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S N O I T A FEATURING THE WOMEN OF TEA & BANNOCK ALEXIS MARIE CHUTE’S THE QUIET REBUILD TWO PHOTO COLLECTIVES PLAY PHOTO-MARCO-POLO MONTREAL PHOTO DUO: LM CHABOT HOW-TO: GET PHOTO CONFIDENCE
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IT’S A LIFESTYLE
Try the stylish, lightweight, and sturdy Cameron T310 Tripod Available exclusively at Canada’s Greatest Camera Store. HENRYS.COM/CAMERON
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WHAT YOU’LL LOVE IN THIS ISSUE: 8 FIVE CANADIAN PHOTO BOOKS TO INVEST IN — NOW
Photo by Rob Blanchard. BEHIND THE SHOT: “My wife Betty and I were sitting on our front deck when we noticed two superheroes casually walking by. One of the boys lives across the street from us and is always doing something creative, but we had not seen him in costume before. I grabbed my camera and two off-camera flashes. I set up one light in front of them and one light behind. The lighting created some additional drama to the heroes and that made it possible for me to darken down the background. I was only able to take a couple photos as it was past one of the heroes bedtimes, his powers were fading. I am very happy with this shot but even happier knowing there are two superheroes in my neighbourhood”.
12 THE WOMEN OF TEA&BANNOCK by Krista Stevens
“Regardless of how you feel inside, always try to look like a winner. Even if you are behind, a sustained look of control and confidence can give you a mental edge that results in victory.” —Diane Arbus Cover photo by LM CHABOT. From the TRUE COLORS series. See page 18 for the full story.
18 LM CHABOT: “ONE DOES NOT GO WITHOUT THE OTHER” by Briar Deacon 20 TWO PHOTO COLLECTIVES: TORONTO V. FREDERICTON by J. Brown 32 HOW-TO: BUILD CONFIDENCE PHOTOGRAPHING PEOPLE by Lauren Lim 34 N ADYA KWANDIBENS’ CONCRETE INDIANS by Cece M. Scott 38 TAM + KYT: PHOTO DUO by Christopher Blanchette 40 A LEXIS MARIE CHUTE’S THE QUIET RE-BUILD
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EDITOR’S NOTE
photo by: www.margaretmulligan.com
HELLO! Welcome to PhotoED MAGAZINE’s 50th ISSUE!
YEAH! In the 16 years since this magazine started, we have produced 50 issues and have had the great pleasure of working with hundreds of photographers, students, educators, and sponsors from all across Canada. It has been good times. And there is SO much more to come. I am super excited to be taking over as the magazine’s editor, furthering what Felix Russo started. I very much look forward to working with the incredible network that he founded, as well as making loads of new friends who are as passionate about photography as I am. My first issue as editor features CANADIAN COLLABORATIONS in photographic practices that we thought were unique, inspiring, and outstanding. From online blogs like www.teaandbannock.com (created by a group of Indigenous women who connect online to share their lives, work, and stories), to a Montreal-based commercial photo duo known as LM Chabot, I wanted to find out more and share the stories behind the experience of working collaboratively. For this milestone issue, I also wanted to try an experiment. I reached out to two established photography collectives, one in Toronto and another in Fredericton. Through an image exchange over a few weeks, the two groups
D TOE 0 0% PHO E IS 1 DA! ZIN ANA GA M A E I N C U FO R D MA ANK YO PORT! TH R SUP YOU
played a photo-based game of Marco Polo. (The full story and results are on page 20.) Feedback from the enthusiastic participants strongly indicated that the collaboration added fuel to their individual creative fires. When coordinating this little game, I knew the images would all be great, but no one could predict where the visual narrative would take us. I suspect that for many, including myself, it is the beautiful unpredictability of collaboration that is the driving force for creation. The complex and intricate processes behind creating a photograph (or a magazine about photography!), while often invisible, can also often be the most extraordinary part of the story. Future plans, you ask? Well, besides creating more stunningly gorgeous printed pieces like the one you’re holding, we’ve got some awesome stuff happening online. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for our e-newsletter to keep up! Your editor,
Rita Godlevskis rita@photoed.ca
MAGAZINE
WWW.PHOTOED.CA @photoedmagazine @PhotoEdCANADA @photoedmagazine
FALL 2017 ISSUE #50 ISSN 1708-282X
EDITOR/PUBLISHER
ART DIRECTOR
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5 CANADIAN PHOTO BOOKS TO INVEST IN — NOW Photography books are a great example of collaborative work. The art of the book takes many eyes of review and critique, and many hours of revisions and research. Check out some Canadian photographers whose series work over the course of YEARS has culminated into these results. For these artists, the presentation quality of their images is paramount. The stories they tell in this compact, high-quality form are worth every penny.
