Photo Story And Future Wor Plan: Child In Mae Sot Garbage Dump 2013

This photograph was made int he dump in March of 2013. It is a fore runner of work I plan to do this coming year with the 5x7. I hope to shoot a whole series of similar looking portraits, but they will be shot a tad closer with a wider lens that will add just a bit of distortion. I think the work might have some serious power to it if I can manage to do it right. I need to get out and shooting it as soon as I can.

This photograph was made with my Linhof 4x5 and 150mm lens with Tri-x in open shade. I believe I also used a small reflector to fill in some of the shadows. I photographed this young girl and her brother in this set up, not to far away from their family home, they were playing in the garbage. I left the brownish tone in this scan because I am most likely to print this negative on a warmtone fibre paper.

This type of photograph will be my main subject for my photo book project. I want to concentrate photographing children living in poverty using the large format 5x7 camera. My father always felt a great deal of empathy and compassion for young children, especially those who loved in poverty. The idea of the book that I want to dedicate to dad is based on this idea. It will be a tribute to my father and also to the young children who pose. I want to show their beauty, resilience, and underlying humanity in the portraits. I was never ever able to get any kind of art grant funding from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts for projects like this but now because of the hard work and love of my father I can make these photos. When my father passed away he left me some money, I plan on using that money to make these and other important photographs. Because of my father I will now have more freedom to make and tell stories with my pictures.

Child in dump, March 2013