Giving Away A Doll Story

Note* This story is part of the ongoing social documentary photography-humanitarian project, FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, in Mae Sot Thailand, which was started in 2013. We do photography that is then used to raise money to buy, headlamps, boots, medicines, food, tools, candy etc. The donations also include donated hats, boots, and toys (where this story comes from). Burmese refugee families have been working and living in the garbage dump just outside Mae Sot Thailand for over a decade.

Note* The doll in this story was donated by a young child in Canada. She wanted to give her toys to children at the dump, she has done this 2 times over 2 different Thai trips. I work with the young girls mother who arranges the transfer of toys and also has donated funds (4 or 5 times) to buy things for the families.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2020

Giving Away A Doll Story

Wrote of this dump 2019 giving away a doll story before but thought I would share it one more time. Sitting in my guardhouse in the snow of Canada it came to mind once again. Memory flashbacks to the people in Thai happen all the time to me.

So, I am in the dump and see the little girl at her dump shack home who I will give the doll to. I reach in my camera bag and take it out. Then I make doll walking, talking noises as I hand it to the little surprised refugee Burmese child. She is absolutely thrilled! After I gave her the doll, I realize I need a photo of her with it so I can show the toy donating child in Canada and her mother (they can see where their donation went). The little Burmese girl thou is hugging the doll all backwards, she has this sort of happy, hugging doll, death grip, thing happening. I do not have a good angle to make a photo, I will not be able to show the folks back home. It is important they see the good they did, I need to do something! I cannot ask her to turn the doll around as that is beyond my Burmese speaking capabilities. So I reach in and TAKE THE DOLL BACK!! The poor child looks at me with 'ABSOLUTE HORROR!!!". I am not going to give her the toy, I am taking it away!!! I can still remember her face, it was disappointment times 10! I then turn the doll around and hand it back to her and the picture below is made. She thought for a second the toy was not hers to keep. Thinking of the face she made, the sudden expression change from joy to shocked disappointment still makes me giggle. Anyway, she smiled again and all was good..one of a thousand dump stories.

Girl with donated doll, Mae Sot garbage dump, Thailand, 2019

Doll Story In The Coming Issue Of B&W Photography Magazine

I believe the story of this young girl and her doll will be told in the coming B&W Photography magazine story. Please consider getting your copy when it comes out.

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from the Facebook/earlier blog story

Note* This story is part of the ongoing social documentary photography-humanitarian project, FAMILIES OF THE DUMP, in Mae Sot Thailand, which was started in 2013. We do photography that is then used to raise money to buy, headlamps, boots, medicines, food, tools, candy etc. The donations also include donated hats, boots, and toys (where this story comes from). Burmese refugee families have been working and living in the garbage dump just outside Mae Sot Thailand for over a decade.

Note* The doll in this story was donated by a young child in Canada. She wanted to give her toys to children at the dump, she has done this 2 times over 2 different Thai trips. I work with the young girls mother who arranges the transfer of toys and also has donated funds (4 or 5 times) to buy things for the families.

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FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2020

Giving Away A Doll Story

Wrote of this dump 2019 giving away a doll story before but thought I would share it one more time. Sitting in my guardhouse in the snow of Canada it came to mind once again. Memory flashbacks to the people in Thai happen all the time to me.

So, I am in the dump and see the little girl at her dump shack home who I will give the doll to. I reach in my camera bag and take it out. Then I make doll walking, talking noises as I hand it to the little surprised refugee Burmese child. She is absolutely thrilled! After I gave her the doll, I realize I need a photo of her with it so I can show the toy donating child in Canada and her mother (they can see where their donation went). The little Burmese girl thou is hugging the doll all backwards, she has this sort of happy, hugging doll, death grip, thing happening. I do not have a good angle to make a photo, I will not be able to show the folks back home. It is important they see the good they did, I need to do something! I cannot ask her to turn the doll around as that is beyond my Burmese speaking capabilities. So, I reach in and TAKE THE DOLL BACK!! The poor child looks at me with 'ABSOLUTE HORROR!!!". I am not going to give her the toy, I am taking it away!!! I can still remember her face; it was disappointment times 10! I then turn the doll around and hand it back to her and the picture below is made. She thought for a second the toy was not hers to keep. Thinking of the face she made, the sudden expression change from joy to shocked disappointment still makes me giggle. Anyway, she smiled again, and all was good. One of a thousand dump stories.

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Gave Out Toys Today

from facebeook....

Today at the dump handed out some donated toys and donated children's cloths (from a coworker where I work security). Children in Canada helping children in the dump, that as beautiful as life can be. When you give a doll to a child and you see her smile, all the work all the effort seems like nothing It is quite beautiful.
Did lots of other donations today as well. Delivered 2 bags of food to the single men,in the swamp area of the dump also handed out 2 sets of boots as well as 8 or so headlamps and 5 or 6 raincoats, plus a ton of lollipops.

