a very short (3 minute?) video story on the Edmonton Journal website. I guess these things come and go quite quickly. Still photographers at all major newspapers are now videographers as well. I will post a link maybe the entire video later if this latest bit of news coverage happens.

There will be an "Exposure Photography Festival" connection to the vid if it happens. Larry had trouble saying "Exposure Photography Festival" It was quite funny,  it came out every which way but the right way. My problem was saying anything at all that made sense in a 30 second soundbite. How exactly do you do that? It usually sounded awkward and stunted. A few of the movie clips might turn out useful, we will have to see how it edits out.

One area I need to work on is interviews, I suck! Not sure I will be doing anymore in the future, but if they do happen they cannot get much worse, hopefully like the speeches the interviews will improve.

The Speeches

Wes from the "Exposure Photography Festival", Larry and I took turns speaking (I was last). I think we all spoke quite well, the guests seemed to like it. Larry was especially eloquent, he spoke beautifully.

These public speaking moments are getting easier and easier for me. I was nervous waiting my turn but once I got started those fears mostly disappeared. We spoke from the stairs looking down on the crowd, there must have been 70 or 80 crowded onto the main floor listening.

I said my thanks, thanks to the guests, thanks to exposure, thanks to Larry and Joanna, thanks to my family and thanks to my subjects. I teared up a bit when I spoke of my dad. In the end 5 or 6 people complimented me on my little talk and my uncle even said it broke him up. I have never had anyone say that to me before, which was nice. I think with more practise the public speaking will get better and better.

Maybe someday I can be as effective a public speaker as a person like Edward Burtynsky, whose speaking I was in awe of a few short years ago. It mystified me how he could be so good, sound so professional and polished. Now his public speaking skills seem reachable, they seem possible to emulate, it might be a achievable goal.

Life is strange, for years and years I was terrified of speeches, and now I look forward to those moments. I guess we all change over time, things I found impossible in the past are more routine and easier now.

People Loved The Dad Photos

I got tons of compliments on the dad work, maybe more so than the dump. I need to tell dad about that tomorrow, and to thank him for giving me the freedom to make the photographs. One person who saw the work even knew dad from his days playing drums in wedding bands. The compliments came from a wide variety of people, one man who talked about the work at length was a surgeon. He told me he deals with these issues daily. Another young man told me how his friend has Leukaemia (in remission), and how strong the work was. Compliment after compliment on the dad pics, one older woman talked to me about how the photos moved her. I told her I would tell dad and she said "Please Do!".

There was so much intensity of emotion, at times I was not sure how to respond. Anyway a beautiful thing, memories I will cherish. I will tell dad tomorrow how everyone loved his photographs.

Club Support For Promoting Photography In Edmonton, Pathetic

So out of the 25 or so photo folks I invited from two former clubs I belonged to (M and C). 3 current members turned up from one group, 0 from another. Another 2 former members showed up as well. That's a grand total of 5 people out of a group of maybe 35 possibles (counting former members). It is certainly not a mystery to me why photography as an art form is basically dead and going no where in Edmonton. With the pathetic levels of interest, support and passion these club members showed it's not too much of a surprise at all. A 5 person turnout out of  35 possibles, equals 14%. Only 14% of current and former members from those 2 clubs care whether the "Exposure Photography Festival" comes and stays in Edmonton.

It is such as shame, when a photography festival like Exposure comes for the first time to our city after being very successful for 10 years in Calgary and Banff to have such poor local support from Edmonton club people. You expect and hope for so much more from the local photographers. If they do not care, if they do not give a shit, if they are too lazy to get off the sofa, then Exposure dies in Edmonton, and we all lose out.

Still all told we had over 100 or so guests attend the opening which will hopefully camouflage the indifference of the established grumpy old geezer club(s) no shows. There was a decent turn out from my current club the Edmonton Society of Photographers and from Images camera club, so that's at least something. Hopefully next year we can get a few more photo club folks off their indifferent butts, get them out in public talking photography, producing work for galleries and doing a bit of the heavy lifting.

Sort of getting tired harping about this club thingy all the time, I need to forget about those folks and move on. The problem is when you love something as much as I love photography, it can be so frustrating to deal with those that lack passion, effort, enthusiasm and commitment. How can we ever get photography off the ground in Edmonton? I just don't see it happening.

Anyway enough of that negative crap, I can't let the bad grumpy people get me down. Tomorrow I will start posting photos and vids from the exhibition. I need to put the negative thoughts and emotions behind me and concentrate on the joys of photography.

Tonight's opening was beautiful, one of the highlight evenings of my life.

