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Posts Tagged ‘photography’

Dysturb

Posted: May 9, 2016 in events, graffiti and street art
Tags: black and white, conflict, CONTACT, downtown, exhibit, Kensington, outdoors, paper, paste up, people, photography, photography festival, photojournalism, public art, Scotiabank CONTACT, Toronto, urban

Spread around Kensington and Chinatown are 20 large black and white photos taken by a number of freelance photojournalists who are part of a group called #Dysturb. One of their goals is to present photojournalism in new ways, including as street art, with the aim of engaging people and encouraging discussion of global issues. The images are part of an exhibit for the Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival.

Kensington has had a problem with taggers for a while. Often street art gets vandalized in that area. The #Dysturb photo that was at 56 Kensington (under Mona Lisa) has already been torn down and a couple of others have been ripped.

Pictures of some of the images that are part of the exhibit are shown below. I have included a partial transcription of the words that accompany each picture.

Libyan Coasts, August 1, 2015
Photo by Christophe Stramba-Badiali/Haytham

West African migrants are seen aboard a boat, approximately 20 nautical miles off the Libyan coast, as they are about to be rescued by Medecins Sans Frontieres. The MSF-hired ship, named Argos, was patrolling the waters off Libya when it encountered one rubber dinghy carrying a total of 111 migrants including several children and infants. “

Barpak, Ghorka District, Nepal, May 9, 2015 ”
Photo by Renaud Philippe/Hans Lucas

Children play in a cloud of dust and gravel thrown by an Indian army helicopter landing in Barpak Nepal. The community is at the epicenter of the devastating earthquake that struck April 25, 2015, taking over 8000 lives. Of Barpak’s 1400 houses, only 20 remain standing. The rest of the town is a pile of rubble that blends into the rocky landscape. An archway that somehow survived the quake greets visitors with a rueful ‘Welcome to Barpak’.”

Shaanxi Province, Henan, China, February 27, 2014
Photo by Sim Chi Yin/Vii

Gold miner, He Quangui, battling silicosis, struggles to breathe while cradled in the hands of his wife Mi Shixiu. After many attempts to stabilize his breathing, in the early hours of the next morning her tried to kill himself to end the suffering. He contracted the irreversible disease working in illegal gold mines in China’s Henan province. He is among some six million workers in China who have pneumoconiosis – the country’s most prevalent occupational disease.”

Cizre Turkey, October 30, 2015.
Photo by Emilien Urbano/Myop for Le Monde
NOTE: I took this picture on Friday. Today (Monday) it was gone.

A militiaman from the PKK Youth wing YDG-H in Cizre Turkey. The Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) – the militant youth wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – are battling to defend their neighbourhoods from Turkish security forces. The YDG-H has been acting as a paramilitary force in Cizre for the past few months and has closed off several Kurdish neighbourhoods with their armed checkpoints and patrols.

Fort McKay, Alberta, Canada, August 12, 2015
Photo by Ian Willms/Boreal Collective

Dez, 7, plays in his bed. Dez was born with an underdeveloped heart and has received multiple open heart surgeries. His family and healthcare professionals in Fort McKay believe that his condition was caused by environmental pollution. Fort McKay is an indigenous community that is surrounded by oil sands developments.”

Kunduz City, Afghanistan, November 18, 2015.
Photo by Andrew Quilty/Oculi

Najibah tries to comfort her daughter Zahara, 8, as they weep over the grave of their husband and father, Baynazar. Baynazar, 43, was wounded by gunfire on his way home fromwork during the Taliban takeover of Kunduz in late 2015. He was taken to the nearby Doctors Without Borders (MSF) trauma centre. In the early hours of October 3, during his second operation, a US AC-130 aircraft attacked the hospital for more than half an hour, killing 43 MSF staff, patients and nurses. Dozens more were wounded.

About #Dysturb

#CONTACT16

Aude Moreau, sky, city, and a bit of a rant.

Posted: April 29, 2016 in galleries, public art
Tags: art installation, Aude Moreau, conceptual, CONTACT, contemporary, gallery, helicopter, images, Los Angeles, night sky, outdoors, photography, power plant, Toronto, Toronto skyline, tree

I usually take a dim view of conceptual art largely because the importance given to the “words on the wall” has eclipsed the consideration given to the artwork itself. Mediocrity in technique or creativity hides behind big jargon words and convoluted language in the artist statement. Often the concept that the artist claims to be exploring is at odds with the end product.

When the art doesn’t live up to words that sound learned and meaningful then it degrades the work and makes the artist, and those curating the exhibit, seem pompous and out of touch.