Also took a photo of a wound on a young boys leg, from a family I have known and photographed for 6 years. Will show the photo to a local pharmacist and buy some antibiotic cream-healing cream or whatever they recommend, hope that is good enough. Also going to get something to help with the bruise and pain an older man has on his chest, I guess he crashed his bicycle a few days back.
This morning I got many orders for many headlamps, and for a set of boots today. Will try to buy some socks also today. Was photographing a young pretty girl in the dump working today. She found an old cloth in the garbage and then took off her right boot then wrapped her foot in the cloth before placing it back in the boot (no socks). Told her I would bring her a pair of socks and also 1 pair for her boyfriend. I also learned the Burmese word for socks which is "Chees-zoh".
Thanks to all you wonderful people who are helping with this, your donations are making a positive difference on the lives here at the dump.
Now need to get to bed, only had 4 hours sleep last night.
Note* Thought I would share one story before sleeping. The story is about the photo of the young girl with her new doll. I took the doll out of my bag and played with it a bit, making funny noises before handing it to the young girl as a gift (I have her name recorded). She was all smiles, thrilled with her new beautiful doll. The best experience I have in the dump is giving toys to children. I needed to make a photo of the girl with her new doll to show the donation people back in Canada. I will send the photo to the donating mother back home and she will show that photo to her daughter (children donating toys to children). So to get the photo I took the doll away from the little girl in the dump. Her face fell!! She looked so disappointed! I think she thought I was taking away her new pretty doll :). I just turned the doll around so the face was facing towards the camera and gave it back to her for the pic. She was so relieved, smiled again. I will remember this interaction with the little girl, for a long time. First giving her the doll, then taking it away and handing it back to her the right way around for the photo. I will remember her changing facial expressions through out that process. Will probably make a good art talk story. Hope she enjoys her doll and shares it with her friends.

Donated this toy and a bag of children's clothes to this mother and her son.

Gave a doll to this young girl today. From a young girl in Canada to a young girl in the garbage dump.

The wound of the young boy, will buy some medicine for him.

Emails To And From A Friend: Subject "Documentary Film Making"

 (Email from my friend, our discussion has helped me focus my thoughts on what and why I am trying to do this film.)

It's cool these days how average people have access to the technology
necessary to make first rate docs or films of their own.  You can post
it up on Youtube and it can find an audience all by itself.
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(My long winded replies)

Yes documentary film making is undergoing a real revolution. That has been happening for 10 years plus. Now you can actually shoot 1080p HD video and high end sound on your own run and gun, then edit it yourself and make a movie. All of this I am doing. 4K video is still a bit expensive but is not to far off from all of us as well.

Of course, no mater the tech part, making movies is a rather difficult to do, you need the drive to do it, many average folks (not all of course) when they reach a certain age lose that drive and become complacent. They sit on their asses living life as normal, the days they have left bleeding away to nothing. Many of the people I work with and know have no idea how difficult it is to do this, physically, emotionally and spiritually. I think in some small ways I might suffer PTSD. A very mild version compared to most folks who live with it but I think it is still there, in my dreams, in my daily thoughts, in my strange obsessions. My past memories and feelings have pushed me forward to try the crazy shit I try. Sometimes I wake up shockingly in the night with visions of something I have photographed, and those lives I have shared. When you do documentary work you can become rather close to your subjects, those feelings and memories as a result inhabit you.

Moving making what is that exactly? The trick of course is to get beyond the tech/gear stuff which anyone can master and tell a compelling story in an exciting and interesting way. I know I can do the tech stuff, I know I can buy good gear (already did that part). But how do you tell stories? How do you communicate in movie style ways. I get stills, I understand that, have been doing that for almost 40 years now, so biggy there. But movies? Movie story telling? That is a mystery that I need to figure out and fast. My guess is it will be like everything else, the more I do it the better I will get at it.

Fred (one of the subjects of my film) says that we have a great story and that's the most important thing. I think he is probably right, but many a great story has been fucked up by lousy movie making/story telling. Will see how it all goes down.

My plan is to work on several film ideas. If I have the time I might work on several things, some possibles include:

- Fred's work in the dump along with the people family life footage.
- The story of one single child in the dump.
- The story of one family in the dump.
- //// sex tourist story (have not spoken to him about it yet but could happen)maybe his perspective as well as a sex workers perspective, inter cut, their different lives.
- blowjob bar worker story
- Bkk gogo bar story, the stories of all the girls in a single bar
- life's of homeless people (I am close to 2 friends in that world living in Bkk). Showing who they are and why they matter so much..
- Boxers (know of a good place that I have shot slum boxers before, have connections there)

So lots of potential stories there, all pretty good. The dumps stories will take precedence. Will probably think of another 10 by tomorrow :)).

