LET’S DO G N I H T E M O S FUN! FEATURING
OW BLAKE MORR FRENIÈRE JOANNIE LA ER CAROL SAWY FOR ASTROLOGY HERS PHOTOGRAP OYS PUZZLES & T
SPRING/SUMMER 2021
+ MORE!
Canary Wharf Bikes by Jonathan Pearce
The fastest, smoothest, most precise photo editor for macOS, Windows and iPad Affinity Photo redefines the boundaries for professional photo editing software. With a meticulous focus on workflow it offers sophisticated tools for enhancing, editing and retouching your images in an incredibly intuitive interface with all the power and performance you need. Available for macOS, Windows and iPad – subscription-free at: affinity.serif.com/photo
JOANNIE LAFRENIÈRE’S PLAYTIME ‘Palms & Spring’ Check out the story on page 14.
in this issue... 8 THE ULTIMATE PHOTO NERD - WORDSEARCH 10 RESOURCES WE LOVE 12
ALI PENKO PLAY IN PHOTOGRAPHY
14 JOANNIE LAFRENIÈRE’S PLAYTIME: KERRY MANDERS & BRANDY RYAN IN CONVERSATION 22 CAROL SAWYER × NATALIE BRETTSCHNEIDER By Mark Walton or Walter Markson
28 BLAKE MORROW: POP CULTURE PHOTOSHOP By Rita Godlevskis 34 LINDSI HOLLEND: HEIGHTENED VISION By Michelle Joseph 37 THINK POSITIVE! ASTROLOGICAL ADVICE FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS By Djenabé 42 READERS GALLERY Submissions by our readers
Befree, Be Creative!
Photo by: Rachid Dahnoun
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In this
digital issue
STEWART MACLEAN Charlottetown, PE IG: @wanderingstew
THE READERS GALLERY: FEATURING ADAM KOEBEL ANIKKAH ARULRAJAH APRIL WINTER ASHLEY BOUTIN ATIA POKORNY AUBIN DSOUZA AVA MARGEURITTE BRADLY JOSEPH BRETT BOYD BRIAN LAVERY BRILEIGH HARDCASTLE BROOKE MATHIESON CAROL JACKSON CATHERINE COMTOIS CHARLIE MCKELLAR CHARLOTTE BABAD COLTON CURTIS CYREL TORREJAS DAVID SHUKEN DAVID WILLIAMS E ROSS BRADLEY ERIC SHIOZAKI GUN ROZE HALEY EYRE HARMAN DHUDWAL HARSHAL DESAI IAN HUMBER IAN SELIG J. ASHLEY NIXON JAEDYN BOISJOLI JAN VANVEEN JAOSHA BUREY-MOORE JASMINE PRECIOUS MISTRY JAYDEN PARENT JEANNETTE BREWARD JENNIFER GIFFIN JOSEPH BOLTRUKIEWICZ JULES KEENAN JULIA DUNN KATE ROY KAYLAN STOCKFORD LAURIE MINOR LEONA ARSENAULT LORRAINE ANDERSON LUCAS DECLAVASIO LUKE MACBRIDE MAEVA ORIOL MAÍRA RIBEIRO MARTINE CHARTRAND MEAGAN PHILBRICK MELISSA RICHARD MICAH KLEIN MITCHELL BROWN NOAM HACKER NOEL CHENIER PRAZANTHY RAMESH ROBERT MACNEIL RUTH BERGEN BRAUN SACHI BALLAL SAMANTHA GUITAR SAMANTHA JONES SARAH LEVY SARAH SAROFIM SID AKSELROD STEWART MACLEAN TANYA MURCHIE TAYLOR RITCHIE THEOREN JOHANNESSEN THU HO TWINKLE BANERJEE VLADIC ROSKIN WALTER RAEMISCH WAYNE CHEUNG ZORAN DRAGELJ
L E T
Y O U R
C R E A T I V I T Y B L O O M WITH LENSES FROM SIGMA
AVAILABLE AT YOU R LOCAL HEN RY ’S OR ONLINE AT HENRYS .COM
EDITOR’S NOTE
Photo by Margaret Mulligan
A REMINDER TO HAVE FUN!
“Never, ever underestimate the importance of having fun.” — Randy Pausch
MOST PHOTOGRAPHY LOVERS I know easily describe their early relationships with their first cameras as a time of magic, fun, excitement, and an explosion of creativity. And then, sadly, somehow that light can dim. Photographer Ali Penko inspired the theme of this edition when she shared her Play series with me last year. Ali’s images are a lovely reminder that the acts of photographing, investigating, and experiencing are parts of a process that started out as a small spark that was simply about play. This issue aims to take us all back to find fun, be silly, experiment, fail, and laugh.
