Ottawa Pride 2008
For me, it started with a day at Camp Ten Oaks, a camp dedicated to queer-identifying youth and children of gay couples. Then I went on to a debaucherous party called Get Real Queer at Babylon. Get Real Queer was a pretty fun jam and also a benefit for the AIDS Committee of Ottawa/Venus Envy Bursary Fund. Things culminated at the Pride Parade last Sunday with one of Capital Xtra’s tightest deadlines ever.
You can see a gallery of photos I shot over the week over on my Flickr.
Links to other photos posted on xtra.ca are below!
Parade and party photos on xtra.ca
I also continued covering construction on Bank Street which is getting insane. Personally, I wish they’d have already started fixing Bank Street between Catherine and Gilmour but this is for completely selfish reasons that have everything to do with my biking and skateboarding habits than what I suppose is most logical for the city.
More Israel photos & World Press Photo in Ottawa
An article I wrote along with a series of photos I took during my time in Israel last year ran in the July 2008 issue of Maximumrocknroll. Some people may have already seen it but I’ve been waiting to put it online. The wait is over. There’s also another collection of images I shot in Israel which have been up for a while.
Last night, I visited the Canadian War Museum where this year’s winning images of the World Press Photo contest are on display. It was neat to see photos from Israel and Kenya, two countries I’ve seen a decent amount of in the last 12 months. What stuck out most for me though, were the Sport Feature Stories by Erik Refner, Erika Larsen and Travis Dove. Each were so bizarre and so far removed from sport that I found it sort of hard to imagine them as relevant to the category. But still, it worked. It made obvious an essence of each sport (marathon, hunting and skateboarding, respectively) that most people tend to ignore and each story, I think, stands as a cultural monument to these pasttimes.
The Nature Stories by David Liittschwager and Paul Nicklen were also rather striking and spoke to my own experiences in the Arctic. What’s amazing is that Paul Nicklen won both 2nd and 3rd prizes in this category. This guy’s physical limits are nearly unnatural to do the things he does.
Finally, I wish I could find a copy online but perhaps it is only available at as part of the travelling exhibit. Gary Knight, the chair of the World Press Photo 08 jury, had a written statement of introduction walking into the exhibit that was refreshingly honest and offered great advice to photographers. Essentially, he called out to those who entered the contest using photos that resembled winners from previous years and how taking photos with a contest in mind is exactly the worst thing to do. Again, unless it is already and I haven’t found it, his statement should be online so everyone can read it.
If you’re in Ottawa, do not miss this. It’s only the second time it comes here and it’s one of only four North American dates (the others being Montréal, NYC and Mexico City).
World Press Photo 2008 winners gallery
Returned from Kenya and constructing Ottawa
It has been a week since I landed in Toronto. The five weeks I spent in Kisumu were unforgettable – right down to the last night when a truck filled with M-16 wielding cops lectured me about why I shouldn’t climb their garbage cans. Surprisingly or not, the two Kenyan friends I was with announced afterwards that if I was African, I might have expected to be thrown in jail for such a stunt.
Our last Saturday in Kenya was not met with police intervention. Instead the kids’ had a photography exhibit in the orphanage compound. They really enjoyed themselves and I think it was a good way to mark the end of our project. The Canadian High Commission in Kenya even published an article about it! As always, you can follow us on our blog too…the work isn’t over
Here are two photos from that day… More photos from Kisumu on Flickr.
Now in Canada, I’ll be presenting at a youth conference called Zoom in on the World in Pembroke on Saturday and two others are in Québec City right now at the World Youth Conference doing the same. Exhibitions of the kids’ photos are being lined up for the next few months as well. Busy times.
In other news, I’m freelancing for Capital Xtra some more this month which, to date, has been pretty fun. A few months ago, I was assigned to cover the construction on Bank Street, one of the main commercial streets in Ottawa and an area people are trying hard to get recognized as a gay village. It was one of those things where you spend days covering something and you wonder if it will turn out to be completely boring or at least marginally interesting. I think it turned out OK. Here are a few examples. More on Flickr.
Next week, I’ll be shooting an assignment at Camp Ten Oaks. Should be cool.
À la prochaine! xo.
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