I will first submit the work to various film festivals (there are tons) and see where that goes before placing it on YouTube/Vimeo and donating a free film to Fred's charity to help raise money and to educate.

Who knows where this may lead, I might be writing my Oscar speech soon....:)))
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Of course I should not get too down on how difficult these types of things are. You are also rewarded in countless ways. For example the donations and smiles. The joys of the children in the dump have more than paid up for any nails I stepped on or cockroaches that crawled on me. The goodness I have dealt with there has  out weighed the blackness.

I can still remember this young girl I gave 2 dolls to, 5 or 6, barefoot, living in abject poverty in a garbage dump. Yet when I gave her one doll she was so happy and eyed the other I had in my camera bag. She kept watching that doll, watching it rather covertly, but said nothing to me about wanting it (this went on for several minutes, maybe 5 total). Later I gave her the second small used toy doll and she was so pleased. I still can see her smile in my minds eye, such sheer joy on her face! She had a doll and now a friend for her doll and she went off to play with them, smiling from ear to ear.

Young Girl Washing Her Doll

There is a young girl (3-? 4?) with beautiful eyes I photographed on numerous occasions, today she was washing her naked white skinned barbie doll in a pail of water. She was washing her dolls legs and feet but her own feet and legs were filthy, she had a thick layer of dirt on her feet and legs, her doll in comparison was very clean.

The little girl with the beautiful eyes also had a beautiful name Woo-Woo-Kai.

Photographing The Dump One Armed Doll

Here is today's first subject. A one armed doll found in the Mae Sot Garbage dump in 2013 or 2015. Will try to photograph it today on to an 8x10 plate. Here is the set up (rather spooky).

Woke up at 230am, read for an hour then was inspired by a Leonardo DaVinci Madonna sketch to get of my lazy butt. Now almost ready to go.

 

View from Eddy (8x10 Deardorff) ground plastic

Camera set  up with freaky hanking doll

hanging on a black shoelace. How visible will it be?

Why I Visit Thailand

I recently had an online friend question why I go to Thailand.

In a few words.” I go to Thailand to make social documentary photographs that help people.” 

My main photography project is called THE FAMILIES OF THE DUMP. Since my first dump visit in 2013, we have raised over $10000 CAD to directly help the families in the garbage.

Any print sales, exhibition fees and artist talk money I earn from the photos goes directly back to the families in the form of humanitarian aid. We (the donators, myself and friends in Thai) buy goods from the money raised, which I then hand directly to the people in need at the dump. We buy medicines, foods, toys, kids treats, headlamps, boots, rice, tools etc.

Many Canadian and American (1) friends have also donated money and goods after seeing the images. The money was used to buy goods in the local Mae Sot markets, which were handed out to the families. I have also given out many Canadian donated goods (that I carried to Thailand in my suitcases) directly to the family members, clothes, safety boots, hats, toys.

I hope to return to the dump and the families in 2025, to continue the work.

That is why I go to Thailand! 

 A group of children who followed me in the garbage dump. One is west a donated hat.

Man with donated safety boots. They were very heavy to bring from Canada. I bought 4 pairs I think. Probably too big for his feet. Hope he sold them for something he could use.

Young girl with donated toy. Here head is shaved because of a lice problem at the dump. When I gave her the 2nd hand doll donated by a young Canadian girl, she smiled so big then ran off to show her mom.

A young girl with her donated. When I took the doll back for a second to turn it around for this photo, the little girl had a momentary look of real sadness! She thought I was taking the doll back! After I returned it to her and she posed for this photo, she was all smiles again!

Pink Boots

Today I handed out a doll and some children rubber boots one of my Canadian work colleagues family donated. I dragged these little pink boots with me all the way from Canada.  When I was home in Edmonton I was not sure if I should bring them with me or not, my bags were so heavy but boy am I glad I did. Once I got them here who to give them to? I think I made the right choice, they went to the right little girl today.

Here is the story of where those boots went.

I had just arrived at the dump it was 315pm and very very hot. I was carrying 2 bags of food that I intended to donate way on the other side of the dump. I was marching through trying to get to my destination as quickly as I could (rice is so heavy!), when I spotted a young girl in a mid dump small shaded structure. I usually do not make any photos until I hand out the food donations but this girl froze me in my tracks, I had to stop. I made some Rollie portraits close and far and then remembered the boots I carried. Originally I planned to donate these small boots to another family but this weak looking little girl child seemed to need them so much more (she was barefoot). She reminded me of my coworkers young daughter back in Canada. They had the same eyes. The lives of these two young girls from two different countries, cultures and economic situations will go in two very different directions. The luck of the draw, where your born and into what circumstances.  