In our PRINT edition, Joannie Lafrenière’s Playtime series takes play seriously. Writers Kerry Manders and brandy ryan share their unique analysis of this work with us. We’re playn’ with you, Dear Reader, in our Carol Sawyer/Natalie Brettschneider feature story, by Mark Walton or Walter Markson...?! I’ve been following Blake Morrow’s work online for a while now, so I was personally super excited to get him in this issue. His creative work and passion for exploring the
PHOTOED MAGAZINE IS 100% MADE IN CANADA! THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
possibilities in crafting crazy-fun images oozes joy. In addition, like no other photo magazine I can think of, this issue includes puzzles, prizes, and astrological advice for photographers! Looking ahead, our next issue, Fall 2021, will focus on exploring the connections between photography and the environment. The climate crisis is a global event that affects us all in big ways and small. If you’ve got an eco photography story or images to share, drop us a line. Follow us on Instagram, 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
SPRING / SUMMER 2021 ISSUE #61 ISSN 1708-282X
@PhotoEdCANADA @photoedmagazine
Rita Godlevskis /rita@photoed.ca
EDITOR/PUBLISHER
Ruth Alves Djenabé Michelle Joseph Kerry Manders Ali Penko brandy ryan Mark Walton
COPY EDITOR
Deborah Cooper
ART DIRECTOR
PhotoED Magazine is published 3x/year, SPRING, FALL, & WINTER See www.photoed.ca for subscription and advertising information. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40634032 PhotoED Magazine 2100 Bloor St. West, Suite 6218 Toronto, ON M6S 5A5
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
COVER IMAGE : Our cover features Priyanka, Winner of
Canada’s Drag Race. Image by Blake Morrow. This issue was made possible with the assistance of the Ontario Arts Council.
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a Make-Your-Own RetroViewer! The answers to these 20 questions are A one-reel and viewer set from our friends at found in the word search!
www.image3d.com
8 photoED
T
T Q P A
D A W U
First person in Canada to correctly get ALL the answers will WON...
S
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V Y
1.
Photo editing, graphic design, and publishing software by Serif. 2. This Victoria-based photographer started her studio in 1862. She is best known for being well ahead of her time in her creative portraiture work and experimental photography involving multiple exposures on glass plate negatives. 3. The number of years PhotoED Magazine has been published in print. 4. PhotoED Magazine’s favourite independent Vancouver-based photo supply shop. 5. We love Canadian photo history, and so does this organization. 6. The number of editions published by PhotoED Magazine annually. 7. This photographer co-founded the first gallery of photography in Canada, in Toronto, on Baldwin Street in 1969. 8. The first of this type of camera was the 1916 3A Kodak Autographic Special. This type of camera has a focusing mechanism allowing the photographer to measure the subject’s distance to take photographs in focus. 9. This word can refer to either a person who makes arrangements for journalists or a chemical involved in developing black and white prints. 10. The number of square frames shot on a standard roll of 120mm film. 11. This photographer was also the first female president of Edmonton’s Horticultural Society. She led the charge in planting over 5000 trees in the city. 12. This school partnered with PhotoED magazine to create the “ultimate Canadian photography lovers tote bag” in 2020. 13. This photography festival takes place in Toronto, annually in May. 14. This UK-based brand has been producing film and photographic paper since 1879. 15. This little Kodak camera was said to have introduced the snapshot to the masses. 16. This part of a camera is a metal bracket that completes an electrical connection between the camera and an accessory for flash synchronization. 17. This three-letter abbreviation determines how sensitive the camera is to light. 100 is bright and 3200 is low light. 18. A cardboard box, a tin can, a shed... could also be a camera. 19. The opposite of light room. 20. The colour of light safe for light-sensitive paper.
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A photo walk and exhibition exploring the landscape that immediately surrounds us.
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SERIOUS FUN
A few things we highly recommend for you to play with! TAKE THE LEAP! Jump Book by Philippe Halsman The premise of Jump Book, first published in 1959 (reissued by Abrams in 1986), is simple. Philippe Halsman asked people to jump. The folio of photographs he worked on for years includes celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, and Lucille Ball. As well as some uncomfortable jumpers such as J. Robert Oppenheimer (father of the atomic bomb) and Richard M. Nixon (father of the remorseless political agenda). And some, you realize, made it into the book only because the nation heeds the siren call of capitalism (the president of Union Carbide, the president of U.S. Rubber, the president of U.S. Steel). In the commentary he wrote to accompany his images, Halsman refers to Freud. He suggested the way a person jumped – the attitude of the body and expression of the arms – revealed the subject’s unconscious. He likened himself to a graphologist, someone who finds clues to a person’s psychology in handwriting. He deemed himself a “jumpologist.” At the time, graphology had some credibility; today, it’s dismissed as pseudoscience and jumpology has followed it down the tubes. Jump Book received accolades in its day, but it was only ever about a bunch of people jumping. Why take a second look at this collection? Can the contemporary student of culture learn anything from Halsman’s hopping humans?