For example, if you read that certain videos by an artist “cast a hitherto unexampled light on the conventional North American city”, what would you expect to see? Would you expect to see a video shot from a helicopter as it circled a city at night? A video that looks familiar to anyone who has flown over a city after dark. That’s what you get with Aude Moreau’s ‘The End in the Background of Hollywood 2015’ now showing at The Power Plant gallery. I don’t have a photo of it but I do have a picture of three of her other photographs also on display.

below: From left to right (discounting the small picture farthest from the camera): 1. ‘Untitled (Hollywood Sign)’ 2015, 2. ‘LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department)’ 2015. It’s a picture of a tiny helicopter in a large grey sky. and 3. ‘Waiting for Landing’, airplanes lined up as they approach LAX airport. Unfortunately, the words on the wall then go on to say, about these three images, “These demonstrate visual strategies that act upon the symbolic representation of the city and the spectacular dimension of the film industry.” Oh my.

And with that I left The Power Plant gallery. Growling silently to myself and shaking my head with a mix of disdain and and frustration. Imagine my surprise when once outside I encountered another of Moreau’s photographs. A very lovely one.

below: A picture of the Toronto skyline by Aude Moreau mounted on an exterior wall at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery. A picture with visual impact.

below: You can play “spot the building” and test your knowledge of Toronto geography. You can line up the DBRS building, the Hilton Hotel and the Canada Life building on University Avenue along with the Sheraton Hotel on Queen street. The blue addition on the AGO is farther north on Dundas. Can you think of where the photo was taken? Apparently, it was taken from Toronto Fire Station 315 at College Street and Bellevue Avenue. It was taken just after sunset but when there was still enough light in the sky to reflect off the taller buildings. Moreau makes the city sparkle.

I must have seen this picture very shortly after it was installed. It is part of the CONTACT photography festival that starts this weekend but there was no accompanying sign, no words that attempted to a explain the image. Perhaps that was for the best. In fact, I now have the CONTACT catalogue with their description of the artwork but I think I won’t read them. I’d rather enjoy the picture just the way it is.

food, food, glorious food

Posted: November 25, 2015 in galleries
Tags: Amanda White, Andree Wejsmann, Artport, broaches, brooches, Bruce Cochrane, ceramics, corn, Erin Riley, food, Forage, Harbourfront, hunters, Lana Filippone, leaves, lemons, Lisa Myers, Lynn Price, natural dyes, ode to a lemon, photographs, photography, rings, Sooyeong Lee, squash, Thea Haines, Victoria Piersig, video

Food is an important part of our lives and there is a lot that we take for granted about the food we eat. Food, and all that accompanies it, is the theme of a collection of art exhibits at Harbourfront’s Artport. On display is work by a number of artists who have been examining different food related issues. How we see food, it’s role in our lives, how healthy is it, it’s production, and how we obtain it, are just a few of the questions that are explored. We eat food but what about the parts we usually waste?

Below is a sample of what is on offer.

below: ‘Wearable Food – Hat’, 2014, by Sooyeong Lee, part of a series of photographs that displays food in atypical and unexpected ways. An acorn squash fascinator is precariously perched on her head.

below: ‘Frugivore Project’, 2011-ongoing, by Amanda White, an attempt to communicate biologically with tomato plants. White bought tomatoes from the grocery store and ate them. She harvested the seeds after they had passed through her digestive system and then planted them. After the plants bear fruit, it is eaten and the cycle continues.

below: ‘Foraged Palette’, 2015, Thea Haines, made with wool, silk, linen, hemp and cotton with natural dyes. The dyes are made from food waste such as carrot peels, onion skins, pomegranate skins and avocado pits.

below:‘Strain to Absorb, 2015, by Lisa Myers, three digital files running simultaneously. Blueberries contain the pigment anthocyanin which the artist produces from strained fruit.

below:‘Accidental Hunter’, 2014, by Erin Riley, hunting with a rifle received as a gift from her father and taking pictures of the event.

below: ‘Delicate merchandise!”, 2014, by Lynn Price, oil on paper. The title comes from a poem called ‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda (see bottom of post)

below:Functional Ceramic Tableware, 2005-2015, by Bruce Cochrane

below: Trading Places, Victoria Piersig. A series of photographs from a journey spent onboard a ship transporting wheat from Thunder Bay to Montreal.

below: cookie cutter rings and brooches, by Andree Wejsmann

below: Teerex and Triceratops Corn Cob holders, 2012, by Lana Filippone

***

‘Ode to a Lemon’ by Pablo Neruda

Out of lemon flowers
loosed
on the moonlight, love’s
lashed and insatiable
essences,
sodden with fragrance,
the lemon tree’s yellow
emerges,
the lemons
move down
from the tree’s planetarium
Delicate merchandise!
The harbors are big with it –
bazaars
for the light and the
barbarous gold.