Bathers by Ruth Kaplan, $65 Text by Marni Jackson and Larry Fink. Bathers, by Toronto-based photographer Ruth Kaplan, explores the social theatre of communal bathing. Ruth’s journey began in the nudist hot springs of California in 1991. She then travelled to Eastern Europe, seeking a more traditional form of the practice in the bath towns of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Romania. The unique display of individual body types and ages became a component of the work, as did the decaying architecture of the interiors. Later, she travelled to highertech spas in Germany, France, Italy, and Denmark, completing the series in 2002 in Moroccan hammams and Icelandic hot springs. Hedonism, sensuality, innocence, and social bonding are some of the underlying themes that have emerged.
ruthkaplanphoto.com 8 photo ED
REGISTERED The Japanese Canadian
Experience During World War II
Looking for Marshall McLuhan in Afghanistan
by Leslie Hossack, $125
by Rita Leistner, $43
Leslie Hossack’s images in Registered are accompanied by her thoroughly researched and carefully crafted observations about the experience of Japanese Canadians in British Columbia during World War II when they were registered, rounded up, and removed. Registered consists of three installations: Vancouver newspaper clippings from the 1940s; individual registration cards issued by the RCMP; and interpretive photographs of buildings in British Columbia where the story played out.
In 2011, conflict photographer and critical theorist Rita Leistner embedded with U.S. Marines in Afghanistan as a team member of the experimental social media initiative Basetrack. What resulted is Looking for Marshall McLuhan in Afghanistan. Rita uses iPhone photographs she took during a military embed to apply the pioneering Canadian media theorist’s ideas on language and technology to contemporary warfare. An homage to McLuhan, this is a new kind of photo book.
lesliehossack.com
lookingformarshallmcluhan.com ritaleistner.com
Ritual by Vincenzo Pietropaolo, $39.95 Documentary photographer Vincenzo Pietropaolo has made it his life’s mission to photograph the immigrant experience, working-class culture, and social justice issues. In Ritual, Pietropaolo brings together a retrospective collection of 150 photographs spanning 46 years. The book is an historic documentation of the Good Friday procession — an elaborate event that takes place annually in the streets of Toronto’s Little Italy, the largest Italian immigrant community in the world.
vincepietropaolo.com
Yes Yes We’re Magicians Jonah Samson, $34.95 Yes Yes We’re Magicians, co-published by Figure One Publishing and Presentation House Gallery, is a compilation of anonymous, vintage black-and-white photographs mostly found on eBay from the personal collection of the Canadian artist and writer Jonah Samson. Titled after a line from Samuel Beckett’s play Waiting for Godot, the book reflects on the absurdity of life through slapstick and dark humour, and a warmhearted affection for the mysteries of human gestures. Jonah has created a carefully orchestrated narrative flow between various kinds of vernacular photographs. Whether a blurry snapshot or a formal portrait, the images draw out the uncanny and magical qualities of photographs. Free of any description, the compelling pictures are allowed to speak for themselves.
presentationhousegallery.org figure1publishing.com