Thursday, March 31, 2011

Nid

I have been photographing Nid for the last 8 years, Usually everytime I go to Thailand I go visit her at her bar and we make some portraits. Nid has gotten more tired and harder during the years but still is fun to be around, our last photo session in 2010 she spent much of her time laughing. She was also honest with me and told me about her boyfriend. Most women who work the bars deny having any boyfriends because it is not good for the worker customer relationship. Nid was honest with me and told me about her Thai boyfriend, she is also using her money to build a house back in her home province. Last time I talked to her she said the house was almost finished, her mother and daughter shared it with some other relatives.

Hopefully next time I visit her bar Nid will be gone and finished with that life.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Quote: Henri Cartier-Bresson-John Szarkowki

"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing, and which no contrivance on earth can bring back again. Not even photography can bring these things back, except in the memory of those who knew them, or in the imaginations of those who did not."

Web-page Work

Will spend this week working on the web-page. My page is something I work on improving bit by bit over time. I do all the HTML stuff, the page is so so, not great not terrible (maybe closer to terrible than great!). I am trying to remove some of the bad photographs and also add in better scans of the good stuff. I am also adding galleries for the recent people series in Klong Toey. This years trips to Thailand and Cambodia also have to be accommodated.

When I made up the page I wanted something I could do myself so that it would be cheaper and also more convenient than having a web designer do up the page. The other thing I wanted to avoid was making the page to gimmicky. I wanted people to visit to be able to browse a lot of pictures easily and quickly. To many photographer pages I go to are difficult to surf, there are all kinds of fancy things on the page that just makes seeing the difficult and time consuming. I wanted something that was like a contact sheet that people could just click on quickly and navigate a maximum amount of photographs with a minimum amount of time and effort.

It will take time to get the new page out but I can improve it slowly over the coming months. Hopefully before I take my Cambodia trip it will be all up and running.

Art Acquisition by Application

This last week off work I did up my first ever Art Acquisition by Application for the Alberta Foundation of the Arts. Every year in Alberta the Alberta Foundation of the Arts buys artwork from people in the province. I submitted 5 portraits from this years trip to Klong Toey slum. I plan on making this submission now on a yearly basis, hopefully over time a body of work will be collected.

http://www.affta.ab.ca/art-collection.aspx0

I also did up a email submission to the 2011 Alberta Open Photo Competition, it was easy and fast so thought why not give it another try. Submitted 3 portraits, 2 landscapes (farmscape and slumscape).

http://visualartsalberta.com/blog/?p=17427

Monday, March 28, 2011

Young Monk

I made this photograph in Chiang Kong Thailand which is up in Northern Thailand across the Mekong river from Laos. Chiang Kong is a wonderful quiet spot with some tourism but not to much. Most tourists travel through Chiang Kong only to get to Laos.

Hopefully this photograph will be part of the much larger PEOPLES (no name for this series yet) project shot in Thailand and Cambodia.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Promoting Your Work

I had a good talk today with Quinton Gordon of Luz Photography Gallery in Victoria. Quinton advised me on ways to promote my work, the main points of our discussion related to:

- the importance of getting your work into book form. Books support your work on multiple levels and also help the artist and the gallery because they are a affordable alternative to prints.

- the importance of going to photography festivals to get your work seen and critiqued by established people in the industry. I will link some of these festivals later as I learn more about them.

- the importance of building contacts with the publishing and art community.

I am not sure how successful I will be at attempting these things, I will try to follow some of the suggestions made. The time required to do this is what I worry about, if it interferes with my ability to make new work and grow as a photographer then I think that's where I would draw the line. I have to try to get a book made at least a blurb.com book which will give me a mock up I could show at the festivals, show people in the industry, galleries etc.

If I had two choices, to create important work that might not be recognized for years maybe not until after my death or to get work recognized now but because of the lack of time and funds not create as much photography, I would choose the former. Creating new strong photographs is where its at for me, making the work has to take precedence over everything else.

I will try to get the photographs seen as much as I can (I want to tell the stories of the people in the images) but I do not want the photographs to suffer as a result. I will just have to see how it goes, will do my best. I am lucky to have a friend in a gallery like Luz, they will help me promote the work, thanks very much Quinton and Dianna.

