Vancouver Canuck's mascot, Fin, at BCCHF's 2009 Childrun

During the holidays I was pleased to attend BC Children’s Hospital Foundation’s Holiday Tea Party with my family. I would like to thank BCCHF and their staff for the invitation. As a 2009 Circle of Courage donor ($1000+), this is the third straight year that I have supported this great cause on behalf of my company, Waxy Photography.

I began working working with BCCHF in the same year that my twin daughters (see photo below) were born in the adjacent BC Women’s Hospital. While my twin girls were born healthy, I know that many parents are not so lucky which is why I am looking forward to 2010 and partnering again with BCCHF who helps improve the lives of seriously ill and injured children.

Please visit the BCCHF website and make a donation to this vital local charity.

"Take a Bow" 2009

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"Placenta" from the 90th Annual Polar Bear Swim in Vancouver.

Today the sea washed onto the heavens, and back again. Water was everywhere. Those who came out were as wet as those who went in. There was no respite. Her water broke. Today we were all Polar Bears.

The City of Vancouver might not host the snow and ice as well as other Polar Bear swims, but the wind and rain swirling off the Pacific can be mighty fierce. Yesterday, on New Year’s Day, the Vancouver Park Board put on another successful edition of the historic Polar Bear swim. The official tally of participants has yet to be released but last year they numbered 1588. Like then, the brave souls, and raindrops nearly the size of Hawaiian pineapples, came out in large numbers. I’d like to thank each and every one of the participants for the challenging opportunity to take their photograph. I had a blast and hope you did, too. Happy New Year!

Please view The Water Broke.

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"Iceman" from the 2009 Vancouver Polar Bear Swim

Please head over to the wonderful La Pura Vida where some of my photographs were featured as part of the strange.rs launch on 01.2010. One of my photos was also recently selected for LPV Gallery’s November 2009 monthly show: Four Walls and Adobe Slabs.

Thanks to Bryan Formhals, the creator of La Pura Vida.

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Be on the lookout for Strange.rs, a new international photography collective, who several days ago released this teaser trailer. The site will officially launch on 01.01.10. Until then, please follow the collective on Twitter for updates of the strange, the stranger and, of course, the Strange.rs.

The trailer was edited by the always fabulous Kramer O’Neill.

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On Twitter: @jmcolberg, @magnumphotos, @eyecurious and @waxypoetic.

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Regency - Waxy Contest

I’m giving away one free print. Yup. FREE! But in exchange, I need your help, both desperately and quickly.

Memelabs and Parklane Homes  are sponsoring a contest to be the next Fred Herzog, an icon of Vancouver Street Photography. Please visit the three links below and vote for my photographs. Unfortunately you will need to register but hopefully with the opportunity to win a print you can overlook that small detail!

http://memelabs.com/theblock/index/index/mediaId/12403

http://memelabs.com/theblock/index/index/mediaId/12386

http://memelabs.com/theblock/index/index/mediaId/12385

Once you’ve voted, make sure to leave a comment here saying so, or email me at contests (at) waxyphotography.com, to tell me you’ve voted. Remember, to win you must say “I Voted.” This is by the honor system, so please, be kind to your neighbors and vote. On Monday June 1, 2009,  I will choose one name by random drawing [Memelabs has extended to voting period. To be fair, I have done the same. The winner of the free print will be notified at the close of voting, around June 8, 2009. Thanks!]. That person will receive an 8 x 10″ C-print from my portfolio.

Thanks for your help!
Waxy

P.S. The reason I entered the contest at the midnight hour is that I have been wrestling with the organizers to make fairer rules for photographers (see here). They have done that. Thus, by voting you are supporting an organization that supports photographers rights. Furthermore, they have asked to meet with me following the close of the contest.  If you would like to share your constructive ideas on how they can better support photographers rights, I would be pleased to forward them to the organization. Thanks!

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La Pura Vida Gallery is sponsoring its first (of hopefully many) offline exhibitions.  The “Can’t Pay the Rent” show opens tonight in Los Angeles at the L’KEG Gallery starting at 8pm.  One of my photographs from Tehran, Iran (’Reminiscing’) is showing along with many other fabulous images. You can view the catalogue for the exhibit here.

