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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Neath Turcot Exhibition at Cafe Victoria Through April

Hope to see a lot of you at the vernissage this Saturday between 4 and 7, if not, please drop by during the month. I feel this is the best show I have done yet in terms of it’s scope of ideas, blending old projects with new and the ever ongoing.

Neath Turcot

Cafe Victoria

4559 Rue Wellington

Verdun

514-564-8088

Metro de l’Eglise

Vernissage  Saturday, April 6, 4-7

 

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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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The Trashcam Project

Here is a remarkable photography project using  garbage dumpsters as pinhole cameras. The city of Hamburg has allowed it’s trash collectors to drill small holes into these portable bins that are loaded with large sheets of light sensitive paper. And the results are often quite stunning!

From their Flickr page -

Hamburg´s garbagemen portrait their city in the Trashcam Project – with their garbage containers. Standard 1.100 litre containers are transformed to giant pinhole cameras. With these cameras the binmen take pictures of their favourite places to show the beauty and the changes of the city they keep clean every day.

The Trashcam Project was developed by Christoph Blaschke, Mirko Derpmann, Scholz & Friends Berlin and the Hamburg sanitation department. Special thanks to Hamburg based photographer Matthias Hewing (www.matthiashewing.de/) for his professional advice and the challenging lab work with the giant negatives.

Garbageman Hans-Dieter Braatz is taking a picture with a 1.100 litre garbage container transformed into a pinhole camera. It will take 2 minutes of framing and one hour waiting. Picture taken by Mirko Derpmann with a fuji gw690 on Fuji Velvia.

The Speicherstadt in Hamburg photographed with a garbage container by
Hans-Dieter Braatz, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with an hour exposure time.

The skyline of the Hafencity in Hamburg photographed with a pinhole garbage container by garbageman Hans-Peter Strahl, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with six minutes exposure time.

Garbageman Roland Wilhelm takes a picture of himself and his trashcam with a second trashcam. Photographed with a pinhole garbage container by Roland Wilhelm, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann at the site of Hamburg´s wase collecting service. Shot on a 106×80 cm sheet of ilford multigrade with six minutes exposure time. Please show some respect for Rolands fantastic ability to not move.

The Marco Polo Tower photographed with a 1.100 litre garbage container by Michael Pfohlmann, Christoph Blaschke and Mirko Derpmann. Shot on Ilford Multigrade with 10 minutes exposure time.

And here is a video, in German, explaining the project.

Trashcam Project Flickr Page

 

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Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook

Clay Lipsky – Atomic Overlook

All this reminds me of Alex Colville’s painting, Pacific.

This fellow has evolved to where he now occupies the potential last chapter of history where the only options are waiting and suicide.  He is the typical postarctic human no longer required to take action or even consider it. It’s a nice day, and there may be some more, who knows?

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Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner

Josef Hoflehner – Jet Airliner

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“Hurricane Porn”?: The Aesthetics of Authenticity and Nature’s Wrath

Excellent article that discusses Superstorm Sandy and how events influence images and vice versa.

By Paul Mullins

n the wake of Hurricane Sandy photographers shared ten images every second on Instagram, documenting the storm, testifying to the power of nature, and underscoring the internet’s power to shape our collective imagination.  The most ridiculous images following the storm, though, came from Brazilian model Nana Gouvea, who wandered about the hurricane-strewn landscape posing for clumsily seductive pictures alongside crushed cars, downed trees, and refuse-strewn streets, producing what Huffington Post dubbed genuine “hurricane porn” (she was immediately lampooned with a tumblr page and a facebook page).

Among the most widely circulated manipulated Hurricane Sandy images was this storm cloud imposed on the Statue of Liberty (image from snopes.com)

While Gouvea parasitically stumbled about New York, a host of other photographers posted images that were not quite so voyeuristic, but they also were not utterly “authentic” representations of the storm.  The Tumblr page Is Twitter Wrong? posted images of the storm that were clearly manipulated; snopes ridiculed several of the most obviously photoshopped images; The Atlantic posted a series of images emblazoned “real,” “fake,” and “unverified”; mashable posted many of the same images; and the Wall Street Journal’s Metropolis blog ran an article “Caution: That Hurricane Sandy Photo May Not be Real”.

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Verdun Lanes – la Fete de la Ruelle

Was on the cool side but lots of people came out to the lane and had a good time.  Many thanks to Francoise Glutnay for organizing this wonderful event!

Meal and coffee for 2 bucks. Nice!

That sort of looks like one of my Verdun Lanes pictures, hey, it IS one of my Verdun Lanes pictures heh heh.

The obligatory sidewalk sale painting at the lane celebration! (wink wink).

The greatest art gallery on the planet! And have to say I  was pretty thrilled to have two projects, Turcot and Verdun Lanes, cross paths like this. It just doesn’t happen like this very often, folks! And, I still have about 8 Turcot pictures nicely framed 20×24 inches as you can see here, for sale!  http://neath.wordpress.com/2012/07/29/turcot-pictures-for-sale/ Email me for details at neathatturcot (at) yahoo dot com

I think I like the glare.

Love this. That is probably the most successful photograph I have ever made. It functions on so many invisible levels. It truly summarizes the way I felt at Turcot at times, the whole stupid political struggle, the environment -  it’s my Don Quixote for the 21 st century. But enough about me…

Merci, Francoise et tout le monde for a really great time!

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