Quinton's links are below (the curator of the gallery is Diana Millar), his website and his wonderful blog which is very informative should be required reading.

http://www.luzgallery.com/
http://www.luzgallery.com/blog/

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Working On Group Show Prints

I spent the night working on a show print. I started up with a 11x14 paper size learning the negative, playing with contrasts, bleaching, dodging and burning (am sometimes burning at low contrast on the multigrade paper). Am slowly learning the print. I tried something new tonight with the bleaching, added a second squirt bottle. I have one squirt bottle (using a brush for detailed work) loaded with bleach another with fixer that I take turns with on the print. The fix in the one bottle accelerates the bleach on the print. I was pulling the print in and out of the fixer but found this method today which allows me to control the process a bit better, and I do not risk damaging the print like I do when I pick it up and place it in the tray over and over again.

I will work another hour or so then take a nap before starting to work on the final print for this image in the 16x20 paper size. I will fix/hypo clear and bleach that photograph. I would like to take one of the final prints to the gallery to check the lighting there and ensure I am not printing to dark.

Am using the discontinued Agfa Classic Fiber-base photographic paper. It is a warm tone paper that gives rich deep brownish tonality. I am using the discontinued Agfa WA film developer.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Khon Thai Expanded

I had the meeting with the judge at the club tonight and showed the 5 Khon Thai photographs which were received well. I am thinking more and more now of expanding the project into Cambodia. I guess the best way to explain my thoughts is through a story.

A few days ago I read a news story about a long standing border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. There is a famous temple that now is on the Cambodian side of the border that the Thais also claim as there own. Soldiers have been sporadically shooting each other in this area for decades, it creates much division and conflict in the peoples of the 2 countries. The confusing part is that if you go back in South East Asian history this border area changed hands many times so both countries can make a legitimate claim. The story I read dealt with another thing that happened at this disputed border area where soldiers had recently been killed. The story was about a party that was set up, I guess on the Thai said they set up a party and meal, and invited the Cambodian soldiers over to share food and drink. The Cambodians had been ordered not to drink more than 2 beers but as boys are apt to do got well liquored up with their Thai counterparts. I guess there was lots of joy and frivolity along with comradity and song. I thought, why can't I do this with my photographs, why can't I show the connection of the 2 peoples the things that unite them, how they are not really that different inside.

The way the world works is it likes to draw lines separating us, this one is Christian this one Muslim, this one is American this one Russian. When it really comes down to it thou we are all very similar, we love our children, we marry and love our wives or husbands, we love our parents and grandparents. If I could show the similarities we all share, in my case the photo series would be specific to Thai and Cambodian people but also in a way be representative of people world wide. I could show prints side by side a Thai policeman next to a Cambodian policeman a old lady in Thailand next to an old lady in Cambodia. The work would be about the human family.

To ambitious, to complex for my limited skills? Heck this might be way out of my league, it might be reaching way to high, I am just a small time photographer from Canada.

This would be a great thing to try and do, create a family of photos that speaks to the common humanity in all of us. I would rather get up to the plate and swing away and strike out than be to scared to try for that home run. I read a quote once that I have often thought about "Regret is a worse feeling than failure." When I am a very old guy sitting in my wheelchair with pureed food on my plate and the urine bag hanging off the side of the chair. I would much rather have tried and failed to do something grand than to have to live with the regret of never making the attempt.

I might have to think of a new title as Khon Thai does not cover this larger project, maybe Family something or other.

I got it!! FAMILY OF MAN! oops its already been used.

Will keep on working on the title for this project.

Update: I have been thinking I need to find a word that is the same in both the Thai and Khmer languages, something that will be understand by both peoples. I need a word that can be understand by both and a word with a meaning like Family, Unity, People, One..etc something of that nature. I might have to do some research to find the word that works best as my language skills are rather limited.

Sunday, March 20, 2011

Theme Prints Done

I got my 4 or 5 theme prints made up for the theme meeting at tomorrows club date. Three 12 hour night shifts followed by three 4 hour darkroom sessions has me rather warn out. I just have to mount 2 photographs tomorrow and I will have the work ready for the judge. I am not 100% happy with the prints but they are OK for this occasion. If they were going to be shown in a gallery I would use these prints as a starting point to fine tune the final prints which would be printed on larger paper.

On Tuesday I will start printing my 10 show photographs for the June 3rd group show. It's exciting to be going into the darkroom and printing show prints, darkroom work does not get much better than that! It promises to be an enjoyable and relaxing first week in the dark.

Quote: August Sander

"Not only a person's face, but his movements, define his character. It is always a photographer's responsibility to stabilize and record characteristic movement which will then express physiognomy in a single comprehensible image."

