Wednesday February 24th, 2010
If so you should drop by The Bui Gallery for their opening from 6-9pm featuring photographer Aaron Joel Santos‘ work. In preparation for the show, Aaron visited the gallery’s printer in Singapore to check up on the printing details, and in the process took some colorful and artful photos of the city:
Betty Bui’s gallery came to Vietnam, where Santos is based, a year ago after the success of her Parisian shop. She plans to open another venue in Singapore in the near future. Aaron’s work appears in the show “Days and Nights” alongside several other photographers, and the presentation sounds pretty unorthodox:
In this exhibition, the whole gallery goes black and the four photographers are each curating their own
black box with their photographs. The visitor is not in an open space where he can freely circulate
between the images. Here he must make his way through the four boxes, that are totally dark: dark
walls, dark floors and black velvet curtains. There is nothing that can distract one from the artist’s
works.
In this exhibition, the whole gallery goes black and the four photographers are each curating their own black box with their photographs. The visitor is not in an open space where he can freely circulate between the images. Here he must make his way through the four boxes, that are totally dark: dark walls, dark floors and black velvet curtains. There is nothing that can distract one from the artist’s works.
I’d also be curious to see what the photo below looks like SIX FEET WIDE, which is how it appears in Aaron’s show on Feb. 26th (also my birthday – so it’s an auspicious date). Santos discusses the printing process a little on his blog, too.
Aaron’s work on his website reflects a similar sensibility as the images above, which I find a dreamy blend of fine art, travel and photojournalism. A few from his site:
If you make it to the show, please make sure to say hi to Aaron for us in the eternally-snowbound Northeast USA.
-Neil Binkley
Wednesday February 17th, 2010
If you haven’t heard, the Winter Olympics are taking place in Vancouver, BC. Our own Andy DeLisle decided to make the trip from Phoenix to Canada to document “life outside the arenas.” He’s shared a few images of the Olympics from the perspective of how it impacts the town, its local population, and the temporary visitors flooding the streets.
DeLisle shot the photograph above and below on the opening day of the Olympics. This despite the fact that he was recovering from walking pneumonia when he arrived.
I asked Andy what it was like being in a city temporarily overrun with thousands of extra enthusiasts. His thoughts:
The city is definitely feeling the effects of being overrun with tourists. Most of the tourists are Canadian. I haven’t found any large groups of foreigners. My guess is they’re all at the Games, not at the free events the city set up. They’ve also put a lot of extra effort into making things run smoothly. Given the amount of people coming and going from the downtown area, it’s incredibly organized.
Even the handful of protests are only a minor distraction. Some vandalism was involved with the protests on Saturday and within an hour windows were replaced and everything was back to normal. The protestors I’ve talked to all seem to be upset about something different and they’re the same people at every march/protest.
In the morning they’re marching to raise awareness about the the homeless problem on the downtown east side and in the evening they’re protesting the war in Afghanistan. They seem as much of a tourist attraction as anything else here.
Andy’s also blogging about the experience, if you’d like to follow his continued exploits. I recommend checking out his website, as well, to see his take on other subject matter such as rodeos, boxing, and Americana in general.
-Neil Binkley
Wednesday January 27th, 2010
The day after the Haiti earthquakes, The New York Times asked Michael McElroy to shoot the reactions of Haitian residents in Little Haiti, a Miami neighborhood.
One day later, with most flights cancelled to Port Au Prince, Michael managed to find a flight to the Dominican Republic, where he caught a ride with an ABC News crew across the border into Haiti. This is what he experienced:
Wonderful Machine:
What was it like in Haiti?
Michael McElroy:
My arrival in Haiti was shocking…the amount of people in the streets, people wandering around wounded from the earthquake (broken limbs, open head wounds etc.)…people were now living on the streets for fear of another earthquake or due to the loss of their homes.
Early on I had visited the UN compound at the airport and had seen all the planes landing with aid from around the world but on the streets people were hungry and hadn’t eaten for days. As the days went by, things started to grow more and more tense, people started looting and the Haitian police handled it in their usual way with violence: beating and shooting people.
The bodies recovered from the rubble began to pile up and were left in the streets and the smell was overwhelming. It was everywhere, you couldn’t escape it. [The smell] lingered with me days after I was back in Miami, on my clothes, in my nose. Most Haitians were using bandannas and shirts to cover their faces and using toothpaste under their noses to mask the smell.
Port Au Prince was just devastated but the people still remained optimistic about finding people alive and rebuilding, despite having their world collapse. I never expected to see what i saw, it looked like a war zone, the amount of destruction was unimaginable. Over the last few days I was there, things little by little seemed to get better, aid was slowly getting to the people, more doctors were treating the wounded. This tragedy will transform Haiti: there are 1 million people expected to leave the city, there are an estimated 200,000 dead. I don’t know how many people have had arms or legs amputated or children who lost their parents. This is definitely something that will take decades to recover from.
Wonderful Machine:
How do you prepare yourself from being overwhelmed by emotion in these scenarios? You obviously can’t help everyone around you, and your work is to document, but how do you reconcile the two on shoots like this?
Michael McElroy:
In situations like these I guess in a sense I try and detach myself from what’s going on around me and just try and be as unobtrusive as one can be in an environment such as this. At the moment if I thought about what had just happened to Haiti and its people, it would have become overwhelming.
It is obviously very difficult for a person to be somewhere where death is all around you, where children have lost their parents and families have lost their homes and possessions. It’s conflicting sometimes because you’re trying to be an observer to tell a story, trying to not get involved but then you see somebody who is clearly suffering and needs help, so you help because you’re human.
…as far as dealing with what I saw, I haven’t or at least haven’t had to because you’re always busy and your mind’s on something else! I’m sure down the road it will be something I will have to figure out…
Socialdocumentary.net features more of Michael’s Haitian work on their home page
Wonderful Machine:
By the way, you mentioned [in an email] the school that your friend had founded. Is there a link to a website to make donations? I think most people feel safer donating through large organizations like the Red Cross, but I’d be happy to link to his site or mention how to contact him.
Michael McElroy:
My friend who started the school is Michael Laughlin. He is a photographer with the Sun Sentinel. During the elections he was shot in the neck and pulled to safety by some Port Au Prince residents as a result he adopted two of them and started a school. The school was completely destroyed but all the kids are safe. He funds this mostly out of his own pocket! I know any help he could get would mean the world to him and the kids he is looking out for. His email is michaellaughlin@hotmail.com.
-Neil Binkley
