Exhibition and Series Statements
Playful photographic practice - responding to dark times
To balance out the difficulties I had to navigate this year (difficulties, I know, that pale in comparison to those faced by so many others), I had the privilege to make time for play. Creativity is a vital human faculty, and one that is essential in solving problems, even 'wicked problems' experienced around the globe, and that we are implicated within in some way or shape. My go-to medium of choice for play-therapy tends to be (nut is not exclusively) photography. This year especially, it was alternative and nineteenth century approaches to photography, and a return for the first time in about 20 years to the darkroom.
Here are some of the outcomes of that fun. More to come.
Here are some of the outcomes of that fun. More to come.
Picturing Palliation Without a Camera
In 2018, as part of a study exploring the moral and practical dimensions of palliative care in humanitarian crisis settings, the following images were created to depict participants in the study in an attempt to respect patient confidentiality while also foregrounding their autonomy and dignity.
The photographs were initially intended to act as mnemonic devices for myself, but became so much more. They became a way to, in a sense, "introduce" team members who were unable to participate in the interviews to the research participants. It also became a way to further humanize the experience of living with life limiting conditions in the already tragic situation of living as refugees in a foreign country.
The images were created by digitally collaging selections of pictures freely available on the Internet. The result is a composite portrait representing unique characteristics of participants while aiming to respect their privacy and honour the stories they shared.
More about the research project can be found here and here.
The images were created by digitally collaging selections of pictures freely available on the Internet. The result is a composite portrait representing unique characteristics of participants while aiming to respect their privacy and honour the stories they shared.
More about the research project can be found here and here.
Weaving pictures:
Weaving Pictures
Hamilton Public Library, Central Branch
Gallery on 4, Annex Space, 4th floor,
4 December 2017 - 3 January 2018
Read by blog for a description of the exhibit.
Watch This Space:
Watch This Space
Hamilton Public Library, Central Branch,
Gallery on 4, Third Floor, temporary space
1-29 February 2016
Visit my blog for a lengthier description of the exhibit.
Photographs fill today’s visual landscape to the point that they appear disposable and relentless.
But photographs do not rush past and bombard in the same way as film and video images.
Photographs allow the eyes to stop, to linger, to watch.
WATCHING photographs means engaging your imagination.
Fill in the action and events that are within and outside the frame.
Focus on a detail, follow it, see where it leads.
Stop at a juxtaposition.
Look beyond, past, through the superficial, the stereotypical, the dominant.
Locate the photographer’s point of view physically, ideologically, intentionally, actually.
What is the relationship created, perpetuated or missed between the photographer, the subject, the viewer—through the event of the photograph?
Where is the power located?
Are there different degrees of power?
Can it be redistributed depending on how a photograph is used?
Do the elements, details, juxtapositions in the pictures share any similarity to ones in your daily life?
Where do the differences and similarities stem from?
In what way do they disrupt, reinforce, dissolve what you hold to be true?
Africa is not always and all-over violent and dependent.
Contrary to popular imagination there is no deep, dark heart to the continent. Rwanda, where these photographs were made, is in the centre of the continent. It is green, lush and tropical: the land of 1000 hills.
Also contrary to popular misrepresentation, Africa is not a country.
It is a continent.
It has over 50 countries and approximately 3000 languages.
Watching photographs in this way invites the mind—the imagination made up of personal experience, enculturation, positions of privilege or disadvantage—to compare, contrast, challenge what is written, said or otherwise believed to be true in connection with the pictures.
Watching a photograph also means asking: what is missing? what is not in the pictures? what is not being shown?
Watching a photograph enables questioning of your own position, your own limits and potentials, the interconnectedness of people on this planet (e.g., with cell technology: exploitation of human labour, destruction of environments, control over information, opportunities for global communication and communities).
The use of cell technology in Rwanda and many parts of Africa is ubiquitous. Urban and rural residents all have access to it; leapfrogging over telephone technology jumping from almost no telecom service to country-wide cell and fibre-optic service. Certainly this is proof of being modern. But technology alone does not eradicate repression, secure basic rights, encourage human flourishing. Watch a photograph, instead of look, glance, accept and dismiss.
Watching a photograph is about engaging, about going beyond the frame, going beneath the surface, about seeking out different perspectives and genuine interest in humanity.
Pieces of Peace | Accidents of Hope
Pieces of Peace | Accidents of Hope
Hamilton Public Library, Central Branch, Gallery on 4 Annex, Fourth Floor
January 7 - February 25, 2015
Visit my blog for a lengthier description of the project.
Hamilton Public Library, Central Branch, Gallery on 4 Annex, Fourth Floor
January 7 - February 25, 2015
Visit my blog for a lengthier description of the project.
What do you see? What do you feel? What do you think?
Is there any redeeming feature in such photographs of wretched sadness?
If not meant to inspire guilt, depression, vengeance, or apathy, what is the value of photographs such as these?
Maybe there’s something that speaks of human vulnerability in some of the common expressions, worn clothing, or postures.
Maybe there’s furniture, architecture, or transportation that reveal elements of a shared human condition.
Perhaps in the little pieces, the accidental elements within the photographs, there are kernels of peace and hope.