What Is Selling Out?

Have been having a interesting email discussion with a photography friend. The discussion is about getting your work into a gallery and when your selling out and when your not.

Friend

I don't think the term "selling out" is accurate here.
To submit work that is best suited to the venue to which you are submitting...
with the intention being to gain some exposure and credibility...
so that you can later promote your best work elsewhere...
This is not selling out.

It is marketing and being intelligent.
It is using an opportunity at hand as a stepping stone to where you want to be.
I hardly see this as a sellout.


My Reply

I think the definition of selling out is if you compromise what you want to do so that you can benefit from exposure the gallery gives you. If you do work you do not want to do that you do not think is important just to get the show, that's a sell out. Once you head down that road I am not sure you can get back on the right track. You would get the shows onto your CV but then can you get back to your own individual artististic vision? Or have you compromised that away? I am not sure the end justifies the means here.

The worst thing you can do as an artist is to not try and tell your own story. The great thing about art is that if its done well your telling people a story that is your vision of the world, once you sacrifice that vision, sacrifice that independent thought you become less of an individual artist and lose that spark that makes you different, then as a result your work becomes mediocre and forgettable.

I am not sure how far down the compromise road you have to go before damage is done, but my theory is its best to stay as far away from it as you can. The shows are secondary to the work anyway, the work if its strong will eventually get shown, maybe it will not happen till after your death but strong work survives, history shows that.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

ยาม

This is the song that lead to the YAUM in Gerry Yaum.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xl7pMqn2aXQ

Commonality Of Man

Been thinking lately of what I am trying to say with the Khon Thai project, what the message of the work is. I think partly its about my learning and trying to understand who the people of Thailand are, to understand the hearts of the people and to translate that into meaningful portraiture. It is also about how people from all levels of Thai society have a common thread that runs through them a common humanity that makes them all essentially the same. August Sander placed people into groups, he had the photographs (people) classified as types (45 types). I see Khon Thai as a non type project, sure they come from different economic classes, regions and at times religions but they are in essence the same, all people have a common humanity. I think that's the overall goal to show the sameness, the common traits of the people, not to show what separates but what connects.

Last night I thought of possibly expanding the project (like its not big enough already!!) into Cambodia. Cambodia and Thailand have a long history of fighting and animosity. As an outsider Farang in Thailand and Barang in Cambodia I see many common traits in the people. I often get asked in Cambodia what I think of Thailand and the Thai people versus Cambodia and the Cambodian people. What I see is that the people are very similar there is more that binds them than divides them. What if I did a series of work that showed that binding, that showed the commonality of the two peoples. Wouldn't it be great to have portraits of both countries people side by side and then show those photographs in Bangkok and Phnom Penh, maybe it would speak to the viewers and help unite their viewpoints.

I have always felt uncomfortable with nationalism, how that ism divides and causes conflict, how it separates human beings who are essentially the same. To create a extensive series of photographs that connects us all, that shows the commonality of man, what could be better goal than that?

Not sure any of this is achievable but sometimes you just got to try, all I can do is give it my best effort, make the commitment and see what happens after that. One small step at a time will hopefully lead me to my destination.

Tired But Making Progress

Another 4 hour darkroom session after a 12 hour night shift. I am about to go to bed just mounting a print for Mondays meeting first. I overprinted yesterdays photographs a bit, I can bring print tonalities out with bleach but I need to make sure I do not go to over board with the dramatic printing, otherwise it starts looking like some kind of stage lighting in a Broadway show. I have to be a bit more subtle in my management of the print.

It always amazes me that no mater how tired I feel once I see that print in the fix I am invigorated and energetic, it's the magic of photography. Today I was tired when I got home after working all night, tired when I mixed up the developer, tired when I put the negative in the neg carrier. Then when I saw the projected image on the baseboard I started to feel better, then in the developer, better still and finally in the fix with the room light on and WAP, wide awake and feeling great. There is nothing that makes me feel better than the creating photographs, a true natural high.

Bleaching has also become a fun process, it feels like your painting right on the print, like your adding your touch, your caress to the photograph, bringing it to life!

