Some oldies but goodies.

Last night I got to thinking about these old images that amazingly I still love after many many viewings. They were made when I was a student and had access to so much great equipment. They were taken with a 4x5 camera (borrowed from school), then processed in the colour development room (by me, so that I could save money), then printed in the colour darkroom and scanned on the great old Imacon scanner that Dawson used to have. I still use the Dawson facilities since I teach there but now there are no 4x5 cameras (I might be wrong about this one), there is no colour developing room, or colour darkroom, and there is only 1 film scanner that takes 2 1/4 max. It makes my heart heavy to think of what people are missing.

April 14 update: There are now 2 film scanners which I think is definitely a step in the right direction.

My version of task A for the Alphabet project. The guidelines that we were given for A are:

Alternative Accommodation

We all need somewhere to live. Most of us live in a conventional dwelling; house, apartment, flat, duplex, townhouse, converted garage, attic etc. These dwellings are part of the fabric of contemporary society.

However there are some that do not fit the mold of what is considered everyday or normal within 'contemporary society'. Call them drifters, homeless, misfits, dreamers, hobos, their accommodations are in a continual state of flux.

The assignment is to photograph a dwelling that would be considered 'alternative' to what we call home. It might be a car, boat, cardboard box, tent, tree or an unconventional building or structure.

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To see other people's take on this task go here, choose a photographer and click on A.

I just got a bunch of film back today and it reinforces my feeling (as I mentioned in the interview with Liz Kuball) that I like the shooting, and the receiving of the final product to be two separate events. Last night as I was reading Steinbeck's "The Pasture of Heaven" I came across this line:
"It was good, she knew, to put off joy, for by doing so, one increased joy."
For some reason having to wait and be patient makes me value my images all the more. I have definitely joined the digital tide wave myself and don't want to deny its importance in any way but there is something so precious about film.

For all of you in Montreal: tomorrow night Montreal photographer and Dawson alumnus Babak Salari will be launching his book "Faces, Bodies, Personas: Tracing Cuban Stories" which explores the issues of Sexuality, Identity and Marginality.
MEKIC Gallery 4438 rue de la Roche
Saturday March 29th 5-7pm

More winter night photos, of bikes that had to weather the season.

Also Liz Kuball did an interview with me. To read all about it go here.

The first week of January was xmas tree pick-up week in my neighbourhood. I'd seen the trees accumulate on my street and it was interesting to see how they got moved around throughout the week (of course the city was a week late in the pick-up). Our tree ended up across and down the street by the end. So one evening I bundled up and spent some time photographing all these discarded Christmas accessories. Kind of sad how we just throw them away in the end.

"I sometimes dream of an ideal photographic journal, perhaps distributed on microfiche so that we can all afford it. In my imagination it is assembled in somebody's garage in the Midwest. It is a magazine devoted to successful work, because that is all we have time for; it is a journal notable for its tact and lucidity, and it is full of pictures because they are the point."
Robert Adams, from "Beauty in Photography" published in 1981

I like to think that he was dreaming of photo blogs.

Today Noel Rodo from We Can't Paint featured my Irish Grandmother series on his blog. Noel does accept submissions from photographers and so a little over a week ago I emailed him to see if he would be willing to look at my work. He sent me back a thoughtful email with some very constructive criticism of my website. Then after a few emails back and forth discussing the series he posted about it today. It was really interesting to hear what he had to say about this group of images that is still a work in progress for me. I recommend other photographers to submit to Noel. More than likely he will see something that you didn't.

A photo of my sister. She is strongly against having a camera pointed at her. Perhaps a stint as a child model for Zellers scarred her. Well I have a policy that you can't be related or friends with me unless you are willing to help me out and let me take your portrait (see Why am I Marrying him? for the best example of this policy). My sister was the last one to give in to this request. Now I am allowed to take her photo but it must be at lightning speed and I can't ask her to do anything too specific. I recommend this policy for all photographers. Relatives are often very concerned about someone like me who makes a living off of their photography (I think that they don't believe that this is really possible). So I always say how they can help me most is to let me take their photo.

"only pictures that look as if they had been easily made can convincingly suggest that Beauty is commonplace" Robert Adams

I've been thinking about this quote a lot recently in relation to my kitchen photos. For me setting up a portrait and making it look natural is easy and has almost become second nature because I do it so often. But this new found love of still life is really challenging me. Take the second photo down. How do you make newly washed take-out dishes look like they belong? You should see how many different ways I placed them and still I don't think that it works. I am definitely enjoying the learning process but I have a new found respect for still life photographers that's for sure!

Chris with a winter beard. I think that the top one is a keeper.

Over the weekend Liz Kuball posted about me on her blog. I know, when it rains it definitely pours! I really enjoyed her posts about photo sluts, and how you know when a project is done. I think I have definitely become polygamous recently. My heart is shared by too many subjects.

I am very lucky girl. I just found out that my good friend Todd also posted about me recently on his blog stare'oids. (Todd I had the wrong RSS feed for you and so I didn't see it till now). I almost burst a tear duct reading his post. Thanks Todd.

Wow big day for me in blogland! When I checked my usual blog reading this morning I found that I was featured on 2 well known blogs! I was completely surprised. The first was a relatively new blog from Canadian art buyer Heather Morton. The second was from the hugely popular Conscientious fine art photo blog by Joerg Colberg. Thanks for the support!

ps new kitchen stills above.

Empty store fronts along Queen Street East in Toronto. I love how it looks like the snow is inside the store in the blue one.

A different view of the kitchen for you. I'm taking a break from the red counter for now.

Some religious figures from a Catholic building in my neighbourhood.

The photo world is a tough one and today was one of those days when I definitely had to harden myself and soldier on despite bad news. It's at times like these that you understand why people choose to have blind faith in unseen gods. Unfortunately that doesn't work for me so I'll just have to dig a little deeper and try again.

2 great new additions to the Why am I marrying him? series.

More eye candy from the kitchen counter. No real response to this project yet. What do you think?

Recently I was able to spend some time in Onterrible (translation: Ontario) catching up with these wonderful people. OK so maybe it's not so terrible now that there are so many more great people there, but I'm a Montrealer so its my duty to talk bad about our neighbouring province. I do like The Stephen Bulger Gallery and a break from French can be nice for a little while. (Annie I'm sorry that I didn't make it to Peterborough, time was short. Next time I promise!)

In other news: I need your help. I have been testing my new website on as many computers as I can and it's been fine up until one test this week where I used Explorer on a PC. All you PC users out there can you let me know if you have any problems with it? That would really help me figure out what's going on. Thanks!

Self Portrait. I know it's a but cheesy, what with the photographer starring into the light and all. I think it works though because as a photographer light has always been the thing that initially draws me to a situation. To me light is a wonderful and joyful thing that continually surprises and excites me.