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#2013

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Filmores Hotel Toronto

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I’ve been indulging in review of my archive and

I’ve been indulging in review of my archive and thinking about why and what we photograph.

In the late 90s, I travelled to the forest at the Thailand/Burma border to live with and take photos of the All Burma Students Democratic Front - an army of students and civilians who had come together in the forest and organized themselves to fight against the junta government of Burma after the 8888 (Aug 8, 1988) uprisings.
Out of the blue in 2007 I got an email from Vice Magazine looking for my (late?) photos for their upcoming Photo Issue.

It was a scramble to decide what to submit and edit the files before their “yesterday deadline” - everything was shot on film and I didn’t own a film scanner. They interviewed me by chat about the photos, and I was so nervous about revealing too many details about the ABSDF (who were still in the forest fighting), that I ended up sounding like a moron (there is also some exaggeration by Vice - go figure!).

📷 1: Tuay Aun couldn’t wait to be old enough to go to the frontlines. He’s posing in his older brother’s uniform and boots.

📷 2: While I was recovering from dengue fever I travelled to Mae Sot to document the Karen people languishing in refugee camps in Thailand. There were children everywhere.

📷 3 :The ABSDF War Office, accessible by hiking up a waterfall.

📷 4: Tank Boy and Uncle Small in the forest. They all had ridiculous nicknames, bandaids for the injustice of their existence as stateless people. They were also stronger than anyone I have ever known, meeting each day with a vigorous will to live.

These four images from the series also appeared in the Vice Photo Book and exhibition in New York.

#NothingIsOrdinary #ABSDF #Burma

development in pause. l had an insatiable itch to

development in pause.

l had an insatiable itch to photograph this site for almost a year, it taunted me with potential “things to be seen”, but it had always been too much weather to drone every time I was visiting the area.
It was an abandoned farmstead and forest, and I was surprised when it vanished and was grossly clearcut into the tree-line that revealed the lake.

This is the image in full that graces the cover of the winter 23/24 LAND issue of @photoedmagazine

#NothingIsOrdinary #MavicMini #DroningTheWorld #DesireLines #TheLandscapeIsDead #PhotoEdMagazine

PhotoEd Magazine’s Winter 23/24 edition is in pr

PhotoEd Magazine’s Winter 23/24 edition is in print AND my drone photography exploring human activity on the landscape is featured on the cover and within the issue!!!

This magazine is jam packed with gorgeous lens-based photography exploring our relationship with and the future of the land/Turtle Island/planet Earth. It’s so jammed there’s also a digital edition with even more work!

Thank you 🙏@ruthkaplanfoto and @ritagodlevskis!

#NothingIsOrdinary #MavicMini #DroningTheWorld #DesireLines @photoedmagazine

toxic inertia in fall. International Malleable Ir

toxic inertia in fall.

International Malleable Iron Company (IMICo) (an iron foundry) opened here in 1912 and closed in 1989. The buildings were demolished in 1990 and the polluted land was sold for $1 to John Lung
and he donated it to The Church of the Universe (that preached nudity and the sacramental use of marijuana).

The contaminated 13 acre site was turned over to the city in 1997 after the church defaulted on property taxes.

Rotate left at the second photo for a perspective view of the area.

Everyone is waiting for someone else to clean the land before it can reimagined.

#NothingIsOrdinary #DroningTheWorld #MavicMini #Brownfield #guelph

winter. sunlight and snow on Kodak Safety film- a

winter. sunlight and snow on
Kodak Safety film- an image made with photographic means: light, chemistry, silver, and time.

#NothingIsOrdinary #kodak #artifacts #wip

folded and scarred. Making images with time, pho

folded and scarred.

Making images with time, photographic techniques, and materials; and something about the surface of the image being the result of a performance.

#NothingIsOrdinary #FilmIsNotDead #kodak #artifacts

A cyanotype of snow and ice. The sensitized pape

A cyanotype of snow and ice.

The sensitized paper was exposed to the elements during a snowfall and then brought inside to dry. It hasn’t been fixed and will continue to subtly shift.

(side note: it’s almost time to break out my handlebar mittens!).

#NothingIsOrdinary #cyanotype #winter

Turf Grass is a living groundcover that can withst

Turf Grass is a living groundcover that can withstand traffic, grazing and mowing. The majority of turfgrass is employed for lawn, utility, and sport use.

I don’t know the species of this turf, it is possibly a combination with Kentucky bluegrass.

