Group show during CONTACT!

I'm so excited to be part of this group exhibition during CONTACT photography festival. Come check it out!

Exposed: Innovation, Transformation, Revolution
at The Gladstone Hotel.
May 8 - 31, 2009 - 12 - 5pm Daily - 2nd Floor



Photo: Michael Krauss, Sea + Sky - One

Happy Bearthday!

Not only is it Earth Day, but it's also Jean's birthday! Woooot! Here is just one of the reasons why he's sooo amazing and why I'm tickled pink he's in my life. Cause one day, he'll simply wake up and say, "let's build a bird feeder today." So we will! And it's just that easy and it's just that fun. He's pretty much the best partner a gal could ask for.

Feliz Cumpleaños mi amor. We're all better off for having you around.














The bird feeder is almost done! A few improvements and a painting job and she'll be good to go by this weekend. I'll post a photo of the finished product...hopefully with a bunch of birds around it.

Happy Earth Day!

I thought I would post some photos that remind me just how incredible our planet is. Take orchids for example. They are one of the most beautiful and fascinating flowering plants out there.

Last April, Jean and I (both long time orchid lovers) spent a while photographing orchids at a private botanical garden, La Encantada, in Huayapan, Oaxaca. Octavio Suárez has collected more than 700 orchids and his dedicated efforts protect approximately 90% of the species known in Mexico. Octavio is so passionate about orchids and it was inspiring to learn about them from him and explore the stunning world he has carefully created and conserved.

Phil Bergerson at Stephen Bulger

I went to see Phil Bergerson's Sublime Encounters show at Stephen Bulger Gallery a few days ago and loved it. He was one of my photo profs at Ryerson and I'm always keen on checking out his work. His photos are captivating, curious and..well..sublime.

The show closes on Saturday, April 18 so hurry up!



Below is an excerpt from "Sublime Encounters" Press Release:

The gallery is pleased to announce our fifth exhibition by Canadian Phil Bergerson featuring his most recent work "Sublime Encounters".

Spanning the last fifteen years, Phil Bergerson has traveled extensively across the United States, photographing cities both small and large. His last series, "Shards of America," was an ironic commentary on the culture of the United States. It harnessed the best of documentary traditions, interweaving a selection of powerful themes to present a critical examination of America's rich social landscape. In his most recent body of work, "Sublime Encounters," Bergerson continues his investigations of cultural detritus of everyday life but with a more poetic approach. He is interested in exploring the complexities of what it is to be human with less emphasis on the American experience.

Bergerson's photographs are poignant records of the beauty of 'organic' installations, small moments created through a mixture of human intent, nature's intervention, time and his own curiosity. The photographs document that which people consciously and unconsciously leave behind - that which speaks about them as individuals. Often the residue of these elements is so subtle that detection is difficult. "Sublime Encounters" refers to the awe inspiring moments of recognition that a photographer experiences when contemplating sets of relationships that suddenly becomes deeply and clearly "seen". Bergerson's images transcend the viewer's vision of our urban landscape by presenting us with an original perspective that is consistently moving and entirely unforgettable.

Dark Was The Night

I wish I had me a place in New York City for a variety of reasons: the photography galleries, museums, inspiration, music, shopping, restaurants, and being able to hang out regularly with my friends Wendy and Mark and their 2 cute kids.

Also...

I would love love love to see the Dark Was The Night show at Radio City Music Hall on May 3rd. The concert will feature The National, David Byrne, Feist, Dirty Projectors, My Brightest Diamond and Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings. All proceeds go to The Red Hot Organization, an international charity dedicated to raising money and awareness for HIV and AIDS through popular culture.

My friend Colin first turned me on to this double disc album and I'm so glad he did. It's fanfreakingtastic. It's better to buy it rather than download it because the monies go to Red Hot.





The National on Pitchfork.tv
"So Far Around the Bend"

I can has it?

Seriously. I want this. How cool? Sadly it's not in production, it's just a concept at this stage. Meet the one tea kettle. A single vessel designed with both boiling and serving in mind. Brilliant. The design appears when the water boils. Even more brilliant.

Why isn't someone making this yet??

This is just to say..

3 poems I never tire of reading. Beautiful and simple.

This is Just to Say
William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold


Love
Czeslaw Milosz

Love means to learn to look at yourself
The way one looks at distant things
For you are only one thing among many.
And whoever sees that way heals his heart,
Without knowing it, from various ills -
A bird and a tree say to him: Friend.
Then he wants to use himself and things
So that they stand in the glow of ripeness.
It doesn't matter whether he knows what he serves:
Who serves best doesn't always understand.


Bird
Pablo Neruda

It was passed from one bird to another,
the whole gift of the day.
The day went from flute to flute,
went dressed in vegetation,
in flights which opened a tunnel
through the wind would pass
to where birds were breaking open
the dense blue air -
and there, night came in.

When I returned from so many journeys,
I stayed suspended and green
between sun and geography -
I saw how wings worked,
how perfumes are transmitted
by feathery telegraph,
and from above I saw the path,
the springs and the roof tiles,
the fishermen at their trades,
the trousers of the foam;
I saw it all from my green sky.
I had no more alphabet
than the swallows in their courses,
the tiny, shining water
of the small bird on fire
which dances out of the pollen.

What do slaughtered gorillas and Angelina Jolie have in common?

I only first heard of Getty Images photojournalist Brent Stirton when I saw his incredible photographs documenting the slaughter of gorillas in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The images are beyond powerful. Stirton captured the largest massacre of seriously endangered primates in over 40 years and brought international attention to an otherwise underground issue.

This project has gone on to earn him numerous awards such as:

- International Photographer of the Year by the Lucie Foundation
- 2008 Visa d'Or Award, Feature Photography, Visa pour l'Image, Perpignan, France
- First prize, Singles, Contemporary Issues, 2008 World Press Photo
- American Photo, 2008 Photo of the Year
- PDN Photo Annual, First prize in Photojournalism/Sports/Documentary

...the list goes on and on and on but I'll stop there.

Turns out Brent Stirton is also the photographer behind those famous photos of Angelina and Brad's babies that sold for a record amount of money to celebrity magazines and generated millions for charity. Magazines that I did indeed shamelessly buy. Pretty much anyone who knows me knows of my fondness (huge understatement) for the Jolie. Stirton's not supposed to talk about those famous photos though. Getty credited him for the 2006 baby shoot, but not for the 2008 shoot with the twins.

Below is an interview Stirton did with Photo District News the day after he won the award in France. I found it really interesting so I thought I'd post it.