58th World Press Photo Contest

Posted: October 3, 2015 in events, galleries
Tags: Allan Lambert gallery, Brookfield Place, China, contemporary issues, football, images, people, photographers, photography, pictures, portraits, sports, world press

At Allan Lambert Gallery, Brookfield Place,
winning photos from the 58th World Press Photo Contest

Winning images chosen from 97,912 photographs taken by 5,692 photographers from 131 countries.

below: Taken by Andy Rocchelli of Italy, part of his series of ‘Russian Interiors’ portraits. There were 10 photographs in the series, three of which are shown here (well, two and a half). All were of women.

below: One of the multitude of Chinese migrant laborers, a factory worker in in Yiwu China. His job is to coat polystyrene snowflakes with red powder. There are 600 factories in Yiwu and they produce 60% of the world’s Christmas decorations. Photo by Ronghui Chen, second prize winner in the Contemporary Issues category.

below: The three winning photographs from the Sports (Singles) category. The predominant photo is the second prize photo; it is a photo of Odell Beckham of the New York Giants making a one handed touchdown catch, taken by Al Bello. The winning sports photo is the one on the far left. It is a photo of Argentine football player Lionel Messi receiving the Golden Ball trophy at the World Cup in Brazil, taken by Bao Tailiang. In the middle is a picture of Philip Hughes, a cricket batsman who was hit on the head by a ball during a game, taken by Mark Metcalfe.

below: The winning photo, by Danish photographer, Mads Nissen of Jon and Alex, a gay couple, sharing an intimate moment at Alex’s home, a small apartment in St Petersburg, Russia. (It looks better in real life!)

banners on Queens Quay

Posted: September 18, 2015 in public art
Tags: banners, contest, downtown, finalists, harbour, images, Lake Ontario, Lakeshore, outdoor photo exhibit, photography, photos, poles, Queens Quay, skyline, street scene, Toronto, traffic, waterfront, Waterfront BIA

Waterfront Outdoor Photo Exhibit

For the past four years, the Waterfront BIA has organized a photography contest. East year fifty finalists are chosen. This year they have organized a photo exhibit of a different kind. One hundred and fourteen images were chosen from the 200 finalists from their previous photo contests. These images were used (and cropped!) to make vertical banners, 5 ft x 2 ft in size. The banners are made of vinyl and the same image is on both sides.

below: You can see many of the banners on Queen’s Quay between Yonge and Bathurst.

below: Sometimes it’s difficult to see the banners amongst all the other things along Queen’s Quay

below: There are also some banners on Lakeshore Blvd between Bathurst and Spadina.

Camera Atomica

Posted: September 15, 2015 in galleries
Tags: #atomicAGO, AGO, Art Gallery of Ontario, atomic, Chernobyl, history, mannequins, nuclear, nuclear tests, photographs, photography, radiation, test blast, uranium, xrays

Camera Atomica
a photography exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario

below: The first photograph of the bones of the hand, by Wilhelm Rontgen in 1895. Rontgen was a German physicist who discovered x-rays (or Rontgen rays) in 1895 and he produced this image of his wife’s hand shortly after. The green in the picture below is a reflection of the chandelier that the AGO has hanging in the room where this exhibit is being shown.

The exhibit consists of more than 200 works that all fall under the category of nuclear – topics such as atomic weapons, Cold War politics, nuclear energy, and the mining of uranium. The photographs cover the history of these topics from 1945 to the present, from the development of the atomic bomb to the meltdown at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan in 2011.

below: Hiroshima Japan, photo by Yoshito Matsushige, taken 6 August 1945.
The first atomic bomb was detonated at the Trinity test site in New Mexico USA on 14 July 1945. Shortly after, American bombers dropped two atomic bombs on Japan. The first bomb was dropped 6th August 1945 on the city of Hiroshima and second one three days later on Nagasaki.

below: Photo by Dean Loomis, 7 May 1955 of scorched male mannequin standing in the desert 7,000 feet from the 44th nuclear test explosion at Yucca Flat Nevada. Photo taken the day after the blast. Apparently mannequins were used to test the effects of the nuclear blasts on people and this photo shows that people at 7000 feet from a blast could be burnt but alive.

below: Mushroom clouds on a wall

below: Part of ‘Uranium Tailings #2, Elliot Lake Ontario’ a photograph by Edward Burtynsky.

Eliot Lake was established in 1955 as a mining town after uranium was discovered in the area. In the early 1990’s the mines closed because of depleted reserves and low prices for uranium.

Tailings are the materials left over after the valuable part of an ore has been removed. The uranium ore found at Eliot Lake had very little uranium in it, only about 0.1% of the ore was uranium.

below: Inkjet prints by David McMillan, part of four on display from his series of photographs of places abandoned because of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. The photograph on the right is of the nursery at Pripyat Hospital taken in 1997. Beside it is a picture of a classroom in a Pripyat nursery school.

