Mike the Bike

Cliché Indulgence #002 : Shadow Self-Portraits

If you don’t have a compulsion to put yourself in your photographs, well, maybe you should.  Add a little drama to your story. Show people that even if you are short on substance, you have a shape.

I should note that the last of these for images I cover at least 3 clichés. Find them all! It is like Highlights Magazine, but instead of innocent fun it is my creative shame we are hunting for!

All images ©2009 Ross Evertson

Explaining Can-Con

There is a big chunk of something stuck to the bottom of my glass
and I have been refilling it all day
and forgetting about it until I take a sip
but then I am upstairs
and just keep drinking
I have done this 3 times already
I have no idea what the chunk is

If this is not satisfactory, try Wikipedia.

On Outsourcing

Using the Amazon outsourcing service Mechanical Turk I hired workers to visit my website and describe my work. The results were then typeset and printed, including the unedited text of the responses, along with the associated, anonymous worker number.

The results were varied. Most read like book reports, struggling to fill the word quota. There is, though, some interesting insight—including the assumption of one that I am a woman.

See a bit more on the project here.

Yes, another storefront. This time it’s roughly half a lamb.

Toronto, Ontario 2009

Cliché Indulgence #001 : Storefronts & Windows

Storefronts & Windows, yes, but also reflections and some (inevitable) self-portraits. I say indulgence, though I probably mean compulsion. It is really hard not to take these photos, probably because they are simultaneously so easy and delightful (yes, admit it). What jerk doesn’t love layers and depth, especially when you have a cheap sheet of glass doing all the heavy lifting?

All images ©2009 Ross Evertson

The Gaze #102

Toronto, Ontario 2009

Imply Significance for Free!

In theory, photographs are inherently interesting. The act of documenting implies significance—why would someone bother to make a photograph of something not worth photographing? This is a very loaded topic, but there is a technique that you can use to show people what is important without actually having to deal with discussions of aesthetics/surface/medium/whatever:

Step One
Go to a relatively crowded area. Specifically where is not important, but having people around to appreciate your perspective is what this is all about.

Step Two
Take your camera (or camera-like object) and start pointing it at things. You don’t necessarily have to make any photographs, but you can routinely glance at the back of your camera (or camera-like object) so your audience gets the idea that you are consuming the environment in a thoughtful and considered way. They now know you are looking.

Step Three
Determine that something is interesting and focus a lot of attention there. I mean, really, just keep taking “photographs” of whatever it is. Check the back of your camera periodically.

Suggestions of things to find interesting:
1. Storefronts
2. Piles
3. Garbage
4. Piles of garbage
5. Cups
6. Unattractive (or “differently” attractive) people (including seniors)
7. Minorities (including seniors)
8. Anything on the ground
9. The tops of things
10. Underneath things
11. Urban juxtapositions
12. Youth (be careful!)

Regardless of what you decide to pay attention to, consistency and commitment are key. Don’t break away from your original source of interest and photograph/“photograph” an onlooker—this will only intimidate your audience. You want to draw them in, not push them away.

Step Four
If you’ve done everything right, you will most likely get a fair amount of people involved in looking. In a nutshell what this means is you have bypassed all of the bullshit. All of it.

You have entered the world(s) of:
photography-as-performance
camera-as-psychological-tool
audience-as-participant
(I could not be more truthful when I say these are my favorite worlds)

Methods of Monetization
Hire an ungrad to document that shit, yo!

In Conclusion
Manipulate people’s curiosity for fun and profit!

Toronto, Ontario 2009

Snarky note to Frank Gehry, justified

My wife and I visited the AGO (about half a block away from our place) on X-Mas Eve. I made a snarky little note on one of the public feedback/artback kiosks. My wife rolled her eyes and we went on, until we saw…

Snark vindication!

I have to admit that I really like the new building, although I am disappointed that an architecture-pleb like me called this one while sitting at a kiddie table drawing smiley faces. I feel that fashion aside, a buildings first priority should be to keep the elements out, and in the name of A-R-T especially.

Regret: Not having photos of the completely shut down main staircase in the Daniel Libeskind designed Denver Art Funnel (which I don’t have to admit that I like, as opposed to the AGO).

(re-posted from my old blog, originally posted 01-12-2009)

Touque Hair

Initially I thought I was going to make a project that would be some funny but small sliver of the Canadian identity. Touque (or toque or tuque) being both one of the first Canadian words that I learned and a very common one at that, I figured it was a good place to start. At the end of every winter day I spent in a touque, I was going to photograph its impact on my hair.

Unfortunately, rather than a clever self-reflective social comment it turned into a question of how long it would take me before I cut my hair.