$60.+ This classic toy doesn’t have the bells and whistles of virtual reality, but no one can deny View-Masters are fun. We found a U.S. company that helps you make your own! Reels feature seven of your photos with optional 3D captions and one photo in the centre circle of the reel. Viewers are available in red, black, blue, or white. Prices are in U.S. dollars, starting at $30 for one viewer and one reel. (Add $30 to ship to Canada, and duty.) www.image3d.com 10 photoED
A bit of silly jumping might also be a brief moment of release in our current global pandemic era as well. Might take a bit of searching, but copies of this book can still be found at public libraries in Canada and through random re-sellers online. Images are now also found online at www.magnumphotos.com/arts-culture/philippe-halsman-jump-book
Review courtesy of Sonja Pushchak, PHSC.ca
Book photos by Jade Lee / @daryeshot
DIY VIEW-MASTERS
Well, consider the context. Published originally in the midst of the Cold War, Jump might be said to reflect another kind of bravado. At the time, Americans walked around with the unnerving realization that a nuclear war was imminent with Russia. Perhaps more people took joy in the moment then, thinking each moment might be their last. When considering those unusual circumstances, this may have been the right book for the era after all.
Promoting Contemporary Visual Arts Since 1988
PUZZLE TIME! HERE IS YOUR CHANCE TO COLLECT ART AND PLAY WITH IT. $129. Toronto-based photographer Caitlin Cronenberg has been a fixture at the Toronto International Film Festival, shooting portraits of visiting celebs for international clients including Variety, W Magazine, and Paper Magazine. She’s also known for working with Drake on his Views album art, establishing her as one of the most sought-after shooters internationally. Our fave is Photo Call, but there are other images available in this unique collection as well. These 1000-piece puzzles (19.25 × 28 inches) are limited edition collectors works, and they come with a signed and numbered label to affix to the back of the completed puzzle should you wish to frame it, or just keep in the box with the unassembled puzzle. We also love that the puzzle board is made from recovered paper to reduce burden on the environment. shop.caitlincronenberg.com
AN OPEN VIEWER FRIENDLY FORUM FOR THE BEST IN CANADIAN + INTERNATIONAL CONTEMPORARY VISUAL ARTS ARCHITECTURE DESIGN + ART EDUCATION 10215 - 112 Street Edmonton, AB, Canada T5K 1M7 www.harcourthouse.ab.ca info@harcourthouse.ab.ca 780 426 4180
Above: Natalie Brettschneider with friends Lori Weidenhammer and Soressa Gardner, c. 1951.
NATALIE BRETTSCHNEIDER Excerpt from My Blue Canoe: A Life in Canadian Art BY WALTER MARKSON NATALIE BRETTSCHNEIDER STRUCK ME as being a woman in a hurry. When I met her for an interview in Toronto in the fall of 1972, she was waiting for me at The Senator diner, her egg salad sandwich half eaten and lipstick already staining a freshly refilled cup of coffee. She let out a barely audible snort of disapproval. I was five minutes early, but that didn’t matter.
But that was Natalie in a nutshell. Ahead of the curve. If you were riding the crest of an Art Deco wave, she was towelled off onshore, building a Bauhaus-inspiring sandcastle with Gertrud Arndt. She wasn’t one to wait for the rest of the world to catch up. From what I had heard, Natalie was always the most interesting, effervescent person in the room. However, when I met her, she was already 76; she seemed to have lost patience at being asked the same questions over and over by the newest art critics on the beat. I may have overdone things with my black turtleneck and tweed jacket that day. Here I was, interviewing the grande dame of performance art, and I looked like an over eager puppy dog.
Conversation was curt but professional. I did manage to confirm a long disputed rumour about her entire career being built on mouthwash. She told me that while studying opera in Paris, a condition of her scholarship required her to give demonstrations of the sponsor’s antiseptic throat gargle. Natalie, easily bored, turned these weekly sessions into impromptu performances she held in a tent outside the Paris Opera House. One evening, she said she spotted Vaslav Nijinsky among those in attendance, and shortly thereafter most of avant-garde Paris had witnessed her tonsillar escapades. She began creating and performing new works, historically accepted as “revolutionary in their audacity and playfulness.” These early years saw the development of her dynamic fusion of camp and esoterica that would leave critics scratching their heads and modernists vying for a place at every performance. Sitting across from her in our booth, I could feel that legendary energy. It was hypnotic. Listening to her rhyming off names of friends and collaborators made it impossible to concentrate on the task at hand. I was in the presence of greatness but, at the age of 22, didn’t know how to react.
