Marked Taxi's

In Mexico City, all Taxi's are marked with numbers on their roof and side.

I was told the reason for this is because many kidnappings and robberies we're taking place in Taxi's. The numbers were a way to create safety and easy identification. Check out the below internet article....

Kidnappings are out of control in Mexico

By Barnard R. Thompson

Mexico’s crime wave continues, with violent kidnappings for ransom, extortion or worse rising to tsunami levels in greater Mexico City.  And while many, in desperate hope for the safe return of kidnapped family members and loved ones meet ransom demands, time and again the victims are found dead, often with clear evidence of torture and abuse before their brutal murders.

No longer a cottage industry targeting the privileged few, today nearly everyone, rich to middle class to those of lesser means, faces the threat of kidnapping by organized gangs or the unorganized.  Kidnapping for ransom demands are tailored to the victims, and if family or friends lag in paying even small amounts they may be sent crudely amputated body parts as a sign of worse to come.

There are “express kidnappings,” with victims carjacked or otherwise driven (often in taxis they foolishly hail on the street as some cabdrivers work in concert with other criminals) from one bank or ATM machine to another until a victim’s credit and cash withdrawal card funds are exhausted.

In recent weeks five more heinous murders of kidnap victims in Mexico City have pushed citizens to unprecedented levels of outrage.  As such, people are protesting the “severe national security problem,” while at the same time demanding not just protection but also for real action to be taken at all levels of government against the steady flood of crime.

Unmarked Plane

I once flew on an unmarked aeroplane. It made me feel very vulnerable.

A Killer Whale's Jaw

When I was living on a small island in Canada and working as a dish pig, I read a book called the artists way... It was more like a short course in how to break your mind in half.... The kinds of things it was trying to teach was to release yourself from the social expectations and let creativity and the process of it take over. The book proposes that creativity is God... (don't be afraid of the God word). One of the main lessons in the book was to stop being critical of yourself... Something I have never learned how to do yet. Ha! Apart of the books process was that you had to wake up every morning and write anything that came to your head for 1/2 an hour. 

On the morning I took this photo I woke up and wrote a short story named 'A killer whale's jaw'. It was a 'Orwellian' influenced story and its focus was on the killer whale and its relationship with the seal during feeding hours. In my mind the killer whale in the story was a metaphor for huge corporations and government, the seal on the other hand was a metaphor for individuals within society. The night before I had watched this youtube clip where a killer whale comes out of a deep ocean slides up onto the beach packed full with lethargic sun tanning seals and with its massive jaw just eats one of the seals. All the other seals just turn their heads slightly away from the scene and seem to forget about that moment as soon as it happens. In the story I was trying to describe fear... I guess I had a fear of become the sacrificed seal, of being eaten by society... But now I know i am just so happy to be one of those lethargic sun tanning seals that turn their head slightly. I do it everyday... I read the world section of the news paper... Then I go about my day.

So I put my pen down and I walk out side my apartment and right in front of the house was this huge inflatable plastic killer whale... I thought God was playing a trick on me and I didn't even believe in God, so I grabbed my camera and ran after it ducking through the streets of Prince Edward Island looking for a good shot. I was never really happy with the shots I got. I wanted it to be more epic or something... There a few ok ones... Here is one.

Subliminal Messaging

In 2009 I lived in Mexico City for 6 months. During this time I photographed these billboards... In my head they were a symbol of growth and expansion. When I was a kid i used to count things... How many times I touched objects. How many other cars were on the road at the same time as us. I had a fascination with population growth and its steadily increasing nature. Numbers.... Mexico city is one of the most populated cities in the world and numbers just keep flashing at you everywhere you go. I could not help but feel that something was trying to communicate with me.

Scribble

I had to admire the fluidity of this mark making.

I know these lines were probably created by some random non-artist in a fluro vest but god I wish I could draw lines like that. It just goes to show... everyone is an artist.... and it is often in the innocence and un-selfconsciousness that the beautiful art is made.

Get Sex

Get Sex. Words can only express what words can express. They can't express what an image can express or what a painting can express. It's interesting when words merger with images to form a heighten language.

Dogs at Mardi Gras

I attended the launch of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras over the weekend. One of the things that surprised me was the amount dogs gay and lesbian couples owned. Not just one dog, often they were the parents of two or more dogs of the same breed. Compensation for not having children?

One lady demanded that I ask her for permission before photographing her dogs.When I enquired further she explain that her dogs were an expensive breed and she was afraid I could be a dog snatcher ready to take her kids away. Since when have dog snatchers carried around expensive cameras and photographed dogs before taking them? Have we reached a new level of paranoia?

