In Context

How great to see photography outside of the gallery (!) — these are from a house I happened to be in last week.
Starting with Karin Bubaš's Woman In Fog (2006) from the series Studies in Landscapes and Wardrobe which… 'takes its inspiration from Hitchcock and Antonioni…using nostalgia for films of the 50's and
60's to explore the tension that exists between the female figure and
the environments they inhabit…how actress's costumes
are key to delivering storylines and creating visual impact in film and
photography…The voyeuristic placement of the camera
creates a crucial tension between the women, their attire, the spaces
they inhabit, and what they are looking at.'
I remember coming across that series online so it was nice to see a print in person and since it's framed without glass it was all the more painterly-like.

In the next room there was Scott McFarland — an image that I remembered from a 2003 exhibit at the Contemporary Art Gallery. 'A large body of photographs detailing the interior
and exterior of a rural cabin on BC’s Sunshine Coast. McFarland’s
naturalistic staging and close cropping emphasized and valorized objects
and personal artifacts accumulating within the cabin, and stress an ongoing
relationship between the site and its depiction.'

(too many reflections in the glass, but it gives the idea…)

My First Time

Some things sell just fine on craigslist — like enlargers, cameras and bathtubs — but for other more obscure items there’s ebay. I was always slightly wary and even though I’ve been registered for 5 years I’ve never bought or sold anything. How weird is that. 
So I thought I’d finally try it out with some old film (really old film — those 7 rolls of VPS expired in 1984!) because I love that people can be so in to the mystery of what will happen… nothing can be relied on, and they’ll either be hugely excited or disappointed when they get the film back from the lab. The Polaroid will be much more immediate of course, but with only 10 shots you gotta make the most of them.  

With 4 more days to go, the VPS is at $20.50 and the Polaroid $31.00… I think it’s kind of hilarious, but then I’m thankful that ebay exists because someday I’m sure I’ll be wanting something photo related that’s completely obsolete and will gladly over-pay for it.

TTS: Through The Sunglasses

There’s TTL, TTV,  and now just for fun I’ve been taking shots through my sunglasses (because everything looks better when I’ve got them on!) and they’re not even rose-coloured. Seems I’m not the only one, and cherry blossoms here and here are popular subjects. It’s also supposedly like being on Mars.

BFF

Hello old friends… so nice to see you again! And don’t worry, I won’t be selling any of you, even though we haven’t been seeing much of each other lately. Let’s get together soon and hang out like we used to.

Selling My Old Life

On the weekend I sold my trusty Beseler 23C II enlarger (and practically everything else darkroom related) to a very excited couple who plan to make good use of it and that made me very happy. After having a darkroom and printing for what seemed like my whole entire life, I haven’t had to smell those chemicals in over a year and I’ve really enjoyed the break! When I go back in to a darkroom it will be with a specific edition/project in mind to print fibre — because I still love a good selenium toned b&w print. Oh yes, yes I do.

contact

my email:   s [at] stormephoto [dot] com

about

The shortest distance between any two places on earth is called the great circle route.  The Nelson World Atlas, 1974

After seeing an exhibit in 2003 of photographs by H.G. Cox at Presentation House Gallery I was struck by the postcard that showed the back of a print with all the stickers and stamps from galleries around the world. How interesting that way back in 1925 there was a way for a photographer in the middle of bloody nowhere (New Westminster, BC) to still be part of what was going on globally.

Cox’s earliest known photographs date from around 1924. Within a few years he was already an active member of the international pictorialist salon movement, showing his pictures in the 1925 to 1940 period at exhibitions on four continents, from New York to Los Angeles, from London to Lucknow, India, and in France, Italy, Spain and Sweden…He was part of the network of salons and camera clubs on the West Coast that flourished from the 1920s to the 40s, establishing friendships with photographers in Seattle and Portland…

Back then it was all done by letter post and probably took weeks or months to get a reply — now it’s the internet and all very immediate.

my web page: www.stormephoto.com

Mystery Lot

Empty lot on Richards St. near Helmcken, downtown Vancouver BC

I’d love to know what’s going on here — most empty lots are just gravel and rented out for parking. There were two great old houses here but now there are security cameras watching to make sure that nobody gets in to walk barefoot on the nice grass. Kind of strange. Like looking at it through the bars of the zoo. The new fence has those Damien/Omen spikes which always creep me out.

Top left image shot summer 2007, the rest shot March 21st 2008.

Happy Easter..?

These have got to be the scariest Easter bunnies I’ve ever seen! It
was a window display out in Abbotsford and I believe it was a party
supply store, but even still — could you imagine someone showing up to
a little kids Easter egg hunt in this? The mannequin’s hand showing
just adds to the creepiness. The window reflection was annoying but I
just had to shoot it while I was there. Click on the images if you really want to see them bigger!