Well I need to get back to the dry mount press, and then off to bed, got another 12 hour night shift ahead of me and then probably another darkroom session tomorrow before working again Sunday night.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Spot Meter And Zone The Portraits

This last trip to Thai I used a small hand held meter to meter my Khon Thai shots. I will have to go to a spot meter next trip and place the face of the subject on about zone V. I thought that with a ASA rating of 100 for Tri-x and the small hand meter I could do the job but found many of my negs (especially on the faces) were under exposed. Next trip I will take a spot meter to do some quick metering before I shoot to assure myself enough negative density in the faces of my subjects.

Looking to get a Pentax digital spotmeter on Ebay cheap.

Working With Bleach

I have always been fascinated by stories of W. Eugene Smith's darkroom work. I have read that he used to print his work very deep and dark and then slowly bit by bit bring out the wonderful detail and highlight tonality using bleach.

After reading Bruce Barnbaum's wonderful book THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY, specifically his bleaching techniques I decided to spend more time bleaching my work. I have done bleaching for years but now am trying to print deeper and draw out with bleach more like Smith did.

This morning I was working on my Khon Thai presentation for the club and tried my hand at the more heavier bleaching. The trick (as Barnbaun points out) is to not use to strong a bleach mix, you need to slowly add bit by bit with a running hose of water to flush out the bleach before it sits on the print to long and burns out a mark on the print. You need to slowly bit by bit take away and wash, take away and wash.

My procedure is to first give a 2 minute agitated bath of the print in a mild bleach solution (yellow bleach solution is about the same color as a indicator stop bath tray solution) then after do the more concentrated bleach on the print with a variety of brushes and also a small squirt bottle of bleach. Will give it a try again tomorrow after work if I can, it is an ongoing thing and I am still changing up what I am doing trying to find the best way to make this work.

Last night worked a 12 hour night shift followed by 4 hours in the darkroom so am a bit bagged right now. I would like to work on 2 more negs tomorrow before going to sleep, will see how it goes. On Monday night (my first day off) is the club meeting where the judge will come in and comment on our themed project, I need at least 5 prints for that, so far have only 2 completed with 2 more possibles drying. I want to get feedback on the Khon Thai project from a neutral observer, hopefully it will be help full.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Cambodia: Children Of The Dump

This is a place I read of 3 years ago and always wanted to visit. I want to go there and meet the people and make portraits. This site Stung Meanchey dump near Phnom Penh has been closed down, another larger dump has been opened farther from the city which does not allow scavenging. The people who scavenged still live in homes around the closed Stung Meanchey dump, I will go try to visit this district when I visit Cambodia in September.

Most of the people in this video are Cambodian rural poor who came to the big city to try to escape poverty. What happened to them after the dump was closed? Where do they make their money now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_o9z43l55PU&feature=related

Monday, March 14, 2011

Khmer Here I Come

Pulled out my Khmer children's language book (got it in Cambodia years ago) and some dictionaries tonight. I want to make a concerted effort during my night shifts to study and improve (lots of room there!) my Khmer. I know almost nothing now but I have until September (will buy the air ticket in early May) when I return to Cambodia to get things figured out a bit. I have 5 months to work on the language. Learning a language without having a real live speaking teacher beside you is pretty much impossible but heck I plan on giving it my best shot. Maybe with the combination of the Internet/my books and some determination I can learn the basic of basics of Khmer.

When I am alone on the streets of Phnom Penh with my 4x5 and trying to photograph the stranger across from me anything, any language skills at all will help the photography.

Last Few Days

Well I am done all my film development for the next few months, unless I shoot some new stuff with the 4x5. I expect to spend all my darkroom time working on printing photographs for next weeks theme judge at the club and for my group show in June. The June show takes precedence of course but I do want to print the 4x5 Khon Thai photos so I can see the final prints (make sure they match up to my minds eye view of the work) and get feedback.

Last night I worked in the darkroom for 8 hours or so, it was not really that productive a session but I did manage to print 2 negs (2 prints a piece). I worked on using multiple contrast filtration on the print (something relatively new to my printing style) and also did a lot more bleaching to bring out areas. I printed darker than normal and tried to bring out the shadows and highlights using bleach (W. Eugene Smith loved to work that way). I really want the June 3rd group show photographs to speak to the viewer. My goal is to improve the tonality the focus (message) and the detail of the prints, I am trying to make the prints sing.

Will try to go into the dark tomorrow afer working my 12 hour nightshift tonight and work on a new negative or possibly reprint some I did last night if I do not like the dried end product. I need to find a way to print daily. I have a beautiful darkroom, tons of negs and photo paper, just need to get my ass in there more often. The only way you become a master printer is from printing and I want to become a master printer, so print Gerry print!

