Blade Runner Revisited

“But what can a poor boy do except to sing for a rock and roll band”  The Rolling Stones

Or maybe just follow your imagination with a camera if music is not your talent. So this is my take on Blade Runner. Or should I say my ultra low budget take in an abandoned (now demolished) factory in Lachine with no cast, no crew,  but with a strong, eerie, and sexy feeling that Darryl Hannah might pop out from behind a rusted machine that no one alive remembers what it was used for. Abandoned factories let your mind soar.

There was a lot of water leaking from the roof, like rain, and that area I stood in made me feel like I could have been in this scene.

Life, so totally crazy, so full of horror and pain, yet so totally worth hanging on to with everything you’ve got, every drop of blood alive as much as anything else before or after. There isn’t that much that separates us from everything in the universe beyond Time, and a few random particles here and there.

Do You See The Android? Neither Do I

This image, along with some of my other works, is on display at Cafe Victoria on Wellington street until the end of April.

I would also like to dedicate this post to the memory of Jay Simmons.

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Untitled (The Woman In Red)

This is a work that came about during my recent consolidation of images past, present, (and future?) . The projection happened in the early 90′s when I was experimenting with arbitrary images I had shot on streets, off television sets and so on, then projecting them on houses, walls, backyards, etc. and re photographing them. The columns and woman in a dress were shot in the last two years. It seemed to come together when I noticed how the columns represented an ancient Ideal and the almost impossible task of achieving, and maintaining that,  and how things have really played out despite our best intentions.

Untitled (The Woman In Red)

This picture is currently on display at Cafe Victoria in Verdun until the end of April. It is 20×24 inches, professionally framed and only costs $100.00. If you would like to purchase this, or a print, different sizes available too, please email me at neathatturcot (at) yahoo dot ca

I have become interested in doing a series on the original Woman in Red, Ana Cumpănaș, who apparently fingered John Dillinger to the FBI in the 1930′s. It would probably be a short parody of the urban myths surrounding Ana and Dillinger, but who knows how the ideas could grow if we do it. Any woman who has a markedly red article of clothing, not necessarily a dress, a fun sense of theatre, and a free afternoon or two, and would be interested in collaborating on this is more than welcome to contact me at the email above.

 

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Verdun, April 12, 2013

Can only remember this much snow a couple of times in my life this far into April and probably only in the last 15 years or so. My father was born on April 22 and he always said that his father claimed there was still snow in the backyard the day he was born. My dad would be about 73 before he ever actually saw any snow on April 22.  Miss you, man!

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Nun’s Island Is Awesome!

For years I have been an outspoken critic about the rampant development on Nun’s Island. Every time a new highrise goes up there is at least a couple hundred more cars stepping in line to get on that bridge to somewhere. Too much of a money maker for some in Verdun, and a sign that the community over there is completely uninterested in protecting their own interests. So I have visually thrown in the towel and am going to celebrate the development of Nun’s Island in pictures. I figure it’s the least I can do for all those mainland Verduners that have had their view of the Saint Lawrence totally wrecked over the last 50 years.

Here is a start.

Does Anyone Else See It?

Nun’s Island Is Awesome!

Both images are available at Cafe Victoria until the end of April, are nicely framed 8 x 10′s, and very reasonably priced.

Look for more of these coming soon!

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Danielle Plamondon at Cafe Victoria in Verdun

Danielle Plamondon is one of the most respected, admired, and loved urban explorers on the planet. From the abandoned factories of Montreal and the rooftops of Europe, through the sewer systems of London and Paris,  she has photographed these locations with a passionate eye and a creative energy that radiates throughout her images.

Her night photographs bring us to the scene as we have never experienced it before, such as this image that shows the Turcot Interchange (obviously a personal favorite of mine).

Below street level is a second home to her as she documents the drains and tunnels she explores using “light painting” techniques to bring out the details while creating an intense sensuality to the forms and materials of our underground infrastructure.

A pile of paint cans in an old long abandoned factory becomes a unique moment recalling the architecture and mysteries  of great cathedrals.

This is the one photography exhibition in Montreal you cannot afford to miss!

Danielle Plamondon – a girl in the dark with a flashlight,  continues until March 31st.

Cafe Victoria

4559 Wellington

Verdun, Metro de l’Eglise, Galt exit

(514) 564-8088

 

 

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Verdun Lanes – Winter

All of these were taken behind Wellington street between 1st and 2nd on the Verdun side. On different days – wink!

 

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The Strange Case Of Vivian Maier

Not a new story but still a spectacular one. How someone who would have been a peer to the likes of Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Diane Arbus and Gary Winogrand was able to take over 100,000 pictures in her lifetime and pretty much keep the whole thing a secret is mesmerizing.

Sept 28, 1959, 108th St. East, New York, NY

Undated, New York, NY

From Wikipedia,Vivian Maier

Vivian Dorothea Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American amateur street photographer, who was born in New York City but grew up in France. After returning to the United States, she worked for about forty years as a nanny in Chicago, Illinois. During those years, she took about 100,000 photographs, primarily of people and cityscapes in Chicago, although she traveled and photographed worldwide.

Her photographs remained unknown and mostly undeveloped until they were discovered by a local Chicago historian and collector, John Maloof, in 2007. Following Maier’s death, her work began to receive critical acclaim.^[1][2] Her photographs have been exhibited in the US, England, Germany, Denmark, and Norway, and have appeared in newspapers and magazines in the US, England, Germany, Italy, France and other countries. A book of her photography titled Vivian Maier: Street Photographer was published in 2011.

Chicago August 22, 1956

1957, Chicago, IL

Untitled, April 20, 1956

1957, Chicago, IL

Undated, Canada

Untitled, November 4, 1955, San Francisco, CA

August, 1958, Churchill, Canada

August, 1958, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

1959, Cochin, India

August 11, 1959, Digne, France

August, 1958, Churchill, Manitoba, Canada

1959, Egypt

July 10, 1959, Aden, Yemen

Undated, Canada

Undated, Canada

Untitled, Undated

Self Portrait, February 1955

Self Portrait, 1953

September 10th, 1955, New York City

Looking through these pictures I feel as though I am looking back at the work of one of the most influential photographers of all time, yet none of these images were seen publicly until after 2007!  The images evoke a great passion and identification with humanity. Did she come from outer space and simply preferred  to let others flow with these visual ideas? It’s quite uncanny how these pictures seem so familiar as we have seen so many similar photographs framed by some very talented photographers who were not doing this kind of work in the early to mid 50′s. But strangest of all, perhaps, is that she chose to share these images with no one.

Check out the website for her built by her discoverer, John Maloof.

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.

Piecing together Vivian Maier’s life can easily evoke Churchill’s famous quote about the vast land of Tsars and commissars that lay to the east. A person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City. Someone who was intensely guarded and private, Vivian could be counted on to feistily preach her own very liberal worldview to anyone who cared to listen, or didn’t. Decidedly unmaterialistic, Vivian would come to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks.”

 

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Sarah Anne Johnson – Arctic Wonderland

All is well as we approach the PostArctic era. Here are some images originally shot at the Arctic Circle in Norway by Canadian artist Sarah Anne Johnson.

Taken from here.

Sarah Anne Johnson: Alien Arctics

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Some More Verdun Lanes

Haven’t posted any of these in a while. Time again, I guess.

Verdun/Wellington, Argyle/Melrose

Verdun/Wellington, Argyle/Melrose

Bannantyne/Verdun, 6th/5th

Wellington/Lasalle, 1st/Willibrord

Bannantyne/Verdun, Woodland/Argyle

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