Last chance! Don McCullin: A Retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada

Don McCullin’s work will be featured at the National Gallery of Canada until April 14

Mike Cullen (Twitter) is a young public servant who is also a regular contributor to (Cult)ure Magazine as a music editorialist. His passions include music, coffee, writing, travel and comic books. 

This special exhibition of U.K.-based photojournalist Don McCullin is his first ever solo exhibition, and its provocative imagery provides Ottawa and the National Gallery of Canada a unique opportunity to see a somewhat unknown photographer’s work shine to new audiences.

McCullin’s work spans nearly six decades and a variety of environments; from war-torn Africa, to gangs in London, England to elephant festivals in India back to the Glastonbury area of the United Kingdom.  

His work is both stunning in its simplicity, yet thought-provoking in its content and context.

US marine, Vietnam, February 1968.

In recent years, McCullin has pulled himself away from photographing conflict zones, instead taking up landscape, travel and food photography, but regardless of his topic matter, his eye for composition and subject matter is something to truly experience.

That National Gallery has been running this solo exhibition of over 130 photographs (all black and white) since February, and it closes April 14, 2013, so there is not much time left to take in these incredible works. For anyone interested in photography, journalism or world issues, this exhibition is a must see.

Thanks Mike! Did you see the exhibit? What did you think?

Ottawa seen 365 ways in 365 days: Christophe Ledent shares his story

Christophe Ledent (Blog/Facebook/Twitter) is an amateur photographer who moved to Ottawa nearly three years ago to work for the Government of Canada.

A little over five months ago I set out to discover Ottawa through photography. Some would even say I am a tourist in my own city, a tourist looking to discover everything Ottawa has to offer. 

In a way, this is true.

But the real truth is I’m just a guy trying to make a new place home by setting out and discovering new things about a city I barely know while learning the art of photography, a passion I only just rediscovered after more than 10 years of not owning a camera.

My Ottawa 365 Photo Challenge: Everyday for 365 days, I upload a picture of Ottawa shot from a new and hopefully exciting location.

While I could go into a long story about why I only just recently decided to set out on this challenge, I would much rather share what I have learned so far about Ottawa because, like many people I know who have moved here, it’s the combination of the people I have met and the unique-to-Ottawa places I have discovered that now allow me to call Ottawa home.

Here we go.

The most obvious realization is that as Canada’s capital, Ottawa is host to some of the most memorable celebrations, commemorative ceremonies and festivals I have ever experienced, including the Canada Day party and Remembrance Day.

127 – Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

Ottawa also plays host to a number of amazing events, almost on a daily basis. From Zombie Walks, to the Plaid Parade, to Haunted Houses, to the latest festival or fair, there is always something going on in some part of the city.

119 – Ottawa’s first Plaid Parade

Love it or hate it, OC Transpo is part of your daily life if you live in Ottawa! One thing is for sure, we have some of the most beautiful bus stations I have ever seen, and this is even before the arrival of the LRT!

109 – Transitway at Lincoln Fields

Ottawa is much more than just a city centre; it spreads far beyond the Greenbelt and includes many unique places and towns, including Osgoode, Orleans—heck, we even have our own cranberry farm.

105 – Upper Canada Cranberry Farm

Galleries, museums, memorials and public art are everywhere. In every corner of the city, you are bound to come across a unique piece of art. From the reflective mirror ball in front of the National Research Council offices on Montreal Road, to the unique fire hydrants in Hintonburg.

Everywhere you turn, there is art, art, art!

45 – The Peacekeeping Monument

Greenspace! Ottawa is filled with parks, fields and forests just begging to be discovered, but the ultimate view is only a few minutes away in Gatineau Park.

96 – Fall colours as seen in Gatineau Park

I have quickly learned that balancing work, photography, blogging and social commitments is hard and that sometimes I just don’t have time to get out and look for a place to discover. Sometimes you just need to sit back, relax, improvise and see what your surroundings have to offer!