ABOVE: Natalie Brettschneider performs Oval Matt, Paris, c. 1920. LEFT: Natalie Brettschneider performs Feather Hat, Montreal, c. 1950.
Through her modelling career in the 1920s, Natalie met Lee Miller and Man Ray. The trio became friends and had clear influences on one another’s work. Natalie’s performance of Jacket in Paris roughly coincides with Lee Miller’s and Man Ray’s own experiments with solarization. Rumours swirled around the three of them at this time. To my knowledge, I was the only one to ever make the mistake of asking her directly if they were true. Never before (and never since) have I felt a stare dig through my eyes and down into my spine. She said — and I am paraphrasing as her words were far too colourful to accurately capture here — “I haven’t dished on either Man Ray or Lee and I’m not about to now.” It wasn’t until my lunch arrived five minutes later that I got up the courage to speak again. The fact is … I was enamoured with her. Or her work. Or both. I didn’t know which. At this point, my nerves getting the better of me, I veered into a monologue. I was flailing, and she knew it. I told her that I always felt (and still do) that you could draw a direct line from any bold new artistic endeavour of the twentieth century back to something she had done or to people with whom she had worked or socialized. The intersections seemed astounding.
Natalie was friendly with the incredibly influential Piscator triplets, who confounded audiences by giving performances of their compositions in multiple venues at the same time, all while claiming to be one person. Photographs from Natalie’s performances seemed to lead to all sorts of new movements in fashion and photography. Shadow Tree, performed against intertwining foliage, showed traces of Aaron Siskind and abstract impressionism; Burnt Tree is the model Dovima without her elephants; and Feather Hat seemed a precursor to the modern photographic stylings of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn. I finally felt I was making headway as her look became merely noncommittal instead of outright disdainful. “There are so many artists who slip through the cracks,” she said with an encouraging lilt in her voice. She was about to make my career. I readied my pen and paper to write down the names of who knows how many undiscovered greats. “Like who?” I asked. “You have mustard on your lip,” Natalie replied. With that, she got up from the table, and walked out of the diner, heading north towards Dundas Street.
BLAKE MORROW POP CULTURE
+
PHOTOSHOP
From zombies to drag queens, Toronto-based photographer and photo illustrator Blake Morrow has the heart of a storyteller, the mind of a creative problem solver, and the technical know-how to pull it all together to craft images with impact. A Q&A BY RITA GODLEVSKIS
28 photo ED
“ Blake is SO
MUCH FUN to
work with. It’s very rare that I meet someone who has the same chaotic energy I have.” ~ P riyanka, reigning Queen of Canada’s Drag Race
Jordan Bennett, al’taqiaq: it spirals, 2021, Courtesy of the Artist
capturephotofest.com
THINK POSITIVE!
Expect grand planetary shifts and transformations as the celestial bodies dance in the cosmos and shine their light on our souls in 2021!
Image by Djenabé IG: @visionsofdjenabe
These affirmations are derived from astrological research and an intuitive energy reading practice by Djenabé. Lotus cards were pulled for each sign with the intentions of love, truth, reciprocity, and guidance in mind. photoED 37
THE GALLERY SUBMISSIONS BY OUR READERS
MELISSA RICHARD Fort McMurray, AB IG: @melissarichard4
Finding humour everyday. Laughter is the best medicine.
THE WINNER! Selected by our guest judge Blake Morrow! Blake commented: “Melissa’s images of her family really capture the spirit of fun, simply and beautifully, not with a huge budget or fanfare… just a lot of heart.”
YAY! THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS, MELISSA WON: The ultimate FUN prize pack that included:⠀
A LOMO INSTANT CAMERA Their highest-end instant camera, this kit comes with a ton of creative accessories + an interchangeable back to swap between fuji instax square and mini film.⠀
+ SPARKPLUG COFFEE ⠀ Fresh coffee delivered to your door!⠀
@sparkplugcoffee⠀ +
MELISSA RICHARD Fort McMurray, AB
“Finding humour everyday. Laughter is the best medicine.” IG: @melissarichard4
A gorgeous copy of “Badlands”By Robert Kroetsch, featuring Photographs by George Webber. @rm_books