Monday, August 25, 2014

Exposure Show A Go

I got confirmation tonight that the "Exposure Photography Festival" show is a go. Larry Louie and I will be doing a 2 person (think it will be 2 person) show at his beautiful Louie Gallery on 124 street. This all happened rather sudden. Wes L from "Exposure Photography Festival" came to a function to support Nepalese school children I was part of on Friday at Louie Eyecare Centre. Larry and his wife Joanna were excited by the possibilities of being part of Exposures spreading North to Edmonton. The festival will be in Calgary, Canmore, Banff, Lethbridge and Edmonton in 2014. Larry wanted to do a show on documentary photography for "Exposure" so asked me to take part.

This is a great opportunity to finally show the work I have made over the last 2-3 years Hopefully I will get to exhibit 15 large 16x20 photographs maybe a few more. I am happy the "Families of the Dump" work will finally be seen by a larger audience. I also hope to show 5 of the photographs I have done of dad lately. Today when I spent an hour with him I told him what I planned to do, he was quiet and did not say much but I think he liked the idea. The photos would be a tribute to his courage and to the fight he is going through, I want to show dads underlying love and humanity in this series.

Larry, Joanna and I want to push Edmonton photography in a different direction. So much club and  local photo work is so mundane, so pretty picture oriented. It is like everyone is taking exactly the same type of photograph that everyone else is taking. Hopefully this documentary photo show will help open people up to a new ways of seeing that takes your mind and heart in new directions.

I hope the festival and the work will also be recognized in the local media, it would be great if we could get some TV converge along with some newspaper notice. Showing people that photography can be more than pictures of flowers, sunsets, old buildings and mountains is one of the goals of the exhibition. If we could do some public talks that would also be great. I would love to talk and tell stories about dad, the dump and Nepal

Still no title for the show but things are starting to fall in line now. I am riding a bit on the coat tails of my friend Larry on this one, I hope to not let him down and to print work that is worthy of a joint exhibition with him in his wonderful gallery. Larry is a heavy hitter, to be in the same gallery show as him is quite a compliment. I will need to show my best work just to tread water next to his stuff.

The exhibition will take place in February of 2015.