135 – Bytowne Cinema

Winter means shorter days and early darkness, but for a photographer it means a new motivation to get out of bed early! What they say is true, there is no better time to get out and shoot than at sunrise!

138 – Parliament at sunrise

Winter darkness has also forced me to learn how to shoot at night and to take advantage of some of Ottawa’s amazing buildings and light sources to produce some unusual photos (even though sometimes they really don’t turn out!)

126 – The Convention Centre

And finally the number one thing I have learned is that I still have so much to learn.

After nearly five months of challenging myself to try new things and seek out new places, there are just so many places and events left to discover. As proof, this map of Ottawa shows how much I have yet to cover. I hope you come along for the ride and that my photography skills improve, so that my photos are not a poor sight for your eyes.

 

I’m almost halfway there, but I feel like this project will never really end because as this city evolves there will always be something for me to capture and share!

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us Christophe! …and you’re too humble, those photos are AMAZING!

Must follow: Ottawa seen 365 ways in 365 days

“Ottawa seen 365 ways in 365 days is the result of a personal challenge to discover the city of Ottawa through photography. Everyday for 365 days, I will upload a picture of Ottawa shot from a new and hopefully exciting location.”

Are you following? 

Here are a few of our favourites: 

49 – Prince of Wales Railway Bridge as seen from a Centretown

47 – Running Horses as seen on Sussex Street

33 – Inukshuk at Sundown as seen from Remic Rapids

27 – Planes as seen in the Ottawa Aviation Museum

Visit ottawaphotochallenge.blogspot.ca and follow @Ottawa_365 for more from this wonderful project.

Beautiful Ottawa sunsets shared on Twitter

Thanks for the photos last night, tweeps!

@lonelyskirt

@lifelessOttawa

@lifelessOttawa

@LindsayMMcPhee

@ltottawa

You put our quick snap to shame! Want to share your photos of Ottawa? Tweet us at @ltottawa or e-mail us at ltottawa@gmail.com. 

Beautiful Ottawa: Blair Gable shoots LTO co-founder’s engagement photos

So if you haven’t heard, LTO co-founder Jessey is getting hitched in September… and she is doing her darnedest to celebrate all the local Ottawa talent helping to craft the big day.

Check out the beautiful sunset photo taken by photographer Blair Gable last night. 

He says: 

This is real folks – no Photoshop trickery here. This sunset engagement session was the result of months of pre-conceptualization and manic preparedness. I have wanted to photograph this epic tree for about six years and have been waiting for the right inspiration.

Click to see the full-sized, awesome, image. (Photo credit: Blair Gable, ottawaweddingphotographerblairgable.com)

More to come!

Little Lady/Little Man: A powerful and vulnerable look at aging, legacy and remembrance

Jonathan Hobin's Little Lady/Little Man is showing at Ottawa's City Hall Art Gallery from March 16 to April 29, 2012.

 

Mike Cullen (Twitter) is a young public servant who is also a regular contributor to (Cult)ure Magazine as a music editorialist. His passions include music, coffee, writing, travel and comic books.

Local photographer and artist, Jonathan Hobin, opened a new exhibit at Ottawa City Hall last week called “Little Lady/Little Man.” The premise behind the exhibit is to reflect on the deaths of a husband and wife through photography, both vintage and modern, as well as deathbed portraiture and the use of a family heirloom of sorts; two lullabies recorded by Hobin’s own grandfather shortly before his death, entitled “Little Lady Make Believe” and “Little Man You’ve Had a Busy Day.”

This exhibit is a personal one for Hobin, as it’s his grandparents on display from their youth (as photographed by the famous Yousuf Karsh), and Hobin’s own photography; in this case UV ink on aluminum creating a striking, yet haunting image of the subjects.