Have a great day everyone, today life is so beautiful!

"Ain't Photography Grand!!!"

Update* I should mention I got positive feedback from 2 club members from C who could not attend because they were out of the country.

Opening Reception "Living on the Margins" Exposure Photography Festival 2015

Wow! What a night, I am not sure where to start. We had a very enthusiastic crowd of around 100 people, tons of great food, 3 nice speeches and lots of joy and shared human moments. Of the 5 exhibition opening night I have been involved in with my work this is the one I will remember most. It was a beautiful life affirming experience for me. I feel that all the work over the last 2 years climaxed tonight in a beautiful event. I owe many thanks to those that attended, to the exposure photography festival and mostly to Larry and his wife Joanna for the privilege of being their friend. Will post some videos, some photos and other things in the coming things.

Can't believe its over. Now I can stop this never ending talking (voice hurts) and trying to be so damn charming!! It is time to rest!

Link: Edvard Munch (1863-1944)

The latest artist I am studying is Edvard ("The Scream") Munch out of Norway. Munch was one of the founders of expressionism. A very compelling and complex man and artist. I find his work spellbinding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edvard_Munch

"Madonna" by Edvard Munch, 1894

"The Dead Mother" by Edvard Munch, 1899

Radio Interview

The radio interview was a bit nerve racking but overall it was a blast, a positive experience. It was sort of like entering a higher tech Frazier type world. Everyone was very professional, and very polished. I would hate to be the women producers who worked behind the scenes, everything seemed so tense and pressurized for them. Day in day out working under that kind of stress would be hard to take.

I think Larry and I did a nice job speaking, thou I wish it would have lasted a bit longer than the 6 minutes it did. It if hard to say anything of substance when your basically given 2 or 3 questions. I was very happy I got to talk about my subject, the "Families of the Dump". It was opportunities like this that I hoped for when I started making the photos back in May 2013. Overall a fun experience, hopefully it will happen again. I expect to do better next time just as my second artist talk was better than my 1st, my 3rd better than my 2nd etc. It would be great at some future date to do a TV spot. This radio interview will make something more advanced a bit easier. Positive learning experiences always make everything later on flow smoother.

Akokiniskway Gallery, Photos

Here are more photos of the gallery space in Rosebud. It is a former church that has been converted to a gallery and a music rehearsal hall. I guess Rosebud gets over 40 000 visitors a year to their dinner theatre program, pretty damn impressive. Rosebud also has an Opera house. It is a 3 1/2 hour drive from Edmonton.

Another Artist Talk?

Larry and I are thinking of doing another artist talk. Since there is likely to be such a high turnout tomorrow night for the opening reception we are worried there might be to many people to view the photos properly. Larry had the idea to set up a signup sheet of some kind and doing a later artist talk for those most interested in returning and viewing the photos better and hearing us speak.

Hope this happens it will be fun!

Link: Edmonton Journal Story "Exposure Photography Festival"

Here is a link to an Edmonton Journal newspaper story on the "Exposure Photography Festival". I hate the photo they chose, the story thou is very informative.

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Festival+preview+Exposure+photography+event+expands+north+Edmonton/10787161/story.html

Rosebud!

From one of the greatest movies ever "Citizen  Kaine", the magic, special word was ROSEBUD. Will it be magic and special for me also? Got this kind email today. I had contacted the gallery a while ago, I guess they remembered some of the photography. It would be quite fun to show in this rather remarkable rural arts community. Maybe I can exhibit the "Families of the Dump" work there. This could be a very nice opportunity to spread the word and continue to tell the stories of the "Families of the Dump".

http://www.rosebud.ca/gallery.htm

Akokiniskway Gallery , Rosebud Alberta, Canada

Here is the email I received today:

Dear Gerry,

It has been sometime since we last communicated and as I am pouring over past submissions I was intrigued once again by your photography and wondered if you have work that you are currently wanting to show.  I have an opening for the Akokiniskway Gallery for March 27 to May 16, or possibly in the Fall from Sept. 18 to Oct. 24, 2015.

Please let me know if you have any interest!
I hope to hear from you shortly.

Kind Regards,

...................
Akokiniskway Gallery 
Rosebud, AB

NAIT Talk Went Great!

The talk is over it was lots of fun, a great way to spend the morning. There were 16 students, add in the teacher and there were 17 total. !5 of the 16 students were girls! Last time we did these talks both classes were dominated by girls, I think for every guy last time round there were 5 or 6 girls. Whats the deal with that? More girls into the arts? All the students looked to be 19 or 20 years old.

