NOT WHY I DO WHAT I DO

A couple times a week, or so, I get e-mails from strangers.

They’ve seen my work and it has inspired them to write. Sometimes
the comments are critical, and that’s fine by me. Other times the
comments are kind of generic, along the lines of: “Saw your work,
love the way you do it”.

Every so often I get an e-mail like this:

“…..I am currently taking photography at my high school….. For one
of our assignments, we were asked to go to your website and take a
look at your photographs of crack users in downtown Ottawa.

I found that this set of photographs were very raw and really show
the gritty life of a crack head. My sister was once a crack head and
much as it’s sad to see but these photographs really helped me see
what kind of things my sister had dealt with at the time of her addiction.
These photographs were very eye-opening…..”

And……

A few days ago Michelle Wilson came by to help me with the final
post production on the prints I’m making for my upcoming shows.

Prints on studio wall

That’s my hand in this pic, to give an idea of the scale

While Michelle and I were working on the scans she mentioned how
weird it is: “All this time shooting and sitting in front of a computer,
and then people look at the photo for, like, 15 seconds”.

Man, I know what she means. But……

The above e-mail, as swell as it is, and the idea that I’m investing
time and money into my work, that I’m sitting for hours fretting
and fine tuning images that may, or may not, be looked at, those
are not why I do what I do.

No, the reason I shoot photos is because it gets me out of the house,
into the wide world and in touch.

Period.

SPAO EXHIBITION #4

The School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) opened their
year-end show this past Friday. As usual, a large crowd was on hand
and every one seemed to be in fine mettle.

Of course there were some feelings of nostalgia-to-come from the
students who were graduating, moving on, trying to figure out what
their future might be in this mean old world.

But the night was marked by a fine display of second and third year
student work that, to my surprise, didn’t all look the same.

It’s great to see students not getting too sucked in by their instructors.
That fine spirit of shucking off the methods and prejudices of their
indoctrination should stand the rebels in good stead.

Here are some random snaps of some of the work and some of the
folks in attendance.

Poster

Portfolios + white gloves

Work by Sarah Futterer

Work bt Magida El-Kassis

A guest looking

Work by Joel Cote-Cright

Work by Alli Asudeh

Sarah Schorlemer’s bandaid

LADY EVELYN @ PATRICK GORDON

After the SPAO thingy a whole bunch of folks migrated West, to
a more industrial part of town, for the big Lady Evelyn School Art
Auction at Patrick Gordon Framing.

Patrick, of Patrick Gordon Framing, is fast becoming the go-to guy
for art-related shindigs. A fine, generous fellow with a big facility
and the faculty to throw a fine party…..

I’m not privy to the final tally but, given all the fine artists who generously
donated work, and all the establishments who pitched in with goods and
services as door prizes, I trust a goodly amount was raised.

Some of the work in the silent auction (including a Mississippi diptych by yours truly)

Food

An actual Michael Tardioli photograph, on view out in the open and for sale