As Hobin explains in the brochure accompanied with the exhibit,

“Over time, these songs served for me as a beautiful, albeit tragic, metaphor for the fleeting nature of physical power and youthful beauty, conventions that society closely relates to concepts of masculinity and femininity.”

Little Lady/Little Man is both a powerful and vulnerable look at aging, legacy and remembrance. The exhibit is only at City Hall until April 29th, 2012, so I highly encourage you to drop by City Hall Art Gallery (main level concourse) before then. Jonathan Hobin will also be providing an English-language talk on Sunday, April 2nd at 2 p.m. on the exhibit, which will likely provide insights into the influence and affect of this project, and how it came to be.

Looking behind the lens: Our photo shoot at SPAO

Here at LTO, I think we’ve clearly demonstrated our love for local photography - and particularly – for some of the work that has been coming out of the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa.

After a great Q&A with photographer Olivia Johnston, she was kind enough to invite us in to get a glimpse of the space, as well as snap a couple of photos of us – professional head shots and a few in her signature style.

Check it out:

LTO

LTO founders Amy and Jessey (Photo Credit: Olivia Johnston)

Photographer Olivia Johnston

We had a lot of fun - Olivia produces great photos, for sure, but we also saw first hand how a lot more goes into portrait photography than just having a good eye. As neither of us had ever really had our photo professionally taken, Olivia had to do a significant amount of work to help us get comfortable (read: not look ridiculous).

This led us to have a few more questions about her craft.

Describe to us the most difficult subject you ever had.

I wouldn’t say I’ve had one most difficult subject, but my most difficult subjects have always been the people closest to me. They have a much harder time seeing you as a photographer or artist and not the person they’ve known all their life, and so they question your direction much more. I think they also are more uncomfortable with the idea of posing – it’s quite a foreign concept to a lot of people, but it’s probably easier when you don’t know the artist.

How do you get a subject out of his/her shell?

Usually when I’m doing a portrait sitting, I’ll take some time to have a conversation with the subject beforehand – it calms people down, and helps them to get into the atmosphere of the studio. The atmosphere is huge for me – I find when I’m not in the right mood, I won’t get the right mood from my subject; they give to me what I project to them.

Why do you think it is difficult for some, but not for others?

I think some people are just more comfortable and relaxed in front of a camera – they know their “angles”, so to speak. I also find that portrait sittings also tend to go better if the subject has no expectations; this probably explains why the people close to me have a harder time posing for me – if they are close to me, they want to “perform well” behind the camera.

Thanks for giving us a personal tour of SPAO – it is a very cool place. Can you talk a bit about how SPAO is a “transformable space?”

SPAO is a really interesting space – there are about five “classrooms”, all of which are transformable in their own way. For example, during the day, the studio becomes a classroom space – computers, desks, chairs, the like. When it’s not being used as a classroom, more often than not someone will be shooting in there. At the end of the year we remove almost everything from it, repaint it, and it becomes a gallery. The other rooms are similar; for example, during our Open House event in November, the digital lab – where we usually do photoshop and inkjet printmaking – becomes a digital gallery with all of our work featured in slideshows on our laptops. It’s really important for us that the space is so transformable; we would need a lot more rooms if it wasn’t. It also allows the students to really own the space – it becomes what they need it to.

How do you feel about the SPAO as an art space?

I think SPAO is a fantastic art space. I think it’s truly showcasing some of the most interesting photo-based artwork emerging out of Ottawa right now. It’s also a huge range of work; there’s such a range of people that there has to be a huge range of styles, and so there really is something for everyone at our end of year exhibition. One of our recent exhibitions, Exhibition No. 6 in April, featured anywhere from a photo documentary essay on the Amish in upper New York State (Caroline Tallmadge) to a series of the mayoral candidates of Ottawa in this past October’s election (Kathy Roussel) to a study of Ottawa and its environs – underground (Cory Shepherdson), as well as many others. My own project was a series on women who had recovered from eating disorders, which sounds very different from all of the above projects, but they all fit extraordinarily well together on the wall.

