Coco and Jayda in studio.

The best part of my job is getting to work with incredible agency talent. Every time we get an assignment or a concept we pull it together and get it done. Often we have never worked together before but after a quick intro and orientation, we get to work. This is the result, a certain kind of magic happens and we share the result with you.

Coco and Jayda haven’t worked together before and I am really happy with the result.

Thanks to Off Town Magazine #29 Vol 6 for featuring our editorial.

Polaroid

When I was in college studying photography, my first year was all of the basics and we used black and white film. We would get our assignments on Monday and they were due on Friday, Wednesday’s we would have our critique. The school was in the middle of town and there was always something around to photograph as we completed those assignments. Then when we moved on to our studio module we would photograph each other.

The second year was digital using Polaroid images and film then we scanned the images into the computer and used photoshop to manipulate the images. We designed websites and used early forms of email and chat to communicate with each other.

Watching your discipline change and grow for the past two decades is kind of crazy, mind-blowing even.

I started using Flickr over two decades ago as a second backup for my images, I have over 300,000 images on there now and they are a living record of how my practice has changed and evolved over time.

I am so grateful to photography, it has given me so much, and it continues to. I have been so blessed, to find what you love and to make it your career is a true blessing. I wish this to everyone reading this.

Don’t let anyone tell you that your dreams won’t come true. They are yours to do with as you please and the world becomes an incredible place when you have the courage to stand by them no matter what.

Inspiration

I am constantly inspired by the people I get to work with. Either creatively or at my serving gig.

People inspire me. Does that happen to you?

I love this quote by William Blake, ‘We know each other by our lines’ he wrote that quote after the Book of Ruth for an exhibition he was installing.

We are here because of our connections, the lines are the map to those connections.

The thing is we get trapped in our little worlds and forget about those connections and get resentful that they don’t reach out to us. Well, guess what, it works two ways.

So how are you going to reach out? How are you going to get inspired and re-connect the line?

This series is a result of being inspired and searching for that home for that inspiration until you find it.

When you do find it the feeling is unlike any other because it is usually right in front of your face.

Self Portraits.

I did a series for 130 days of self-portraits during lockdown spurred by Jennifer Moher a photographer I have admired for years. Her work is stunning, check it out.

I recently shaved my head and started to do another series of self-portraits, maybe I will create another series.

Here is a Facebook Post I wrote to share the story behind this decision and to also take the shock away from those around me.

Alright, guys, I didn't shave my head because I lost the plot. Since a lot of you are exhibiting a lot of shocked reactions when you see me I thought I would give the backstory here.

Before I start, this change has made me feel like a superhero so when you see me keep that in mind. Ok, here's the story.

I have had grey hair since high school and started to dye my hair in my early 30's. I did that for ages and would always feel self-conscious about my roots. I spent a lot of cash on covering them professionally then I started to box dye. For years.

I had a really bad breakup when I lived in Toronto and bleached my hair in my friend's kitchen. She actually had to go out and get another bleach kit during the whole process. It was a nightmare.

The breakup was devastating, we were planning a future together and had been friends since 2005, this was 2013. We dated for a long time and he eventually just left. He couldn't tell me that he didn't want to spend his life with me so he left. I broke and reacted by doing something crazy with my hair.

My friend's brother 'fixed' it as best he could and I paid him by dog-sitting his Great Dane Stuart when he went to his timeshare in Florida.

I was blonde for a while then started to pull it back to my natural colour, dark brown with a lot of red. I found a box dye I liked and used it for years. #75 Belle Colour. I have 4 boxes if anyone wants them-pandemic stockpiling doesn't always call for toilet paper.

I have been thinking about doing this for over a year now and doing the research too. Learning about how people react and how you might feel afterwards.

So I have not lost the plot. I am coming up on another milestone birthday and I want to celebrate it as me. I don't want to dye my hair anymore, be self-conscience about roots or hide under a colour.

This is me.

So keep your hair on the next time you see me.

Ok.

I will change my profile pic soon, just taking a few self-portraits and choosing the one I want.

Has there been a big change in your life that you felt you just wanted and really didn’t want to explain?

Self Assignments

It has been a weird week and I thought I would peel back a layer in this week’s blog post to tell you about self-assignments. Photographers are told to keep a personal project going, to keep you sharp for when you are not working with clients. Sometimes those personal projects can connect you with a client and help you gain more work.

I have always had one going.

During the pandemic, I shot over 130 days of self-portraits after joining a Facebook Group Jennifer Moher started. I have long admired her work so I jumped at the chance to be in the group and later become part of a book she created to encapsulate the project.

The project I started after that is married to the words I write every day. Each morning I get up and open a new google document for the day, but the date at the top, save it in a folder, copy my astrology forecast into it and begin writing about how I feel after waking up. Journaling is a thing any therapist will tell you to take on to express yourself. It was especially helpful for me during the pandemic. During these days I spend time writing a minimum of 300 words and I marry those words with a photograph.

I carry my camera with me every day, I hardly ever leave the house without one. Of some kind.

Sometimes’s an old film camera loaded with expired film. Or a digital camera ready to shoot hung around my neck.

I have been using Flickr for more than a decade, long before it was purchased by Yahoo and went through so many transformations. I use it as my backup, aside from hard drives and Backblaze I use it too. I use it to download photos to my phone, edit them and post to Instagram. Flicker has been there for me since the beginning of my photo sharing process and I am happy it is still around because I am still using it the same way.

I realize that this is one of the longest posts I have created in a long time. I have been sitting on this project for months and will continue to grow it. I wanted to share because maybe it will spark a personal project in you too.

What personal projects have you been doing?