GETTING LOST

Ken Godmere had some kind of brain-thing happen to him, he
lost his short term memory. He couldn’t even go for a walk around
the block without getting lost. No one was sure why this was happening,
or how they could fix him.

After a while he just got better. A medical mystery.

Ken Godmere, in his neighbourhood. Photographed for Ottawa Magazine

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ON TRYING

I have this vaguely uncomfortable feeling that drool is
drifting. But how it can drift when it was conceived as
a free-floating forum for any ideas, out takes, flotsam
and jetsam that may cross my mind or my desk?

Elgin Street, Ottawa

Sure, there are no rules. But just like my (personal)
photography, I kind of hate to settle for less, for things
that don’t really represent me.

Eminem, one of my heroes, rhymes this:

…..I’m desperate at my desk
If I can just get the rest of the shit off my chest
Stuck in this slump, can’t think of nothin
Fuck I’m stumped, but wait, here comes somethin
Nope, it’s not good enough, scribble it out
New pad, crinkle it up, and throw the shit out
I’m fizzlin now, thought I figured it out
Ball’s in my court, but I’m scared to dribble it out
I’m afraid, but why am I afraid?
Why am I a slave to this trade?
Cyanide I spit to the grave……

I believe that most of the best creators are never really
satisfied, never want to settle for “good enough”. Sure,
I understand that not everything you do can be “the best”.
I know that it’s the process, the self doubt and questioning
that are the real engines behind doing “good” work. I also
understand that not everyone wants to submit themselves
to the process, the self doubt and the questioning.

Personally, I like to really try. Even when I’m shooting some
mundane thing just for money, I try to find some little aspect
of the job that will interest and challenge me. After all, the only
other option is boring.

Elgin Street, Ottawa; with advertising poster I shot

Problem is, as Homer Simpson says: “Trying is the first step
towards failure”.

Me, I’d rather fail trying than just go along.

Younge Street, Toronto

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TWELVE SUKI’S

Suki Lee, author, asked me to shoot some pix of her….publicity
shots and some stuff for her web site.

We shot upstairs, in my funny little studio.

Like I often do during shoots, after a bit of shooting I did a fast
edit and pulled a bunch of the shots into the Light Table thing
in Aperture, the program I use to download and browse. I find
it helpful, not to mention fun, to play around a bit with what I’m
doing, while I’m doing it.

Screen grab

Of course, this was a relaxed shoot, one where I had the opportunity to
play. Not every shoot affords that possibility, sometimes I only have the
subject for 10 or 12 minutes.

Anyway……..

After I dragged the selects into the Light Table thingy, after we played
with them a bit, it occurred to me that strings of photos might look swell
on her web site.

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RUTH AND VERN

Ruth and Vern have been married for 50 years. During that time they’ve
had one “official” portrait sitting. 50 years ago.

Randy, one of their sons, asked me if I’d shoot them to celebrate their
Golden Anniversary.

As usual, I said I’d only do it if I could do what I wanted. Fortunately
Randy, who’s the Director of Strategic Services at McMillan, one of the
ad agencies I work with, knew my work and assured me I would have
free rein. Ruth and Vern were a dream to work with, open to all my
weird suggestions and stuff. They even seemed to enjoy the energy,
concentration and process that is a photoshoot.

I also did some shooting that, it seemed to me, would be more “normal”.

And, hey…..50 years married? We had to end up in the bedroom.

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PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA

Bar, Palm Springs

Baby Pit Bull, Palm Springs

WINNIPEG

Q & A

OttawaFocus recently did a Q & A with your truly.

Find it here.

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE

ALEJANDRO CHASKIELBERG

Argentinian photographer Alejandro Chaskielberg (and I thought my
last name was difficult to pronounce) has won burn Magazine’s Emerging
Photographer Grant. The work he submitted was shot at night, using the
light of the full moon, along the Paranå River.

image copyright Alejandro Chaskielberg

image copyright Alejandro Chaskielberg

image copyright Alejandro Chaskielberg

See his work here, and his burn Magazine entry here.

HOSPITAL ROOM

PROMOS

Heather Morton Art Buyer has been running (and running) with
a thing she and Chatelaine Photo Editor Myles McCutcheon are
doing about foto promos.

It’s an ongoing series of posts that started when Myles put out
a call for photographers to send him recent promos. As I under-
stand it, they’ll be choosing and dissecting 5 of the promos that
they received over the next week.

There’s already a bunch of posts up, more will be forthcoming, so
you might want to pop back to HMAb from time to time to hear what
they have to say…..