Thanks for having us to SPAO and teaching us more about your craft Olivia! Do you want to drop by? The Red Wall Gallery is currently featuring a show called “Fish Permutations” by Joseph Jeremie Roy. To visit Olivia’s website please click here.

Working for free, for pay: Congrats to Justin Van Leeuwen!

Want to view more of Justin's wonderful photos of the Marriott? Click the image.

We’ve been meaning to congratulate our dear friend Justin Van Leeuwen, for using his guest post with Local Tourist Ottawa as a jumping point towards an opportunity with the Marriott Hotel. 

On his blog he writes:

“Working for ‘free’ gets a bad rap, of course it’s also often misinterpreted in what free involves. A few months ago I was contacted by the lovely folks over at Local Tourist Ottawa to write a blog post that included a good selection of my personal work from the Ottawa area. Now, I do believe that writing is a commodity and has value, as do my photographs, and I do charge for their use on websites.

Photographer Justin Van Leeuwen

This time, I decided I was very much okay with the terms of this relationship as I like the blog, found it a good fit, and was given freedom as to what I would write and include photographically.

This was a mutual exchange – they gave me creative freedom, and I gave up my rates because I was happy to do it. No fuss, got some exposure, showed my work, all for a few words and photos I had already taken. A month later the article was retweeted by the Ottawa Marriott twitter account – in short – praising the photographs.”

After offering to shoot the hotel for free, Justin used his talents (and beautiful photographs) to wow the Marriott and successfully “turn ‘free’ into work – good paid work.”

Check it out!

To learn more about Justin's work, visit http://www.JVLphoto.com

The moral of the story?

“Not every situation will work out this way…but if you are not booking jobs, your full time job is to MAKE jobs happen, all the while expanding on your personal portfolio,” writes Justin.

Congratulations Justin, and thanks for sharing your story!

To read the whole story and view more photos please visit Justin’s write up.  Have you come across a great opportunity following your guest post with LTO? Send us a note at ltottawa@gmail.com to tell us about it.

Ottawa in (f)lux: four local photographers unveil their very first show

Born and raised in Ottawa, Marc-André Cossette has traveled extensively, but has so far always come back home. He is now preparing to present his photographs to the public for the very first time, along with three other local photographers.

Marc-André Cossette

(f)lux opens on May 15, at the Philip K. Wood Gallery in Almonte. What’s it all about?

It’s a group exhibition that will feature my own photographs as well as those of Lorraine Fernando, Lindsay Graham and Katie Lévesque.

Although our photographs are very different in terms of content, we found that we were all in some way or another dealing with the idea of transformation or transition. With photography being our medium of choice, it wasn’t long before the Latin word for “light” (lux) found its way into our title. In the end, it stuck… and here we are!

 The whole show is about unseen spaces in Ottawa – what kinds of photos can visitors expect?

 Actually, I don’t think it’s so much about the “unseen” as it is about looking at everyday spaces more attentively or purposefully.

 For my own photographs, I went back to Orléans where I grew up, trying to capture the tremendous amount of development that’s going on over there.

"Field (I)" Photo by Marc-André Cossette

Lorraine’s photographs deal with something entirely different: reflections that bewilder and maybe even temporarily suspend our perception of reality.

"Continuum" Photo by Lorraine G. Fernando

Katie is the one who gets closest to showing us some of those “unseen” spaces you mentioned, mixed in with photos of more everyday scenes.

"Tranquility" Photo by Katie Lévesque

Finally, Lindsay produced a set of abstract shots of an old, boarded-up schoolhouse that is now enjoying a second life as an impromptu art installation.

"Blue Abstract" Photo by Lindsay Graham

Why did you take this approach to your project?

