MORE CRACK

WARNING:
Depending on where you work, one
of the following images may be
NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

Last year I took portraits of crack addicts after dark. I blocked them into tableaux,
added light and pressed the button.

The time I spent photographing them was intense, fulfilling and very, very exciting,
so I really wanted to continue this project. But I didn’t want to just carry on shooting
like I did last year.

You may not know it from looking at my pictures, but I don’t like repeating myself. I
had the idea that this year I might try shooting the addicts in the exact opposite way
from what I’d previously done. I thought I’d shoot tight head shots, all framed the same.
The drama would come from allowing the viewers to just look into the subjects’ eyes,
study their faces.

If you’ve been following along here on drool you’ll have seen some of my preliminary
efforts, efforts that didn’t work for me. They felt a bit too much like mass production,
too easy in the sense that I was using a simple formula. I had designed a box and was
putting the subjects into it. (Of course every photographer has boxes of their own design.
They have strategies, proclivities, sensitivities, interests, ways of organizing the world.
The photographers’ job is to turn chaos into order and without some boxes that’s an
impossible task.)

Anyway…..

A couple of days ago, after pondering what was right and what was wrong (subjectively
speaking, of course) with the approach I’d been trying, I went back to the corner and shot
each subject based on their own merits. Different framing for each person based on how
I responded to them then and there. That made the shooting much more difficult, more
decisions had to be made. But it felt right.

Here are 3 of the most recent shots. At last I feel like I’m making some progress, that
these photos look like me. I realize that there’s some fine tuning to be done, many
photos to be taken and a hard edit to be applied. Of course.

The struggle to find a way is solved. The next struggle begins…..stasis = death.

Bubbles

Dakota

Joanne

detail

detail

detail

DAVID BARBOUR’S HAVANA

David Barbour has been going to Cuba, to shoot, forever.

He’s showing some older stuff and some newer stuff from Havana at the Red Wall Gallery.
You’ll see some classic Henri Cartier Bresson style street shooting and the newer pano-
ramic shots of empty streets at night. These new night shots are very beautiful…..they
drip with atmosphere. Go see for yourself.

David Barbour and some of his photographs

OPENING

The Ottawa Art Gallery is opening their big 20th anniversary show this coming Thursday.
Curated by Emily Falvey, the show (titled: EVIDENCE: The Ottawa City Project) presents
work by 17 artists. The included pieces are concerned with “charting the fragmentary
proof of an alternative Ottawa”. I had a quick look at the art before it was hung and it
looks like this is gonna be a pretty interesting show…..artists’ take on their city. (Full
disclosure: I’m included in the show, but that’s not why I think it’s interesting. I think
it’s interesting because of the theme and all work included. Good job Emily.)

I count 10 photographers amongst the presenting artists so, if you like photography
and/or are interested in how some people view this city, get on down to the OAG.
Opens this Thursday, September 4th at 5:30 p.m.

Cornucopia, 2006. photograph by Justin Wannacott