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Cambodia

Planning a trip to Cambodia, am getting excited about it even thou it is quite far off. I am reading more about the Khmer Rouge period in Cambodia and other Cambodian history in general. I also have to make a concerted effort to do my best to learn more Khmer, I need to be able to talk to people even if it is on the most basic of levels.

I wonder how difficult it would be to rent a motorbike to travel the capital of Phnom Penh. If I could have a motorcycle I could travel at my leisure finding and photographing anyone/thing that I find of interest. It would also be a lot easier to transport the 4x5 with tripod that way. Will probably just hire someone to drive me but have to check into the renting thing more closely.

I want to photograph Cambodians who survived the Khmer Rouge genocide.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

More Bargirl 2003 Scans

I have been trying to finish off all my C-41 chemistry before moving on to printing work for the show and also for a special club meeting on March 21st. The meeting is designed around making submissions on a common theme for submissions to Galleries. Members bring in up to 6 prints on that common theme with a written artist statement and then an outside judge judges the work.

I want to put together 5 or 6 of the Khon Thai 4x5 portraits. I need to get feedback on those photographs as I am going back to Thailand this year to continue this series. I missed this theme judged meeting the last 2 years so want to get involved this year.

For now thou here are some scans from 2003, I have about 35 rolls of color 35mm film left now, along with 30-50 rolls of color transparency.









New Used Jobo

Picked up a used Jobo CPP2 processor last night, locally. The price was good ($550) plus I did not have to pay for shipping costs. The processors digital readout is not working but it heats and agitates correctly. I also got a brand new jobo lift in the deal and a few odds and ends. A couple of patterson reels, a couple of small Jobo tanks and a plastic washer for Patterson reels that can hold up to 5-35mm reels for washing. I had to put a new hose on the washer (which I did for $15) but I think it will give a more efficient wash (water goes out the top and bottom of washer) than my current system, wish it could do 8 reels at a time thou.

The Jobo was made for Germany and is a 220 volt powered unit, I also got a power transformer in the deal to convert the power to 110 volts. Someday I might be able to use this transformer unit in Thailand if I get a condo there and want to use Western powered flash or other types of appliances. Heck that also goes for the Jobo unit as a whole, I can use it in Thailand without a transformer (I think).

I did not want to spend more money at this time but the alternative was having to order another through Ebay and then paying for shipping from the USA would have been much more expensive. At least now I have a backup plan for when the processor that I have now goes down, last week it took 5 minutes to get the pump going.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Censorship and Art

Rules and regulations inhibit creativity and poison expression in art.

Recently I tried to submit some sex worker photographs (face shots) to a magazine my camera club belongs to. The magazine is run by a group called CAPA. I was told the photos could not be published because the magazine was G-RATED. I am not sure what is x-rated about a persons face but thats was what I was told by the editor of the magazine.

The rational given by members of my club was that the editor was right because they have to cater to the members of the magazine, they have to fit into their target groups views. Is that not the exact opposite definition of art that we should all strive for? Should not the CAPA magazine be leading us, getting us to think in new and creative ways. Instead of fitting us into what is expected and safe.

Should not art strive to challenge and push us in new directions? Should organizations like the CAPA magazine not try to lead by example and get its members to work and think in new ways? In 25 years will this organization still be printing the exact same work it printed 25 years ago? There is more to art than pretty flower pictures, pretty sunset pictures. How many more frickin red canoes in a mountain lake can we possibly look at?

When you put in rules and regulations and you endorse the same trite images over and over and over again your not expanding your members creativity but instead limiting it and destroying it. Even more pernicious your misleading your members, your sort of giving them a false sense of achievement by publishing work that has at best been seen in very similar forms thousands of times before. Originality? What's that?

We should not worry about getting someone angry or pushing the envelope. Art is about getting people emotionally involved, getting them to think and look at the world in new ways, getting them to see and feel things they've never seen and felt before. Organizations like CAPA should try to push their artists in new directions instead of giving them a platform to do what has been done before.

Rules, regulations and censorship destroy an artists attempt to get the viewer out of his comfortable box and see the world in a new way. Rules, regulations and censorship tie the artists hands and stifle their creativity and their ability to express themselves.