Anyway back to the talk. Larry spoke first, he was very eloquent. I kept thinking Larry quit being so good, I am going to come across as a bonehead! He is very good at public speaking, so professional, so polished, so entertaining. Everything seems so natural for him, so unforced.

Then suddenly it was my turn. My approach was to speak from the heart. I basically told them who I was, and that I loved photography and why I loved it! I then spoke a bit of some of the projects I have worked on in the past, and then dived headlong into the latest "Families of the Dump"series. I explained the history of the dump workers (not as fluently as I should have) then told 3 stories, the meeting Doo-aye story, the bride and groom story, and the hair pin story. I finished it off with a quick explanation of the traditional darkroom processes (my teaching segment). There were a few questions and that was it.

I think overall it went well, I spoke from the heart, with some passion, tried to add a bit of humour and everyone was pretty much involved and interested. The students were laughing and listening and seemed to be into things. My photos are being shown in a smaller room so things were a bit more intimate, everyone sitting closer and on the floor etc (I mostly sat on the floor through all of this). I might have spoken a bit to long but I tried to keep it shorter than last time. 

Overall it went very well, and was tons of fun to do. After the talk the teacher came over and thanked me with an enthusiastic handshake. She told me I was a great bonus (originally only Larry was supposed to speak). The teacher even said I inspired her to go back into the darkroom, a place she has not been for 2 years. Getting back into the darkroom?! That has to be a good thingy. She also said she loved my stories. I think telling stories are my strength, guess I am good at telling them. Many people in the past have commented on the story telling. I will try to tell the stories with as much passion, heart and humour as I can muster when I do the video film stories. I plan on making them in the coming weeks. If I do 4 or 5 little films and then put them on YouTube -Vimeo, I hope people online will like them as well. 

As a bonus Larry and I each got $50 worth of Starbucks gift cards. You can't beat talking about what you love, and in the process making $50 for it! Today was a beautiful WIN, WIN experience.

Tomorrow, it's the LIVE radio interview, hope that goes as well!!!!! I got to be at Larry's at 730am, the interview is at 820am. How can anyone sound anywhere near half way coherent at that hour? I will still be half asleep! I was telling dad I was a little bit worried about going on LIVE radio. Dad told me "No problem just go out and, DO IT!" I guess I need to follow that advise, do not over analyze things, just do it, speak honestly, from the heart and DO IT!

Live And In Person It's A LARRY And A GERRY!

Found out just now the radio interview is a go. I just did a 10-15 minute pre-interview with the reporter who in charge of this project. He will forward his notes to the host of the show. Larry and I go on LIVE at 820am this Friday from downtown Edmonton on CBC radio. We will both be asked questions, the interview should run 5 to 9 minutes.

LIVE! Not sure I like that word. This new development is exciting and a bit frightening.

So Thursday morning an artist talk for the NAIT students, Friday morning a live radio interview and Saturday night the opening reception. Busy busy busy!! I get to spread the word on the families, this is great, I am very happy, I feel like I did not fail them. Thank you Larry-Joanna for arranging this and thank you CBC radio.

Updated And Expanded Exhibition Context Video

Well I spent the entire morning lengthening and changing up the video I am going to have running in the show. I could not get anywhere near 30 minutes but did go up from 10:30 to 16:04, including a short bit in the darkroom. Hopefully this little film will add a positive experience to the opening night reception for the guests.

Here it is a low quality version of the new video minus the darkroom footage.

Note* The audio will be turned off in the gallery but I put in some music for added strength here. The songs are Sinnerman-Nina Simone, Revolution-Tracy Chapman, Yesterday-The Beatles, Crying-Don Maclean, Yesterday When I Was Young-Glen Campbell.

20-30 Minute Long Video

I looked through a bunch of my raw dump video and there is quite a bit of stuff the guests to the exhibition might find interesting. Footage like a young baby boy taking a bath in a Styrofoam box, a child swimming in the green polluted lake, pigs, puppies, children laughing, more scavenging, other types of work and home life related things.

I might also include a 2 minute or so segment of my darkroom work. In this digital age it's fun to promote the wonders and joys of film photography and the darkroom.

The new video will run 20-30 minutes without sound and be shown in a loop for the entire 3 hours of the opening reception. I will play it on my 24 inch iMac in full screen mode.

Expanding Video?

Since the exhibition context video will only have me in it, not Larry I thought I might expand it a bit. The goal is to add more interest for the opening night guests. Currently the video is 10 minutes and 30 seconds long. I was thinking of adding another 4 or 5 minutes of footage.