You’ll have to scroll down some to get to the start, which looks
like this……

All kinds of stuff and information on drool this week. Reviews, special
offers, recycled words and more.

Feel free to skip the boring bits. I know I would.

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MOAMMAR GADHAFI/SPECIAL OFFER

Gotta start this week’s drool with Moammar. This dude is stylin’.

(For those out there who might not know who he is, well, he’s the
leader of Libya.)

Check this pic from last Thursday’s Globe and Mail. Moammar
Gadhafi visits Italy, and what does he wear on his outfit, besides
standard-issue Third-World-Leader brocade and medals?

Why, a photograph, of course.

But not just any foto. No, Moammar’s got an agenda. The pic
on his chest is of Libyan guerrilla leader Omar Mukhtar, who
fought against Italian colonialism in Libya, way back when
Italy was an actual colonial “power”.

First off, dude’s got big balls for this stunt, seeing as he’s
visiting Italy.

Second, I think he’s on to something. Another market for
fotos.

So, here’s my special offer…….Anyone out there who wants
one of my PERSONAL pix, to wear on their outfit, just send
an e-mail to {tony(at)tonyfoto(dot)com}, tell me which shot
you’d like, and for the paltry sum of just $19.95* I’ll print you
out a 4×6 or 5×5 inch print suitable for wearing.

*plus postage and handling. please allow 3 to 6 weeks for delivery

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SOMERSET by JUSTIN WONNACOTT

Justin Wonnacott has been shooting buildings on Somerset Street,
in Ottawa, for about ten years.

I first became aware of this project of his about 3 years ago, he
was posting the pix on his (now defunct) blog. (In fact, it was
Justin’s blog, which had just the right amount of personal and
professional information, stated in a pretty matter of fact way,
that convinced me to start drool.)

Anyway……the fruits of his labour are now on display at The
Bytown Museum.

Justin Wonnacott (right) seen with Stephan St. Laurent and Tam-Ca Vo-Van

The show, curated by Christopher Davidson, is interesting in many
respects. Firstly, Christopher ignored the obvious impulse to arrange
the images in a geographic way. Rather they are grouped in loose
themes and in no real obvious themes at all, which kind of reflects
the street itself.

One wall contains a typology of similar houses…..

Other walls hold pairs of images that show change, in amongst
documentary-style shots……

photos copyright J. Wonnacott

photo copyright J. Wonnacott

The photographs in this show whisper to you. And it’s those whispers
that make you look and listen more carefully. The quietness of these
images make you feel the secrets and the history these buildings hold.

I suggest you make your way down the stairs to The Bytown Museum
to see this show. The setting really helps.

If you can’t make it to the museum you can see the photos (and other
words) here.

Justin’s web site is here.

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USER REVIEWED IN MONTREAL MIRROR

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LIKENESS

LIKENESS, a group show of contemporary portraiture, opened
at SPAO’s Red Wall Gallery this past Friday.

The show is part of Festival Karsh, a celebration of the 100th
anniversary of that dude’s birth. There are exhibitions and
stuff all over town. You can see the schedule, etc, here.

But, back to LIKENESS…..

There was a big crowd on hand for the opening and a good
time was had by all.

fotogs Andrew Balfour, Lawrence Cook, Trevor Lush

Montreal photographer and SLIGHTLY LUCID blogger Aislinn Leggett

Like most big group shows, especially ones with no criteria other
that “contemporary foto portraiture”, LIKENESS is a bit uneven.

As it stands LIKENESS treats the viewer to a cornucopia of styles,
some much more modern than others. It’s left to the audience to
make sense of it all.

Seems to me that photo shows, just like cameras and photographers
brains, can all use some focus.

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TONY SHOOTS TONY

As regular drool readers will know, I had an image nominated for
a National Magazine Award…my portrait of class action lawyer Tony
Merchant.

These nominations are difficult to come by and Report on Business
magazine pulled out some stops to publicize the fact that their mag
garnered 4 nominations.

One of the things they did was produce a video, introducing the four
fotogs whose work for the mag was nominated. Here (again).

But, before they hit on the idea of producing a video, they thought
they might just use words and pictures on their web site.

To this end they asked the fotografers to write a thing about the shoot
and to send along some out takes.

The words I wrote (and the out takes) never saw the light of day so, in
the spirit of recycling, I’m going to post them here.

Here you go…….

Tony shoots Tony, or Mr. Fouhse shoots Mr. Merchant.

