Mixed Emotions

This weekend comes with some mixed emotions.  The Procession West show has just been taken down at the Art Gallery of Regina.  Though this is only the first public showing of this project, and the second exhibition is already underway, this brings some somber feelings.  I received an e-mail this morning from Karen Schoonover, the curator at the Art Gallery of Regina.  She sent it with the heading "End of Procession".  I guess it is the end... at least in Regina... but hopefully it is just the beginning of a long run of exhibitions.  I understand that the show in Regina was very well received.  Karen forwarded scans of the Guest Book to me, and most of the comments were very positive.  The worst I could find was one neutral comment, that commended the images but criticized the heavy printing.  Other than that all of the comments were very positive and included entries such as these...

“The usual subjects that have been photographed many times before now look somewhat different, enchanted somehow.”

“I moved from photo to photo gasping in awed recognition, surprise, and delight. Not enough superlatives in my vocabulary. I’m so glad I saw this show!”

“Both artists are fantastic! I felt calmness and sadness all at the same moment.”

“Thank you so much for your mutually reinforcing visions...so powerful and other worldly...a beautiful contrast of the human and the natural. Very impressive!”

“Beautiful scenes, media, and the technical talent to capture those places so well! As a scenic photographer I can really appreciate these timeless works.”

“They are stunning!”

“The thought and skill kept taking my breath away! How uplifting to me personally. Thank you for this presentation.”

“This show warms my heart - beautiful work. There is nothing like working with black and white film and the raft of darkroom painting.”

“As an artist I appreciate the talent of these two photographers to find beauty even in subjects often seen as ugly such as abandoned buildings.”

Congratulations to you both. It’s not very often we get so much enthusiastic feedback from visitors! I want to thank you both for your cooperation over the last several months. It’s been a pleasure working with you.

~Karen

Even though none of the pieces sold at the gallery, it is feedback such as this that drives me to keep working. My photography is not really about making money. It would be nice to have someone recognize and appreciate the work enough to buy it. And the income generated would offset some of the costs. But I arrived at a crossroads in my photographic career many years ago and came to this conclusion... As much as I enjoy photography for the personal satisfaction that it brings me, at some point it becomes meaningless to keep producing prints, only to file them away in a storage cupboard. They need an audience... to be seen and appreciated... and to evoke some response in the viewer. That is the purpose of this project and this exhibition. Anything beyond that is a bonus.

TXP in PMK - Fifth Batch

Yet another batch of Kodak Tri-X Pan film was processed this week in PMK developer.  This is the fifth batch of 20 sheets so this now puts me to the 100 sheet milestone.  Still a couple more batches to go and then I can shift my attention to another type of film.  I'm not really sure how much exposed film I have on hand waiting to be processed, but it is a lot.  All of these images were taken in 2011 and there's a real mixed bag here.  These first few were all from various day trips through the year, out to Elk Island National Park east of Edmonton. Obviously I am drawn to Aspen trees...

For several years now I have been working on a photo documentary of an unfinished house northeast of Edmonton.  The husband of the family passed away before the house was finished and it seems his widow and two sons gave up on the dream and moved away.  

We were out to the mountains on several occasions during 2011 and these are images from a couple of those trips.  Some are from family camping trips out in the front ranges and a few are from the Fall Photo Weekend with the gang from the Monochrome Guild.

Finally a couple images that were taken down on the prairies and out in the badlands of southeastern Alberta round out this current batch.

McMullen Gallery - Opening Reception

The opening reception for our Procession West show was this past Thursday evening at McMullen Gallery. Rob was unable to attend as he is working at an industrial site up in the Oil Sands north of Fort McMurray. The show looks really good and the gallery staff did a great job organizing everything.  Our photographs were paired with some botanical watercolors by local artist Elaine Funnell.  I think the pieces really compliment each other and the show worked really well.  Attendance for the opening was moderately good and I would estimate that around 50 people attended over the couple hours that the gallery was open.  It was a beautiful summer evening, and the Fringe Festival was on, so we had that to compete with.  The work will now hang in the gallery until late October so hopefully it is well received.  I got a lot of positive comments from everyone that was in attendance.  We were well supported by friends and family but there were also a lot of guests there that were strangers to me.