Not sure if I should be adding more dump related stuff and or some darkroom work video. It might be cool for them to see some behind the scenes darkroom work. Not many people know much about the darkroom, this might give them a bit of a window. I do not have any darkroom video from the production of the "Families of the Dump" or "My Fathers Last Days" but I could put in a bit of the "The Train Is Coming" Klong Toey slum work. I might try adding that footage, if I can find it.

It might make the video less boring and more informative to add some minutes too it. I will experiment with that today. If any of this works out I will post it here first. You guys will get the world premier! Bet you all can't wait! : )).

One of the advantages of getting your main work done early is that you can refine stuff and continue to try to make it better.

Set Of 4 Prints

Here is a set of 4 prints on one wall of the "Families of the Dump" part of the "Living on the Margins" exhibition.

Print #1 - A young bride (15) and groom (17) outside their family shack on the edge of the dump, this photo was made on their wedding day.

Print #2 - 10 year old Doo-Aye the first day I visited the dump, one of the first photos I took. She is working in the middle of the dump with her father. There were flies everywhere, and it was blisteringly hot.

Print #3 - Young child standing barefoot in the garbage on the edge of green water lake. The lake looked unnatural, it must have been heavily polluted.

Print #4 - Young girl leaning on a hammock with workers and machinery in the dump behind her. This picture was made in an area where new dump residents lived, they were poorer than others at the dump. Instead of nice bamboo shacks this girls family lived in poorly constructed lean-twos.

NAIT Talk A Confirmed Go

We got the confirmation that the NAIT college students are coming on Thursday morning. Larry and I will eacb be doing an artist talk to these 2nd year fine art students starting at about 915am. It will be fun and challenging to do my 5th artist talk. I need to get better and better at these things.

Expecting A Full House And Great Food!

The opening reception is going to be a packed affair. Larry has 80 people who are coming, I probably have around 35-40. So if everyone shows up and with a few walk-ons we are potentially talking 110-130 guests. That's a ton of folks, I hope it's not to crowded. My little room upstairs where I have the dump pictures might get too full.

Of my 40 guests most are friends, not many photo club folks are showing. Two of my regular visitors from the club photo world are traveling outside the country so cannot attend. Most of the other photo clubs folks are rather indifferent to photography exhibitions. I did get one request to attend from an old club member. He is a former MG photography club dude (were both blacklisted, so have that in common : )). He asked to attend with another current MG club member and even thou we have a full house I told him to come on down. It is always a bonus to have photo people coming to photography shows!! Photo folks need to help support other photo folks. If we were all there for each other when needed, the photo scene in Edmonton would be so much better. We all need to get past our selfishness, jealousies and angers. Maybe with a bit of tolerance, understanding, cooperation and effort we can actually get photography in Edmonton, Alberta Canada rocking! Wouldn't that be something!

Larry's wife Joanna is going all out food wise on this thing. He told me she has been up every night this week until 1am cooking deserts and the like. There will be sushi, wine, pop, hot foods, cold foods and lots of deserts. It should be fricking awesome! This should be the best produced show I have ever been lucky enough to be part of. I owe Larry and Joanna a big thank you for the opportunity to show in their gallery.

Hopefully everyone who comes to the opening receptions is moved by the photography and has a enjoyable time at the event. More importantly I hope the people who visit come away with a greater understanding about the lives of the people Larry and I had the privilege to photograph.

"Families of the Dump" Change Out Prints

I also changed out 4 pictures. 2 of the existing photos I changed out the print, went with a more bleached look. I wanted to accentuate the faces of the subjects more so went with a the stronger bleach version. I also completely changed out the photo I selected of a young girl, from her sitting in garbage with a dog to her leaning on a hammock with workers behind her in the distance (a better photograph). The last print I changed out was the opening photo of 3 children with the dump behind them. I had selected a more contrasty version of this picture initially but chose to change it to a softer contrast version. I am not completely happy with this print, it was extremely difficult to make. I think its a good compromise selection and it will help add some context to the overall show. I wanted the viewer to have some wider shots to help show the scale of the area the dump and how vulnerable the children are in that world.

Change out print of young girl.

More bleached print versions, added bleach high lights on faces.

Relief!!!

Relief, the shows are hung, everything is ready to go! After about 5 months of effort, printing, spotting, matting, framing prints. Editing a show video (still might add to this a bit). Doing up 3 different blurb magazines Writing the artist statements and poems, plus printing and mounting the statements to foam core.

It is all finally complete and hanging in the gallery!!! Thanks the lords, I can relax, can take the next few days off. I got everything done a little less than 2 days before the NAIT student artist talk and 4 full days before the opening reception.

