Kapital City, awash with rampant politicians who seem to care only for
power and control, for getting their way. Who fuck the voter until it’s
time to bribe them again with sweet platitudes and golden promises
(made to be broken) that will translate into votes, keep the whole game
endlessly churning.

Pierre Poilievre, Conservative Member of Parliament and point man for gov’t spin. Ottawa, 2012

I’ve always been amazed that so many people fall for it, just like they fall
for god or anything else that makes them feel good or, at least, hopeful.

But I suppose that’s the Human Condition. Without hope how could we
get by? What would be the point?

And I realize that I’m writing this thru my white-first-world-male filter.
I do think, from time to time how my charmed life compares to those in
Darfur, Haiti, Syria and so on. And when I do, I feel small for moaning.

But moan I do. Not always, but today, yes.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to work thru it, to find a way to
agitate to provoke change. Problem is, the system and the personalities
who are driven to occupy that system (almost always the wrong people)
are merely a reflection of us. And how do you change “us”?

I’ve long held that there are two kinds of power. If a leader is on a podium
speaking to a thousand people, and if that leader says “jump” and the crowd
jumps.. . .then the leader has power. But if you are in that crowd and the leader
says “jump” but you don’t jump. . . .then you have power.

It’s that local, personal power I try to exert in my life. I try to remember
that you don’t always have to do what “they” say.

Staircase, Ottawa, 2012

GIRL’S BACK, STAIRWELL, OTTAWA, 2012

PUBLICATIONS

Anyone interested in fotobooks might consider picking up, or ordering,
the latest FOAM magazine. This issue isn’t really a magazine at all. It’s
a box that contains a magazine about dummies as well as 8 abridged
(I believe) actual dummies.

The range of subject matter, approach and design of the dummies is
food for thought and proves the point that holding a thing in your hands
is very different from browsing on the interwebs.

Got the latest LPV mag in the mail this week. A wonderful melange of
images, articles and interviews (one of which is with me, about various
aspects of the LIVE THROUGH THIS project).

Once again, being able to sit in an armchair and consume this thing,
being able to pick it up, look at it, leave it laying around and then
pick it up again, reminds us of the difference between the virtual
and the sensual.

HOMIES

There are still some copies of HOMIES left. Adam Amengual’s book
of portraits of ex-gangbangers. Beauty.

Get one while you can.

FOAM: XXXX
LPV: XXXX
HOMIES: XXXX

OTTAWA FOTOGRAFY

One of the things the Kapital City foto-scene needs is a critical forum,
one that boosts and bites. And by “bites” I don’t mean nasty, deep cuts
that require sutures. No, I mean critical thoughts that look at both the
specifics of foto-work and how that work fits into the larger scheme of
things. Balance.

I’m pretty much involved with the foto-scene at SPAO but I know that
there are also similar (but probably less vibrant) scenes at Ottawa
University, The Ottawa School of Art and loose collections of like-
minded foto-souls.

It’s probably partly my bad that I don’t know more about those other
foto-scenes, that they are only in my peripheral vision. But it’s also
partly their lack of reaching out that creates what seems to me to be
a kind of vacuum here.

Or maybe they just don’t care. I don’t know.

One thing I’ve been thinking about lately is starting some kind of
semi-curated clearing house for who’s doing what and what it might
mean, for the Kap City (including Gatineau) serious art foto scene.

So I say this. . .any fotografers, critics, writers and so on, out there
who are interested in helping to conceptualize and create an online
thing (Facebook? Tumblr? Blog?) that speaks to what’s what in the
local (and beyond) foto-scene, that is smart and fearless but also
well measured, I invite them to PM me and maybe we can go for a
soda, toss some ideas around. Come to a conclusion and make it
happen. (tony@tonyfoto.com)

And, speaking of the Ottawa foto-scene, does anyone know what’s
going on with Festival X (the Ottawa Photo Festival)?

The last edition seemed to have some problems (which I outlined
here) and were also, apparently, raised at a round-table discussion,
but were never, to my knowledge actually addressed by the Fest X
board.

Does anybody know? Does anybody care?

Waiting for the bus, Ottawa, 2012

MINORITY POSITION

Sebastiao Salgado is presenting the N. American premiere of
his new work, GENESIS, at the ROM in Toronto, as part of the
CONTACT foto fest. Fitting title seeing as, like almost all of
his work, it’s biblical in approach and proportion. And I don’t
mean that in a good sense. . .we all know how idealized and
inaccurate that book is.

© S. Salgado. North of Ob River. Inside the Arctic Circle. Yamal, Russia, 2011

I think the reason his work is so popular is because it’s easy
to digest. Overwrought, old-fashioned and Wagnerian to a
fault. Not to mention totally unrealistic. Folks eat it up.

I put him in the same camp as Ansel Adams: idealized versions
of planet Earth that cater to society’s base instinct to be awed
at the majesty of it all. To me it just seems like a throw-back
to The Family of Man years of fotografy. Sure, we’re all in this
together (as E. Steichen posited with his edit of The Family of
Man) but we now know it’s not that simple. And I find the fotos
and approach of Mr Salgado just that: simple.

GOING TO HUNTS POINT with Chris Arnade

Be sure to click on the full screen icon for HD goodness.

WARNING: I have to tell you (no offense to those mentioned
today on drool, myself included) that this post is a bit boring.
Really just some hype for yours truly and some other Kapital
City fotografers.

drool doesn’t like being a list, drool would much prefer to
be a thorn in your side, food for thought, deep.

But as my good (Fb) friend Mr. T.A. has pointed out to me,
and as I try to remember and to convince myself, the foto-
life (Just like “real” life) can’t all be highs; there has to be
the fallow periods, inbetween-times and just plain gray
bits, too.

The zen dudes tell us we have to pass through boredom to
reach fascination. Hope so.

AT CONTACT

Well, by the time you read this, CONTACT Photo Fest will be
going full speed in Toronto.

A huge fotofest, one that is democratic in what and how and
where foto-shows are seen. But it also has a theme and some
primary and featured exhibitions, as well as public installations.

I’m pleased that one of my fotos will be in a featured show.
Face to Face, presented by Mcleans magazine, includes 50
of “the most memorable portraits from our collection”.

There are some pretty amazing shots in there and I’m in the
company of many of Canada’s top portraitists, including Karsh,
Derek Shapton, Christopher Wahl and Mark Zibert.

The shot of mine they have included is, well, the obvious one,
the one that gets used and stolen all the time. . . .Prime Minister
Harper.

Here is a link to Face to Face: XXXX
And a link to the festivals home page: XXXX

If you are in or around Toronto any time the next month you
might want to pick up one of CONTACT’s thick catalogs to
see what you might see.

FALLEN: Olivia Johnston

Up until May 2nd, at La Petite Mort Gallery, is Olivia Johnston’s
new work: Fallen. In which she has enlisted friends to become
women from the bible.

She asked her models to read specific passages and then to
go to her studio and assume that persona. Then she took
pictures of them being their character. The images (I guess
you can’t really call them portraits. Or can you?) are hung
next to the biblical text that inspired them.

XXXX

THE lll SHOW: Lewis-Smith and Lewis and Smith

This show opens May 2nd, at Exposure Gallery. It features
Whitney Lewis-Smith, her mother, painter Dodie Smith and
her father, designer Neville Smith.

Interesting idea.

XXXX