Riding Lesson

On August 21st the girls had their weekly riding lesson out at Kel-J-Do Stables.  In recent weeks I have been working late at the office most evenings and Margarit has ended up taking the girls to their weekly lesson.  This time around I took them and it was the first time I had been out to the farm in quite some time. It was a beautiful evening with very clear light but it is already beginning to get that look of autumn.  Summer sure has gone by quickly this year...

Another Rejection Letter

I received yet another rejection letter for our Procession West project today.  This one was even more impersonal as they sent it to me as an e-mail.  The Art Gallery of Thunder Bay has turned down our Procession West submission.  We still have at least a half dozen more submission packages out there awaiting a response so I am optimistic that something else will come together for 2014.  The enthusiasm of our show opening at McMullen tomorrow night has dulled this current rejection at least a little...

TXP in PMK - 4th Batch

I continue to plug away at processing my significant backlog of film.  This most recent batch consisted of 20 more sheets of Kodak Tri-X-Pan film in 4" x 5" format.  I still have at least 50 more sheets to go before I am finished, so this will be well over 100 sheets of this film that I have processed in recent weeks.  This is just one of several types of film that I shoot.  And, I am continually out shooting new work, so this remains just the continuation of an ongoing cycle.  This entire batch is from 2013, and the very end of 2012 so it appears as though I am finally finishing up with most of the really old stuff.  This batch included a few images from the fall fossil prospecting weekend down in southern Alberta...

And a couple images from the hike up Beauty Creek, to Stanley Falls, in Jasper National Park.  This was on the Fall Photo Weekend with some of the gang from the Monochrome Guild, last November...

A couple of shots out in the badlands from the Dad and Kids camping weekend in May of this year...

A spring day trip out along the David Thompson Highway out to the Kootenay Plains yielded a couple more images...

Finally, a portrait of Hailey down in Blackmud ravine, a shot from the trip out to Saskatchewan in June, a night shot of some storage tanks on refinery row and a couple shots of the old Southbend Motel sign round out this current selection.  Incidentally, not only is the old Southbend Motel now a vacant lot and a distant memory, but the old neon sign disappeared a few weeks after the track hoes finished demolishing the buildings.  I'm glad I captured a couple images of it when I did...

The next batch of TXP has already been processed and is currently dried and awaiting scanning.  I hope to get around to the last couple of batches over the upcoming weekend.  Then I can move on to some other films.

Underground Rebels

Back in 1998 I separated from my first wife and we entered into a long, drawn out divorce battle that went on for several years.  I was very distressed at the time and desperate to find some legal representation.  A divorce lawyer was recommended to me by my corporate solicitor but when I contacted him I quickly learned that he was not taking any new clients at the time.  I eventually ended up speaking to his partner who agreed, probably in sympathy, to represent me.  I was very fortunate as Gary Frohlich is an excellent and very experienced lawyer and did a great job representing my interests.  Gary's son Kurt was a struggling musician, in a couple of bands, and when they discovered that I was a photographer, I soon became involved in some of the projects of the band.  Kurt and his friends were in a KISS tribute band called Black Diamond.  They also had a glam rock band called the Loving Dead.  It's hard to believe that was 15 years ago...  It wasn't long after that, that Margarit and I met, moved in together, got married and had kids...  But for a while there I spent a lot of time at various clubs around the city taking photographs of the guys.  The Frohlich family and I became friends and have stayed in touch, somewhat sporadically, over the years.  I did some promotional photos of Kurt, his friend D, and a couple of the other guys in the band.  I also put together the album cover for their Do it Again CD.  It was a fun time and as I think back about it now, all these years later, I have a lot of fond memories.

Later Kurt and D moved down to Las Vegas.  They played in a number of tribute and cover bands down there and built a life for themselves in the entertainment industry.  The Loving Dead evolved into a new band that now is called the Underground Rebels.  Every once in a while they would return to Edmonton and play a show, and Margarit and I always went out to see them.  It has been at least seven or eight years since they played here.  Last night they were back in town and played a show down at the Pawn Shop, a bar down on Whtye Avenue.  Margarit and I were invited like usual, and we made a point of getting out to see the band and the family.  Kurt is now married and has a daughter of his own.  Gary and his wife Edyth were there like usual, as was sister Krista, all strong supporters.  It was great to see everyone again and we're grateful that we were included on the guest list.  Here are a bunch of shots that I took last night with my little point and shoot digital camera.  Sure brought back a lot of great old memories...