Ken Dunca

Ken Duncan Ken Dunca.

When The Going Gets Tough

This is Frankie. He just got a new camera. A Hasselblad Xpan. The new personal photo project he has set for himself is to photograph young kids at the pool. It can't get much tougher than that can it? What has been some of the world's toughest photo assignments?

I agree. Photographing things on screen is weird.

TELE-VISION

After looking at your last post Gary, I could not help but admire the quality which is created when you photograph a screen. Not only does a weird visual dialog occur (relating to observation), but Its kind of like being an image thief. I shoot tv's and computers a fair bit, especially when I see something a little odd on a screen, like the image bellow. I stole this photo from a massage store on Oxford street. This image is supposed to be a promotion? it plays over and over outside the store on a crappy digital screen....Let me just state that I don't feel too inspired to try it out...

I was watching a French film on the weekend called Pierrot le fou or Crazy Pete by Jean-Luc Godard. It was made in 1965. The film wasn't very cohesive or very good but there was one scene in the movie that really struck me and I had to pause the DVD to capture the moment. Aren't those trees in the background the same set of trees as the ones in Henri Cartier-Bresson's famous photograph, "Brie, France, June 1968"? No one watching the movie with me was very impressed.

When I began studying photography at university, one of my lecturers had Cartier-Bresson's Brie picture framed in his office. I had a meeting in his office once and asked innocently if the picture he had was a photographic print. He just rolled his eyes and gave me the expression that told me I had no idea who that photo was by or how expensive that picture would be if it was a genuine photographic print. He wasn't very impressed either.

A Kodak Moment

"a rare, one time, moment that is captured by a picture, or should have been captured by a picture."                                     from urban dictionary. "A Kodak Moment is a rare, one-time moment captured with a photo or should have been captured by a photo."                                     from kodak website. On one of my usual sunday outings at a sunday market shooting,  this gentleman noticed my Rolleiflex and began chatting to me about his camera collection and the decline of film.  We walked away and bumped into each other  again at another stall selling this 'sign' for twenty bucks.  We both agreed that this was indeed a Kodak moment. 'Snap'.   I am curious; has digital changed the way we capture Kodak moments? Do we have more Kodak moments now because we are always armed with some sort  camera (picture taking device)?   I realised most of the photographs of my kids shot with my iPhone  because it's always accessible. It's quick and instant in ability to show and share over messaging, email, Instagram, Facebook etc.  In a way it's like what polaroid is/was instant sharing and showing.

Australian Slumber

I have never really liked vegemite, but there is something about this pillow which made me feel like giving it another go... Just looking at this photo makes the smell of vegemite enter in my nose... imagine sleeping on it.

I'm in a group exhibition opening next Tuesday called Kitsch and Cliche at NG Art Gallery with Cathryn Cloran, Dean Tirkot, Tim Hixson, Greg Weight, Jenny Templin, Marnya Rothe, Michael Corridore, Peter Solness, Tanya Lake, Wang Chien Yang, Richard Morecroft, Jethro Cunningham, Lynn Smith, Ken Lipworth, Duncan Digby, Caroline Foldes, Samantha Everton, Anne Zahalka, Ella Dreyfus, Glen Sloggett, Judith Ahern, Luke Hardy, Marie Ramos, Patricia Casey, Petrina Hicks, Polixeni Papapetrou and others.

Opening Tuesday 7 February 2012, 6-8pm. NG Art Gallery, Upper Level, 3 Little Queen Street Chippendale NSW 2008 Sydney.

It's competition entry time. That sad time of year when you realise you haven't shot anything worthwhile yet you still give someone $30 for your entry and hope for the best. I only enter 2 or 3 competitions a year and I like to keep them local.

So, I received an email the other day from Budapest. If this is not some form of spam mail where someone has applied a Photoshop filter to my photo then tries to sell me their "painting", I am truly flattered. It reminds me of that landscape painting that won the $25000 Wynne prize which looked exactly like the Dutch painting, "Boatmen Moored on the Shore of a Lake" by Adam Pynacker, circa 1660.

I just turned 30, my friends (with the help of an Amazon wishlist) got together and bought my Winogrand's book, Figments from the Real World. Inspiring work... I have lots of film in the fridge, time to forget everything while shooting. If I see something, just press the shutter. Somehow these 3 paragraphs are linked. *shrug*

Working on a photo book. All photos taken on Australia Day. First copy should arrive back from Blurb in two weeks.