If you’re in LA,  check out the show and let me know how it is.

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"Coffeet" from the 2008 Elite Men's BG Triathlon in Vancouver.

…while optical confusion makes photographs more interesting as art, it also reflects something fundamental in human experience. Because we become expert at making sense of visual situations early in life, we may assume that encounters with things we can’t readily assimilate are fairly rare.

But if you think about it, there is almost always a gap in time — however infinitesimal it may seem — between seeing and comprehending. That moment just before we file a perception away into a conventional category, when our senses and minds are fully alert to what lies before us — that is the sweet spot of art.

via New York Times, “In Photography, What Puzzles the Eye May Please the Mind

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Several of his images are posted below with many more available at Burtynsky’s website and The Charles Cowles Gallery. Unfortunately, these small’ish web versions don’t do much justice to his work, and given the artist’s eye for details, a visit to Surrey is more than worthwhile. A few of these pictorial nuggets are visible in the video below from Burtynsky’s visit to CBC’s The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos.

Burtynsky’s film, “Manufactured Landscapes,” won Best Documentary at the 2007 Genie Awards. I’ve got it in my hands and I’ll watch it before visiting the show next weekend. The exhibition is part of Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad programming.

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Edward Burtynsky: An Uneasy Beauty – Photographs of Western Canada
January 17 – March 22, 2009
Exhibition reception: January 24, 2 – 4pm
Film Screening: February 1, 2:30pm
Artist Talk: February 12, 7pm

Surrey Art Gallery
13750 – 88 Avenue
Surrey, BC Canada V3W 3L1

Edward Burtysky's Rock of Ages # 1

Edward Burtynsky's Oxford Tire Pile No. 7

Edward Burtynsky Homesteads #29

Edward Burtynsky's Tailings #1

Edward Burtynsky's Nickel Tailings No. 35,

Thanks to The Scale Gallery for alerting me to the exhibit.

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Jeff Wall's The Pine on the Corner (1990)

Maybe you have visited the Jeff Wall retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery. If not, you still have a bit of time to see the giant lightboxes that give an almost cinematic effect to a photograph. The exhibition honours Wall with the Audain Prize, which is British Columbia’s top visual art award for lifetime achievement.

In November I organized a visit with Vandigicam, a local photography group, to see the retrospective. Of the ten or so images on display, only several resonated with me. “The Pine on the Corner (1990)” was one of them.  My curiosity began buzzing immediately upon my first glimpse. I’m not sure if it had so much to do with the work but maybe from the historical and cultural perspective, and possibly because I see some influence of “The Pine” on my own photography. But whatever the reason, I was compelled to find out if that tree still stands.

Before I left sight of the picture, I took note of the street numbers (#1797) of the home on the corner. Knowing Jeff Wall’s methods of manipulation, I didn’t know if it was the true address or some made up string of numbers. Nevertheless, Google maps came through in as few as five minutes. The address is 1797 East William St at Salsbury Drive, just east of Commercial (map). A few contacts on Flickr helped even elucidate additional information. Local planner, Lisa Moffatt, contacted Vancouver’s arborist and received the following email:

City records show that the pine tree at 1797 William was on private property. In accordance with the Private Tree By-law, a tree removal permit was taken out by the property owners in April, 2007 and the tree was cut down. In these circumstances no reason for the tree removal is required by the owner, nor was one offered.”

OK, so it’s not the juiciest of stories, and maybe just the outcome of roots creeping into a basement wall, but I had my answer. The tree, a symbol of old Vancouver, and one our great artists, is dead. This once towering pine, the kind that make BC famous, was in all likelihood reduced to ashes in someone’s fireplace, maybe even in the fire pit at 1797 East William St.

Unfortunately I agree with the Georgia Straight’s review that the exhibit was underwhelming. For a retrospective of one of BC’s top lifetime achievers, the show would have been vastly improved with even one or two of his widely recognized pieces, such as the MOMA’s “A Sudden Gust of Wind (1993),” but maybe this says something deeper about the VAG’s permanent collection. The exhibit runs until 25 January 2009 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, and yes, Tuesdays are still by donation. Additional footage from the exhibit are at designboom.

via locator on Flickr

via concrete_jungler101 on Flickr

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