Rather than focus on the differences between people, rather than dismiss or avoid these pictures, the background bits in the photographs — the people and things on the margins — can inspire more positive actions & responses.
Sure, this may be an overly optimistic and idealistic way of looking at photographs of harms and sorrows, but it in no way idealizes such pictures nor does it glorify the events in them as heroic moments in human progress.
Seeking out and acknowledging the stuff that is hardly noticed, helps keep in the foreground the important things in life, things that are best supported and nurtured in peaceful environments.
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Is there any redeeming feature in such photographs of wretched sadness?
If not meant to inspire guilt, depression, vengeance, or apathy, what is the value of photographs such as these?
Maybe there’s something that speaks of human vulnerability in some of the common expressions, worn clothing, or postures.
Maybe there’s furniture, architecture, or transportation that reveal elements of a shared human condition.
Perhaps in the little pieces, the accidental elements within the photographs, there are kernels of peace and hope.
Rather than focus on the differences between people, rather than dismiss or avoid these pictures, the background bits in the photographs — the people and things on the margins — can inspire more positive actions & responses.
Sure, this may be an overly optimistic and idealistic way of looking at photographs of harms and sorrows, but it in no way idealizes such pictures nor does it glorify the events in them as heroic moments in human progress.
Seeking out and acknowledging the stuff that is hardly noticed, helps keep in the foreground the important things in life, things that are best supported and nurtured in peaceful environments.
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Memory --> Witness
Memory -- > Witness, 2013-2014
Inspired by a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, this photographic exhibition, displayed from April 1 through May 16, 2014 in the Gallery on 4, Hamilton Public Library, Central Branch, is about trauma, memories in the landscape, and creating distant witnesses. The exhibit engages with the spectator, aesthetics, media, humanity and human rights. Entitled Memories ➔ Witness, the exhibit is an example of a photographic practice that attempts to represent unrepresentable suffering while being sensitive to concerns over exploiting pain. It also invites spectators to become witnesses of a past event that has present impact on lived-realities. A witness can be an eyewitness, but can also be anyone who cares to be affected by stories of violence and continues to share these narratives with others.
These images of Rwandan landscapes are meant to ignite the imagination, to direct the mind away from the path of atrocities, especially ethnic, social, racial, or religious one-sided mass killings. As a way of keeping attuned to empathy and goodwill, the spectators’ minds should be haunted by these images just as survivors are haunted by traumatic memories. The bright hues and large scale of the images in this exhibit, facilitate and enhance imaginative abilities. The titles are quotes told to me by survivors, or selected from published testimonies and eyewitness narratives. They add meaning to an otherwise sublime scene, or act as an intrusive thought - jarring the spectator - giving them a sense of the survivors' experience of memory: it is lived, embodied and can be read in landscapes and material that are otherwise apparently benign or idyllic.
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Barton Village, 2009-2011
Barton Village, a small neighbourhood nestled at the base of the industrial heart of the Steel City, may not be as gentrified as Locke Street or as artsy as James North and Ottawa Street, but it is an example of a truly walkable, livable 'village'. This part of Hamilton has had glory days, but has also been abused and, in places, abandoned. Reflections of these glories and scars are visible in the images I have produced. In this series, I focused on existing businesses, some of which have been in operation for 40 years while others are very new. Barton Village may not trendy at this point in time, but it is poised for a revival. Its residents and business owners are resilient, ingenuitive, independent, creative, and eclectic; a true reflection of Hamilton.
The series of photographs from Barton Village in presented with a heat transfer technique I developed specifically for this series. The resulting works are muted in tones, and soft in effect. The loss of detail produced in the transfer technique does not romanticize the area, rather it becomes a reflection of the grit that is part of urban living. Ultimately, each canvas becomes a unique - rough yet soft - record of history. These images are meant to advance a positive spin.
The series of photographs from Barton Village in presented with a heat transfer technique I developed specifically for this series. The resulting works are muted in tones, and soft in effect. The loss of detail produced in the transfer technique does not romanticize the area, rather it becomes a reflection of the grit that is part of urban living. Ultimately, each canvas becomes a unique - rough yet soft - record of history. These images are meant to advance a positive spin.
New York City, 2009
The Big Apple is a treasure trove of great architecture, intense crowds, and creativity at every turn. Walking the streets of Manhattan or even whizzing along in the underground world, New York City harbours a tremendous variety of visual inspiration and excitement.
Of course I have indulged in the classic romantic black and white aesthetic to photograph this city. But the most fun I have had was in making a series of digitally layered photographs. A collection of two or three photographs were sandwiched together (to use an old darkroom term for literally sandwiching negatives one on top of the other) and the transparency and opacity were digitally manipulated along with the colour channels to achieve the effects below. The resulting photographs suggest time, movement, change, activity and even - in some cases - stasis and tradition.
Of course I have indulged in the classic romantic black and white aesthetic to photograph this city. But the most fun I have had was in making a series of digitally layered photographs. A collection of two or three photographs were sandwiched together (to use an old darkroom term for literally sandwiching negatives one on top of the other) and the transparency and opacity were digitally manipulated along with the colour channels to achieve the effects below. The resulting photographs suggest time, movement, change, activity and even - in some cases - stasis and tradition.