I think back 2 entries in this blog. Based on the requirements of CAPA magazines G-Rated policy one of the greatest photographs ever created "Tomeko in Her Bath" would not be shown! I can just hear the editor now:

"Sorry Gene we only do G-Rated work here, we cannot publish your photograph. But if you have a nice pretty old barn in a nice pretty field next to some nice pretty flowers, your in!"

That is just plain F-cked up!

Monday, March 7, 2011

Strand as Mentor Story

From the essay "Strand as Mentor", in the book "Essays On His Life And Work".

Another point about which Strand was adamant: the whole space of the picture must be unified. Members of the class remember a specific instance when he rejected a photograph by Sol Libsohn which did not meet that standard. The top of the photograph was very beautiful and touching, remembers Arthur Leipzing, but someone had created a blur across the bottom. " Libsonhn defended his photograph," said Leipzig, "by saying that moments before or after there would have been no photograph; there was nothing he could do about the person who had walked in front, Strand's answer was, 'we will all take out the crying towels and weep with you and offer our condolences, but when you put a photograph on the wall it either works as a totality or it doesn't and all the excuses, rational, and captions underneath will not make it any better.'"

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Jim Hughes (Writer)

On Eugene Smith's photograph "Tomoko Uemura in Her Bath".

"Tomoko Uemura in her bath is about much more than Minamata. Today, it has transcended mercury poisoning and the many souls ravaged by the greed of a few. Far removed by time and space from a Japanese fishing village, the photograph, symbolic now, enables people to see in a signal image all the possibilities and dangers of life. To me, it is a constant, universal reminder that only through the kind of selfless love depicted in this photograph may the spirit of human spirit endure. The image of Tomoko and her mother is a as beautiful as it is terrifying. And it is true. This photograph among the most profound ever made: beyond a particular horror and tragedy, the image has come to represent compassion and humanity."

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Trips This Year

Am looking to travel to Asia as soon as I have enough money to do it. I wanted to go earlier in the year but with the film/camera and framing costs for the shows the money was not there. Will book 2 trips for later in 2011, I expect to spend 3 weeks in Cambodia and 5 weeks in Thailand this year.

My hope in Cambodia is to do a series related to survivors of the Khmer Rouge, and also I want to do a series on children who scavenge through garbage to survive in Phnom Penh. I read a CNN story several years back that talked about this subject and ever since then this story has haunted my thoughts. I need to go there and try to learn, to understand and to interpret what I find.

When I return to Thailand I expect to do 4x5 view camera portraits for the Khon Thai series, will will work all out out and try to shoot upwards of 500 sheets. I will concentrate on the people of Klong Toey and maybe some other Thai slums in Bangkok, might not leave the city, plenty of people to photograph in Bangkok, 15-20 million?

I wish I could just leave and make these photos now but with the coming group June 3rd show and the group show in Oct along with all the costs involved with buying film (around $3000) camera gear ($5000+) and now framing ($600+ even thou I am cutting the frames myself with the help of a good a friend) a trip now to Asia would be impossible. Hopefully I can sell a print or 2 in the shows to help offset some of these costs and help pay for the next trip overseas.

Will concentrate on saving and paying off the money owed and then saving money for this years trips. I need to stop buying any new gear and spend my money on 2 things, film and MAKING PICTURES!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

5x7 Linhof

Did some test shots with my 5x7 Linhof to make sure the bellows were light tight, seems they are. I shot these photos of my father in my small studio with different softboxes than I used with the Sex Worker Thai photos (those softboxes are in Thailand). The soft boxes I used here in Canada are much bigger which causes the highlight in the eyes to be less defined, not sure I like that.

I will work on doing heads in natural light with both the 4x5 and 5x7 Linhof's. I need to duplicate the lighting situations that will be available in Cambodia and Thailand and make effective head shots with more limited light and larger f-stops (shallower depth of field). These shots of dad were shot at F64 I might only have F5.6 or F8 in the field plus very slow shutter speeds.





Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Group Show Date Announced: June 3rd

Still no name for the show but my group show date is set, the opening will be held on Friday June 3rd! I will have 10 photos up in this show, a selection of the b/w Klong Toey slum work and I will finally show some of the 2003 Cambodian brothel photographs. Have been waiting 8 years to have the Cambodian photographs shown, on June 3rd 5 of the images will go up on the walls, hopefully the message I wanted to tell will be told.

The show will be made up of 30 photographs from 3 photographers. The 2 other photographers shot in Bangladesh and India.
My 10 photos will be divided equally between the 2 series shot in Thailand and Cambodia.

More updates on this later.