INSPIRED AT CONTACT PHOTOGRAPHY FESTIVAL

Ready for yet ANOTHER super long blog post?   First I gave you a full on overview of my experience at the CONTACT photography festival in Toronto…now here’s the INSPIRED AT post.  But this post will largely be told in photographs, so sit back, scroll down and enjoy!

First up…Angela Grossman Models of Resistance by Poïesis Contemporary.  Saw this work early in the trip and fortunate enough to talk with Gallery Director,  Dr. Lynn Ruscheinsky, gaining insight about the artist as well as her practice and approach to the work.  Love how the work blurs the line between photograph and sculpture!  Wish I could work in such a loose fashion…#studiogoals!  

 

 

Another favorite in the festival was the Alternative Photo Revolution exhibit at Connections Gallery.  Bob Carnie is a photographer, printer and owner of Alternative Photo Services  and Connections Gallery.  The concept for this show was for photographers to submit images that would then be reinterpreted by Carnie through alternative processes such as gum dichromates and pallidium prints.  Carnie is a master printer, both inside and out of the darkroom.  I thought it was a great concept for a show and a nice way to collaborate with fellow photographers.

Alternative Photo Revolution exhibit at Connections Gallery.

 

 

 

 

Katie Hagan, Flux, 16″ x 24″, iphone 6, bevel 3D, blender

 

The artist 2Fik was a featured exhibition of CONTACT and one I was happy I spent some time with.  2Fik is a contemporary Cindy Sherman on steroids!  Like Sherman, 2Fik plays a different character in each image…he just may play between 4 to 30+ unique characters in the same image.  The images below feature both his final pieces and images highlighting a few of the rotating characters in his work.  Heard that he actually shoots the work fairly quickly so he can maintain the same source of light in his images.  Impressed with his vision AND his composting skills.  I mean, his website is 2fik or not 2fik dot com…how can you not like that?

 

 

Andrew Owen is a photographer after my own heart!  I have always loved alternative processes and developing my images in the sun.  When I started teaching photography I started experimenting more with sensitizing papers and fabrics with cyanotype chemicals and produced a number of photograms using natural plant specimens.  It’s not as easy as you may think it would be and to see such a large amount of successful LARGE scale cyanotype fabrics is impressive!

Massive Camera-less Photographs by Andrew Owen A01

 

 

 

Just in time for the rebroadcasting of the original Twin Peaks, Blake Morrow presents Return to Twin Peaks at Field Trip Cafe.  Morrow traveled to Washington state and photographed actual filming locations from the TV Series and then digitally integrated the environments with models shot in his Toronto studio.  Well done and super fun!

IMG_5525    IMG_5523

 

 

Ok…if you know me even remotely, you know that I lived in Key West for many years…I reference it A LOT!  But I can’t help it…Key West is an amazing place and full of wonderful, creative human beings.  One of these such people is author and historian of science, Jim Gleick.  A body of work entitled dot-dot-dot  by Jacob Robert Whibley that was totally inspired by Gleick’s Time Travel novel.  HAD to make sure I saw the exhibit…photos follow below:

 

 

And finally, the last exhibition I took in…after 9 days…The Journey is the Destination by Dan Eldon.  I have been a fan of Dan Eldon for many years now.  Dan was an adventurous human, photojournalist, artist and activist.  He was 22 years old when he was killed with three other photojournalists while on assignment in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993.  His story and artwork has been featured in many books as well as a recently produced independent film.  I am continually blown away by what he accomplished in his short time on earth.  Learning more about his story will inspire you to make a difference I promise!

One of Dan Eldon’s printed edition collages.

 

This barely scratched the surface of what I took in and this experience will surely inspire me for years to come.  #thankyougreatmeadowsfoundation!  And thank you for hanging in there!!

~jz