Later I also gave her a small Barbie doll. Most children here react with a big smile and are very happy when they get their toy but this poor little girl did nothing, she barely held on to her new blond haired toy. I worry for her, her mother was nearby and full of smiles but this young girl did not seem to respond well, she only looked at me with a sad sickly face.

Update* I was thinking today about how a little girl in Canada helped a little girl here in the Mae Sot dump. She took her Canadian doll and boots and gave them to a girl who had so much less and lives on the other side of the world. There is something hopeful and very beautiful in that.  The world is bound to continue to become a better place, generation by generation.



Young girl with her donated Barbie in the dump today

Mother with her daughter

 

The Beauty Of Clear Glass Ambrotypes

What I love about clear glass ambrotypes is that when you coat the collodion side (after 2 varnishes) is that you then can look THROUGH the 3 or 4mm glass to see the image on the other side. The subject seems ALIVE inside the glass. You get a feeling of 3 dimensionality, a very detailed, warmtone reality that I find very beautiful. The glossiness/sheen front of glass also creates a different feel than tintypes and black glass, things seem more pristine. All subjective of course, to each there own.

Going out next week to make some 8x10 ambros, hope to give that 3D feel with some landscapes of lakes in the Edmonton area.

G Collodion (no extra ether added), 3 mm glass.

Doll from the Mae Sot garbage dump, 8x10 clear glass ambrotype, 2022

Doll from the Mae Sot garbage dump, 8x10 Clear Glass Ambrotype

Email: Reminder For "Healing Process" Opening Night

Sent this email out to friends tonight hope some can attend the opening. Hope some of you out there in internet land can as well. EVERYONE IS INVITED!!

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Hi All...

A friend reminded me yesterday that he had forgotten about the opening night and suggested that I should send you all yet another reminder for the coming show. Not sure any of you are interested but if you are, my opening night for the exhibition "Healing Process" is August 3 Thursday at 6 pm. I will also be doing a 30-40 minute artist talk on August 31st 630 pm at the gallery. Thanks as always for your friendship and support, it is always so encouraging when your friends stand by you. 

Just to keep you in the loop more of the "Families of the Dump" pictures will be exhibited at the Penticton Art Gallery in 2018, will update you all on that later on.The power of social documentary photography to educate and cause positive change, you got to love it!!  

I am off to Thailand soon, we have raised over $1400 CAD to help the refugee families in the dump. The donations will pay for some school fees and buy boots, food (rice, canned fish etc), headlamps (night work) along with other needed goods. I personally handle the money, buy the supplies and carry everything out to the dump  then hand the things directly to the people in need. I am also taking donated hats and toys for the children with me from Canada to Thailand. You have not experienced joy until you have given a toy doll to a dump child, a child who has almost nothing. I did that 10 or so times last trip, one of the children is in the photo linked below. Her head is shaved because of the lice, many children in the dump have head lice.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRFIJBwMliGipFcUYgGmg1YGAV9kKISTrWLJB6wCTKgrDhyphenhyphenkzGw985F9RUd1kZa7cbUxWznWHkIuHllegznxEAp-ab-ndFGi6JRuXyHw0JuaCcPgyy6N4atXUAkZ7XFyDNWKQdA_m9mpSk/s1600/Girl+with+donated+doll.jpg

Everything will be given out during my 6 months in country. If your interested in helping those in need, please send me a note. If any of you are interested and in Thailand in the next while, give me a whistle and I can show you about, maybe even take you to the dump to meet the incredible people who live and work there. Trust me it might well be a be a life altering experience for you.

http://gerryyaum.wixsite.com/photo/forgotten-laughter

Thanks Gerry

Here are all the "Healing Process" details, hope to see all you lovely people there. Also a few links to the making of the some of the images of my beautiful father for the show.

Sima Elizabeth Shefrin, Darian Goldin Stahl and Gerry Yaum: Healing Process

Sima Elizabeth Shefrin, Darian Goldin Stahl and Gerry Yaum: Healing Process Healing Process brings together three artists who each use their artistic practice to explore the illnesses of t...

Tonights Finished Exhibition Photograph

Tonights Finished Exhibition Photograph Here is tonights spotting-matting-framing effort. It sure is a lot easier to cut these single hole mats. In the...

Tonights Second Finished Exhibition Photograph

Tonights Second Finished Exhibition Photograph Here is the second finished exhibition print of the night, the dad eye photo. This was made about 4-6 days befor...

20x24 Dad "Pain" Photograph

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