A bunch of miscellaneous stuff this week. Skip over the bits that
bore you but try to make it to the end for a chance to WIN!

DELTA OUT-TAKES

The recent trip Cindy and I took down the Mississippi Delta was
a holiday. It was a bit odd for me, what with keeping the shooting
down to a dull roar.

When I shoot my personal projects it’s, like, totally intense. I work
from dawn to dusk (with, maybe a 2 hour nap in the early afternoon).
That’s what I think it takes to do what I do, to actually meet and engage
the people I want/need to photograph. Work, intensity, being controlling
while being very open. A juggling act.

Anyway, this trip I only shot about 18 medium format frames a day, a
total of 120 shots. A relaxed pace, not trying too hard…..or, at least,
having priorities other than just shooting.

I’ve already put together an edited portfolio (see: MAY YOU TAKE MY
PICTURE, scroll down to January 11).

Here’s a slide show of some of the shots I like that didn’t make that edit:

click on arrow ^

ROBIN CUMMING

I dropped into Gallery 101 to have a look at Robyn Cumming’s work.
Robyn’s a Toronto photographer who’s work (at least the work on
display at Gallery 101) is very much about narrative, setting up
scenarios and so on. (Of course, theres also a lot more to it than
that. Go see for yourself.)

Robyn Cumming at Gallery 101

Happened to get there part way thru her talk. I got all giddy.

Let me tell you why:

The first thing I heard from her was that she likes to set up using
a certain amount of control, but then allows and reacts to the little,
uncontrollable, things that happen in the context of that control. (Me
too.)

Robyn giving her talk (don’t worry, there were a lot of people there, outside the frame)

Then she went on to say that she likes the narrative in these photos to
be kind of unresolved, like the photo was taken in the middle of some
situation. The viewer must fill in the before and the after. (Me too.)

She talked about the demands she places on her subjects, how they must,
pretty much, submit to the (her) process. (Me too.)

And, on a geeky level, she shoots film. (Me too.)

Of course, when I say “(Me too)” I’m not talking about all my work. There
are a few ways I like to take pictures…..

A couple of Robyn’s photos on the wall

Anyway…..

It’s always great when you meet someone who has a similar approach
to yours. Kinda like meeting a kindred spirit.

One of the things I note, though, is that while Robyn’s work and (some of)
my work are both (on a certain level) about the same thing, and that our
approach to the creation of the work is very close, well…. her photos and
mine look totally different.

I think that all this, somehow, relates back to last week’s post, which was
about theft and about making something your own. To me, the fact that
working methods and intent can be so close yet produce work so divergent,
is one of the beauties of art and of injecting your own “truth” into what you
do. And by “truth” I mean “yourself”.

ANNIE LEIBOVITZ AND DOROTHEA LANGE

Further to aspects of what I’m talking about in the two items above, about the
work, the happenstance and the magic involved in producing photographs, I ran
into this passage in A. Leibovitz’s book “AT WORK”. Here she talks a little about
this famous Dorothea Lange photo, about her work ethic and about what can/will
happen when you persevere…..

Migrant Mother, 1936 by D. Lange

After spending a month on the road in southern
California she (Lange) was finally heading home.
It was raining and she was exhausted and she had
a long drive ahead of her. She had been working up
to fourteen hours a day for weeks and was bringing
back hundreds of pictures of destitute farm workers.
Somewhere south of San Luis Obispo she saw out of
the corner of her eye a sign that said “Pea-Pickers
Camp.” She tried to put it out of her mind. She had
plenty of pictures of migrant farmers already….She
drove for about twenty miles past the sign and made
a U-turn. She went back to the sign and turned down
a muddy road. A woman was sitting with her children
on the edge of a huge camp of makeshift tents. There
were maybe three thousand migrant workers living
there. Lange took out her Graflex and shot six frames,
one of them of the woman staring distractedly off to the
side while two of her children buried their faces in her
shoulders.

The image of the woman and her children became the
most important photograph of Dorothea Lange’s life
and the iconic picture of the Depression.

When I’m asked about my work, I try to explain that
there is no mystery involved. It is work. But things
happen all the time that are unexpected, uncontrolled,
unexplainable, even magical. The work prepares you for
that moment.

DAVID McMILLAN

Went to see David McMillan’s show at IPS Gallery. That’s the Montreal
gallery where I’ll be showing work this coming June.

David’s a Winnipeg photographer who keeps going back to Chernobyl
with his big camera. Check out some of his work here.

David in front of some of his work

IPS owner/curator team Penny Cousineau-Levine and her daughter Zoe

Zoe’s hand

IPS Gallery

SARAH SCHORLEMER

Sarah’s scan-o-grams of sex toys. Red Wall Gallery. Need I say more?

Sarah in front of some of her work

Some of the photos

Creepy guy Guy Berube at Sarah’s opening

QUESTIONS

Have you read this far?

Is this too much stuff all at once?

Would drool be better if I posted fewer items, but more often?

Or do you like the idea of having lots of stuff once a week?

I’d kinda like to know what you think, because I’ve been wondering
about this……..

If you send me your answers as comments here (and a way to e-mail
you), your name will be thrown into a hat for the chance to win this print.
(Suitable for framing.)

The Brooklyn Bridge