#NothingIsOrdinary #TurfGrass #DroningTheWorld #MavicMini

under over, fall 2023 Recorded light leaking thro

under over, fall 2023

Recorded light leaking through a gap between cabinet doors onto expired and exposed black and white film sheets, one stacked on the other.

#NothingIsOrdinary #IlfordDelta #artifacts

cyanolumen 🌕 I made “just a few” of these

cyanolumen 🌕

I made “just a few” of these. This one was perfectly damaged during processing.

#NothingIsOrdinary #cyanolumen #moon #ilford

cyanolumen 🌑 (this should be subtitled “mem

cyanolumen 🌑

(this should be subtitled “memories of summer’s light” - I believe it was in a window for 2 days days exposing)

#NothingIsOrdinary #cyanolumen #ilford

concrete and trees - drone views of trees growing

concrete and trees - drone views of trees growing within concrete walls at 2 locations in Guelph. One site is curated and the other is the result of neglect.

#NothingIsOrdinary #Dji #MavicMini #DroningTheWorld #SlowLooking

Curiosity got the better of me and I developed the

Curiosity got the better of me and I developed the cyanolumens of the Goldenrod, Asters, and Swamp Milkweed (see previous post).

I definitely prefer them developed, the paper is now iridescent like the surface of a bubble.

Cyanolumens are extremely fragile when when being devloped, I had some test prints that were scratched just brushing the bottom of the tray!

#NothingIsOrdinary #Cyanolumen #ilford

Goldenrod, Asters, and Swamp Milkweed from the gar

Goldenrod, Asters, and Swamp Milkweed from the garden.

These are scans of the black and white photo paper coated in cyanotype solution (exposed), and undeveloped. Cyanolumen prints can be developed in water but the colours produced by the photo paper will wash away. In their current state, the prints will continue to react to light.

#NothingIsOrdinary #Cyanolumen #ilford

Results from a new to me 4x5, on CATlabs 80 film,

Results from a new to me 4x5, on CATlabs 80 film, processed with a MOD54 film holder for a paterson tank.

I am aching for time at the lake with fog or clouds, and wind.

#NothingIsOrdinary #catlabsxfilm80 #Toyo45 #FilmIsNotDead
#MOD54 #LakeHuron

Photos taken every Friday from my office window fr

Photos taken every Friday from my office window from Aug 2021 until when I mailed them as a flip book in early 2022 as a @sendygetty.

#NothingIsOrdinary #SendyGetty #Window
#FlipBook

How to Draw a Tree sound walks will be part of Ont

How to Draw a Tree sound walks will be part of Ontario Culture Days.
In person, self guided walks start at the trailhead in the @uogarboretum campus parking lot (look for the poster & QR code).
You will need headphones and a mobile phone.
Virtual audio/visual tours are also a available at HowToDrawATree.ca (link in bio).

@thiswasnow.dawnmatheson

#NothingIsOrdinary #soundwalks #ArboretumGuelph

Drive-by bando. March 2021 - Sept 2023 This hous

Drive-by bando.
March 2021 - Sept 2023

This house is on our route to clinic in Hamilton and taking snapshots as we drive by it has become a sport. But it’s demise prompts the question of why houses like this one can fall into severe decay while we are in a housing crisis.

I also formally photographed the house to make a palladium print and my friend @annagtprint scored a free tick from the property! 🤪 Be careful when you #RUREX folks, it’s ticky out there.

#NothingIsOrdinary #all_is_abandoned

It is late in the season to be making art with the

It is late in the season to be making art with the sun. But I have had cyanolumens on my to do list since the beginning of summer…

This one reminds me of the first photo (a daguerreotype) ever taken of the moon in 1940 by chemist John W. Draper- that is suspected to have been captured in the daytime (for the moon) employs a mask, and a second exposure for the night sky (see second pic).

#NothingIsOrdinary
#cyanolumen #moon #celestialobjects

We found a monarch caterpillar 🐛on a milkweed p

We found a monarch caterpillar 🐛on a milkweed plant at a garden centre, so naturally we brought it home and planted the milkweed and caterpillar in the garden. The very next day we found it in it’s J phase, (but we missed the pupate stage); however, I was lucky enough to see it just after eclosion from the chrysalis and pump fluid through her wings to take butterfly shape!

Fun fact: late season Monarch butterflies are the ones that travel ~3000km to Mexico!

🐛🦋⚡️

#NothingIsOrdinary #monarchcaterpillar #monarchbutterfly

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