All the images were produced as part of a course we took at the School of Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO). So apart from a few shots taken in Montreal, we had no choice but to shoot in Ottawa! That said, I think there’s something refreshing about focusing on your home city. I know that for the longest time, I only ever took out my camera when traveling, so this was a way of forcing myself out of that habit.

Heirloom Café and Philip K. Wood Gallery, 79 Mill Street, Almonte

Why are you holding it all the way out in Almonte?

To be perfectly honest, I knew very little about Almonte before preparing for this exhibition. It was actually our instructor, John Hewett Hallum, who found us this great space us at the Philip K. Wood Gallery.

The gallery is located on the upper floor inside the old Victoria Woolen Mill, overlooking the Heirloom Café below. The café will actually be putting on an evening of music to accompany dinner following our vernissage, so if our photographs aren’t enough to bring you out, the café’s food offerings definitely should!

SPAO brought you together: can you talk a bit about The Art of Photography course?

Although this isn’t a SPAO-curated exhibition, it will show the work that we produced as part of The Art of Photography course offered last summer. The goal there was to examine the relationship between photography and other forms of art, and then draw on that knowledge to produce a body of work for the course. John had always planned to have the course culminate in an exhibition. Given that our pictures often never make it to print, it really has been a terrific learning experience for all of us.

You’ve never participated in an exhibition: are you nervous?

I think the apprehension has more or less subsided at this point (ask me again on Sunday, though!) More than anything, I think we’re excited to finally see it all come together. There has been a lot of work put into this over the past few months and we’re thrilled with how it’s turned out.

What did you learn about Ottawa by doing this project?

Just how fantastic the photography community is in this city. There are so many talented photographers out there, producing beautiful and inspiring work. It really is a great community to be a part of.

Thanks so much for sharing your photography and letting us know about this great event! Do you have a favourite space in Ottawa to photograph? Tell us about it in the comments below!

SPAO unveils Exhibition No. 6

Exhibition No. 6 starts this weekend at SPAO

Olivia Johnston has been involved in the local arts scene for almost her whole life. A long-lasting involvement in the music community led her to another artistic passion: photography. Olivia is currently in her second year of the portfolio program at the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO).

Today is the culminating point of my two years at SPAO.

Celebrating our sixth academic year, we are constantly growing and changing, and that’s one of the things that makes SPAO so amazing. The work coming out of the school is always honest, individualistic, and surprising. We are all incredibly passionate about our work, thinking about it day in and day out, and this show reflects that passion.

Photo by Kathy Roussel. Click the image to read more about this photographer.

The work we’ll be showing on Friday (from 3 to 9 p.m.) and for the following week (’til May 6^th) is on the wall in separate installations, but will also be represented in at least one portfolio book per student, often two. The work of first year students represents a year of foundation learning, including darkroom work (most of their pieces are black and white); the second year work represents our year of portfolio development, much of it colour work, but much of it black and white as well.

Photos by Olivia Johnston. Click the image to read more about this photographer.

This show is incredibly diverse. My show consists of a series of portraits of girls and women who have recovered from eating disorders, but my friend and colleague Whitney Lewis-Smith’s work is a glass plate negative series of taxidermied animals.

Photo by Whitney Lewis-Smith

Cory Shepherdson’s work is an exploration of the underground of cities (literally, he explores drains and photographs them) and Caroline Tallmadge documented the presence of the Amish in upstate New York.

Self portrait by Vera Saltzman. To read more about this photographer click the image.

There will truly be something for everyone at this show, and you can even take something of it home for yourself: we will have a catalogue of the show for sale, as well copies of our annual magazine, Push//Pull.

Photographs by Andrew Carson. To read more about Andrew, click the image.

Exhibition No. 6 will be open on these dates:

• Friday, April 29^th: 3 to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, April 30^th: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Sunday, May 1^st : 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Monday, May 2^nd : 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 3^rd : 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Wednesday, May 4^th : 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Thursday, May 5^th : 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Friday, May 6^th : 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Hope to see you there!