An editorial we created at Doris Land was published in Selin Magazine Issue 27 Vol 3.
Kasia and I have known each other for 6 years now, I met her when I reached out to Numa Models asking for a model for a creative. That relationship gave me a job that lasted three years. I created test images for the agency’s new models.
Connection is the glue that keeps us going, the thread that pulls us forward and I am so grateful for all of the amazing ones I have in my life.
Community is key for me, it’s been my New Year’s word for the past few years. COVID sent me on a path of self-discovery and that path led me to connect. I was lacking it so much that I became depressed, or at least I think I realized my depression was a symptom of isolation. So this year has been a year of connection for me.
I have been renting space at Doris Land since January 2022. The studio is run by Alex Waber, an incredible photographer and creative human being. To further this net of connection I pitched the idea of an Art Collective to Alex. This week we hosted our first one and it was a huge success.
If you are in Vancouver follow Doris Land on Social Media, we are going to host these events once a month and I am looking forward to growing this community.
Lauren, in the ocean on film and in digital too. Sometimes we have to get lost in order to be found again. To let lost we go to the sea and drift, let the water flow into our ears and onto our skin to block out the noise all around. We listen to the sea and we let it fill in the blanks.
And then we move forward, again and again.
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.
On the first Friday of every month, this amazing event happens. If you are reading this from some other part of the world outside of Vancouver I promise there is a chapter there. Google it, and let me know what you find.
Tina Roth Eisenberg moved to New York from Switzerland and wanted to connect with people, she is a designer from a family of entrepreneurs and wanted to build community in her new neighbourhood. She quickly figured out that if you invite people to an evening event in New York you will be passed over for something else so she decided to create a breakfast gathering. That was over 15 years ago and it is now a global movement for creative people to meet, connect and inspire one another.
This is my version of the story, you can find out more about Tina here.
I have been involved with the Vancouver chapter on and off over the past 7 years I have lived in Vancouver as a volunteer and as an audience member. I highly recommend checking out your local chapter, you will meet like-minded people and get out of the house too.
So much thought and planning go into each year’s topics and to find people in local creative communities illiterate about the topic is another insurmountable act of planning.
Today I got to enjoy Lance Odegard a wonderful talk connecting spirituality with creativity. Lance is a poet who began his talk by paying homage to his Dad’s esoteric way of always being himself no matter the circumstance. He showered us with stories and photos about the person who helped bring him to this planet and then through poetry and prose he drew connections between spirituality and creativity that saw me shedding a tear or two during his talk.
Each month a postcard is created for the speaker and today the past year’s worth of speakers’ postcards were given to the audience. When was the last time you wrote someone a postcard? Want to start with me?
A birthday for Canada, mine is in 4 days and a lot of mixed feelings.
June saw the overturning of Roe v Wade and a conceal carry gun law be enforced in the US.
Here in Canada we are still learning so much about the residential schools and the 60’s scoop.
I have been reading and doing my best to become an ally. It is really hard to wrap your head around where the world is right now, it’s hard to feel a part of it, hard to know where your community fits.
I feel like we need to trust each other again, see the good, believe in the good, random acts of kindness go a long way. Holding a door, offering a smile, showing some kind of acceptance of each other is something I want to celebrate other than the birth of this nation.
People are hurting as a nation and we are knee deep in climate change.
I spend my days looking for the helpers and doing my best to be one.
Fred Rogers said that, when you are in times of crisis look for the helpers.
Find a way to be one too, we are all in this together.