I don’t know about you, but I always find it a bit funny
when I have to deal with someone who has the same
name as me.  Once I photographed a man with a dog. 
The man’s name wasn’t Tony, but his dog’s name was. 
I loved that, calling the dog Tony. It felt funny.

Anyway, Tony Merchant……..

When I first contacted Tony about the shoot he said
he was booked into a suite at the Chateau Laurier,
a fancy Ottawa hotel.  I reckon every photographer
loves hearing that kind of thing……we all love shoot-
ing in fancy hotel rooms.  Not for the room service,
but for the milieu.  Hotel rooms have a semi-anony-
mous feel that allows a certain freedom. Plus, every
hotel room I’ve ever been in has a bed.  The trick is
getting the subject, when he’s a lawyer, onto the bed. 
Kind of like a first date, and editorial photoshoots are
a lot like a first date.

I try to treat every person I shoot the same (up to a
point).  Mostly I just try to be myself and to be as
honest as I can be, given that part of my job des-
cription is manipuating people.  But manipulating
in the nicest sense of that word (up to a point).  I
never try to pull any fast ones, I just about always
try to include the subject in the process. I show
them the Polaroids/files on the computer.  I explain,
we discuss.  I find that that adds to the process, and,
if you ask me, it’s all about process.  Well……process
and schedules and stress and keeping 6 balls in the
air at once as you try to keep up a conversation while
you’re figuring out lighting and blocking and back-
grounds and framing and exposures and a whole
bunch of other stuff, too.

With Tony, I knew the shoot was on the right track
when, after we met and shook hands, he picked up
his cell phone, pressed a speed-dial number and
said to whoever answered:  “I’m going dark for
the next 3 hours”, then turned the phone off.
Sounded like I was going to have his undivided
attention.  Good.

So, the shoot went like a dream.  Tony was open
and cooperative, willing to try just about anything
I suggested.  We started with him in a chair,  but
eventually ended up on the bed.  

Tony is a real action man, so having him in the bed
made no sense.  However, having him on the bed,
putting on his costume, getting ready to spring
into action, that, to me, made a lot of sense.  I
asked him to sit there, on the bed. I asked him
to tie his tie. Then I asked him to look off to the
right. He did and I pushed the button.

The shot they ran

The very next frame

out take

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USER: Women

Ten of the final USER: Women photos are now up on my web site.

Go here and click on PERSONAL.

Cathy, USER: Women out take

In the midst of a craaaaazy week of shooting I hit the road.

MONTREAL

On Wednesday, to drop off the framed USER photos for my opening
there (Saturday).

916 Ontario St. East, home of IPS Gallery; Magida in the building’s stairwell

Unwrapping some of the pix

After we dropped the work I called up an old assistant Ari Tapiero,
who now lives and works in Montreal. We met up, had some lunch.

Magida and Ari and grafitti

After lunch we dropped by Gallerie du Viaduc, where Ari was showing
some of his portraits.

Ari in Galerie du Viaduc

TORONTO

On Friday, for the National Magazine Awards gala.

View from hotel room

The nominated pix in my category (portrait photography)

Cin and I got to the gala a little bit late, so the schmooze was held
to a minimum. Probably not a bad thing since I’m so bad at it, at
the schmooze. I feel uncomfortable and tongue tied, just want to
be a wallflower, until my evil twin takes over and I end up saying
the stupidest stuff. Fortunately most people take it as humour and,
once again, I escape with my reputation intact (and even, sometimes,
enhanced).

Anyhow, Clay Stang took it all in our category. I guess I would have
preferred to win myself but, if someone else had to take it I’m happy
it was him. That shot of his (of Peter Lougheed) was killer.

I also got to meet one of my heros…..Roger Lemoyme, photojournalist.

I’ve been looking, with awe, at Roger’s pix for years. In person he just
looks and feels and acts like a consummate pro photo-j. He also took
home a NMA, for a photo story he shot in Serbia, for Maisoneuve.

Also spotted at the gala were:

MONTREAL

Saturday was Montreal (again) for the USER opening at IPS Gallery.

Penny Cousineau-Levine’s shoe; Pitbull

This time there was no avoiding the schmooze. But I kinda liked
it. Maybe because I was the center of attention.

There was a swell turn out, I don’t have a ton of pix of the crowd,
too busy working the room. I did manage, tho, to squeeze in a
few shots.

And I even managed to shoot a few installation pix:

If you’d like to read the statement IPS Gallery issued about USER,
well, just click here.

AND, FINALLY, APROPOS OF NOTHING…..

I’ll leave you with three photos I took a long time ago: