Don’t worry. Even though this post is all about catching up,
USER isn’t the only thing I’ve been working on. Not at all.

There’s also some photos of April and Erik, what I’ve taken
to calling LOVE SHOTS. (Careful, those ones aren’t safe for
work.)

And an update on that shooting I was doing for The Ottawa
Citizen, called Portraits of Blues Fest.

Let’s get going……

CATCHING UP (ON THE CORNER)

Like I said a few weeks ago…..no matter how often I go down
to the corner, I always seem to meet someone new, as well as
a bunch of people I know.

Here are a couple of Polaroids of Cheryl Anne. I just met her
yesterday. She’s 47 years old and has been smoking crack for
20 years. She was totally into being photographed and it was
very interesting working with her. Look for some actual scans
of the film in a week or two.

Polaroids, shot yesterday: Cheryl Anne and Cheryl Anne kissing me

Anyway, the idea this year was just to photograph the men, but
you never know who you’ll bump into on that corner. So I just
shoot. Some of the people I’ve been photographing this year,
well, I’ve also shot last year and the year before that.

And that is taking USER into another territory.

Laurie, 2007

Laurie, 2008

Polaroid of Laurie, shot yesterday

I’m not sure how this aspect of USER will play out. For instance,
the shot of Laurie from 2008 didn’t make the final edit from that
year. And I’m not sure if the fact that I now have portraits of her
shot in 3 consecutive years makes that 2008 portrait better, more
important or worthy. Something for me to think about.

Here’s another shot from last year, another one that didn’t make
the final edit. Her name is Bouchra.

Bouchra, 2008

And here’s a Polaroid of her that I shot yesterday:

All I know, at this point, is that I’m going to continue to shoot
whoever is interested in stepping before my camera, whoever
wants to collaborate with me on this project. Where it will all
end up, what will be left on the editing room floor and what I
decide to show, remains to be seen.

What I want and need is enough photos to have a choice.

Work.

CATCHING UP (APRIL AND ERIK)

THE FOLLOWING TWO IMAGES ARE NOT SAFE FOR WORK.

Finally finished shooting April and Erik. About time, too, seeing
as the show opens in just over a month.

I still have to edit the shoot. Then comes the final post production
and printing of the selected images. Time is tight, it’ll get done.

Here’s one of the shots you’ll see in the show:

April and Erik, stain

And here’s one you won’t see, an outtake:

CATCHING UP (BLUES FEST)

Peter Simpson, Arts Editor at Large for The Ottawa Citizen,
asked 12 local artists to go to the big annual 12 day blow-
out called Blues Fest. Asked them to react to the going’s
on, make a piece and let’s auction them off for charity.

Okay.

I posted a couple of outtakes from that shoot a few weeks
ago. Seems that the cat’s out of the bag now that the images
are starting to appear on the Portrait of Blues Fest Fb page.

So, without further ado, here’s my contribution:

The Blues (kiss/poutine)