Here are some photos of dads part of the show. The "My Fathers Last Days" series is downstairs 8 photos, the "Families of the Dump" series is upstairs 15 photos. A grand total of 22 pictures and 1 enlarged contact sheet in this exhibition.

Busy Week Ahead

Well finished my work week and now I have a busy week ahead. Here are some of the photo things that need to be done.

1) Monday - Friday,  pass out around 25 "Exposure Photo Festival" magazines. I will try placing these in various businesses, buildings around town. I might also be doing my part of a CBC radio interview, not sure this is 100% going to happen or when exactly. I have been contacted by the reporter via email and given him my phone numbers, he is supposed to call soon. Hopefully if it happens I will be able to raise awareness into the lives of the families of the dump.

2) Tuesday,  hang the dad photos and change 2 maybe more of the dump images.

3) Attempt to make my first photo story video (thanks James for the idea).

4) Thursday, do an artist talk with Larry for the NAIT 2nd year fine art students at the gallery.

5) Saturday, the opening reception, artist talk, helping Larry and Joanna set up and take everything down. I will also be shooting plenty of video footage so I can later use it in the exhibition video I will make. I will also be taking my iMac down to the gallery to play the context video I made of my time in the dump. Originally the plan was to put both Larry and I on the video but that is not going to happen, now it will be me alone. I will run the video in a continuous loop at the opening reception only, 10 minutes 30 seconds at a time.

That's quite a bit of stuff to do, plus of course I have to spend time with my father, help with his hospital bed setup and all my other regular weekly chores.

Busy busy busy but it's a good kind of busy, a happy busy. Doing the artist talk at the reception should be a blast, there might be over 100 people trying to listen and fit into the gallery space. Some will no doubt miss it, leave early or come late, or maybe just not go upstairs for the talk but there should still be a full house to speak to. It will be a great opportunity to tell the stories of the people that allowed me to photograph them.

I hope someday to be able to do high end talks at high end facilities like the AGA here in Edmonton. Talks like the ones Thursday and Saturday are a training ground for potential larger opportunities later on. One brick at a time builds the cathedral!

As I type this I am running the dump context movie on the mac. It is running in a loop in full screen mode, it looks great. Everything should work fine. I need to clean up the screen a bit, wipe it down and then will put the computer in its box for the show. Everything is coming together very nicely.

Photo Story: Winter Landscape

I am not really into the traditional landscape type photography but I thought I would include this 5x7 shot for fun. I find most landscape photography beautiful but also oh so trite and commonplace. Everyone one and their sister that has a view camera does black and white landscape, boring! 

The best part about landscape photography for me is the getting out and making the pictures. Its a great feeling to be outdoors, walking and creating in that world. Its so relaxing, so calming etc. The problem is later on in the darkroom when you try to print the photographs you fall asleep out of sheer boredom of the imagery. 

I am going to take my 5x7 camera and a load of Tri-x film with me next trip. I want to try to do documentary style landscapes. I will call them slumscapes or dumpscapes or whatever. I feel I can make the photos more interesting for myself and hopefully others if I include a human documentary element to the story. It would not be just pretty pictures of  trees, mountain, flowing streams but would have a human connection to it all. That extra element should allow me to keep my interest in the negative through the darkroom printing process.

I want to make more than pretty pictures, I want to make pictures that of a social context, a deeper underlying message. Beauty is all fine and good and a worthy thing, but in my work I want to try to do more than that. I do not want people to simply say "That is beautiful" I want them to think in a larger human context way. Photography can be so so so much more than just a conveyor of beauty.

Some tech details on this photo. I went out shooting with a friend, we stopped on the road and did some frost on trees and grass photos. I made this I with my 5x7 Linhof, Tri-x and I believe my wider angle lens my 120mm. I only use 2 lens with this camera, it simplifies and focuses the creative process. I learned that from Jock Sturges who told me to only use one lens. He told me to get rid of all my other gear and focus on one camera, one lens, one film. I have not been able to do that, thou through the years I have simplified bit by bit. I am closer to the ideal now of simple tools leading to better photographs. Anyway this neg was fun to make, a beautiful crisp morning, but I still have not printed it. Maybe I should try printing it in the Durst 5x7 condensor enlarger with the new cool tone Ilford paper. I could print it high contrast like in the scan below.

One thing I really like about 5x7 negs is that they have the same longer horizontal dimension of 35mm. I think I will be able to use that longer horizontal (or vertical) in a positive compositional way. It should work great in portraiture with the 120mm, a bit of distortion, a close up camera position and a full body plus background vertical composition. I can see the portraits now in my minds eye, they will be a joy to make!

"Ain't Photography Grand!"

Winter landscape, 2010? Canada