Pripyat is an abandoned city in northern Ukraine. It was built in 1970 to service the Chernobyl Nuclear power plant. Following the explosion and fire at Chernobyl on 26 April 1986, the city’s 49,000 people were evacuated

The exhibit continues until 15th November.

#atomicAGO

kissing in traffic

Posted: July 26, 2015 in events, locations, people
Tags: bride, crossing, crowd, Dundas St., green light, groom, pedestrians, photographer, photography, photos, streetlight, Toronto, traffic, wedding, Yonge St.

The intersection of Yonge and Dundas as a location for a few wedding pictures!

A quick google search shows that it’s not the first time a couple has chosen this location to shoot a few wedding pictures but it’s the first time that I have encountered it! Yesterday afternoon….

Water’s Edge

Posted: July 25, 2015 in galleries, locations
Tags: #myhomewaters, archipelago, art, black and white, Brazil, Burtynsky, color, colour, exhibit, Georgian Bay, island, lakes, people, photographs, photography, photos, pictures, Salgado, Toronto, Union station, water

Water’s Edge
A Pan-American photography exhibit
produced by No.9: Contemporary Art & the Environment.

Two venues are involved, Union Station and Pearson Airport. The photos below represent a sample of the photos on show at Union Station.

below: Bridge Glacier, British Columbia 2012, by James Balog, part of his study of vanishing glaciers.

below: Two black and white photographs by Sebastiao Salgado,
part of a photographic project titled ‘Genesis’.
One aim of ‘Genesis’ was to examine “the fragile beauty and grandeur of nature”.

below: ‘The Anavilhanas’ taken in Amazonas Brazil, 2009 by Sebastiao Salgado.
Located on the Rio Negro, the Anivilhanas Archipelago is the world’s largest fresh water archipelago. It is an unique ecosystem with over 400 river islands spread over 90 km. The Rio Negro is 27 km at its widest point. During the rainy season (November to April) many of these islands are underwater.

below: ‘Sarnia’ by Gustavo Jononovich, taken in Sarnia, from his “Free Shipping” series.

below: ‘Georgian Bay #1, Four Winds’, Point-au-Baril, Ontario 2009, by Edward Burtynsky.
This picture is part of his Water Series, a series that looks at changing water systems around the world as well as the relationship that we have with these water systems.

The exhibit ends on the 15th of August.

#myhomewaters

billboards at Spadina and Front

Posted: June 8, 2015 in general Toronto
Tags: art, billboards, bread, CONTACT, cucumber, handbag, images, parking lot, photography, rubber gloves, Spadina, sponges, Toronto

Part of CONTACT photography festival,
billboard “art” on the NE corner of Spadina and Front streets.

All the billboards are in a parking lot in what was a junky looking space to begin with.

below: Yellow rubber gloves with the fingers tucked back in…
to look like they’ve just been taken off a pair of hands?

below: The body of the handbag is a loaf of bread.

below: Clusters of sponges. At first I thought they were candies.

Supported by Pattison Outdoor Advertising and Nikon Canada.

“Challenging how people perceive and interact with images in public spaces”

“Each of the artists destabilizes the conventions of advertising and the cultural codes associated with consumer lifestyles.”

Me? I’ll call them dull and underwhelming clutter. Too harsh? Perhaps.
I’ll leave the verdict up to you.

part picture, part ?

Posted: May 28, 2015 in galleries
Tags: art, CONTACT, digital, experiments, film, frames, gallery, MOCCA, photographic, photography, pictures, Toronto, visual

Part Picture,
an exhibit at MOCCA,
part of CONTACT Photography Festival

Like the introduction of film photography once usurped the role of painters and engravers, the introduction of digital photography has supplanted the photographer of old. We are all photographers now. A smartphone. A little bit of software. And presto, you have a picture. Many, many bazillions of pictures. Photography excels at visually telling stories, documenting events or capturing a moment in time either with a single image or in a series of photos. The expression ‘a picture paints a thousand words’ comes to mind. Even a blurry selfie says something.

Photography has always had an uneasy relationship with art (with the fine art, visual artsy stuff in particular). This art, while also visual, often has a slightly different focus. It too aims to elicit emotions and reactions but no one expects an artwork to document or to tell a story albeit some do. But art too is in flux (and probably has been for a while). What hasn’t already been done? What rules are left to break?

So what’s a photographer to do?

Part of the description of this exhibit states: “placing photography in conversation with other artistic mediums – particularly painting and sculpture – to create hybrid works that are only part picture”.

Experiments with chemicals on photographic paper; experiments with photoshop artifacts as part of the image; experiments with how one frames or hangs a picture. What is photography anyhow?

below: close up of part of the picture from above, the one that is hung perpendicular to the wall.

Just because something is different doesn’t mean that it’s good just as not all experiments are a success but kudos to those who try. I will leave it to you to decide which category (good/bad) these pictures fall into.

as I walk Toronto

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