May 05
Algonquin Park Micro Environments
I am working on a documentary series on Algonquin Park. I am very interested in micro environments. The subjects of these three photos are quite beautiful.
South Africa Wedding
These are a few photographs of a wedding I shot in South Africa. What a spectacular location for a wedding!
MEMORY BOX Photography Exhibit Opening
First of all, thank you to all who attended the opening! Thanks for all your positive comments. It seems that J.D.'s portrait was a big hit. Everyone loved his quote. Six year old J.D. said, "The things in my memory box are important because they are the first things I collected. I can pretend I am in a movie with them."
Apr 29
Wedding Cakes
I have to say that I really like photographing wedding cakes. This cake looked amazing against the Toronto skyline. The wedding took place at Canoe.
Installing My Exhibition
The images for my CONTACT 2008 exhibition are printed and framed and ready to put on the walls! Very exciting. The images share star billing with touching stories. Here is what George says about his memory box:
This project of identifying moments of long ago is important in that it brings to memory events that shaped our lives. Here are a few of my moments. The first is the silver cigarette box, which takes me back to the 30s & 40s, a time in which cigarette smoking was ‘cool’. Thank goodness those days are gone forever. Nearly every home had a box of cigarettes offered to guests as a courtesy. In the box on the left side you will see a brass mouth piece of a bugle which Jimmy played in the military band of the Toronto’s own famous 48th Highlander Scottish Regiment. Jimmy was my oldest brother. He and my father had joined as Reservists when Jimmy was seventeen years old. Fortunately at that time, they were never called for military action. They were known as ‘Saturday Night Soldiers’ as they usually paraded around on weekends. Herewith is his mouthpiece for his bugle. The ribbons are not military but came with some medals that Jimmy had won as crewmember of a sailing boat, which won some champion races on Lake Ontario. One cold and blustery day in April, 1918, Jimmy and others of the crew were readying the boat for the coming season. The boat was anchored on the dock at Ashbridges Bay (the beach area of Toronto). Some young lads volunteered [to help] and they all got into a small row boat to get to the [sailing] boat. Suddenly heavy waves hit the row boat and it capsized. Jimmy was hit on the head and sank immediately. The young boys who could not swim were all rescued, but Jimmy, a good swimmer, was drowned. His body was taken to our house at 567 Pape Avenue. Of course, mother was traumatized and I believe she never recovered and was haunted throughout her life. Father never mentioned his name again. This incident somehow altered family relationships. The metal badge is simply a relic from [the] 48th Highlanders and is a remembrance of the time when I was one year old. Now more up to date, we have a small ceramic vase made by a world famous ceramic artist. She was a close friend, being in Canada on a teacher’s exchange program. My teacher friend introduced me to her. She had a most remarkable career, surviving the war by catering to the various occupying armies as they invaded her home in Germany. On one visit to her in Germany, as I was leaving, she gave me this priceless gift – a most memorable and inspiring moment. With many thanks to Ron for including me in recollecting a few stories of my life – an antique true story. George.
MEMORY BOX Photography Exhibit
I am very excited to announce the opening of my new exhibition MEMORY BOX which is part of the Contact 2008 Photography Festival.
The exhibition explores the power of collected objects as touchstones for memory and history. Each photograph invites the viewer to look inside a memory box, and into a private area in the life of its owner.
The collected objects reverberate with meaning. Some are talismans of luck, while others speak of rites of passage, people, places and events. They transcend the obvious: They are signifiers of concepts such as love, possibility, growth and loss.
Since collecting objects is a shared universal experience, the exhibition asks viewers to consider the meaning of the objects that they also collect and preserve.
I am inviting you to send me photographs of the things that you collect. I will publish your photographs on my blog and one my Flickr.com photo stream.
You can send your photgraphs to: info@heartlinepictures.com
In the meantime, I hope you can make it to the gallery to see the show.
May 1 - 31, 2008
OPENING: May 1, 6 - 9 p.m.
The Roastery Café
401 Richmond St. W. | Toronto | ON
[S.E. corner of Richmond and Spadina]
Photographer: Ron Wood
Curator: Angela Wood
MEMORY BOX Photography Exhibit Personal Stories
Each person I photographed wrote about their memory boxes. I have posted some of the writing below. I am grateful to everyone for sharing their thoughts with us.
BILL: My father left us when we were just children. He went from our Macedonian village in Greece to France where he worked as a farm labourer. This is his passport. Later, in 1950, he emigrated to Canada. He brought us over in 1951. I was married and had two babies. My mother, younger brother and sister came too. It should have been a good thing, but it wasn’t. It was tough. He wasn’t used to having a family and we weren’t used to having a father. When I look at his passport I wonder what would have happened, what my life would have been like, if he hadn’t emigrated. My memories are in this old suitcase.
LEA: In this photo you will see sample jars filled with sand, shells, pop bottle caps, etc from holidays I have taken. What you are really seeing are the objects that represent the thoughts that have been inside me since I came into the world. They have been filed away by my Soul like sample jars in a little tin box inside my body. These samples jars are units of energy. They are my truth. I believe I have known them before. I play a new flow of attention over them and give them life again. I participate in the art of full beingness by going out and repeating the gathering up of these items. These are my memories of wonderful times spent with my family.
DOREEN: My Father died of a broken heart. He passed away exactly two months to the day of my mother's death. I was left to pack up the house and sort out the memories. It was easy to choose mementoes from my mother, but what to keep from my dad? When I came upon his pipe collection, I was taken back to the childhood sweet tobacco scent that filled the living room when he tucked into his pipe. Funny, I have never supported smoking of cigarettes or cigars...but the smell of a pipe is another story altogether. I miss them both very much and memories such as these keep them close.
ANDREW: This bible has been in my family for a many generations. Since the early 1800’s. It has fascinated me ever since I was a child. I would sit it down on my lap, opening its covers, unlocking inside the memories of long passed family, a brief record of their lives. Leaves, feathers, newspaper clippings, postcards, stamps, and more. Once such keepsake cherished by me is the fine blonde hair of my grandmother when she was a little girl. It was carefully braided and placed in the center of the bible. Almost like a bookmark.
Ballet Shoes - The Bata Shoe Museum
On Pointe: The Rise of the Ballet Shoe
I am very pleased to announce the opening at The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto of this fabulous exhibition celebrating ballet. I was asked to photograph beautiful dance slippers belonging to ballet divas like Veronica Tenant.
Exhibition Opening, Tuesday, April 15