Tag: Photography

Album Cover Nostalgia

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My earliest training in the arts as a young adult was taking night and weekend courses in graphic design and airbrush painting in Vancouver. There were no computers in those days, and everything was done mechanically by hand. As an audiophile with a collection of LPs (250+ now all gone), I was always impressed by album cover art and spent a lot of time studying the fronts and backs of the covers. These days I’m more of a technophile, and whenever I discover new apps I spend hours processing hundreds of [my own] photos and images through one or more of the apps to see if anything interesting happens. Maybe it explains why I’m so drawn to the square format for much of my work… because these images sure remind me of album cover art!

The Mixed States Project

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Mixed States is a new project that uses archival photographs and double-exposure to explore themes of loss, identity, and emotional connection. By merging past and present it creates a portal through which the invisible space where human connectivity resides is revealed. In this first stage of the project, I’ve merged my father’s face with my own in a series of compelling portraits, where he and I become one person while at the same time retaining our own unique individualities.

To see and learn more about Mixed States, it is located under Projects on the menu bar at the top of this page. Thank you so much for dropping by, and please feel free to leave your comments or start a conversation.

 

The Cult of Cheap

The Bride and Her PartyToday I read a great article on PetaPixel regarding the all too common prenuptial outcry about how outrageously expensive wedding photography is. Rather than justifying his fees to customers by providing an overall expenses list, wedding photographer Pavel Kounine prefers a different approach. He clarifies the difference between getting married and “holding a wedding,” and points out that the latter is actually a luxury… and an expensive one at that. Succinctly put, he writes:

The major expenses are everything that isn’t part of the official ceremony: the venue(s), liquor and multi-course meals for guests, a multi-tiered cake, flowers, decorations, entertainment, your wardrobe, makeup and hair, accommodations, and… your desire to have a wedding photographer document the entire affair and do so with exceptional artistry.

While Kounine’s argument holds merit, I think the problem goes much much deeper, especially where everything and anything creative is concerned. This perpetual baulking about price speaks to the disturbing devaluation of art and artists of all kinds in a world where outsourced knockoffs (Chanel handbag clones included) can be had for a buck at Walmart or elsewhere. Many people also believe that they are entitled to free music and movies (acquired illegally on the Internet), and besides… everybody with a smartphone can be a ‘photographer’ on Instagram [insert sarcasm here] so $3,000 for a professional wedding photographer?!!!?!! OMIGAWD!!!

The sad truth is that today’s values have been shaped by a financially driven, corporately designed, disposable mentality and lifestyle where consumers have been conditioned to endlessly consume cheap shit, thus keeping the 1% rich and laughing all the way to the bank. They have created a society that is addicted to dopamine inducing sales and deals, where the true and horrific costs of such are unscrupulously hidden from view. All of us, whether we want to admit it or not, have fallen victim to the cult of cheap.

Given our current situation, wedding photographers continue to struggle (as do creators in all media)… so when it comes to securing contracts, I suppose it is simply more prudent to point out the “luxury” rationalization to an emotional bride-to-be rather than argue with her the psychology of the corporate conspiracy to manipulate the masses and cheapen everything on the planet. In the end, we all pay one way or another.

Disclaimer: Although I captured the photo above at my niece’s wedding, I am not a wedding photographer. Kudos to her for hiring accredited photographer, David Fong, who did an amazing job capturing the magic of the day from beginning to end.